How God Works

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 earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

1 Kings 19:11-13a

Elijah's great lesson is to come to a clear understanding of the processes of God's working. The prophet went out and a tremendous hurricane swept around the mountain of Sinai, so strong and powerful that it began to loosen the very rocks and they crumbled and fell around him. I doubt if this bothered Elijah in the least. I think the power and brutal force of that storm matched the storm that was raging inside the prophet. Following the great tempest came an earthquake. The ground trembled and moved and rolled and shook under him. But he is still not afraid. After that, a tremendous electric storm came, with lightning leaping from crag to crag around him and the sky split asunder by these tremendous white hot sparks of lightning. After the fire, there comes what the Hebrew calls, the gentle voice of stillness — absolute silence. And in that silence, the prophet is aware that God is moving.

This reveals to us much of what was going through the mind and heart of Elijah. This great prophet, with his eagerness for God's welfare, doubtless had been longing, as we often do, for a mighty wind of the Spirit to blow through this nation — the wind of the Spirit, sovereign, mysterious, mighty in its moving. The prophet had longed that this would happen to the nation, but no wind came. Nothing was happening. He hoped for a political earthquake that would overthrow the throne of Ahab and the godless queen Jezebel and destroy the idols around; but no earthquake came. He longed for a searching, scorching blast of the fire of judgment, coming down and consuming the forces of heathenism in the nation; but none of it happened. But he was to learn that the still, small voice of an awakening conscience is the most powerful force in all the world — that God moves there. It is quite wrong for us to assume that whenever God is at work, there must be blood and fire and noise and smoke and power. No, God works when things, apparently, are at a standstill.

Does He not teach us that in nature? I remember how, often, as a boy, in the winter in Montana, I used to look out upon that bleak and wintry landscape covered with three or four feet of snow, not a leaf on the trees, everything so bare and dreary and desolate-looking, and I would long for spring. It seemed impossible that anything could break the icy grip of winter's hold upon the land. But, you know, spring never did come with a roar. It always came gently and quietly — that invisible force at work that put the leaves back onto the trees and brought the grass out of the ground and melted all the snow and sent it away. This is the way God works. Invisible, noiseless, irresistible — this is the way God works. This is what He wants us to learn.

Lord, teach me to trust that you are working when it seems like things are at a standstill. May your still, small voice awaken consciences.