Bonus: God Was in the Whisper

Erin Davis: This is The Deep Well podcast, and I’m Erin Davis. I hope you just finished listening to the season “Whispers.” We wanted to bring you a bonus episode, because there’s a passage in the Old Testament, in 1 Kings, that has the word “whispers” in it, and I wanted to have a conversation about that verse.

Okay, Judy and Staci, there is another passage that I really wanted to work into this series. I tried and I tried and I tried, and it was just a square peg in a round hole. The series has been about women who whispered, and in this passage it’s not a woman who whispers.

Staci, would you read us 1 Kings 19:9–12?

Staci Rudolph: Of course. It says, 

He entered a cave there and spent the night.

Suddenly, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of Armies, but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are looking for me to take my life."

Then he said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the LORD’S presence."

At that moment, the LORD passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs 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. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper.

Erin: I don’t know why, but I’m so drawn in by this story of Elijah the prophet, who had endured a lot of heartache. He tucks himself away in a cave. He’s having a bit of a pity party, but in some ways it’s justified. There was a lot going on around him.

The Lord comes to him, and there are tornadic winds that are shearing off the cliffs and mountains around him, there’s an earthquake. God’s not in that. But there’s this low whisper, and that low whisper is the voice of God. You’ll have to read the rest of the passage to see how Elijah responds to the whisper of God, but I just wanted us to take a few minutes and think about and talk about the whispers of God.

Judy, you’re such a gifted Bible teacher. When you read this story, what stands out to you? Why do you think God showed up in the whisper instead of in the more powerful forces?

Judy Dunagan: I wonder if He’s just showing what His presence is like, His protection over us, that we don’t even always know or see or feel, but it’s always there. So when it seems like mountains are crumbling and cliffs are falling in the wind and the tornadoes, He’s in all of that. I don’t know about you, but in some of the most turmoil-filled times of my life, where it felt like the earth was giving way, I found Him in the whispers. 

It was things that I maybe knew from His Word or as a little girl when I loved Him so deeply that I would remember truths from His Word, almost like the Holy Spirit’s whispering those truths over me and reminding me that He never leaves me or forsakes me, that He hems me in from all sides, as we’re told in Psalm 139. 

I don’t know—I’d love to know why for Elijah. Was it to catch his attention, to make him see how close God is to him even in a whisper?

Erin: Yes, I think real power is restraint. I’m married to this very big man. He’s 6’2”, very masculine, very powerful. He can be strong with his words; he’s physically powerful. But he also can demonstrate such restraint at times. To me, that’s where his power is really shown.

You think about human leaders, the same thing. I mean, people who have nuclear football and don’t use it; that’s real power. It’s not just the people who necessarily go in and mow over everything.

God was showing such restraint here. He’s saying, “I can crumble mountains; I can shake the whole world, but I can also whisper.”

I think something else we’ve seen in this whole series, especially maybe in Leah’s story, is that whispering is really intimate. When you think about your human relationships, those relationships where you whisper in each other’s ears are very intimate. Maybe there was some intimacy there.

Staci, I’m sure you have, but can you think of some moments where God’s voice was very, very intimate in your life, like I think I see Him being here with Elijah?

Staci: Yes, Erin, definitely. I’ve kind of mentioned it before, as far as God being really gracious and revealing His plans to me in such an intense and sure way. When that happened, I remember the day, I remember the time. I had had one of those days where I came home from work, I had had a really hard day. I used to work for a construction company, and I had kind of gotten into a little bit of a tiff with one of our subcontractors over pay. I was like, “This is not it. This cannot be what I’m meant to do for the rest of my life.”

I remember hitting my knees and kind of just surrendering to God in that moment. I didn’t recognize that that’s what it was, but I was more just having a moment of crying out and just being really sad for where I was in life.

It was like after that I was more in tune with God whispering the next steps to me. I felt Him whisper that I should go on this Saturday trip to this bookstore with all of these old ladies at my church. I was like, “Why in the world would I be hanging out with seventy-year-olds, eighty-year-olds?” I went, and it was amazing. That’s actually where I found Dannah’s book Get Lost, which introduced me to her, to the ministry, and ultimately to what I’m doing now. So it was those little whispers that I began to hear God speak to me, after I had surrendered. That’s definitely where I’ve heard Him whisper to me.

Erin: Yes, in my experience that is how the Holy Spirit speaks. He whispers. I mean, we want the billboard. We’d almost rather have the tornado and the earthquake, like, “If You just made it super obvious, I’d obey!” But the voice of the Holy Spirit is distinct. But I hear Him way more in the whisper than in the thunder, in the strong wind. You have to have an ear that’s attentive to that. Elijah knew when he was hearing the voice of God. He knew God was in the whisper, because he knew the voice of God. I think that takes years of obedience and discipline and listening.

Staci: I really like what you said about how we always want the billboards. We want to see God the way we want to see God, and that’s the perfect way to miss God in a lot of different situations. When you’re trying to place Him in a way that you think He should be speaking or you think He should be acting, you’ll totally miss Him, because that’s not where He is. He’s going to be where He sees is best and deliver the message to you the way He wants to.

Erin: He is. He is not a God who we can control, which is a mercy, but He’s going to reveal Himself as He truly is.

Judy, something else that jumps out of this passage and reminds me of something you’ve taught me so beautifully is Elijah did have a lot of chaos in his life. People actually were trying to kill him; he wasn’t just being grandiose there. His ministry experience in this moment was tough. But he did go to the cave. Now, did he go to the cave to feel sorry for himself? Why did he go to the cave? We don’t know, but he retreated from the chaos. Because he retreated from the chaos, he could hear the whisper.

Tell us a little bit about C.A.R.A. day. It’s a discipline you’ve taught me, and I want women to listen to this podcast and be able to latch onto the practicality of that. What is that?

Judy: Well, actually, it’s something my mentor spoke over me, so I’m grateful that it’s resonated with you as well, Erin. It was when I was caught up in ministry, and I was meeting with her. She said, “Judy, you’re burned out. You need a C.A.R.A. day.” 

I go, “A what day?”

The acronym C.A.R.A. really comes from Mark 6:30–32, and I’ll just read those. 

“The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.’ For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place.”

So, C.A.R.A. comes from “come away, rest a while.” That is something I think the Lord Jesus is beckoning all of us to do, to have that time alone with Him, where we really just dwell with Him so we can hear His whispers through His Word.

Elaine, my mentor, told me that she would put that on her calendar probably quarterly. She led a very busy ministry, and she would just write C.A.R.A. She’d know that is the day where it’s a true getaway with God. She lives in the mountains, too. She would get in the mountains.

So I did that. I let her know the day I was going, and she was praying for me. I took my Bible, my journal, my worship music, and drove into the mountains on a Saturday and really sought the Lord. It was a quiet day. It wasn’t like I heard much from Him through the Word except He started to direct me even for some ministry things, like the theme that we were going to have for the next year was going to be focusing more on intimacy and not being so busy—more about prayer and dwelling in the Word. To this day, even now working at Moody instead of being on staff at a busy church, I still need those C.A.R.A. days. I love that way that Jesus knew His disciples did.

The irony of it, though, in Mark, is that he says that over them. They get in a boat to get away, and by the time they get to the shore, there’s a crowd waiting. So they didn’t even get that time alone. But we know that Jesus found His own quiet times away with His Father God, and He made that a priority often. Before He had to make really big decisions, we see that He was quiet and with the Father God in prayer during those times.

Erin: Well, He might have gotten some of that time, it just was short. I mean, the time in the boat, that might have been all they got.

Judy: Right.

Erin: I am a mom of four, toddlers to teenagers; I’m a caregiver for an aging parent; I work full time, and I live on a small farm, which means there are eggs to collect and weeds to pull out and hay to haul. There are things to do. I have a lot going on in my life. So anybody who wants to come at me with their schedule and say, “I cannot make time to be with the Lord,” I just want to say, let’s compare notes, because I’m not the busiest woman in the world, and there are women who have more going on than I do, but I do have a lot going on. So for me it’s probably not a day in the mountains in this season, but it is thirty minutes in the morning. It is a walk in the afternoon. It might be ten minutes. It might be when I get in the car to go from point A to point B. I leave the radio off, because I have a few minutes.

You will never hear the whisper of God, and it’s so hard to hear the whisper of God, if you don’t have those interludes, those moments where you are quiet enough to hear Him be quiet. It’s so hard to run the race of faith if you feel like you aren’t hearing from Him. He’s speaking, but my encouragement would be follow Elijah’s lead. Tuck away (whatever that looks like) and listen for the whisper, even as the storm rages around you.

Staci: The Deep Well with Erin Davis is a production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the CSB.

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