The Sixth Sense
After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. 1 Kings 19:12 NASB
Not – Where is YHVH? Perhaps the better question is: Where is YHVH when everything seems like it is falling apart? We know where He is when things are good. He is on His throne in the heavens, exercising His authority over the cosmos. But where is He when children are murdered in the streets of Jerusalem? Where is He when the government permits, even endorses, apostasy and immorality? Where is He when my wife is dying from cancer, when my house is in foreclosure, when my neighborhood is bombed by some terrorist animal? Where is God when it counts?
Elijah discovered that YHVH is not in the storm, the earthquake or the fire. We might wish that He were. Then He could direct all that energy toward our enemies and we would see them perish in the blast, fall in the quake or be burned to ash. Then we would be vindicated. But like Elijah we must learn where He is not before we can discover where He is. Like Elijah, we prefer the God of power to the God of silence. But apparently YHVH doesn’t.
Lo baesh reads the Hebrew text. “Not in the fire.” The negative is quite strong. It isn’t the conditional negative, ‘al, that depends on circumstances. This one, lo, is the absolute. Elijah is never going to find YHVH in the fire no matter no hard he looks. God is not there! In fact, YHVH isn’t in the “gentle blowing” either. The NASB (and many other translations) still suggest that the voice of the Lord is in some audible mechanism. But the text reads kol demama daka—the sound of thin silence. Where is YHVH? He is in between the words. He is in the spaces that separate. If you want to hear Him, you must employ your sixth sense, your ability to hear silence.
Over and over people ask, “What is God’s will for me?” They expect an answer, that is, they expect communication in the customary form, the way that they communicate. But Elijah’s experience should teach us that God is not in the customary or the spectacular. “Not by might or by power, but by My spirit.” Do we really understand what that means? Don’t we still want might or power, just turned down a bit so it doesn’t kill us? What if “by My spirit” means the spaces in between words? Are we prepared to hear what isn’t said?
You can’t ride a bicycle by thinking about it. You can’t bake a cake by reading a recipe. Neither can you “hear” the voice of thin silence by listening to words. You will have to tune into emptiness. You will have to practice going where there is nothing said. You will be tempted to escape into subdued power, restrained displays of force, controlled chaos. Resist! Draw close to emptiness and listen to silence.
Topical Index: 1 Kings 19:12, lo, not, silence, demama
Blanking Out Or Tuning In?
The way of the world vs. the Way of the Lord.
We can expect difference here; in fact we can expect the most extreme difference here, between what the world thinks and does, and what we are instructed to do. First, what does the world do to ‘access’, or appease; to obtain power over chaos, or to solve dilemmas?
I have decided one of the main hallmarks of false religion has to do with what it delineates as encounters with what it considers the divine. As this is about false worship vs. true, this should not be surprising; nor should we expect them to be similar at all. Prayer on the outside may even look much the same, but it is going to be radically different on the inside. Appeasement, bargaining, expectations and the seeking of power over chaos or some sort of temporary relief from the horror of life lived on our own cognizance, which is what drives the world to seek out the divine, should not drive the worshipers of the One true God. As the questions determine the possibilities of the answers, so how I seek the face of YHVH is going to determine whether the heavens are brass or liquid with relief for me.
For years I sought the favor of heaven by any and all means I knew. I prayed all the prayers I had been taught; I tried to follow all the rules I understood heaven liked; and, at the end of it all, I concluded that heaven and I just simply had no way to understand each other. I had given it my very best shot, and nothing was working. So I gave up. I turned my back and ran, not walked, away. That was my very first honest action, and what I found in that running was my very first encounter with Him. It was not in my trying, but in my honest action of acknowledging my failure at that trying, that our relationship began. It was decades of rarely broken silence later, though, that we ended up on talking terms again. Decades of silence. Decades of being on the outside, in the cold. Decades where I could see for myself exactly how the lukewarm of pretense killed all possibility of true communion, for when I tune out of who I really am and where I am really coming from, no one has a chance of getting close to me.
All relationship has to start by acknowledging the pain of the fracture that births all our encounters, for we are all fractured at our outsets; none of us has gotten this relationship thing right the first time around. All of us start out by falling short of the glory of God, which is an exceedingly painful place. In this world the tears of repentance; of turning around from that fracture, must precede all relationship. We get forgiven that fracture, too, at the very same rate that we forgive it in the other party. Forgiveness is an essential ingredient of my ability to reconnect with others as fast as I find myself fractured from them. I must be turning my enemies into my friends at a faster rate than they are being fractured from me, if I truly want heaven to befriend me. This, in fact, is the only deal that heaven offers. If I am to find myself in a state of peace, then I must be overcoming (not reacting to, which is the best the world can do) chaos faster than I can say “boo!”.
Faith forces reality to heel, and it is that faith that re-opens the way to relationship. I was not commanded to pray for my friends, but for my enemies, for when I align myself with their interests as if they were my own, then the way is opened for heaven to align itself with mine. The years I spent in that cold I was learning to grab the hand of my enemy and see myself in the interests of others. I had to learn to embrace the fracture of disaster as being my true state before I could see the answer to that fracture. To pray for my enemies, and hold them closer than my brother is heaven’s way to solve my own problem, for that problem is the one I share with those who are not aligned with me: we only have a problem with each other to the extent that we are not extending the right hand of fellowship. To have heaven hear me is to realign myself with the problem. It is in those actions of love that we turn fracture on its heels. It is in this place – the place where we can clearly see the problem – that the Answer can show up.
The basis of our horror all lies in our fracture with ourselves, each other and with heaven. Therefore, the true basis for our encounters with heaven is going to be in bringing that fracture to the Great Mechanic and asking for repair. Worship in the earth made new may look like something else, but worship in this one, in spirit and in truth, is going to have to consist of the truth we are all walking in, which is the truth that our biggest need is for heaven to fix our fracture. Well, we have to bring it first! “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come offer thy gift.” Matt. 5:23,24. Umm, definitely NOT anything like what the world considers an encounter at the altar!
Our need of heaven is peace. Not peace as the world understands it, for it only sees peace in terms of reaction to what is, which is what drives all those wrong motivations to approach the divine. No, to get the only peace heaven offers, I have to align myself with the interests of heaven. The world seeks relief from chaos, but the only ways it has to seek that relief all lie in the realm of that appeasing, bargaining, expectations and that seeking for power over chaos and that temporary relief from the horror of life lived on our cognizance, where we are always going to be reacting to fracture. But we were instructed to not be conformed to the world, which is where I align myself with that reaction to fraction, but to overcome that fracture. Instead of seeking ways of blanking out the pain, I must instead turn around and embrace that pain as mine, for what I own I have the power to beseech heaven to do something about. I don’t need methods of avoiding the problem, which is the best the world can do; I need to walk straight into that problem and say “I have a Big Daddy that can whup your daddy”. To take the actions of healing the fracture is to solve the reason I needed that encounter with that Divine. The silence that that fracture creates, then, is where I must go to meet that Answer.
Skip, you say “draw close to emptiness and listen to silence.” That seems like a nice turn of poetry.
How do I do that?
First, stop talking.
Second, stop talking to yourself.
Third, stop thinking about what you would say to yourself when you stop.
Fourth, seek emptiness – yes, it’s OK to meditate
Fifth – WAIT.
Thank you for this! I struggle to be still and to be silent. I think this is one thing I definitely need to do. Oddly, instructions and even permission are welcome and needed. 🙂
Oh, one more thing. Come to the Africa where no man lives. One of the reasons I am so excited about the group going to Africa in February with me is that we will really be away from all the human distractions – at least as much as we can be – and maybe we will have some time of silence.
When we go to Israel next August, we will do the same thing in the desert. There are spaces for that one. Africa is full. Maybe next time. But Israel will be great as the sun comes up over the desert while we meditate at a hidden spring.
Thank you Laurita for your insightful words these 2 days. They go deep in my soul as I wonder if the
fractured walls we all have built up from past scares that surround our selves
can really be broken down as well as in those that are the closet to us. I believe we all desire this,
if we were honest with ourselves. Who is brave enough to be the 1st to take the action that is required
by YHVH to break the walls down in our fractured relationship? and to be bold enough to be the leader in restoring the family unity and reaching beyond to others closest to us? This is work that requires action
and His supernatural power to take up our stake and follow Yeshua’s example, this is our chance to make a difference. What are we then if we don’t? What is there to loose that we don’t have now? For a house
divided can not stand. I seek you Father for strength and courage to be the one waiting in my silence
to hear your still quiet voice of Your Answer for restoration of the broken-ness in myself and my relation-
ships, I know this is your perfect will. I trust you now to show me where my faith can be put into action.
Amen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLfCnGVeL4
you forgot to put this song in your post.
🙂
Yes:)
I am soaking it all in – great insight & exhortation Skip & great comments ♡
A bad thing happens.People want to help.They say you must have hope and faith.I don’t know what this means.I was never promised a rose garden.I tell the creator its to much.I cant stand the pain.I have no desire or right to be angry with the creator.I stay faithful to God.I find that as time goes on the pain decreases.In my life the good has always outdone the bad.But in this case I cant even imagine how.Ps thanks for teaching my son in Isreal.Thanks for teaching me.
Hi Brian,
I am not sure if your comment is a general remark or a personal revelation. If it is person, and you are in pain, please let me know what I can do to help.