Peaceful Whispers

I have been learning so much about how God wants to speak to me. Throughout my life, I have found myself begging God to speak clearly to me and to speak loudly to me. I have been waiting and waiting for that time when I will hear the audible voice of God telling me who to talk with or what to say to someone. I have yet to hear God speak to me in that way...

We spent the night at a Cracker Barrel in Pigeon Forge, TN. This was our spectacular view of The Smokey Mountains.

​It's kinda interesting that this morning I was reading in 1 Kings about Elijah the prophet. Elijah was feeling overwhelmed by the call of God on his life. His very life was being threatened and he was beginning to succumb to fear. At that moment of despair, God brought him on a 40-day journey through the mountains and placed him in a cave in the rocks. 

God brought Elijah on a journey to get away from all of the excitement and craziness of life into a place of solitude in the mountains. It was a 40-day journey and we don't see or hear anymore about God speaking to Elijah during that time. It was right after those long 40 days, when Elijah had hunkered himself down in a cave, that God comes to speak with him. ​

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It is so fascinating to me how God chooses to speak to Elijah. First, God sent a terrifying storm that broke pieces of rock loose from the mountain. It says that the Lord was not in the storm. Then, came an earthquake. But, again the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake was a fire. Yet, still God hadn’t shown himself.

Now, just imagine this: Elijah has traveled 40 days and nights without food or water and ends up hiding himself in a cave. This journey was initiated by God. If I were Elijah, I would surely be expecting God to show up in a magnificent and glorious way. God sent a storm, an earthquake and a fire...all to the same place within a short amount of time. Imagine being there in that cave experiencing those things...Terrifying!

Yet, God didn’t choose to show Himself to Elijah in any of those ways. It was after all of that loud noise that God really has Elijah’s attention: “...after the fire [a sound of gentle stillness and] a still, small voice.” A gentle and peaceful and small whisper was all God needed to catch the attention of Elijah’s heart.

I believe that the reason Elijah was able to hear God in such a way was because of how intimate a relationship Elijah had with God at that moment in time. He no longer needed to hear the audible, thunderous voice from Heaven to know the will of God. After all that Elijah had experienced and the long journey He had been on with God, Elijah’s heart was so connected with God that he was able to hear God speak through just a peaceful whisper.

That is exactly what God began showing me these past couple weeks. Even though it would be incredibly AWESOME to hear the audible voice of God or have Jesus come and stand before me and speak(!!), I don’t have to wait for that event to know God is speaking. In fact, if the only way God speaks to me is through a thunderous boom from Heaven, it might mean that I am more of a servant following orders than a daughter doing what she knows her Father is doing. If the only way God can get my attention is by shouting from Heaven, I might not be as close to Him as I think I am. 

The closer we get to Jesus, the more we become like him. We actually are becoming ONE with Him, just as Jesus and the Father are ONE. That just BLOWS MY MIND!! But, that is what this journey of faith is all about. Awakening to the TRUTH that I am not a servant, but a child and that God wants to speak to my heart through whispers and impressions. In fact, I believe that the closer I get to Jesus, the more His thoughts become my thoughts and His heart becomes my heart. ​

All of this to say that I can grow in confidence that what I'm feeling and hearing is actually from the heart of my good and perfect Father in Heaven. This means that as I’m interacting with someone at a park, (or the parking lot of Walmart) :) I can trust that God is speaking to me. We are no longer slaves. We are children and we get to grow in intimacy with God. He will begin to show us how He is continually speaking through peaceful whispers.

Love Always,