Hearing God’s Whispers

The world is a very loud place. With social media, news and the opinions of our neighbors and coworkers all seem to bring us to an information overload by 3 pm. In the midst of all the noise, how in the world am I supposed to hear God? What is He saying to me? Where does He want me to go? I can’t tell sometimes because I can’t get past the 4 notifications I got on my iPhone while getting a cup of coffee in the morning.

There is a lot of noise, and it is hard to hear God sometimes. In the midst of what seems to be the loudest point in history, God is still here. He hasn’t changed, He remains the same, we have just made ourselves more distracted than ever. There’s a passage in the Bible that talks about this very issue, of not knowing where God is in the midst of the chaos and noise. 1 Kings 19 talks about a time when God spoke to the prophet Elijah and asked him to stand at the front of the cave. There was a terrible windstorm, but God wasn’t in the windstorm. There was a terrible earthquake that shook the mountain’s foundation, but God wasn’t there either. Ok, a windstorm ripping rocks off of a mountain and an earthquake that almost destroys it? If God isn’t in that, then what could be more powerful?

Next, there is a fire, and certainly God was in that! We have seen Him manifest in fire before, so surely He did this time. But again, He was not there. So where is God? Why can’t Elijah hear Him? God finally speaks, in the sound of a gentle whisper. God was there, but He wanted Elijah to pay attention to the whisper of God.

How close do you need to be to hear a whisper? Some of us have great hearing so we may be able to eavesdrop from afar, but most of us have to get pretty close. Maybe that’s what God wants. He wants you to get close to Him. Close enough to hear Him speak, to hear Him gently tell you where to go, what to do or what to say. God wants us to hear Him, but it requires a level of focus. It requires intentionality. You can’t hear a whisper among a crowd unless you focus on it, draw towards it, and lean in. That’s what God wants from us. To focus on Him, draw closer to Him and lean in. Maybe you haven’t heard from God in a long time, maybe it was just a minute ago, but rest assured that he is there and wants to speak to you. When you quiet your soul, you can hear his still, small voice.