There are those rare moments when our mind seems to go to empty. Instead of being buffeted by the voices of all the ongoing pressures of living, we suddenly find ourselves with a kind of inner quietness that is disturbing to us in its own way. If we allow those moments to unfold within us, it is likely that we might hear some voice speaking to us in a way that is so surprising that our spirit leads us to entertain the possibility that it is the voice of God. It is not a moment of being empty headed, but a moment for paying attention and listening to the thoughts that are rising from within us.
Perhaps, Elijah is our model for living in such moments. The 18th chapter of I Kings tells us of his epic battle with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah (I Kings 18:19) on Mt. Carmel. When that great spiritual battle had been won by Elijah, he heard of the murderous intent of Jezebel and fled in fear to a cave on Mt. Horeb. While huddled there in fear, he head the sound a wind so great it broke rocks. After the wind came the sounds of the earth snapping in a mighty earthquake and finally the threatening roar of a fire. It was not in these overpowering sounds that pressed upon his spirit that he sensed and heard the voice of the Lord. The moment of hearing is described as a moment when the sheer sound of silence prevailed. (I Kings 19:13) Suddenly everything was gone, silenced. Gone in the silence were the sounds of the battle with Baal and the frightening sounds that caused him to hide even deeper in his cave,
Such moments do come to us. For some reason we find we are standing as if the pressures have been silenced and the anxiety and fear has been pushed away. In those moments when we are suddenly taken back by the silence of a spirit that has been stilled, it is a good thing to move into the vastness of that silence and listen for some word from God. Again and again it has been proven to us that such is a place we are likely to hear a new word for living.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment