A Still,
Small Voice
1 Kings
19:11,12b- “And the Lord said, ‘Go forth, and stand upon the mount
before the Lord.’ And, behold, the Lord passed by…and there was a still small voice.” (Words in italics added)
Isaiah 30:21- “And your ears shall
hear a word from behind, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it,” when you turn
to the left or when you turn to the left.”
Proverbs
2:1,5- “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with
thee, then shalt thou understand the
fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.”
It was the first night of Ignite
Summer Camp 2012. I had, to be honest, come with my youth group into the
service casually. I could not have been farther away from God than at that
moment. The past few months had been spiritually tough. They had forced me to
deal with unchanged sin in my life and its consequences. I had hardened my
heart, and if the church service had not been mandatory for all campers, I
would have been in my dorm sleeping away. But like He usually does with everybody
at some point, God had other plans for me. I could feel something different at
the first moment of the service, something I had not felt in a long time. The
Holy Ghost began to move on me and soften my heart as the service went on. Then
came the preaching; Bro. Cody Marks preached one of the best messages I had
ever heard. I have never in my life heard God speak to me so much in a sermon
as He did that night. I finally broke and realized that God loved me even with
all my mess-ups and forgave my sins. That sermon changed my life, and I
re-dedicated my life to Him.
But that is an example of what is NOT
the norm. Too many times we expect a word from God out of the pulpit and not in
our ordinary lives. We are ‘a royal priesthood’ (1 Peter 2:9). God can speak to
you face-to-face and not just in the preaching. It’s not that God cannot speak
to us in just that way (He did it for me as I said above) or that we do not
need a preacher in our lives (That is far from the truth!). It just depends on
the situation. It was like I had run my soul out into the middle of the road in
front of an 18-wheeler truck. Because I had stopped listening to God’s still,
small voice, He had to yell at me to stop before I was hurt. That is what we
all have to work on; we have to practice the art of listening to God’s
whispers. While even now I still am trying, I was not spending devotion time
like I should have. I was not listening to God speak through the leaders in my
life, telling me which way to go. Because I was entertaining myself with things
that were not pleasing to him, God had to distance himself from me. In all the
ways He was trying to speak to me, I simply ignored him; and that is a very
scary place to be.
How does God speak to you? Is it in
the voice of the preacher? Is it in your time in the prayer closet? Do the
words come alive with direction as you read the Bible? Maybe you can hear His
voice in the encouraging words of a godly friend or a spiritual elder. Do you
feel God sometimes takes a vacation after you watch or listen to ungodly
things? There will come a time of testing in your life where God will check
your hearing. What will you do then? Will you be able to hear his whispers from
behind, guiding you forward? Or will he have to shout to get your attention?
Don’t wait for him to shout. Don’t ignore him like I did. Listen to him now!
Learn that the One who spoke galaxies into existence is trustworthy to speak
direction into your life. You will be saving yourself from a lot of heartache
later down the road.
By Connor Brantley
