When you’re talking to someone, and you are not very near each other, you have to shout in order to hear what each other is saying. The closer you get, the more softly you can speak, to the point that your mouth can be just by the person’s ear, and you can communicate what you want to say with nought but a whisper.

When I first began to walk with the Lord, I felt like I heard Him loud and clear. When I prayed about something, the answer was almost a shout — like He was making sure I knew He was there, He was helping me to learn to trust Him, helping me to learn to recognise His voice. As the years have gone by, however, it seems His voice has grown more quiet. This could be a discouragement, if I were not thoughtful about the Lord’s ways, and perhaps His motivation in drawing more quiet.

If someone is speaking to you quietly, you have to draw nearer to listen. As long as they’re shouting, you can stand at a good distance and still get the message. But as the voice of the Lord becomes a still, small voice, He invites you — as deep calls out to deep — to draw nearer and nearer, to listen.  Perhaps the goal in this is that we can draw so very close to the Lord that our ears are upon His chest, and we are listening to the very beat of His heart.

What untold riches there are at the foot of the throne of Jesus! But perhaps even more treasures may abound, the closer you draw to the heart of God.

“…and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an 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 a still small voice.

So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave…”   1 Kings 19: 11-13