Close with God
Hearing the Voice of God • Sermon • Submitted
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Tomatis Effect “ The voice can only reproduce what the ear can hear”
Erupting Volcano:
August 27, 1883 - Ranchers in Alice Springs, Australia , heard what they thought were gunshots.
Same sound was heard in 50 geographical locations.
What they heard was a volcano erupting on a remote Indonesian island of Krakatoa which was 2,223 miles away!
A hole drilled through the earth from Krakatoa one would end up in Columbia, South America. Even though the sound wasn’t heard in Columbia, there was an increase in the atmospheric pressure because of infrasonic sound waves that caused the air to tense.
The sound may not have been heard all the way around the world but it was felt.
One science journalist and New York Times columnist said
“Just because you can’t hear a sound doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”
At high levels sound is unignorable. Interesting facts about sound:
110 decibels we experience a change in blood pressure
141 decibels we become nauseous
145 decibels our vision is blurred because our eyeballs begin to vibrate
195 decibels our eardrums are in danger of rupturing and
death by sound can happen at 202 decibels.
Hearing is detecting vibrations of the eardrums caused by soundwaves and the intensity is measured by decibels. So there is a spectrum from extremely loud to very soft.
On one end is the sperm whale which is the loudest animal on earth. Its sound can hit 200 decibels. In fact some researchers believe the song of the whales can travel ten thousand miles under water.
What are some in between sounds? Jets, air horns, thunder
opposite end of the spectrum is a whisper measuring 15 decibels.
Now lets look at :
And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
NASB - gentle blowing
KJV - a still small voice
Do you think there was a significance in the natural phenomena that preceded the whisper? If so what was it?
They were most likely an attention getter. I AM ABLE
When God speaks to us - when He doesn’ t want us to miss what He has to say, He often speaks to us in a whisper, that sound that is just above the absolute threshold of hearing.
The question is
Why?
Remember back last week I asked
How?
When and Where?
Hebrew word for whisper is demamah and can be translated SILENCE or STILLNESS or CALMNESS.
In Psalms this description of how God delivers us from our anxieties. Be Still and Know that I am God.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
And it foreshadows how Jesus would calm the storm with three words.
37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Mark 4:37-
His whisper is gentle, but nothing is more powerful.
Whisper - speaking very softly using one’s breath without one’s vocal cords.”
How did God create Adam? HE whispered into the dust and called it Adam.
No form of communication is more intimate.
Again, Why?
*Object lesson - Ed and I whisper
What happens when I whisper?
Lips/leaning = closeness/intimacy
Exactly what God wants - to be as close as possible because He loves, likes us that much!
We see that God brought calmness to Elijah; through a whisper.
*Silence on our part is key.
What event in your life began as a whisper?
*Amariah
What is the bravest prayer?
Have you remained silent/still to hear God’s answer?
Blaise Pascal “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”
When our lives get filled with loudness and chaos, we take a chance of becoming human doers instead of human beings.
What does God tell us? BE Still and Know that I am God.
Silence is anything but passive waiting. it’s proactive listening.
Henri Nouwen believed that silence was an act of war against the competing voices within us.
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:5-6
*Operating procedures for sound mixers in film and music industries. Absolute silence
Acoustic ecologists call it ear cleaning.
If you want the Spirit of God to fill you, be still.
To find the peace and quiet we need to set some boundaries:
The more I want to hear what a person has to say the quieter I am