Elijah appeared at the Transfiguration of Jesus.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.
Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Revelations 3:20; James 1:21.
Elijah, an Old Testament prophet, fled to mount Horeb from queen Jezebel, who sought to kill him. There a voice summoned him to leave the cave where he had taken refuge and stand before God. Then Elijah witnessed impressionable natural phenomena. But God was in neither the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire. Afterwards Elijah heard a still small voice, like “a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12 NIV). In this voice God revealed Himself to His discouraged servant.
External occurrences or the circumstances of life do not best reveal God to us, but rather what He says. He does not speak with a voice like ours, but by an inner conviction through the impact of the Word of God on our conscience and our heart. Quietness is indispensable for hearing that divine voice, for the Word of God is ineffective in a din. Just as a child keeps quiet to hear what its father or mother is saying, so we, too, need to keep silent in order to hear God’s message, because we must understand it thoroughly. Inner quiet allows it to take root and bear fruit in our life.
Jesus does not compel you to listen to Him, nor does He force our door open. Yet it is essential that we listen to His voice: “He who hears my word, and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).
Image: By Carl Bloch – http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Carl-Heinrich-Bloch/The-Transfiguration.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7850713