Hear the still small voice

1 Kings 19 : 11-12, ‘¹ Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹² and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire ^[e]a still small voice.’

 When we speak of the still small voice, often we think of hearing God’s sound, which for many is like the sound of thunder and lightening as we read in the books of Exodus & Revelation. But when we read this passage, we understand that it does not refer to sound of God nor His speech, but the perfect will of God. Hearing the still small voice of God is being lead into His perfect will.

Elijah, the well known prophet of his times was used as a powerful weapon by the Lord to kill many prophets of Ba-al. But soon he became a victim of the threatening words of Jezebel, wife of Ahab ( 1 Kings 19:1-3). He went into the wilderness, sat under a juniper tree and heard his own words of depression. Further we read that the Lord did talk to him. He sent his angel to feed him. Later, Elijah saw the wind, earthquake and the fire but in all these the Lord was not there. Finally, God revealed His still small voice i.e His perfect will for His servant. 1 Kings 19:15-16, ‘ Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. ¹⁶ Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.’  It was not an answer to what Elijah had been asking God, neither was it a command to destroy the life who had threatened him. Many times, we don’t get an answer to what we pray for. It’s because our prayers are motivated by our own flesh. God’s silence to Elijah’s statements itself was His still small voice. If we discern that well, we will be able to make quiet many sounds that comes from within our fleshy mind and the circumstances all around us. What we often feel that it’s God’s will is in fact not so. But we  realize it much later when we see things not moving in the way we expect to.

Elijah had started off his ministry very well being lead by the Lord . But here, he was handing over his ministry to his fleshy feelings. All ministries are handed over by our Lord to each of us in His mercy. They are  to be done and completed well, under His guidance alone. Let’s not mix fleshy mindset with divine purposes, for they will end up in disasters. Let us learn that every set back in ministry or even in our normal life has a purpose to train us up to hear His still small voice.

When Jesus told His disciples about how He would be crucified for the salvation of mankind, Peter reacted in his emotional love for Christ by saying that it should not happen (Mt.16:20-23). In v 23, ‘ But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are ^[j]an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’ Peter’s emotional love would by no means be seen as a sin in our eyes, but when such emotions hamper the purposes of the Lord, it’s seen as Satan’s weapons by our Lord. Peter’s mind indeed had things of God but not in fullness. Hence, the things of men too creeped into his mind. Being mindful of things of God refers to the fullness of our heart and mind with things of the Lord. Only then shall we be lead in His perfect will by His still small voice always. We need to stop and ponder time and again to be assured of being filled with His presence always. Jesus was in fullness of God’s Spirit even in the garden of Gethsemane, where He did struggle between his will and His Father’s will. The fullness of the Spirit made Him hear the still small voice even in that silence & darkness when all who loved and followed Him seemed to have abandoned Him.

Here, we also note that the voice of God or the perfect will of the Lord is termed as ‘still small voice.’ It’s because it’s small enough to be ignored and side tracked easily. No one falls by stumbling over a big rock or stone for it’s quite visible to our physical eyes, But often we stumble at small stones, which are so small that we don’t take note of it. Similarly, this ‘still small voice’ of God is not loud enough to be heard easily. Its heard only when we seek for it with a submissive heart and only when we tune the ears of our heart to hear it. We might stumble and fall if we ignore this voice. Is.30:21, ‘Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,“This is the way, walk in it, ”Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.’  We hear this voice of the Spirit of God from behind, not from ahead, which is tougher. Our pace of moving ahead slows down if we are following a sound from behind rather than in front. Till this small voice becomes loud  enough to control our lives and decisions, we might find our lives literally halting in a speed track. Such halts trains us up to move into the next level of spiritual life where we find ourselves being  rebuilt, renewed and reformed to hear His ‘small voice.’

Apostle Paul was forbidden to preach the gospel in Asia in Acts 16:6. He obeyed that still small voice. God gave him the grace to identify and differentiate between ‘his will’ to preach in Asia in his time and ‘God’s will’ to preach in His time. Though both  were under the banner of ‘preaching the gospel’, there was a difference of approach and time. The ability to identify this difference is called ‘discernment’ which is the wisdom of God. Later apostle Paul found the same gospel being preached in a much glorious way in Asia (Acts 19:10). God’s ways are above our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts (Is.55:8-9). And the only way to access His thoughts and His ways into our lives and ministries given to us is by making sure to follow this ‘still small voice.’

Hearing and obeying the ‘still small voice’ of God is like capturing the core of His heart. When we submit ourselves for this, the Lord captures and stills all the rest of the issues that comes against it. Once Elijah heard the still small voice of the Lord instructing him to go ahead and anoint lives for His glory, all the waves of fear and the depressing words that were lashing against him till that time got calmed down. Now all he could hear was the Lord’s words instructing and guiding him. Hence, the anointment got transferred to Elisha for the fulfillment of God’s purposes. Once Jesus, our Lord submitted Himself for His Father’s will in the garden of Gethsemane, all the agony that might have been pulling him back as a man till then were stilled. Now  fulfilling His Father’s will was the only driving factor. Hence, today we are saved by His grace. The ‘still small voice’ of God has an amazing power to calm all the issues that stand against it, provided, our submission for the same is complete and perfect.

It was not easy for Elijah, apostle Paul and even  our Lord Jesus to seek and walk as per the ‘still small voice of God’. It took them much time spent in earnest prayers, much seeking His face with tears and lot of pain in crucifying their own will to submit completely before God.

Today, we know what our Lord wants us to do. Yet, we are unable to do it. It’s because we are hearing many sounds at the same time. Being in flesh, we hear it’s passion and desires more. But as we seek our Lord more and more earnestly, we depart from the influencing power of flesh and world and we sink into the depths of spiritual truth i.e. the core of His heart. This empowers us to do His will in His ways in His time. This is where the glory of the Lord is manifested in completeness. Let us seek to hear His ‘still small voice’ and train ourselves to hear it every day. That’s the only way to be in His perfect peace and that’s the only way to see His purposes for our lives getting fulfilled.  Let it be our driving force to eternity, for nothing can ever stop its amazing power.

God bless us all

http://thebrokenbread.wordpress.com/