Whispers

Have you ever longed for something you couldn’t put into words, but the whispers of the heart wouldn’t let you ignore?

 

There exist some experiences and longings human language is woefully inadequate to describe in words or descriptions. As is the Christian’s longing for a place we have never seen, but only hear about in our inner hearts. This homesickness we rarely mention. It is an elusive phantom moving in and out, around and through. It always seems to be present, like a whispering promise from God.

How do we even begin discussing rumors of another world without it falling into very speculative wondering? Who among us has seen it, that other world, with our eyes and been able to describe it so to be understandable, intellectually?

 

Author Phillip Yancey believes it involves our inattention to the evidence of the supernatural in everyday life. But recognizing pieces of evidence only is still not seeing the whole lot. Not touching. Feeling. Immersion of experiencing. Not being able to describe what we saw, touched, felt, experienced. At least not so to be able to put it into standard human terms of language.

 

Apostle, John, gave us his beneficial experience of personally seeing in Revelation. How are we doing with interpreting that? A word comes to mind. Ineffable. Another name comes to mind. Indescribable. And those words remain after John described all he saw and experienced. Much of the five significant theological positions of interpreting Revelation is based on personal preference of perspective, conjecture, and opinion. I am not demeaning those opinions of theology. I am merely presenting the question again: how do we discuss the whispers of another world without much of it becoming speculation, conjecture, opinion, lacking hard conclusive evidence of the same.

 

Whispers of another world, some have described as having “God sightings.” By that, they mean a sometimes recognition of God’s activity in events worldwide, near and far, big and small. Miracles? What some call miracles, others call normal activities of God in His creation, such that is not always witnessed by human eyes. I am of the latter. When God’s activity goes unnoticed — no reaction. When someone or two or many, notice — Miracle! Or at the very least, a discussion about “miracles” ensues. Physical eyes-on. Seen. Noticed. Revealed. Discussed. Noted. And then what? Forgotten. Personal lives continue. For the Christian too? Very often. But a whisper remains.

As it is written:

1 Corinthians 2:7-16

^‘7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”^[1]—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. (that is, their existence, not their explanation.)

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.^[2] 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness,and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit (believers) makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,¹⁶ for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
    so as to instruct him?”^[3]

But we have the mind of Christ.’

Footnotes:

1.  1 Corinthians 2:9 Isaiah 64:4
2. 1 Corinthians 2:13 Or Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual
3. 1 Corinthians 2:16 Isaiah 40:13

 

In essence, the above tells us that by God’s Spirit communicating to our spirit, we can know the whispers of another world by the Spirit interpreting for us the secret things of God. By secret, meaning they who have not the Spirit cannot explain nor understand. But still, that understanding is made known to our spirit, not our human intellect, necessarily. We know what we know because we know it. But we can’t explain it, touch it, feel it with our fingers, can’t describe it to ourselves in common human usage of language.

 

Therefore, can we see how conjecture, opinion, and speculation tries to fill in the gaps of human understanding, the humanity which we are still? We can accept this knowledge unquestioningly because we know it is true. But we don’t fully understand it. How can we? The whispers of another world are of another world. A foreign land, as of yet. One whose language is not native to us — theological and church jargon aside which falls short, remaining human.

 

As an excursus, I want to point out something I often acknowledge when I say — that many times, the question we recognize and wrestle with, is often more important than any answer itself we may come up with to solve it. What does this mean? I will tell you: I don’t know. But I know it is true.

 

Shall songs, poetry, prose, hymns, music help us in these unanswerable questions? Very possibly and even likely. Some things not understood through purely logical and intellectual processes may reach us subliminally, through the art in the language of music and poetry that God has blessed to us. And that would include all art forms. All creative arts. Pottery, painting, gardening, carpentry, fishing, as a small sampling. And yes, writing too. We communicate and absorb information in many ways other than purely intellectual meditation/mental wrestling.  Any and all art forms that give instruction in asking questions — leading our attention to the whispers of another world.

 

We have not the answer to our previous question above. How shall we do here, following?

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:8

^“16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Awaiting the New Body    2 Corinthians 5:1-8

“5. 1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ² Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, ³ because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. ( some questions cannot be, are not meant to be, answered us while still in this realm. The Spirit as down payment, or guarantee, whispers these things assuring us of something more that is to come. Also, they serve to keep bringing our attention back to things eternal, even as the physical is so demanding of our attention.)

[The Holy Spirit, Spirit of Jesus, Spirit of God! He does His job well. In some more than others, no doubt, but well in all none the less. Therefore, we get a hint that the whispers of another world, and questions unanswered, may serve to assure our focus. As an accurate compass keeps coming back to center our direction on who we are, of what our purpose is. Who we belong to, and to where we are journeying. Hence, the questions unanswered can be identified as being more important, in this realm, than the answers we think we are seeking. However, our seeking is essential. It means our concentration is in the right direction. Speculations, conjectures, hypotheses, guesses, and opinions serve to temporarily slake our curiosities, but they also keep our hearts fixed. Alternately, we must not assume our inferences to necessarily be the same as Spirit-enlightenment without a clear biblical witness.]

⁶ Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (Our faith is a sure faith. How do we know? Because, again, we know what we know because we know it. The Spirit meets with our spirit in confirmation, albeit without detailed explanation.)

Knowing these things, we accept that we will have some questions go unanswered. We know because we know. Because the Spirit has whispered them unto our spirit. Whispered without an explanation clearly being revealed to the mind of our flesh. The whispers of another world, those whispers, are good enough to keep us going in the direction we should be going. Toward home and our identity within. A child of Almighty God, through Christ Jesus, our true Lord, and Savior.

— This article is an origination of G.W, author-administrator of this site.  All true insights of information, and words of scripture quoted, belong to Christ Jesus, Lord and Savior with ALL glory belonging to Him. 

 

 

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