Whisper Quotes

“Those who dance are thought mad by those who hear not the music.

That old adage is certainly true of those who walk to the beat of God's drum. When you take your cues from the Holy Spirit, you'll do some things that will make people think you're crazy. So be it. Obey the whisper and see what God does.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“A. W. Tozer pictured paniym this way: “God is above, but He’s not pushed up. He’s beneath, but He’s not pressed down. He’s outside, but He’s not excluded. He’s inside, but He’s not confined. God is above all things presiding, beneath all things sustaining, outside of all things embracing and inside of all things filling.”36”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“God often speaks loudest when we're quietest.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“We’re the beneficiaries of prayers we know nothing about. God was working long before we arrived on the scene and He’s using us to set up the next generation.

We tend to think right here, right now.

God is thinking nations and generations.

We have no idea how our lives are going to alter the course of history downstream, but there is a divine domino effect for every decision we make. Don’t underestimate the potential impact of obeying God’s prompts. Those are the whispers that will echo for all eternity!”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“...we live in a culture where tolerance has been elevated above truth. It's considered wrong to say that something is wrong, and I think that's wrong. I certainly want to be known more for what I'm for than what I'm against. And truth shouldn't be used as a weapon. But to think that everybody is right and nobody is wrong is as silly as pretending that everybody wins and nobody loses. Come on, you know the T-ballers are keeping track of the score! And even if not keeping score works for one season in Little League, it doesn't work in the real world. When truth is sacrificed on the altar of tolerance, it might seem as though everybody wins, but in reality everybody loses. God calls us to a higher standard than tolerance. It's called truth, and it's always coupled with grace.

Grace means I'll love you no matter what.

Truth means I'll be honest with you no matter what.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Did you know that embryologists have recently captured the moment of conception via fluorescence microscopy? What they discovered is that at the exact moment a sperm penetrates an egg, the egg releases billions of zinc atoms that emit light. Sparks fly, literally! That miracle of conception is a microcosm that mirrors God's first four words.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“God said, 'Let there be light.'

Here's a paraphrase:

Let there be electromagnetic radiation with varying wavelengths traveling at 186,282 miles per second. Let there be radiowaves, microwaves, and X-rays. Let there be photosynthesis and fiber optics. Let there be LASIK surgery, satellite communication, and suntans. Oh, and let there be rainbows after rainstorms.

'Let there be light.'

These are God's first recorded words.

This is God's first recorded miracle.

Light is the source of vision; without it we can't see a thing. Light is the key to technology; it's how we can talk to someone halfway around the world without so much as a second's delay because light can circle the globe seven and a half times a second. Light is the first link in the food chain; no photosynthesis equals no food. Light is the basis of health; the absence of light causes everything from vitamin D deficiency to depression. Light is the origin of energy; in Einstein's equation E = MC squared, energy (E) is defined as mass (M) times the speed of light (C) squared. The speed of light is the constant. And light is the measuring stick for space-time; a meter is defined as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.

Light is the alpha and omega of everything, and that includes you.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Prayer is the difference between the best we can do and the best God can do.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Bad timing can be as calamitous as good timing is fortuitous.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“It’s not enough to exercise spiritual gifts; one must exercise them with a measure of emotional intelligence, or they can actually do more emotional harm than good.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“There is a theory in organizational development called appreciative inquiry that I subscribe to as a leader and a parent. Instead of exclusively focusing on what’s wrong and trying to fix it, you identify what’s right and try to replicate it. Appreciative inquiry is playing to people’s strengths. It’s catching people doing things right. It’s celebrating what you want to see more of. And it’s bragging about people behind their backs.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“We often think that when God closes a door, that is His final answer. We put a period where God puts a comma. We think it’s a no, but it’s really a not yet. Is it easy discerning between the two? Not at all. It’s hard to know when to hang on to a dream and when to let go. But here’s a rule of thumb: if you sense God saying no, give that dream back to Him with an open hand. That often takes more courage than hanging on. But if God hasn’t released you, then keep on keeping on.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“One of two things happens over time. Either your theology will conform to your reality, and your expectations will get smaller and smaller until you can hardly believe God for anything. Or your reality will conform to your theology, and your expectations will get bigger and bigger until you can believe God for absolutely everything!”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Those who dance are thought mad by those who hear not the music.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“we should listen to most as we choose a vocation is the voice that we might think we should listen to least, and that is the voice of our own gladness. What can we do that makes us the gladdest?…I believe that if it is a thing that makes us truly glad, then it is a good thing and it is our thing.”20 I might even add, it’s a God thing. If there is a lesson to be learned from Eric”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“God is big enough. He’s big enough to speak through doors and dreams and people. He’s close enough to speak through desires and promptings and pain.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“First, test your motives. If you don’t test your motives, you might be testing God. And that’s not a good idea. Make sure you’re asking for the right reasons. Are you ready to obey, regardless of God’s answer? Is the fleece a cop-out? If you’re looking for an easy answer without any effort, good luck with that. The driving engine must be a genuine desire to honor God no matter what. Second, delayed obedience is disobedience. Make sure the fleece isn’t a delay tactic. If it’s a subject God has already spoken on, don’t try His patience. Make sure the fleece isn’t a substitute for faith. Remember, faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step. There is a time to seek God’s will, but there is a time to act on it too. Third, set specific parameters in prayer. If you don’t define the fleece, it’s easy to come up with false negatives or false positives. Notice the specificity of Gideon’s fleece. And don’t discount the fact that it required divine intervention.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Not many people sell their souls to the devil, but many of us sell our souls to the culture. Instead of defining success for ourselves, we let the culture define it for us. Instead of daring to be different, we conform to the pattern of this world. Why? We let our culture have the loudest voice.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Quiet is a think tank of the soul.”17 Simply put, God often speaks loudest when we’re quietest.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“If you want to hear His comforting voice, you have to listen to His convicting voice.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“And it’s often what we want to hear least that we need to hear most. Trust me, though, you want to hear what He has to say.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“but thinkers and feelers relate to God differently. So do introverts and extroverts. And that goes for all sixteen personality types in the Myers-Briggs matrix, all nine Enneagram types, and all four DISC profiles.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Sixth, tough conversations get tougher the longer you wait. I tend to avoid conflict, but I’ve come to realize that I’m not doing anybody any favors when I do so.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“The Bible comes alive only when we actively obey it.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Yes, the Bible is our sword. It’s our best offense, our best defense. But when we misinterpret the truth, we’re abusing the Bible.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“To believe that God speaks only through the Bible is to handcuff the God of the Bible as the Bible has revealed Him to us. Yes, Scripture provides our checks and balances.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Don’t just go out and do what Dick Eastman or your spiritual hero did. That’s a spiritual cop-out. Copycat spirituality is short lived.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“When I was in college, I wanted to be Joshua. Every time there was an altar call, I responded. Why? Because I didn’t want to leave whatever gift God wanted to give me at the altar.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Catholic priest Desiderius Erasmus coined the Latin phrase vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit. Translation: “Bidden or not bidden, God is here.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

“Instead of exclusively focusing on what’s wrong and trying to fix it, you identify what’s right and try to replicate it. Appreciative inquiry is playing to people’s strengths. It’s catching people doing things right. It’s celebrating what you want to see more of. And it’s bragging about people behind their backs.”
― Mark Batterson, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God