Hearing God - The Still Small Voice

Scripture: John 10.11-18, 26-27; Psalm 23; 1 Kings 19.11-12

Do you know that there are invisible things flying through the air in here? There is an internet signal in here, there are radio signals, of all kinds flying around. When you are at home there are television and microwave signals passing through your body all the time. Much of the time we are not consciously aware of these signals unless we have the appropriate receiver that will tune in to these “waves.”

The voice and spirit of God are sort of like that. Again, when we consider the question, “Is God speaking to me?” We must first answer that question with a question:

“Are we in tune?” Maybe God is speaking all the time but we have not used right antennae or been tuned into the right frequency to hear what God has to say.

I know an older pastor whom I respect very much. Dick Burns is a retired United Methodist pastor and evangelist. The admittedly limited time I have been around Dick, he has impressed me as one of the most “in tune” persons I have ever known. There is just this quality about him - he is overflowing with the presence of God. I want to talk more about how all of God’s people can be in tune with the voice and spirit of God.


“And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces th rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.” 1 Kings 19.11-12

This Old Testament story has taught believers for ages. Not all the Bible stories can be readily transferred to our own experience as fodder for application - but this story can and should be. Elijah’s experience is our experience. No doubt we look for God in the storms of life, when sickness strikes, when we lose someone close to us, when the jobs go elsewhere. . . But the voice of God doesn’t speak through those events so much as the voice of God continues to speak quietly to those who are able to quietly listen, in everyday conversation.

“Man’s spirit is the candle of the Lord, searching his deepest self.” Proverbs 20.27

The still small voice can also be called the inner voice. It is the Spirit of God speaking to us. The human spirit becomes “the candle of the Lord” Our spirits become receivers of God’s word that is rarely shouted, but rather spoken casually, conversationally, friend to friend. This is God’s preferred method of communicating with us.




There are other ways that we find God speaking in the Bible, angelic visitors, audible voice, dreams. And these are all valid ways to still hear God’s voice speaking to us. There is no reason, biblical or otherwise to suggest that these other ways have been superseded or nullified for the believer today. But the superiority of the still small, inner voice remains clear. In the Old Testament, there was a progression through the prophets that went from the priority of dreams, e.g. Joseph and Ezekiel, to someone like Jeremiah who spoke with the authority of this inner voice as opposed to “mere dreamers.”

The still small voice was, as well, how Jesus listened to the Father. How many times do you see Jesus look for angels or the audible voice, or go off into visions and dreams? In the case of the first two, very rarely, in the case of the latter two, never. How did Jesus hear from God?

Jesus prayed. He got his guidance through prayer as you and I do. There was no psychotic episodes or raptures. He got his guidance while in control of his faculties, not out of control. When God does give a dream, it may be because he cannot get a hold of our normal processes to guide them. “For God is found most clearly and beneficially in the normal rather than the abnormal. And Jesus is the Normal, for He is the Norm.” E. Stanley Jones

Sometimes we demand the spectacular in order to be spiritual or validate God’s activity. The demand for spectacular signs is often a sign of childishness. It is akin to the demand for the new or the clever and the cutting edge. You know the overused cliche, “Think outside the box!”

The story is told of a blonde girl. . . let me stop right here and make this disclaimer - this story enforces blatant stereotypes linking appearance to lack of intelligence, a correlation that has no basis in reality, and is a stereotype that I personally reject - so please disregard this story and tune back in when it is over. This blonde calls her boyfriend and says, “Please come over here and help me! I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can’t figure out how to get started.”

Her boyfriend asks, “What is it supposed to be when it’s finished?”

The blonde says, “According to the picture on the box, it’s a tiger.”

Her boyfriend goes over to her house to help her with the puzzle. She shows him where she has the puzzle spread out all over the table. He looks at the pieces for a moment, looks at the box, and turns to her and says, “Fist of all, no matter what we do, we’re not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a tiger.”

He takes her hand and says, “Second, I want you to relax. Let’s have a nice cup of tea, and then. . .let’s put all these Frosted Flakes back in the box.”



My point, and I do have one, is to say that sometimes we can try to be too earnest or too clever when in fact, we should just “think inside the box.” For our purposes here, thinking inside the box is asking, “How does God usually speak to people?” What does Jesus say about hearing his voice and knowing and doing his will?

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. . .My sheep know my voice.”

God usually and regularly speaks to those who walk with him in a mature, personal relationship using this inner voice, proclaiming and showing the reality of the Kingdom of God as they go.
Again, this means we must learn to pray as Jesus prayed. Jesus, God in human form, talked to the Father in prayer as he would have talked to the Father in heaven. This implies two things - prayer is conversational and ongoing; and prayer is special set-aside times that we make with God on a daily basis.

I’ve found in talking with people about prayer is that we talk a more about the ongoing conversation because we don’t like the idea of those more extended “quiet times”. We probably don’t take those times very often and feel guilty about that. We tend to extol the virtue of the conversational kind of prayer that we can pray in our car or at the gym or even at work. And this kind of prayer is of great benefit. People who grow into mature relationship with God undoubtedly learn to practice this conversational prayer. But this kind cannot be the only kind.

Let me illustrate it this way: Suppose you meet this person, you know, of the opposite gender, and you strike up a conversation about, I don’t know, watching American Idol or something. You talk about other things, shallow stuff, and there seems to be some attraction and compatibility, enough to go out on a date. Keep in mind you know next to nothing about this person, unless of course, you are a guy and she says she watches ESPN everyday, then you know you’re in love. But for the rest of us, let’s say you go out on the date and it goes okay but the conversation stays superficial. You keep in touch by phone once or twice a week, but nothing ever develops because at no point do you really connect, because at no point has there been “the conversation.” Do you what I mean? I’m talking about the “heart to heart”, the conversation in which you both open up to each other and relationship happens. It’s the conversation that opens the door to ongoing conversation.

Our relationship with God is very similar. In fact the Scriptures tell us that God courts or dates us, his people. To become a child of God is to become a part of the Bride of Christ. The marriage metaphor is not accidental. I’ve found that marriages can’t survive on bare morsels of information like where do you we have to be tonight, or how the kids are feeling, or what was on American Idol last night. Marriages need the meatier food of heart to heart conversation on a regular basis. So does our relationship with the Bridegroom.


We must grow into both kinds of prayer, the on-the-fly conversation at any moment kind, and the daily set-aside quiet time, morning, noon, or night time that we can find to spend with God. But it’s the latter kind in which we are more likely to feed ourselves on the Scriptures, listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and develop the ability to hear the still small voice of God speak.

It’s the time we get to know God in person.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.”

I wish I could give you some profound (or at least clever) spiritual direction. I don’t mean to sound so simple. But it is this simple. To hear from God you must take time to read the scriptures, pray and listen for God’s voice. Find a time in your day to do this. Ten, fifteen minutes of heart-to-heart conversation is what it takes to light the candle of your spirit with the Spirit of his presence. It’s a small price to pay to be tuned in to that still small voice, the voice of the One who knows you best and loves you most.