Submitted by Andy McIlvain.
If you listen carefully you can hear Gods whispers echoing around us. He is always there; he never ceases, whispering, speaking, and beckoning to us. God’s whispers are present in his revelations through creation, which surrounds us. The humming of electrons, the buzz of a fly, the footfall of an elephant, the roar of thunder, and the fall of a single sparrow (Matthew 10:29) are all known and heard by him.
This way of speaking, this soft tone of voice is not restricted to our creator. As co-creators we too are gifted with this method of communication. One example is found in the practice of Doma India, the aboriginal art of taming horses without violence, also referred to as the love of a life applied to the treatment of horses.
Martin Tatta, from Argentina, is a self-trained ‘horse whisperer’. He is a ‘gaucho’ – the Argentinian version of the cowboy. He has a remarkable gift for understanding horses – he can get the horses to do his bidding with a delicate touch, softly spoken words, friendly coaxing, cuddles, and kisses.
Christ’s relationship to creation is echoed in the horse whisperer’s gift. God the Son, when incarnate as a man on this earth, spoke to his creation in a very similar way:
“That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” (Mark 4:35-39)
In this verse we see that Christ’s humanity was tired, he needed to sleep. But, his sleep also was designed to mature the apostle’s faith. Notice how Christ speaks to his creation, like a beloved child or perhaps a horse in need of consoling, “Quiet, be still.”
There is only one place in Scripture where God is said to speak in a “still small voice,” and it was to Elijah after his dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal. The point of God speaking in the still small voice or a whisper was to show Elijah that the work of God need not always be accompanied by dramatic revelation or manifestations. Divine silence does not necessarily mean divine inactivity.
Zechariah 4:6 tells us that God’s work is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” meaning that overt displays of power are not necessary for God to work in the world around us or in our lives.