Power of a Whisper

I have come to believe that hearing the quiet whisper of the transcendent God is one of the most extraordinary privileges in all of life--and potentially the most transforming dynamic in the Christian faith.

When people hear from heaven, they are rarely the same again. When the sovereign God chooses to communicate with someone--whether eight, eighteen or eighty years old--that person's world is rocked."

- Bill Hybels, The Power of a Whisper - Hearing God. Having the Guts to Respond Introduction, A Fifty-Year Whisper-Fueled Odyssey

Jesus said,

"My sheep hear my voice" - Jesus (John 10:27a)

Ask to hear.

- fritz

God speaks, we can hear.

"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you" - 2nd Corinthians 12:8-9a

Lennon's tomb, 11:00 at night during the changing of the guard, a Russian, a friend, and I discussed the vast changes taking place. Seventy years communism has prevented open discussion about God and all that had changed. As we left we told this man we would pray for him and his response caught us off guard, "You mean, you can talk to God?!"

But that is exactly the point and privilege we have in Christ - we talk to God, he hears, and he talks to us. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice"¹

- fritz


^{1 - John 10:27}

God needs no explanation

God and Satan talk in the Bible and it looks like a giant chess game with Job's family as the pawns. In the garden God calls to Adam, "Where are you?", but doesn't he already know? Joshua is told by God to leave no survivors; where is the love and mercy in that?! People are offended by these and other scriptures, sometimes wanting nothing to do with God because if it.

There are explanations, sure, and we are quick to provide, but this surfaces an important fact about our Heavenly Father - God doesn't try to explain Himself.

Our culture demands explanations. From presidents, employees, preachers, parishioners, parents, children, in public and in private, to others and to ourselves we feel explanations must be given; they don't have to be true only plausible.

God doesn't play along!

Jesus was (and is) constantly misunderstood; at one point losing all but his closest disciples because of it. His response was not, "Wait, let me explain!", he kept loving and obeying the Father. He later put it this way,

"ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep ... My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" - John 10:26-27 (KJV)

True, we are not to blatantly disregard the feelings of others but we shall be misunderstood no matter what we do. We are not to waste time defending and explaining, but keep loving and serving Christ, always ready to explain our hope which sustains us. (1st Peter 3:15)