Inigo Montoya Series: The Still Small Voice

Beth Moore writes, There's a time to give up and a time to keep trying. Sometimes the time to keep trying feels a whole lot like the time to give up. The only difference is the still small voice of the Holy Spirit within you saying, Try again.

He didn't fall?

Inconceivable!

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

The Still Small Voice in 1 Kings 19

So doesn't the Bible teach that God speaks to us today in a still small voice? You keep using that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Justin Peters.

I hope that you and your family are doing well today. I want to thank you very much for watching this video. Now I began this video with a quote from Beth Moore, but Beth Moore is far from the only evangelical who teaches this.

This belief that God speaks to us today outside of the scripture in a still small voice. Some inner impression, some hunch,.

Some.

Words, some quiet words inside of our heads. And that's that still small voice of how that's how God speaks to us today. This is an almost universally accepted belief across the evangelical spectrum. So is this a biblical concept?

Well, it is biblical in the sense that it's in the Bible. But we need to actually look and see what it truly means. So the context here is 1st Kings chapter 19. Now, let me set the table here a little bit for us.

So in 1st Kings chapter 18, you might remember.

That.

Elijah was a prophet, true prophet, of course, in the northern kingdom of Israel. He lived at the time of King Ahab. There was a showdown, a very dramatic showdown actually, between Elijah, a true prophet, and the true God Yahweh.

And then the false prophets of Baal and the false deity of Baal. Some say Baal, but Baal, whatever. And so you had a very dramatic showdown. Summarizing here, the the false prophets of Baal took an ox and put it up on a altar, and Elijah took an ox and put it up on his altar, and Elijah challenged them to call down fire from Baal.

And so the false prophets start doing this, and they call on Baal for hours and hours, and nothing's happening, and Elijah starts to mock them. He actually mocks them and says, well, maybe Baal is busy.

Maybe he's doing some business, or maybe he's asleep. You know, yell louder. And he's really mocking them. And so, well, Baal never came through for his false prophets. And so Elijah called upon Yahweh, and Yahweh did come through in a very dramatic way.

Fire came down from heaven and consumed the oxen and the altar and everything, burned up all the water that they had poured on it. Very dramatic scene. And then after that, Jezebel made a threat against Elijah, and he got word of that, and he fled in fear of his life.

Kind of an odd thing. He had just had this dramatic victory over the false prophets of Baal, and he actually killed the false prophets himself. But then Jezebel got after him, and he fled into the wilderness, afraid for his life.

And long story short here, he found himself in a cave. And so this is where we're gonna pick up in 1 Kings chapter 19. I'm gonna begin reading in verse 9. Now, I'm gonna read this in the King James, because it is only the King James that has this rendering of still small voice.

So read this in the King James. So let's pick up in verse 9. It says, And he came thither, thither is probably not a word we often use, but he came thither unto a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain the prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away.

And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord, Yahweh. And behold, the Lord passed by. And a great and strong wind rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.

And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, here it is, a still small.

Voice.

It's only the King James that renders it this way. The New American Standard renders this as the sound of a gentle blowing, and the English Standard Version renders it as the sound of a quiet whisper.

It's a very unusual construct in the Hebrew, but the sound of a quiet whisper, the sound of a gentle blowing, that's kind of the best rendering. Still small voice is okay as well. But whatever this voice was, it was indeed a quiet voice.

But this was not a voice inside of Elijah's head. In fact, look at the very next verse. Verse 13, and it was so when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering in of the cave.

And behold, there came a voice unto him and said, What doest thou hear, Elijah? So you see, dear ones, this still small voice from the King James, or this sound of a gentle blowing, or the sound of a quiet whisper, this was not some inner impression inside Elijah's head.

This was not some voice inside of his head. It was not internal to him. It was external to him. Look at the verse. It says that he that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out to the entrance of the cave, so he could hear this voice more clearly.

And when he went out to the entrance of the cave, then he heard Yahweh's voice very clearly. What doest thou hear, Elijah? What are you doing here,.

Elijah?

So you see, dear ones, it wasn't some inner impression. It was not an internal voice or an internal whisper. It was external, not internal, external. This was an external.

Audible.

Voice, just like you're hearing my voice right now. My voice right now is external to you, and it is audible to you. Same thing here with Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 19. So can we please do away with the whole still small voice thing?

Still small voice is not some inner impression. It's not a hunch. It's not intuition. It's not some words that you kind of hear in your head in this non-audible sort of way. No, no, no, no, no. It's not internal.

It was external, an external audible voice. We really need to do away with the whole still small voice thing, and when we use it in the way that the vast majority of evangelicals use it, we are isogeting a meaning into the text that is completely foreign to the text.

The Deceitful Heart and Misused Inner Promptings

So I did an image search for still small voice, and this graphic is one of the things that came up. It says, in the quiet of your heart, listen. What is that still small voice telling you? Well, you might remember what another true prophet by the name of Jeremiah said about our hearts, that they are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, so I wouldn't be real keen on following whatever you think your heart is telling you to do, and that's A.

But B, that's not what the still small voice is talking about. Again, dear ones, this was not some internal impression inside Elijah's head. It was an external audible voice. So we really, really need to do away with the whole still small voice thing.

God Does Not Whisper Through Dreams, Visions, or Hunches

So, dear ones, God does not speak to us today in dreams or visions or hunches or impressions, and a full treatment of that subject, of how God does and does not speak to us today, is far beyond the scope of this video, but I just was dealing with that one misinterpreted, taken out of context verses there from 1 Kings chapter 19.

But if you would like a more thorough treatment of how God does and does not speak to us today, then I would heartily encourage you to get a copy of this book entitled God Doesn't Whisper, and it is written by Jim Osmond, forward by John MacArthur.

There is not a stone left unturned in this book. If you're wondering, well, what about doesn't God speak in dreams and visions? He used to. What about John 10 27, my sheep hear my voice? All of that and far, far more is dealt with in this book.

It's excellent. It really is. I endorsed it. I think I just said John MacArthur wrote the foreword to it, but very, very good book. So if you're one of those folks that you have been made to unnecessarily doubt your walk with God, your relationship with Christ, simply because you do not hear God speak to you like all these other people claim that God is speaking to them, and you hear this all the time, God spoke to me and told me this and that, and if it's ever made you wonder, what's wrong with me?

Why don't I hear God speak to me like that? This book, God Doesn't Whisper, will be a tremendous, tremendous help to you. So please do get that book, and I'll put a link to it right down there in the description and also while we're at it, if Jim Osmond happens to watch this video, he's probably going to be really put out with me.

But I would also encourage you to go to YouTube. Jim is the pastor of Kootenai Community Church. It's not spelled the way it sounds, but Kootenai Community Church. They have their own YouTube channel there.

All of Jim's sermons are there on the YouTube channel. Jim is one of the finest expositors of Scripture that I've ever heard. He's just one of the best preachers I've ever heard. And if you're wanting to feed your soul on some good exposition, some deep exposition of the Word of God, I would encourage you to go to YouTube and sign up for the Kootenai Community Church YouTube channel.

They are also linked in the description below. Some of my sermons are there as well. Jim is also doing a series entitled God Wrote a Book. Excellent, excellent, excellent stuff. So it will feed your soul and it will stimulate the old noodle up there.

All right, you know, it's funny. I don't believe I've ever once asked people to subscribe to my own YouTube channel. But I am going to ask you to subscribe to Kootenai Community Church. You will be glad you did.

All right, dear ones, thank you very much for watching this video. Until our next time together, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all.