NOT ALL MAJOR WORDS FROM GOD COME LIKE THUNDER.
If you think that “supernatural” means super noticeable you might be mistaken!
GOD is often speaking through things that can go almost unnoticed unless we’re really paying attention.
So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.” – 1 Kings 19:11-12
We often miss God because we’re expecting AN EVENT. More often, God comes “in a gentle whisper” as one translation puts the above verse.
It’s important to understand that when God whispers, His word is just as powerful as when He thunders. It’s not how loud it is, it’s the fact that He is the one speaking the word that matters!
“So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” -Isaiah 55:11
God’s prophetic warnings
One of the most profoundly prophetic foreshadowings God ever spoke to me was in April, 2012. I was driving up I-90 at the time heading home from the Milwaukee airport when a fleeting and soft impression came to me and left just as quickly. It was a foretelling by God concerning plans to move from Wisconsin to the Northwest. But it didn’t come as thunder to me, it came as a gently whispered word almost unnoticed.
I did notice, however, because of what was said!
When I got home I wrote it down in my journal with the words, “I thought I should write these things down to remind myself “just in case it happens”.
Well, it happened 5 years later! That small little whisper was warning me about one of the most painful things that has ever happened in my life! The impression was so quiet I even referred to it in my journal as “a footnote”.
Some footnote!
Don’t ever think that just because something from God is uneventful that it’s unimportant!
Now to be fair, God did not simply speak to me in a whisper and then go silent. During the days leading up to my cross-country move I began to feel an ominous darkness that grew with each passing day. I also recorded these impressions in my journal.
I mention this because it’s important to understand that God’s revelation is often progressive. He’s also unlimited in the varied ways in which He speaks.
As the date drew nearer for me to move God’s warnings intensified almost daily. His voice was no longer whispering! Dark storm clouds blew in and I could hear the sound of thunder in the air. It was palatable. The atmosphere around me literally felt as black as India Ink and it reminded me of how I had once seen the sky rolling with thick black clouds when a tornado came through my hometown in Wisconsin.
Despite these dire warnings I reluctantly forged ahead and moved anyway.
Lies we tell ourselves
The feelings of impending doom that I had were so strong that I actually broke down in tears on a couple of occasions. Why then would I ever consider going ahead with my plans?
I think the simple answer to that question is that we often reason ourselves out of the warnings that God gives us. We know better, but we lie to ourselves.
Without going into all the details, my decision to go to the Northwest not only came with ominous warnings, but it was also accompanied by the most positive signs imaginable. These seemed to speak of a blessed providence!
One of the strange things about my circumstances was that I was standing between what appeared to be a wide open door from God, and a foreboding sense that this apparent good fortune was not from God at all!
I asked some friends to pray for me, but all it brought was more confusion. Half of them thought that God was blessing me, the other half thought God was warning me!
The only thing that I was certain of was that this decision would have monumental consequences. Either the circumstances that were before me were a tremendous blessing from God, or God was giving me the most dire warning of my life.
In hindsight, I realize I should have listened to the still small voice that first whispered to me in the car.
God was warning me with the voice of a Dove.
It was only after I failed to heed the voice of the Dove that God began to thunder!
The ominious impressions that came later were overwhelmingly dark. I had a very clear and vivid sense of what God was speaking to me. It was not just a general picture, but there were specific details that were being revealed to me.
Yet, with all this, it still seemed highly improbable that the things that were being revealed to me could ever happen. There was absolutely no rational evidence whatsoever to suggest that any of the things I was so concerned about would ever end up taking place.
But I was wrong.
It turned out exactly the way God said it would!!!
I should have followed this advice from the Bible…
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding“. –Proverbs 3:5
I should have listened to God and trusted Him with all my heart instead of rationalizing everything away.
Finally, and this is a big one...
I was more worried about disappointing someone else then I was about heeding the warnings God was sending me.
That someone else was my wife. I had met her on a trip to the Northwest many years before and because her family lived there she had always had a desire to move back one day. I could understand that, and I was supportive of it. Not only did I love her family, but I also loved the Northwest, so it seemed to be a good idea to me. In fact, my encouragement was instrumental in making this move a reality for her. So when I began to develop feelings of impending doom concerning our plans, I tried to ignore them rather than disappoint my wife.
A BIG MISTAKE!
The event of moving to the Northwest set in motion a series of events that ended up causing the destruction of my marriage 5 years later!
There will never be a situation in life where putting God in second place brings you to a better place!
I loved my wife, and wanted to please her and do something nice for her, but I never should have ignored what God was speaking to me to make that happen.
After God’s gentle whisper went unheeded, foreboding impressions of dread descended on me before we finally set out on our cross-country journey.
I ignored the feelings of impending doom and the “farfetched words” God was speaking to me (which turned out to be completely true) and we got in our car and went anyway.
For over 1,300 miles while we drove from Wisconsin to Washington State the storm clouds never left me!
We finally arrived at our destination and a week later I took our car in to get the brakes repaired.
The owner just happened to be a Christian with a prophetic gift!
God confronts me through a mechanic!
We had made it all the way from the Midwest to the Northwest but God wasn’t done speaking to me yet. He was now prophesying through the guy who was fixing my brakes!
For those of you who believe that modern day prophets only speak at conferences and churches, and who believe that a real prophet will only speak uplifting and comforting words, I have a word for YOU…
DON’T BELIEVE IT!
This guy worked at a brake shop. You don’t expect the guy who just fixed your brakes to come out and confront you with a prophetic word, but that’s exactly what this man did. And let me tell you, it came in the full power of the Holy Spirit.
As I stood there listening to him I noticed a poster on the wall behind him. It was a copy of the Ten Commandments. Posted on the lobby wall of a brake shop was a copy of the Ten Commandments!! It was surreal. I almost didn’t believe this whole thing was happening. I was fully aware that God had tracked me all the way from Wisconsin to Washington and had chosen this moment to confront me.
My eyes darted back and forth between this man’s face and the Ten Commandments that were behind him on the wall. I had the distinct thought as I listened to him, “This is God.” I felt sick to my stomach. I knew I’d done the wrong thing and my back was up against the wall. I felt the weight of it. The critical moment of our conversation came when he point blank asked me why I had moved.
I looked sheepishly at him and told him my reasons.
He solemnly looked at me and said, “That’s not good. You never should have moved.” His disposition was deadly serious. This man was not trying to soften the blow.
Then he asked me, “What are you going to do about it?”
His question took my breath away. I was perplexed. I didn’t know what to say. We had already moved. Was I now going to tell my wife that we needed to pack up and go somewhere else? That would go over really well, wouldn’t it!?
She had sacrificed a lot for me during the time that we had lived in the Midwest. Was I now going to take away her dream of living close to her family? It seemed absurd for me to even consider. And yet, it was also impossible to ignore the strongest prophetic warnings that I had ever had in my life.
There I was standing in this man’s brake shop, not knowing how I could turn back time. I knew I had done the wrong thing, but it seemed too late now to do anything about it. And so I just looked at him, and said, “I don’t know what to do,” I shrugged my shoulders, “I guess I just hope it turns out okay??”
Once again, that was the wrong answer!
When God warns you about something you should not magically expect things to suddenly turn out right when He’s been telling you the whole time it’s going to turn out wrong!
Here I was standing in a tiny brake shop in Vancouver, Washington and the guy working on my car is a modern-day “Ezekiel” delivering the word of the Lord to me.
You can’t make this stuff up!
I will NEVER be able to claim that God didn’t warn me. He warned me before I ever left Wisconsin, and He warned me a week after I arrived at my destination in Washington.
There are many lessons to be learned in the story that I’ve just told you, but what I want you to catch is that the day I first heard God speak actual words of warning to me, they came as soft and as gently as a dove. Had I not been listening I never would have heard them.
I obviously learned some very important lessons about hearing and obeying the voice of God through this experience.
Perhaps one of the most important lessons I learned is that you cannot ignore the voice of God and expect things to go well.
The Whisper of a Dove
5 years passed before the fulfillment of God’s prophetic word to me. During that time there were subtle warning signs that I also should have acted on, but didn’t. Eventually the tidal wave of destruction came. When it did, the Holy Spirit once again came to me in a whisper.
I was looking out the window of our apartment and God reminded me of what I had written in my journal 5 years earlier. I had long forgotten about it. I raced to my dresser drawer to pull out my journal, flipping through the pages. And there it was. Right there in my own handwriting. God’s original word of warning to me.
What had once seemed so impossible and implausible to me had taken place, just as God forewarned me it would.
Everything I needed to know was actually in that first whisper. If I had followed His still small voice there would have been no need for anything else.
How sweet and gentle is The Dove that comes with a message of God for our lives. How foolish we are not to pay attention. How much more then should we be giving heed, when God’s voice goes from a whisper to a shout! When the cooing of a dove turns into the roaring of a lion, it’s best not to ignore that!
God can be in the whisper or the earthquake- we need to remember that.
In this case He was in both!