A book I recently blogged and annotated was The Power of a Whisper by Bill Hybels. John Ortberg takes up this theme of saying “yes” to God’s whispers in Chapter 5 of God is Closer Than You Think. He tells of a plane flight where he had been assigned his preferred aisle seat. Seated next to him was a dignified white-haired man in his late 80’s. The elderly man mentioned that he’d need to make frequent trips to the restroom during the flight. The man also told John that his wife was in the middle seat of the row in front of them. A thought (whisper) entered Pastor Ortberg’s mind- offer to change seats with the man’s wife.
As the author points out, God is gracious to communicate with us at our level of understanding. John Calvin, in Institutes of the Christian Religion, puts it this way:
“For who is so devoid of intellect as not to understand that God, in so speaking, lisps with us as nurses are wont to do with little children? . . . In doing so, he must, of course, stoop far below his proper height.”
Pastor Ortberg adds that our job is to ruthlessly say ‘”yes” whenever we believe God is speaking to us. We become a little more sensitive to hearing God’s whispers every time we obey God’s promptings.