Well, good morning, my friends, and welcome to the Heritage Hour. I’m Mark Gonzales, your pastoral and soul care encourager here in Southwest Florida. And I’m so delighted to be with you on air, online, and in media ministry for 35 years now.

So thank you for sitting with me at the feet of the Lord to listen for his heart to touch our hearts. Well, if you’ve been with us, you know, we’re in the middle of a series, a second series I’ve done this year. The first was on how he, you know, we looked at his soul care portraits and that was an eight part series. Love that one.

I hope you’ll go back and listen to that one and pass it on to others at my website. It’s all archived, markpg.org. I call it Helping You Hear God. And also along with those broadcasts or videos, there are print guides, quick guides on all kinds of topics, articles that I’ve published that I’ve archived there as well.

So all kinds of things to help you hear God. By the way, that column is called Whispers of God that I’ve written for about 20 years. And I’m going to talk about that a little bit today, about why I call it Whispers of God. because now we’re going through a series we’re calling he is our or how he is his portraits unfold so so throughout the scripture that now I’m kind of putting them in thematic portraits and this one is the abiding presence portraits of God and this too is an eight-part series or number five today and so I unpacked how he is our abiding presence and the first one the second one what does that look like his abiding presence well it’s an inner presence he is our inner presence and oh we saw how it’s rooted and interwoven and mysterious then we went to the third of the broadcasts of this eight-part series and talked about how he is our holy presence that abiding presence of the Lord it’s a holy thing boy we went to the burning bush and the smoking mountains and the striking rock and the holy of holies and the throne room and the Damascus road to look at that one and that sets up what we’d covered last time number four how he is our comforting presence on the one side the holy powerful mysterious fear of the lord in the positive way and awe of his holy presence but then there’s his comforting presence saw how his uh it unfolds as his merciful father presence his fellow sufferer presence his comfortable yoke presence his protective mother even presence and one metaphor watchful shepherd presence and his eternal love presence Okay so now we come to a fifth in our series of eight broadcasts, and this one I’m calling He is our Whispering Presence. This is the portrait we’re going to focus on, and I’m going to have six sub-portraits of what our whispering presence what his whispering presence looks like today and if you have your bibles we’re going to be in matthew 10 uh start start off with and we’ll go to john 1 and matthew 2 and james 3 and psalms 8 and romans 1 and first kings 19 and romans 14 i love going through the scripture and seeing all the portraits there and giving them to you because the scripture is about pointing to him.

It’s not a rule book. Primarily, it’s not the tax code. Don’t treat it that way. They’re portraits of God.

They’ll let us see his character, his heart. And that’s why I love to sit at his feet and let him speak to us heart to heart.

So yeah, all these are archived, as I said, at markpg.org. I hope you’ll jot that down and get caught up if you’ve missed some broadcasts, listen to them again. If you want to get it deeper, share it with others. If you want to spread the wisdom of God and the joy of the Lord through the scriptures and through all of these portraits of himself.

So as we get started, as is our custom, and as we get ready to take a journey through the love letters of God to us to see how he is our whispering presence let’s just go before the lord and ask him to speak shall we oh lord i love this series oh i love the last series too oh i love all the series we’ve done lord you just so gracious to share so much with me over the years and i get to pass them on to my brothers and sisters and let you speak uh through these truths to them and lord i pray i’ll do a good job of unpacking this particular portrait today about how you are our whispering presence one of the ways your abiding presence is manifested in our in our lives so thank you lord for the privilege of sitting at your feet today we are so ready to hear what you have to share with us heart to heart we pray this in the powerful name of the lord jesus christ and by his precious cleansing and healing, transforming, empowering, and forgiving blood. Amen. Amen and amen All right my friends Well if you have your Bibles we going to start over in Matthew chapter 10 We going to look at verses 25 through 27 which really gives us the overarching portrait we looking at today how he is our whispering presence. And then, as I mentioned, I’m going to give you six sub-portraits of how that is manifested in our daily lives.

So let’s pick it up in Matthew 10, 25, and then 27, where the Bible says this. It is enough for the disciple that he may become like his teacher. This, of course, is talking about the disciples walking with Jesus and all, and not just in that day, but in this day as well.

But then verse 27, Jesus is saying, What I tell you in the darkness, I kind of get the picture, by the way, of the prayer closet, right? He says, when you pray, go in your closet and shut the door kind of thing. when I tell you the darkness tell in the light and what you hear whispered in your ear proclaim on the housetops oh my friend I tell you being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is learning to listen for the whispers from him into the ears of our heart and that that which he shares with us is not to be kept or hoarded, but to be shared with others. Proclaim it from the housetops, as it were, from one-on-one evangelism to counseling to Bible teaching to chats with people at Starbucks or something. I get to do a radio broadcast.

You might get to do a podcast. I get to write. I get to do all kinds of things. I hope you do too.

That’s why my website is called Helping You Hear God and sharing Jesus as many ways as I possibly can. Direct portraits of Jesus, not indirect. And I’ve been doing this for many years now. And this one, he is our whispering presence has become especially, um, personal to me because I discovered the reality of how the Lord typically speaks to us and whispers, though there are times he will speak more loudly.

And there’s a great illustration of this, by the way, if you know horses and horse training you know that there are horse trainers there’s a lot of those but then there are those unique individuals that they’re called horse whisperers horse whispers simply put horses that have been traumatized and need to be restored uh refreshed uh healed a regular horse trainer that pushes and drives and presses and all that That not what they need They need somebody that going to be very gentle with them and work with them very slowly and very tenderly and build the trust. That’s a horse whisperer. And the Lord is a horse whisperer with us. You know why?

Because whether we realize it or not, or even if we do realize it but we don’t want to admit it, we all are traumatized to one degree or another. We all have wounds. This world is a rough and tumble war. It’s brutal.

And we get hurt. Relatives and friends and church at work at school and everything, you know, and financially. And I mean, there’s all kinds of things and health wise. Jesus said you will have tribulation and we get traumatized.

And yet the reality is this. Peace is not the absence of all those trials and tribulations. peace is the presence of the lord in the midst of those and when he comes actually he’s always there we’ve been seeing that throughout this series the abiding presence of the lord he’s always right with us but he’s always whispering this is the horse whispering principle my friend when you’re having conversations with others and maybe you have a family feud you need to deal with maybe you’ve had some discord with somebody think in terms that both of you are pretty hurt by it and you need to be more of a horse whisperer than a trainer and tell them what they ought to do or what they should have done or i can’t believe you did that it’s the horse whispering principle and if you’re a parent or a pastor or a teacher or a coach there are those times when you really need to understand what people need from you under your charge is a boss or a father or a mom or a pastor who understands the horse whispering principle. Jesus did it that way. He is our soul care shepherd we’ve been saying.

He is our comforting presence we said last time. Well he’s our whispering presence because he just didn’t sit there or he’s not just standing by and doing nothing. In fact, here’s the first sub-portrait I want to give you.

Because the way that he’s our whispering presence is manifested in these six ways as well. These are just throughout the scripture. His daily conversation presence. Here’s another portrait.

His daily conversation presence. Yeah, he’s daily conversing with us. I’ve mentioned this with you before in previous broadcasts. I’ll just share it quickly with you here because it fits right under this category of our whispering presence so well.

John 1. 1. And then verse 14. Came alive to me at a New York mission conference I was at, oh gosh, I guess it was 2005, somewhere in there.

And I had been in a theological task group with about seven other men from around the world for this global mission thing. I was on the leadership team. and the leader of ours was from England and he had actually studied under C.S. Lewis.

And so man, I had one year to be able to spend time with him over the internet and then personally in New York for the first time to pick his brain about the ways of the Lord and all.

But I was getting frustrated because he seemed to dance around topic. He seemed to dance around questions and never asked them very specifically in the emails then in new york when we had his session you know his breakout session and stuff and people would ask questions he still danced rather so i asked him if we could have lunch we got acquainted he made the connection of all those internet and conversations we’ve been having and now we’re one-on-one but over lunch same thing it felt like he was dancing around answering the question and he saw my frustration and he said this Mark, excuse me, Mark, do you know what it says in John 1.1? Well, yes, sir, yeah, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and then verse 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He says, yes, yes, very good, very good.

Do you know there’s another rendering for logos? The Greek word logos is translated word most places, but there’s another word for that. It’s just as good, just as valid. And when he told me what it was, it stunned me.

It was an epiphany. And that additional translation into English from the Greek logos is conversation. And when I plug that into the verse that I knew so well, in the beginning was the conversation. And the conversation was with God.

And the conversation was God. And I had this immediate picture of the Godhead in eternity past having this eternal conversation going on. And then when I thought about verse 14 and the conversation, the logos word, the conversation became flesh and dwelt among us, I went, oh my goodness. I said, we’re in a daily conversation with the Lord.

He said, yes, yes, that’s right. And we’re finite, but he’s infinite. He said, yes, yes, that’s right. And he transcendent and we so limited Yes yes that right And we can possibly grasp that he has to say to us Yes yes but you Americans you always watch everything in a nice little bow and packaged up Is life really that way?

Well, no, it isn’t. Is God really that way? Well, no. Is the scripture really that way? no. That’s right.

So when we get together, we just kick the can down the road a little bit, get little bits and glimpses here, and there’ll be a next time we get the bits and pieces and the daily conversation whispered to us. It changed my life, friends. It took tons of pressure off that I had to have an answer for every theological question, every theological controversy. None of them can be wrapped up in nice little boxes and bows.

We try to do that. In fact, we convince ourselves we’ve done it and we preach it and push it on others. but friends the transcendent eternal God of the ages in eternal conversation in the mysterious Trinity that we know of also speaks daily with us but they’re whispers there’s just a lot of noise in our lives though isn’t it well let me give you another example not only is our whispering presence giving us a portrait of himself as our daily conversation presence he’s also our instructive warning presence for those of you that are note takers this is number two of how his whispering presence comes through and i love the story in matthew chapter 2 verse 12 uh that climaxes it’s the story of the magi coming and encountering herod and herod trying to use him to find out who this king of the jews is and where this baby is born so he could kill him but i love how in that story the Lord’s whispering presence comes across in a dream and an instructive warning comes at that particular occasion. And the Bible says this in Matthew 2 verse 12. And after being warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way.

You know, you might be thinking, you know, you’re talking about this kind of mystical thing about whispering presence of God and that’s why by the way whispers of God is the column title that I’ve written for so many years and I give people peeks and musings of life in those that are out to the general populace general whispers you don’t preach at them you don’t force it you don’t push it and the Lord’s that way with us and the Lord does it in so many ways here’s a warning instructive warning president you might think well this just sounds I’m not sure Well actually you been hearing way more whispers of God in daily conversation than you may realize my friend For example in this one how many times have you been in a conversation or in a meeting and something was being said and you just had a gut feeling something not right Or a red flag came up in your heart? Or you said something doesn’t smell right here. There was a bad smell. or you had a check in your spirit or one of my favorites for women, women’s intuition. What?

They just realize something. They can’t put their finger on it and some men get so frustrated with their wives or women on their teams who say, you know, I just don’t feel right about this.

Something in my heart doesn’t. Why? We’ve explained it all. Why?

Give us the facts. I don’t have any facts. I can’t point my finger. I just don’t feel right about this.

Women’s intuition. We tend to look down on it. My friends, it could very, very likely be a whisper from above, a whisper of God, an instructive warning to stay clear of this man, stay clear of this situation, stay clear of that group, stay clear of that business. It just doesn’t, and we say, smell right.

I got a check in my spirit. As I said, all these things, women’s intuition. Hey, when I was a young seminary student on my way to being a pastor and studying and all that stuff, our pastor at the time there in Fort Worth, Texas, where I was going to Southwestern Seminary, had a class just for seminary students and their wives. Sunday nights, a six-week series, things they don’t teach you in seminary, practical things like, he would say, well, when you get out there and get your first church, make sure your secretary is old enough to be your mother.

And I’m serious. think about that when there’s real wisdom there or if there’s not a window cut in the office door and you’re doing counseling in there get a little window cut in there you don’t want to be behind closed doors or if you see one of your women of the church at a bus stop downtown and it’s raining and pouring and you’re on your way to the church and that’s where she needs to go well she’s going to get wet because you do not want to pick up a woman and take her in your car anywhere anytime. There’s things like that but here’s one he said. Fellas listen to your wives. They know other women.

They’ll give you cautions. You think they’re crazy or overreacting. Pay attention. Well guess what?

In my second ministry position I was a co-pastor and one day my wife came to me and said honey you need to watch out for the senior pastor’s wife. What?

Now she was this cheerleader type personality and stuff and what I about to say is not about all women who have cheerleader you know vibes and that type of stuff And in this particular case she said she has eyes for you and she has eyes for and she named another guy who was one of our deacons. I said, honey, she’s just being friendly. She doesn’t have, no, I’m telling you, there’s something there. I said, all right, honey, I remember what our pastor taught us to pay attention to it.

Honestly, I think you’re overreacting. I think you’re being oversensitive about this thing, but I will do what you’re asking. I’ll keep my distance from her just in case. Well, do you know that a year later, she ended up having an affair with that deacon that she had eyes on?

And when that came out and my wife and I talked, I had cold sweats. And my, you said she had eyes for him and for me. Yes, she said, but you stated clear.

So you didn’t get hooked. Wow. Wow. Women’s intuition is actually in my book.

The whispering presence of God, whispering warnings for yourself and to pass on to your husband in this case. It’s a real thing. Whispers of God. Hey, here’s another one.

Here’s the third one. His quiet wisdom presence. His quiet wisdom presence. James 3, 17 says, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and free of hypocrisy. if you want to know if you’re walking in wisdom it’s a quiet wisdom it’s a whispered wisdom that’s coming to your heart from above my friends you’ve had that you’ve had that you maybe just didn’t credit it to the lord but this is why the scriptures be still and know that i am god this is why the scriptures that’s the psalms and in psalm 23 it says and he leads us to still waters why because we need that quiet to hear his quiet wisdom you know we’re a species that when we get lost, we tend to run faster, right?

No, don’t. When you get lost, when you’re confused, when you’re disoriented, when you’re frustrated, don’t run faster and get more frenetic in your lifestyle and pace and trying to deal with it and white knuckle it. Stop. Be still.

And listen for the quiet wisdom of God and you’ll spot it.

Because it is pure and peace loving and gentle and reasonable and full of mercy and good fruits. Well, here’s another way the whispering presence can be heard. It’s through his wondrous sights presence, his wondrous sights presence. Psalm 8, 3 through 4, when I consider your heavens, the of your fingers, the moon and the stars, what you have set in place.

What is man that you think of him, O Lord, and the son of man that you are concerned about him? Isn’t that beautiful? I love taking prayer walks early in the morning before the sun rises. There’s something about the stars and the moon and the darkness that I get a glimpse of the infinite nature of God.

Romans 1 20 puts it this way for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes that is his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived being understood by what has been made so they’re without excuse the creation of the world gives evidence of the divine creator it’s called general revelation when you think about the picture of god in a manger on that christmas night wow wondrous sight whispers of god when timely miracles come up here and there ah wondrous sight whispers of god and then in first kings 1912 here a fifth portrait his time to go presence his time to go presence i love this one this is when he had fled this is Elijah had fled to a cave because he was under a death threat This is after Mount Carmel big victory And yet he was so terrified and traumatized. He went off to a cave and God let him be there for a while. And then God came to him and spoke to him. And the scripture says that in that cave, there was an earthquake around him and then a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after of the fire the sound of a still small voice in elijah’s cave the lord whispered to his hurting wounded fearful prophet and said all right it’s time to get up i let you be here for a while i’ll let you process but now it’s time to go there’s seven thousand left in israel i’m going to attend a buddy for you his name’s elisha and god gently whispered it’s time to go same thing to Abram when he was in his hometown. He said, God came to him and said, time to move out. Time to go that direction. Destination to remain later.

In the wilderness, the moving cloud would move and children of Israel would move. Time to go when it would move. It would stay when it was time to stay. Joseph dreams God whispered time to run to Egypt There danger here The prodigal son Time to go back home son You been here long enough And then we wrap this up Because his whispering presence is not only manifested as his daily conversation presence his instructive warning presence, his quiet wisdom presence, his wondrous sights presence, his time to go presence, but in his personal application presence.

So important. Romans 14, 5 through 6. Listen to this. How personal God is.

Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day observes it for the Lord, and the one who eats does so with regard to the Lord, or as unto the Lord. He gives thanks to God. And the one who does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat, as unto the Lord, and he gives thanks to God.

The key phrase in this great chapter, chapter 14 of Romans, I call it the great elbow room chapter. Give people Elbarum to have differing applications of his scripture and his principles than you do. Give people breathing space. I call it that too.

The breathing space chapter here. Let each be convinced in their own heart and mind. One observes the day as unto the Lord. Sunday as unto the Lord The Sabbath Well that true But others say well you know what When you in the Lord every day is the Sabbath unto the Lord in a sense It as unto the Lord Okay, well, you can go both ways.

Eating meat sacrificed unto idols or not eating meat sacrificed unto idols. One says there’s no other gods. It’s irrelevant. I’m free to do that.

Okay. The other says, no, but we don’t want to give any appearance of condoning idolatry with this meat that had been sacrificed unto idols when he says, you know what? One does it as unto the Lord. One doesn’t do it as unto the Lord.

As long as you’re doing it as unto the Lord, you’re hearing a personal quiet word from the Lord. This is how I want you to apply this in this situation. Give people elbow and breathing space to do that, Lord, friends, because he is our whispering presence. Oh, the Lord loves to talk to us every day.

Well, Lord, I pray that we will be still and listen for your whispers every day. They’re so encouraging. Remind us about how much you love us. In Jesus’ name.

Amen. Well, I’m Mark Gonzales, and I hope you’ll check out my website at markpg.org for more. Until next time, fall in love with Jesus, our whispering presence.