THE STILL SMALL VOICE
Many of us are so conditioned to look for, admire, and react to the spectacular that we forget God does not act or react in terms of modern Madison Avenue superlatives.
We are also prone to evaluate things, movements, and people in terms of bigness or noise, and thereby overlook the work and moving of the Holy Spirit.
Elijah had exercised a valiant ministry for God, but there came a day when, fearful and discouraged, he fled from the threatening boast of Jezebel.
Elijah was dispirited, complaining, and on the defensive, but God graciously gave to his faltering prophet a new vision of Himself.
Standing alone on the mountain, Elijah experienced a windstorm of herculean proportions; then an earthquake followed by a fire. But God was not in these exaggerated manifestations of nature.
Then it was that Elijah heard a still small voice; and although it was one of stillness and quietness, it was the voice of God himself.
We are experiencing today the storms of world tension and uncertainty, the earthquakes of national and international upheaval, and the fires of testing adversities. God may be using these developments as a warning to men everywhere, for he uses as his agents of judgment many strange phenomena. But that to which we should have our ears attuned is the still small voice which speaks to the opened mind and surrendered heart.
Although we know better, we are prone to put our trust in the might and power of this world. Even in the affairs of the Church we so easily sin against God by trusting in the arm of flesh rather than in the Spirit of the living God.
To be still in God’s presence in order to know him is a lesson hard to learn, for it runs counter to the inner urge to be doing something when we should be listening.
To stop and observe quietly people and events with Spirit-directed eyes is not easy, for we look on outward appearances with their many-sided impressions while all the time God is looking on hearts, and is blessing and using those who are surrendered to him.
As we read about, view, and hear the conflicting voices from the United Nations, and from all over the world, we can easily lose perspective and forget that man proposes many things, but only God determines the outcome.
The prophet Isaiah, with a vision of the coming Messiah, wrote: “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench.” Here is a picture of the coming One who some day would triumph over sin and death.
It is he with the still small voice who will eventually “bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be broken till he shall have set judgment in the earth.”
Looking at the power of long-range missiles, the devastating potential of atomic detonations, and the satanic clever devices for destruction, it is easy to forget that God will “bare his holy arm in the eyes of the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see his salvation.” He still speaks with a still small voice to those whose ears are attuned to hear.
Today there may be heard speaking from the Cross the still small voice proclaiming God’s cleansing and redeeming love to all who will hear. The crowning shameful act of men with sin-deadened hearts is eternally the most glorious news of the ages; and it is the foolishness of the message of that event which is still God’s power unto salvation for any who will believe.
The God of Israel has not changed. The God for whom Isaiah spoke is the same God who speaks to us. We look to the power of man-made schemes to solve the world’s problems, but the answer lies elsewhere—“In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.”
But the prophet continues: “and ye would not.”
The individual and the nation need the rest that is found in utter faith in the triune God. There is little rest today because individuals and nations are seeking it apart from him.
James, speaking to his generation, speaks also to us: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?”
Small wonder that the Church has so little power today, for she has conformed her message and her way of living so closely to that of the world, which is at war with God, that his still small voice is not discernible above the noise.
It is hard for the Christian to learn that he triumphs in weakness, not in strength; that he often shines most effectively in what the world calls “obscurity”; and that ultimate victory is a matter of the Spirit, not of the flesh.
The great battles of the world are not detailed in newspapers nor recorded in books of history. Rather, they are the conflicts of the human soul which are known only to the individual and his God, and are won or lost as the still small voice that says “This is the way, walk ye in it” is heard or rejected.
One of the hardest lessons for some of us Christians to learn is the admonition Paul gave to his spiritual son, Timothy: “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.” Only as we hear the still small voice can we learn that the spirit of force must give way to the inexorable power of the Holy Spirit.
To be “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life,” requires a supernatural work in our hearts as we listen to his still small voice.
Standing in the shadows today, not noted by the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune, or any secular agency, is the One who would speak to men everywhere. He speaks through the voice of his creation. He speaks through his overruling providence, his written Word, his Son the living Word, through his Church, through the Gospel.
In all of these the Holy Spirit whispers, “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?”
May the Christian hear this voice and obey. May the Church pray for the listening ear and the obedient heart, for there is always the temptation to confuse the activities of an earth-bound religion with the transforming work of the living Christ.
Not every one who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. God’s eternal presence is reserved for those with the listening ear, who hear his still small voice, and with willing hearts and minds obey.
L. NELSON BELL
