The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God, Having the Guts to Respond

Hybels encourages readers by asserting Scripturally and anecdotally that God speaks to people, and if they are willing to respond, they will be blessed and led by the Creator of all things. This is one of several books by Hybels that I have read, they have all been encouraging, practical and for the most part Scripturally based. This book follows suit; however, I found the self-aggrandizing of the author somewhat unbearable in this book. For me the constant insertion of Hybels himself obstructed the message of hearing God.

The positive value of the book leads readers to know that the Bible teaches that God speaks to us for our good, as he leads us, teaches us, disciplines us and loves us. He speaks to us by whispers in our spirit, through others, through our observations, and by his Word. Hybels shares a plethora of stories of how people have been blessed, inspired, convicted to repent, warned, led in decisions, etc by God's whispers. He also offers some relevant guidelines for people to follow to learn to hear God and to discern whether a whisper is from God.

The negative feedback for me has to do with the unnecessary, more-than-typical aggrandizing writing by Hybels. Some examples are how he credits one man's hearing of God's whispers not to God's grace or the man's sensitivity but to the author's own preaching; another example comes from his teaching on humility. Hybel's solution to pride is to condescend to having conversations with and tipping "cab drivers, bell hops and room cleaners in hotels...grocery baggers, lawn mowing teams or others employed in service oriented jobs." I honestly couldn't believe I had just read that. Obviously, he assumes such people would not be reading his book or he would have offered some instruction for people in such "humble" positions. Hybels also assures readers that he would have been super successful in whatever career path he had chosen. It just seems he goes to unnecessary efforts to remind readers that he is very important. It is quite contrary to the tone of many books on spiritual disciplines where the author makes him or herself very little so that God is magnified.

Among many great examples of people hearing and following God's whispers, I also think that Hybels offers some examples of his own following God's whispers that contradict his own stated guidelines for discerning God's voice; I think this especially applies to a parenting example or two. I think he needed to spend more time emphasizing the discernment process and offer more relevant examples of people getting it wrong, which can be as damaging as hearing from God can be helpful. Hearing from God can be a subjective experience, and Hybels really does not convey a sense of how careful I think we need to be in telling ourselves and others "The Lord says...". That prelude to a statement can be used for ungodly purposes, unfortunately. Most of the examples in the book are very positive and certainly illustrate God speaking to his children.

I think there is a beneficial message in the book. I also think the book could have used a careful editing by a spiritual director or mentor of Hybels who could have helped to make Hybels less and Jesus more.

Thanks to the Willow Creek Association for sending me a free copy of this to review. Doubly thank you as it had to be done outside the pre-set system (since it only allowed people from the U.S.A. to register).

Whisper is a book about hearing the voice, or the whispers, of God and obeying. The title really does say it all. Hybels begins by encouraging the reader to believe that God does still speak to us and that we ought to listen and obey. He goes on to explain how you can know it is God's voice, what you can do to hear God's voice, and the different ways in which God whispers to us. For this last point, Hybels has four chapters: Light for Dark Nights of the Soul, Promptings for Parenthood, When God Speaks Through Others, and Whispers that Change the World. He concludes with a chapter exhorting obedience.

Hybels offers a clear and compelling picture of what a life of obedience to God can look like. He is absolutely right to point us to the fact that our God communicates, that He longs to affect our lives, to speak to us and be obeyed. This is a topic we need to talk about more, that could be, and ought to be, a reality in the lives of many believers, but for some reason it is oft forgotten. So, thank you for writing this book.

However, for better or for worse, I ended up reading this book alongside of Spiritual Formation by Henri Nouwen. As such, my opinion is somewhat jaded. To be honest, I am more of a Nouwen kind of guy than a Hybels kind of guy. Firstly, the majority this book is stories. On top of that, he has an entire chapter (#3) which is basically a collection of even more stories. It got to be too much. I mean, I like encouraging stories, I really do. But when the message of each of the 10 chapters could be summarized in 3-5 pages (total 30-50), and the book is over 250 pages... too much. Secondly, I found it all very simplistic. In some places, this is good and necessary. There is no point in making the simple complicated. Still, in the middle of Hybels chapter on how to know when you are hearing the voice of God, I wanted to ask: What about Abraham? God whispered to him to sacrifice his only son... that command would never have made it through Hybels 'grid', and yet Abraham obeyed and it was credited to him as righteousness. Thirdly, and lastly, there is too much focus on justification by success. Hybels gives the nod, several times, to the difficulties of listening to God and the sacrifices that may be required, but for him the story always ends well. And often, this 'ending well' is the ultimate proof Hybels needs, and holds up to the reader, to show that this whisper was indeed from God. What about the whispers that lead to the cross? The martyrdom after which others take up our work? Or the quiet life whose affect may never be fully appreciated because the fruit is generations away? I understand why Hybels chooses the stories he does; they are compelling, interesting, and who wouldn't want to have a story with that ending? But, in so doing, Hybels subtly promotes our cultures values under the guise of blessings from God.

Conclusion: 3.5 Stars. Conditionally recommended. Read with caution, in that you are getting mostly stories, and you are getting a very rosy picture of carrying your cross and dying to your self.

I used to love listening to Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story", filling in previously-unknown important details about current events. In this book, Bill Hybels similarly shares what's really been going on in the past 34 years at Willow Creek Community Church, and in his own life as pastor. For those who aren't familiar with Willow, I consider it the eye of the hurricane in what God is doing in our generation.

In this book, Bill peels back the curtain behind key events in both his own life and that of the Willow Creek Church and Association, and shows how he believes he and others at Willow have been guided by messages from God along the way on such varied topics as speaking the truth in love, women in ministry, AIDS, extreme poverty, racial reconciliation, immigration and human trafficking.

Bill also shares ways to improve our own hearing of such messages, and tips for discerning whether a sudden inspiration is really from God.

As Bill likes to say about Willow's annual Leadership Summit, this is all new material. Some books by pastors are just recycled sermon series -- but not this one. Even if you too have attended Willow regularly since 1990, I guarantee you have not heard all this before.

As Bill notes, this is a somewhat-risky book. Lots of crazies throughout history have claimed to be guided by messages from God. Plus, for a pastor to claim a decision is due to divine inspiration greatly ups the ante for those on the other side of an issue.

I used to recommend people interested in understanding Willow Creek to read Lynne & Bill Hybels' 1995 book [[ASIN:0310219272 Rediscovering Church]], to see how a student pastor and a dozen kids in a youth group grew into one of the largest churches in America. But now I'd instead recommend reading this book, covering the same ground at a deeper level and extending it to today.

Highly recommended!

This book came at just the right time for me and I think it will be a great encouragement for others. God wants to communicate with us. Our job is to listen. Thanks for being vulnerable and open about your experience, Bill.

This book came at just the right time for me and I think it will be a great encouragement for others. God wants to communicate with us. Our job is to listen. Thanks for being vulnerable and open about your experience, Bill.

Power of a Whisper is an autobiographical memoir of one of the most innovative Christian leaders of my father's generation cleverly disguised in the garb of a practical theology book. In my opinion, it of course falls short as an exhaustive guide on how to hear God. But as a story line of what happens when one man obeys God, it is really amazing. It chronicles the ministry of Bill Hybels from a young Sunday School student to founding and running the internationally influential Willow ministries and how God guided him from start to present. This is a worthwhile book to read for readers looking for a modern-day story of what God can do with someone who simply listens and obeys.

[...]

This was such an incredible book that I had trouble putting it down. When reading this book you would think you were just having a casual conversation with an ordinary person, not Bill Hybels who pastors a church of thousands. What makes this book so great is that Hybels is using his own life as an example. He puts himself out there to show his strengths but also his weaknesses. Pastor Hybels lets us know that we all will at times ignore that small whisper that we here but how important it is to follow the guidance of that whisper. That when God whispers to us he is having that intimate relationship with us that we all long for. Another great point to this book is how to deal with the whisper when you hear it. From how to discern if it is the voice of God to putting the whiper into action. Great great book!

This book took a while to get started and seemed (for me) to struggle with the ability to keep my interest. That's not to say there isn't value in it, but I have read other books that have been more successful in sharing the information Bill Hybels attempts in The Power of a Whisper. The first three chapters, eighty plus pages, were spent on introduction and anecdotal experiences of people who wrote in about their notions and encounters with God's "whispers." A few of these testimonials would have been sufficient to make a point, but after more than a handful they seemed redundant and I was ready to move on to the next point.

I think chapter four, "How to Know When You're Hearing from God," offered the most practical wisdom and guidance in the book. In it, Hybels suggests several "filters" to assist the listener in discerning the voice (or whispers) of God in their life. I'm not sure if I personally agree with all five filters he provides, but they do offer some guidelines for discerning. In chapter five, Hybels writes about "God's written whispers." This is described in part by knowing God's word in a literal sense and committing its truths to memory. I think we often take for granted our knowledge of Scripture with the idea that having the Bible in our physical possession or at our disposal, we can look up a particular "help" when we "need" it. It has been my experience that many people use the Bible as "emergency helps tool." I think the gist of the author's intent in this chapter is learning and committing God's Word (written whispers) deeply in our heart provides the firm foundation of His counsel before we need to "look it up." This embedded understanding of God's Word helps us to avoid, on many occasions, confusion and misdirection before it has the chance to happen

The remaining chapters of the book give other examples and guidance for "hearing" God during particular seasons of life; the Dark Night of the Soul, Parenting, "ministry and mission that extends beyond the immediate circle of our influence" (Whispers that Change the World), Hearing God Whispers through Others, and living obediently to God's whispers (Say the Word).

Overall, I found the book moderately engaging. As I mentioned, I have found other books to be more informational, instructional, and practical in teaching a similar theme as endeavored in The Power of a Whisper. I think the book might serve as a first introduction to the most foundational and fundamental steps to entering the spiritual disciplines as Hybels describes practicing discernment, meditating on Scripture, journaling, focusing on practicing the presence of God throughout the day, spiritual direction, and silence and solitude to name a few. He does not use the language of spiritual formation, but the tools are here. And, ultimately, I think that is the goal of the book... to help lead people into a deeper relationship with God, so they might hear and obey His Word and His guidance and become fully transformed into the image of Christ Jesus.

Since book reviews are subjective, I'll complete my review with these final thoughts: I don't think I'd say the book is suitable to every person, few books are. I did not find anything I took issue with or that the book might be lacking. Perhaps the thing that I find most striking about the book is the message it speaks about our current church culture. The Bible clearly indicates that God speaks man...He always has, and the message of the cross of Christ is that God has always desired to live amongst His people in mutually satisfying relationship...this includes communication; "speaking." I believe this book is primarily directed to people that have some notion and understanding of Biblical Christianity. The mere fact this book is necessary is a somewhat sad commentary. People do not know how to hear God's voice, they don't believe we can hear God's voice, or they don't believe God speaks at all. None of these are healthy scenarios. Even so, I think The Power of a Whisper will fill a niche and for folks in "this place" of their journey, and for them it will be beneficial.

I've never read Bill Hybels until finishing his latest book "The Power of a Whisper". Pastor Hybels writes with authenticity that we should all take and apply to our own lives. As a Pastor, I could definitely relate to many of his family-oriented examples. He writes with conviction that I believe is God breathed and very challenging. This book is not only instructional concerning hearing the voice of God, but it is in many ways challenging to the little box that we like to call our lives. His writing has caused me challenge my own paradigm and way of thinking. The Power of a Whisper doesn't ask much from you,other than challenge the reader to give themselves completely over to the adventure that God has waiting for them. It's just on the other side of your decision. Great Book! Challenging and worth the time spent reading. I can already hear the whispers shaping me as I follow them.

In Bill Hybels Power of a Whisper, I found myself being swept away into a world of religious piety not from the very start, but it was one of those books that if you kept on reading you started believing Hybels POV of view in his life. I enjoyed his use of telling the reader that there is evidence all around us from God that makes us believe and he guides you along a path of spiritually oriented action. Which would be that Chapter 3 to me engaged me to think about the links between faith and life have. Being raised from a Catholic family, it made me think of God's direction and his path of light he gives to others which rescue one from temptation and apathy to being whole-hearted and pious. Hybel threads profuse and much-needed scriptures throughout the book. These divine words from God are whispers of faith, knowledge, and trust. I found myself re-connecting to my Catholic faith while reading this book and found the stories from other peoples "evidence from everywhere" quite astonishing, believing, and affectionate. Therefore, Hybel truely recognizes that if you lead a quiet + bright path in life you can finally hear God's spoken whispers and realize that all around you God is connecting to you, even if it is in unexpected ways.

A very powerful book written by Hybels and a must read for anyone wanting to delve back to religious piety.

HEARING GOD. HAVING THE GUTS TO RESPOND.