In my desired understanding of the Holy Spirit I come across this text a lot. It is found in 1 Kings 19:11-13. There are not many verses in this passage in the Old Testament of the Bible, but man are they packed full of good stuff. Here are the verses:
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
I’m doing a sermon on this passage tonight with our high schoolers and thought it alluded to part of the conversation I was having with the blogosphere. They help us understand how God speaks.
Most of us, if we’re being real and honest, would say our lives are filled with noise. We’ve got so much chaos going on at all times that, again, if we were honest about it, we wouldn’t even be able to hear God if he was yelling. We fill our lives with meaningless things: Netflix, texting, social media, sports… and the list can go on. Now I’m not saying any of these are bad things, but when we have a steady stream of them coming through our lives at all times, we begin to find them taking up precious minutes. Almost minutes wasted if we aren’t careful. I often hear students tell me they do not have time to read their Bible or go to church because homework takes up their entire lives. But when I post a photo on instagram, they’re the first to like the photo. You know what that means? That means they’re sitting there with instagram open just waiting to see something. I’ll concede the every now and again convo you’re cooking up with me, and won’t make a general statement about it. It’s just one more way we’re always plugged in.
Now look at this conversation between Elijah and God. God tells Elijah, “hey, I’m coming to talk to you”. Sends chaos, noise, fire, storms, and all other distractions and displacements in the way. This is how we expect God to be, isn’t it, to come to us in a furious and violent way? Then God shows up, in a whisper. I love that. In a whisper. It’s gentle, quiet, unexpected, and at the same time powerful, reverent and awesome! So awesome the Elijah couldn’t take the heat! He had to cover his face!
I often ask my students this question before I begin to preach (actually preach, not just preach at them, I’m a pastor): if God were speaking, would you be able to hear him? The Holy Spirit speaks the way God speaks: in a whisper and in the calm. When you’re ready to listen! The Holy Spirit speaks when you’re ready to listen. So, are you ready?
In part 3 I’ll walk through how you can get ready to listen.
leadershape 