The Fire and the Whisper

When you pray, do you expect God to answer?

I hope the answer is yes. After all, if you believe in God, if you believe God is real, and if you believe God cares for you, it’s only logical for us to also believe he can answer.

But sometimes, it feels as if God is silent.

Maybe a better question is this: When you pray, how do you expect God to answer?

I firmly believe God answers all prayers, and I also believe He’s always speaking to us, if only we listen.

Listening, indeed, might be the tricky part.

But the longer I’ve lived, the longer I’ve known God, the more I’ve come to find this surprising truth: Often, it would seem God answers the simple prayers dramatically, and the dramatic prayers simply.

If we look at some of Jesus’s most dramatic miracles in the Gospels, we can see that a lot of these requests begin very simple, very matter-of-fact. Yet, from those simple prayers, Jesus answers.

People are healed of diseases and delivered from demons at His very word!

We see this kind of dramatic response all throughout scripture, but I want to turn to the story of Elijah.

When he challenged the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, the rules were simple—the one who answers by fire wins.

The prophets of Baal cry out for hours with no reply from their false deity, but Elijah, with one prayer asks God a simple question:

“Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that you are God in Israel and I am your servant, and that at your word I have done all these things. Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that you, the Lord, are God and that you have turned their hearts back.” (1 Kings 18:36-37)

To the chagrin of my Pentecostal roots, he doesn’t yell “Fire!” into the microphone over and over again. But compared to the cries of his opponents, this prayer is remarkably short.

After only three sentences, God answers with enough fire to consume the altar, the sacrifice, and all the water on it and in the trench dug around it.

This story is one of my favorites in the Old Testament, and it’s easy to see why.

Simple prayer, dramatic response.

But what happens next to Elijah?

You would think the king and queen would repent and he lives the rest of his days in peace, but no. If anything, their stubbornness grows.

But Elijah? One would think Elijah would be at the highest, most confident point of his life. After all, over the next day or so after this encounter, he predicts the end of the drought, prays for the return of rain, and is given super-speed by God to outrun the king’s chariot.

But after Elijah experiences the highest highs of God’s Spirit working in big, effective, dramatic ways, he almost immediately falls to perhaps the lowest point in his life.

King Ahab and Queen Jezebel—the hardened, stubborn, power-couple-of-evil—put an even bigger bounty on Elijah’s head, and he fled into the wilderness alone.

Deep in depression, he asks God to take his life.

Have you ever wondered how Elijah could get to such a low after only just experiencing such a high?

He’d seen God on the mountaintop. He’d seen God dramatically prove Himself in front of Elijah’s enemies. He’d seen the wonder-working power of God, but it wasn’t enough.

In spite of all he’d seen God do, Elijah was afraid, alone, and undone.

Even God’s most dramatic answer didn’t erase Elijah’s fear, and he found himself in the literal wilderness waiting to die.

God’s next answer was perhaps less dramatic but no less miraculous: He makes food and water appear for Elijah to eat.

But what happens next?

Elijah embarks on a journey.

He hiked for forty days and forty nights all the way to Horeb, the mountain of God.

This is the mountain where the Lord appeared to Moses in the form of a burning-not-burning bush. This is where He gave Moses the Ten Commandments and all the other laws. This is where Moses beheld God’s glory.

Though Elijah consistently hears the Lord’s voice in all the stories where he’s mentioned, something significant happens here on God’s mountain.

The Lord commands Elijah to go out and stand in His presence. Elijah waits and listens.

First, he hears the violent wind, but God’s voice is absent. Then, he hears the destructive earthquake, but again, the Lord’s voice is missing. Then, a raging fire came and went, but the Lord wasn’t there either.

Finally, there was a whisper, and at the whisper Elijah walked into the presence of God.

Now, Elijah had seen the fire of God. He’d seen God work in dramatic ways. And we see God speak in dramatic ways all throughout scripture. In Job, God speaks through the whirlwind. In other sections of scripture, God causes earthquakes for various reasons.

But in Elijah’s most personal crisis, the answer isn’t dramatic; it’s soft.

But do you see what else it is?

It’s personal.

You only need to yell at someone if you’re standing far from them.

A whisper—a still, small voice—implies closeness.

The instructions God proceeds to give Elijah are the kind of instructions God could give a prophet anywhere at anytime. There doesn’t seem to be anything special with the Lord’s response, but when we pause and think about the story, a couple things stand out.

One, God waits to give Elijah the full answer.

Here’s how it reads in the CSB: (1 Kings 19:9-18)

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.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

“I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Armies,” he replied, “but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they’re looking for me to take my life.”

Then the Lord said to him, “Go and return by the way you came to the Wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram. You are to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. Then Jehu will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Jehu. But I will leave seven thousand in Israel—every knee that has not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

God asks Elijah the same question twice, and Elijah gives the same reply both times, but God’s responses to him are different.

The first time, “the word of the Lord came to him,” and at Elijah’s reply, God told Elijah to enter His Presence.

The second time, “a voice came to him.”

Elijah entered God’s presence, and God drew near to him.

In this new setting, under new conditions, speaking with a close personal whisper, God gives Elijah instructions, and also presents the prophet with new information—Elijah’s not alone! There are 7,000 people who have remained faithful to the Lord. Elijah’s seclusion came to an end shortly thereafter with the commissioning of Elisha as Elijah’s apprentice.

Does God speak in big dramatic ways? Yes!

Does God answer prayers with miracles? Yes!

But also, God will answer you in the way you need to be answered.

He is the God who brings fire from heaven, but He’s also the God who speaks to His people in whispers.

He’s a God of nearness, and if nearness is the answer you get to your prayer, that prayer has been well answered.

So, when you pray, how do you expect God to answer?

As New Testament believers, we have a closeness to God Elijah only dreamed he could have. By Jesus, we are reconciled to our Father! The Holy Spirit is even nearer than you think.

He says He will draw near to us if we will draw near to Him.

So draw near! Seek, ask, and knock. The door will be opened, your prayer will be answered, and you will find Him near to you already.

He might answer with fire, but oftentimes what we need is the whisper.

I for one, am ready for both.