DMI ministers in response to Isaiah 61:1, "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."
We cannot speak forth the “Word of the Lord” if we have not trained our ears and our hearts to listen for the still, small voice. In the account of the prophet Elijah, you remember that the Bible states that God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire—but in a still, small voice. We discovered that the original language calls it a “noise, silent, tiny”—a silence so profound that it was the noise, perhaps. I don’t know about you, but I have certainly whined at God more than once to turn up the volume, when I’m trying to hear His voice! But, have you noticed that God doesn’t succumb to pressure? Instead of turning up the volume, he tells me to clear out the mental clutter, so that the still, small voice is not drowned out.
In order to cultivate the ability to truly listen for that still, small voice, I have learned that we must learn to be comfortable with silence. In our culture, there is no place for silence anymore, unless we purposely make a place for it. Where there is true inner peace, silence is welcome—and adversely where silence is not welcome, there is no true inner peace. The lack of peace seeks diversion and escape in “keeping the thoughts” occupied elsewhere. Tumultuous emotions are masked as we seek to sooth them or drown them with all kinds of substitutions for peaceful silence.
God uses silence to intensify our hunger for that which is always just beyond our natural awareness. He uses silence to cause us to reach for an awareness of the spirit realm, instead of the natural. We need to learn to cultivate mental silence and allow times of silence in our prayer time. When we are comfortable enough with silence to have cleared out all the ordinary mental noise and clutter, as well as the steady bombardment of external sounds, then we will be amazed at the clarity with which we hear God’s voice!