I honestly want to hear God’s whispers. I ask, I pray, I read the Bible, but I hear nothing. I heard a very sincere person say that just a few weeks ago.
As a preteen, I was irritated because although I had asked the Holy Spirit to fill me, nothing happened. When praying at a youth event, in frustration, I decided to just start speaking what some might call gibberish. I then sensed God’s Spirit and began speaking in another language. I soon realized God wasn’t holding out on me; the problem was my false expectations. Like Peter, I had to lift my legs to ‘get out of the boat’ before I could walk on the water. My expectation was for Him to deliver something sensational, not for me to advance in a relaxed and unhurried manner. Elijah expected God to be in the strong wind, earthquake, and fire, but he didn’t see or hear God. After the sensational experience passed, there was a low whisper, and he instantly knew it was God. (1 Kings 19:11-13)
My problem had been my false expectations. When we hear testimonies of God doing something dynamic in someone’s life, our minds conjure up something sensational rather than very natural or casual. More often than not, God uses very natural people or natural events to accomplish His plan. It may be a donkey (Numbers 22:28-30), or a “great fish” simply swimming in the sea (Jonah 1:17). He may speak through a child in a normal conversation, or through a friend, or even an enemy or stranger we meet. God rarely says how or through whom He will speak to us.
On one occasion when I had people to forward in church to receive prayer from a spiritual leader for healing, one of our deacons came forward to pray for those who came forward. He prayed for a lady who was going to the city the next day to receive treatment for stage 4 lung cancer. Nothing sensational occurred, but when the couple went to the doctor to run tests before surgery, to everyone’s surprise, the tests came back with only scar tissue where previous tests by local doctors had clearly revealed a large cancer. When we heard the report, the deacon who prayed for her was shocked as well. He had experienced nothing sensational occurring when he prayed, so he didn’t expect a miracle.
God is not a sensationalist, even though He can do very sensational things. If we expect to hear God’s voice or encounter Him, we must remember His ways are not our ways. He will work the plans He has for us or through us when we are not even aware anything dynamic is happening.
This is a very formidable truth. We must not allow our minds to put faith in sensational experiences. Our faith must be totally focused on God, the miracle worker. Jesus told the parable, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.” Mark 4:26-28 (ESV) That is a great picture of one of God’s ways. The fact is, while we are to ask and trust, unless we are specifically told to do something, that is where it must stop our actions. If we attempt to imagine or take any initiative on our part to help Him, we typically will end up subconsciously taking the credit for what He has done. God insists on getting the honor and glory for what He does. He will wait until we relax and walk normally while trusting only in Him. When we get ahead of God and try too hard to get something to happen, we get frustrated thinking He isn’t holding up His end of the task.