Does God speak to people today? And if so, how does he speak to people, and how can you recognise his voice when God is speaking to you? Bill Hybels tackles these questions and more in his book The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God. Having the Guts to Respond. They are interesting questions to ask in an increasingly secular world in which people who claim to hear from God are often regarded as deluded.
Hybels provides plenty of interesting personal anecdotes describing ways in which God has prompted him or others on various occasions using “whispers”, and he compares these with the ways God spoke to different people in the Bible. He describes different types of whispers including whispers of assurance, whispers of admonition, and whispers of action.
The author suggests a series of filters which can be applied to a prompting to help a person know whether it really comes from God. These include consulting Scripture and godly counsel. The author also provides advice about dealing with dark nights of the soul when a Christian cannot discern any whispers from God.
I found the book to be interesting and helpful. There is a whole range of views amongst Christians as to how God speaks to people. At one end there are those who believe that God does not speak to people today other than through Scripture, while at the other end there are those who insist that God personally tells them to do all sorts of unbiblical things. In my view this book provides a helpful middle ground, and I do not hesitate to recommend it to others.