Psalm 19 describes two forms of divine revelation. The first is general revelation: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (verse 1). The second is special revelation: “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul” (verse 7).

What strikes me most about both forms of revelation is how pervasive they are in terms of space and time. Space: the heavens’ “voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world” (verse 4). Time: “The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever” (verse 9). (In verses 7-10, fear is synonymous with the words law, statutes, precepts, commands, and decrees.)

God speaks everywhere and at all times, in other words. If that’s the case, then the most important spiritual question is how to hear His voice. That’s the question my friend Mark Batterson takes up in his new book, Whisper.

Mark outlines seven ways God speaks to us:

1. Scripture
2. Desires
3. Doors
4. Dreams
5. People
6. Promptings
7. Pain

He admits that this is “not an exhaustive list by any means.” There is not a chapter on how God speaks through nature, which, Mark concedes jokingly, “seems like a sin of omission.” I personally would have liked to see a chapter on how God speaks to us through reason. Perhaps you would like to see a chapter on some other form of divine communication.

If you haven’t heard God’s love in God’s Word, you haven’t listened closely enough.

“The reality?” Mark writes: “God speaks billions of dialects, including yours.”

These dialects are not equal, however. Mark describes Scripture as the “Rosetta Stone” and “The Key of Keys.” It’s the interpretive grid through which all other forms of divine communication must be run. He explains:

God will never lead us to do something that is contrary to His good, pleasing, and perfect will as revealed in Scripture. That said, Scripture doesn’t reveal the logistics. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit. Scripture doesn’t reveal whether we should go here or there. It doesn’t nuance whether we should do this, that, or the other thing. And although its truth is timeless, it doesn’t reveal now or later. Scripture gives us guidelines, but the Holy Spirit is our Guide [emphasis in original].

When I first read that statement, I thought to myself: Only a Pentecostal could write that. I don’t mean that merely in the narrow sense of denominational affiliation. (Mark is an Assemblies of God minister, as am I.) What I mean is that only a person who believes Acts 2 is paradigmatic rather than merely descriptive can be confident that God’s Spirit continues to guide us in the nitty-gritty logistics as well as the broad, biblical guidelines.

That said, Whisper doesn’t engage in flights of charismatic fancy. Mark shows what Scripture itself says about God speaking to us in these seven languages.

I’ll close with a quote from the book’s Epilogue, which epitomizes the content of God’s speech:

God wants us to hear what He’s saying, and we must heed His voice. But much more than that, He wants us to hear His heart. So He whispers softer and softer so that we have to get closer and closer. And when we finally get close enough, He envelops us in His arms and tells us that He loves us.

This is good news, as well as a reminder that if you haven’t heard God’s love in God’s Word, you haven’t listened closely enough.

Book Reviewed

Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2017).