February 11, 2021 – Click here to listen
So to those who wrote to torment me and have fun at my expense concerning my scheduled colonoscopy, I have the last laugh at least for now. Yesterday I found out my insurance is not in the network at the local hospital here and so I postponed the colonoscopy to another day and another hospital whereby I will not have to pay for the procedure out of pocket. I found out just prior to drinking the blowout poison so instead I had a big plate of spaghetti and later that night a big feast of fresh fish and called it a day. I realize I’m just putting off the inevitable but it sure felt good to dig in to that spaghetti after starving most of the day.
So yesterday a good friend of mine called and we discussed our prayer lives. She told me of a man whom she admired who died and then came back after some 20 minutes. She considered him her spiritual godfather and was interested in knowing what it was like and if he was able to be with Jesus. He told her he did indeed see Jesus and the rest of it was simply indescribable. He did not want to leave and is looking forward to going back.
Not long after she met with him, she returned and he said Jesus had a message for her! He said that Jesus wanted to spend some time with her, just the two of them. He then told her not to pray and ask Him for anything, or praise Him, or thank Him, but just to sit quietly and listen. He told her when she began her mind might wander, but to refocus and just quietly enjoy His presence.
She did as she was instructed and found tremendous peace and quickly made it a very important part of her daily routine. She told me she prays in a conventional manner after her quiet time with the Lord but enjoys His presence and sitting quietly and listening for that small still voice the most.
I thought this was a beautiful thing to do and am going to incorporate it into my own life beginning today. Too often I cannot hear the small still voice inside me because I’m drowning it out with my foghorn voice blaring out and disturbing the peace.
There is only one place in Scripture where God is said to speak in a “still small voice,” and it was to Elijah after his dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal. Elsewhere in Scripture, He is said to communicate through a whirlwind, to announce His presence by an earthquake, and to speak in a voice that sounds like thunder. In Psalms His voice is compared to both thunder and a whirlwind. And in Revelation, we’re told that lightning and thunder proceed from the throne in heaven.
The difference between God speaking through the thunder and the whirlwind, then through the still, small voice, could also be considered as showing the difference between law and grace. The law is a voice of terrible words and was given amidst a tempest of wind, thunder, and lightning, attended by an earthquake, but the gospel is a gentle voice of love, grace, and mercy, of peace, pardon, righteousness, and the free gift of salvation through Christ. The law breaks the rock-hard hearts of men in pieces, shakes their consciences, and fills their minds with a sense of God’s fiery wrath and the punishment they deserve, and then the gospel speaks gently to them of the peace and pardon available in Christ.
I prefer the gentle version speaking to me. And this, “sitting quietly and listening,” idea seems like a great way to receive it.
1 Kings 19:11
Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains 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. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice.