The Power of A Whisper

Bottomline: Hearing God will only happen with intentional intimacy.

Intro- talk about my friend frank and opera

Half a century ago, an otolaryngologist, Dr. Tomatis, was confronted with the most curious case of his 50 year career as an otolaryngologist. A renowned opera singer had mysterious lost his ability to hit certain notes even though those notes were still within his octave range. He had been to some other specialists and they all thought it was a vocal problem. The doctor thought otherwise. So using a cymometer, he discovered that the opera singer was producing 140 decibel sound waves at a meters distance . That is a little bit louder than a military jet taking off from an aircraft carrier. Well, that discovery led to this diagnosis. The opera singer had been deafened by the sound of his own voice. And because he couldn’t hear the note, he could no longer sing the note. In the doctor’s word, the voice can only reproduce what the ear can hear. The French Academy of Medicine dubbed it the Tomatis Effect and I think the ramifications are way beyond the opera.

the voice can only reproduce what the ear can hear.

“We live in a culture where everyone wants to have his or her voice heard but has so little to say. And that’s because we do so little listening, especially to God.”

-Mark Batterson

Ultimately, all of us need to find our voice. And by voice I mean the unique message God wants to speak through our lives. But finding our voice starts with hearing His voice.

-Mark Batterson

A whisper is “speaking very softly using one’s breath without one’s vocal cords.”

The Hebrew word for “whisper,” demamah, can be translated “silence” or “stillness” or “calmness.”9 Simon and Garfunkel weren’t far off with the title of their 1964 hit single, “The Sound of Silence.” The same Hebrew word is used to describe the way God delivers us from our distress: “He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.”10 And that psalm foreshadows the way Jesus would stop a storm in its tracks with three words: “Quiet! Be still!”11 His whisper is gentle, but nothing is more powerful.

The New International Version Chapter 19

And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

God can and will speak through anything, if we listen.

The ESV calls it a low whisper. The NASB translates it, a gentle blowing. The King James, a still, small voice. By definition a whisper is speaking using one’s breath instead of one’s vocal chords. And the theological significance of that is pretty profound. God breathed into the dust and formed Adam. In other words, Adam was once a whisper. And so were you and so was everything else.

At 141 decibels, we become nauseous. At 145 decibels, our vision blurs because our eyeballs vibrate! At 195 decibels, our eardrums are in danger of rupturing and death by sound wave can happen at 202 decibels. And on the opposite end of that sound spectrum just about the absolute threshold of hearing is a whisper measuring about 15 decibels.

There was a woman named Hannah who couldnt not Conceive, she begged God for a child and finally got one named Samuel

The New International Version Chapter 3

The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.

2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

6 Again the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

8 A third time the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

If you are not active in listen, you will not feel like God is active in your life.

Sometimes we feel like God is far away, so we shout to Him…in realties we need to whisper to Him. We need to draw near

Jesus often withdrew to pray…the goal of prayer is intimacy

If you want to better hear, make time and space to draw near to The Lord.

Proximity changes perspective.

James

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 4

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Hearing God will only happen with intentional intimacy.

“Our failure to hear God has its deepest roots in a failure to understand, accept and grow into a conversational relationship with God, the sort of relationship suited to friends who are mature personalities in a shared enterprise, no matter how different they may be in other respects.”

-Dallas Willard