It’s an interesting thing with God. He will usually communicate with us in ways that involve some subtlety. There’s a Bible passage that refers to the “still small voice” of God [1 Kings 19:12]. And that’s very true. Usually—it doesn’t have to be this way, God can do whatever He wants, but, usually—when God communicates, it’s not with a loud, booming, attention-grabbing voice, like that guy from the Orange Glo commercials. Rather, it’s with a still small voice. That phrase has been translated, “a gentle whisper”.

The reason He tends to communicate with us very subtly is that He doesn’t want to coerce us to listen and obey. His desire is that we listen and obey Him because we choose to do so. Obviously, God could create humans as a kind of robot in which we would always do whatever He wanted us to do.

But what kind of relationship would that be? How many of us want Robot Friends that like us and relate with us because they have no other choice, we’ve programmed them to do so? God wants a genuine relationship with us. He wants a relationship of love. He wants a relationship where we have freely chosen to listen and obey.

If God communicated with us through the power of His direct presence, we’d have no choice. Our obedience would be coerced through sheer fear. That’s not what God wants.

So, be alert and listen carefully. Pay attention to those intuitions, something subtle might be coming your way.

Dan Marler