Silence

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/21/room-for-silence

The story of Elijah at the cave in the mountain with the wind, earthquake, and fire but only meeting God in the gentle whisper is a passage favoured by and popular among preachers. The account is in 1 Kings 19:9-14, and the context is Elijah had fled the scene after defeating and killing 450 prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. Despite the spectacular victory calling fire from heaven to consume wood soaked in water proving that Yahweh was real to the Israelites, he feared for his life when Jezebel, Ahab’s Queen who introduced Baal worship to the Israelites, threatened to take his life.

The spiritual principle is that while God was in the spectacular (God being God), He is also found in the gentle whisper, or “the still small voice”, as the King James version puts it. Sometimes in life, we need to distil all the drama happening around us and quiet down our hearts to hear the still small voice of the LORD. We need to cut through all the “noise” to decipher God’s voice reaching out to us.

But I think as charismatic Christians propagating healing and signs and wonders, we also need to realise that God is also in the ordinary things we do. Healing ministry has its place, but the steady daily proclamation of Christ through our lives and the life of the church is equally, if not more important. Missionaries of old spent years just being part of the community to proclaim the Gospel. Many sacrificed their lives in the process, like those reaching out to head hunting communities in the interior. But look at the Bataks of Sumatra today. They are proud of their Christian heritage despite their murderous past. Catholic missions built schools and hospitals that were of significant impact to communities in their efforts to proclaim Christ to the masses. Today, the best schools in the world are often Catholic schools.

Don’t look for God only in the spectacular. He is found in the ordinary too. In the gentle whisper. In that still small voice. In our quiet worship. In our quiet time with Him. When we meditate on His Word. When we reach out to Him from the stillness of our hearts.