SOLITUDE;
SILENCE; JOHN THE BAPTIST

Let me give you some reasons why I believe God could honor John the Baptist in that day in which he lived.

First, John had the ability to live and meditate in solitude. He knew the meaning of quietness. He was in the desert until the time of his showing forth unto Israel as a prophet. He came out of his lonely solitude to break the silence like a drumbeat or as the trumpet sounds. The crowds came—all gathered to hear this man who had been with God and who had come from God.

In our day we just cannot get quiet enough and serene enough to wait on God. Somebody has to be talking. Somebody has to be making noise. But John had gone into the silence and had matured in a kind of special school with God and the stars and the wind and the sand.…

I do not believe it is stretching a point at all to say that we will most often hear from God in those times when we are silent.

Psalm 62:1; Psalm 63:1–2; Matthew 3:4–5; Luke 7:28; John 1:6–7

Christ the Eternal Son, 120, 121.