Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! Psalm 46:10
As this new potential client sat across from my desk, I knew right away we were meeting that day for more than just business. We both knew it was His business first as we began talking about God’s goodness and sharing our stories with each other.
I love hearing peoples stories. Everyone has a story and I always realize after hearing someone share their story, just how unique and awesome they are. I find that if I just sit and listen to someone long enough, I’m usually amazed and find nuggets of truth for myself.
As I began to share some of the most recent things God had been doing in my life with this newfound brother, he stopped me for a moment. He said, “Johnny, I feel like the Lord is telling me to tell you to ‘Be quiet’.” Now that may set someone back for a moment to hear such a thing, but for me I knew it was confirmation to some things I had sensed the Father had been speaking to me recently. When he said, “Be quiet,” I immediately thought about Psalm 36:10, which says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
I wasn’t certain, but I thought that maybe the word “Still” meant “Quiet,” and sure enough after looking it up, that’s exactly what it means. My imagination took me to a hunter sitting in a tree stand in complete stillness and quiet.
So why was the Father telling me to be quiet? Because He doesn’t want me to mess it up. You see, there are just some things that God wants to do in your life that if He showed you too soon, it could blow your mind. I’m serious. I believe some of you reading this right now, God has such big things planned for your future that if He revealed it all to you at this moment, it would be impossible for you to believe. And, that’s exactly what could come out of your mouth, disbelief. It says in Proverbs 18:21, “That life and death are in the power of the tongue…”
Do you remember the Old Testament story about the walls of Jericho coming down? God gave specific instructions to Joshua for the children of Israel to march around this huge city every day for seven days and on the last day they were to march around it seven times, and He told them to “Be quiet.” He told them not to utter a word. Why? Because human nature was the same then as it is now. No doubt they would have said some things about the “foolishness of that exercise” and messed it up.
Even John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, had his mouth shut up by the Angel for nine whole months until the boy was born. Because Zechariah expressed disbelief after the angel told him that he and Elizabeth where going to have a son, God could not allow him to sabotage it. In the natural who could blame him, after all both of them were well beyond child bearing years.
Let me say again, what God is about to do in your life is so amazing that if you knew it all, it could be more than you could handle. He said in Ephesians 3:20 that “He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.”
So maybe just like me, you may need to “Be quiet” too. Maybe He’s shown you glimpses of His “Master Plan” for your life, and He wants you to work with Him with your words, and certainly not work against Him. Maybe He just wants us to “Be still and know that He is God.”
Amen