Hearing God's Voice - The Still Small Voice

Hearing God's voice is the desire of many - but fewmessage in one of those natural events - he might
seem to feel that it's their personal experience.have left his cave intent on a mission of some sort -
Why is God's voice so difficult to hear? Or is it?and missed the voice of God altogether.
There are some verses in 1 Kings 19 - I encourage youPerhaps there's a little lesson for us here as we seek
to read the entire chapter to get a feel for the contextto hear God's voice.
- but I'll paste in a portion that helps us understand aOften we want to think that God gives us signs - and
little about God's voice.perhaps he does. Maybe we rush about doing one
IKings 19:11-12 11 And he said, Go forth, and stand uponthing and another - feeling fairly certain that God is
the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORDbehind it - yet how often do we suffer from a sense
passed by, and a great and strong wind rent thethat something isn't quite right?
mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before thePerhaps we didn't wait to hear the voice of God.
LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and afterHearing God's voice may not be possible while we're
the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in thedoing everything we think we need to be doing. I'm not
earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but thedogmatic about this - I'm just throwing out the
LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still smallpossibility.
voice. (KJV)You know, there's a verse that says simply "Be still
These verses are the experience of Elijah - a prophetand know that I am God." There seems to be a thread
of the Lord.running throughout the Bible and other spiritual books
After the tremendous display of natural force Godas well that indicates that stillness and quietness are
spoke very quietly to Elijah. The verses indicate thatessential for hearing God's voice.
perhaps Elijah was looking for a message from God inConsider the example of Jesus - he often went out
the wind, the earthquake, and the fire - but thealone into the mountains to pray - it makes sense that
message came as a still small voice to Elijah.he was finding a place of quietness so he could hear
Suppose that Elijah had assumed that there was athat still small voice.