The Whisperer: Letting God Train Us

If you could share just one verse with someone who doesn’t know the Lord, which would it be? For most of us, the answer comes quickly: John 3:16.

Years ago, a man in America made that verse famous in an unusual way. He grew his hair out, had it puffed up and dyed every color imaginable, and spent a small fortune on tickets to major sporting events. Just as a field goal was about to be kicked, the cameras would catch him rising from his seat, hair waving, holding up a sign. It didn’t quote the verse. It simply said: John 3:16. He didn’t need to say more. Everyone knew.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

And many would add the verse that follows, which is just as precious:

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:17)

The John 3:16 of Jesus’ Day

When people came to Jesus asking which commandment was the greatest — some sincerely, some hoping to trap Him — He answered with words every Jewish listener knew by heart. They were so well known they had their own name: the Shema.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–5)

This was the foundational confession of everyone who believed in the one true and living God. Know that God is real. Know that He is one. Worship Him alone. And then the passage goes on: keep these words in your heart, and teach them diligently to your children.

That last part matters. Information about God is wonderful — the most wonderful information there is. But if it has no effect on our lives, it’s just memorization.

Gasoline in a Can

When I was in high school, a friend and I did some truly foolish things. One of them was buying gasoline fifty cents at a time. Not surprisingly, we ran out of gas fairly often — and then had to walk to a station, fill a can, and carry it back to the car.

Imagine if, once we got back, we had simply sat beside the car admiring the can. Isn’t this wonderful? I love the smell of this brand. Look how nicely it swishes around. Meanwhile, the car goes nowhere.

The gasoline did us no good until it was in the tank.

God’s truth works the same way. We can have it right in front of us. We can even have it memorized. But until we let it fuel our lives, we’re sitting by the roadside with a full can and an empty tank. And when it is in the tank — when we know these truths, live them, and love God — we will naturally want to share them, because they’ve made such a difference in our lives. We’ll want that same difference for others, and especially for our children and grandchildren.

First, We Have to Know It

Paul once wrestled with the question of what advantage God’s people had. His answer: they had been entrusted with the very words of God (Romans 3:1–2). They had His heart revealed in His teaching — and that is a tremendous gift.

The first and most important step in knowing God is meeting Him: coming to Him for forgiveness and entering into a relationship with Him as His forgiven child. But that is the beginning, not the end. Some people think, I’ve prayed to receive Christ, so now I know it all. Yet we don’t understand the Bible through our experience — we understand our experience through the Bible. Feelings can fool us, and circumstances can confuse us. We need God’s Word to know where we truly stand with Him.

Scripture says that by now many of us ought to be teachers (Hebrews 5:12). That isn’t meant as a burden. It’s an invitation, because if you can teach something, you really know it — and God wants us to know Him well enough to pass Him on.

I’m not here to shame anyone. What I will say is this: if we aren’t growing in God’s Word, we’re missing out. The gas can is right there.

What Are We Worshiping?

The blessings we truly need — and truly want — are found in God alone. When we look to someone or something else to give us what only God can give, we are worshiping it. That can be an ideology or a movement. It can also be our escapes: the books, films, music, and sports heroes we lose ourselves in. None of these are evil in themselves, but when they take God’s place, we cut ourselves off from Him — and the gas never makes it into the tank.

The Horse Whisperer

In the late 1990s there was a film called The Horse Whisperer. A horse and the girl who owned it were both traumatized by an accident, and no one could get the horse to respond. Then they heard of a trainer who worked differently. He didn’t use force. He spoke quietly, up close, with a gentle hand on the horse — building trust until the horse wanted to do what he asked.

Too many people imagine God as the other kind of trainer: harsh, demanding, quick to punish. But that isn’t who He is.

Animals Who Love Their Work

I once rode my wife’s cousin’s horse, Casey, through the mountains of Colorado. Casey had been trained to cut cattle — separating one cow from the herd — and she was remarkable. If I simply leaned and pressed a knee against her side, she changed direction. I never had to jerk the reins. A soft touch was all it took. She was intelligent, well-trained, and I’m convinced she wanted to do what we asked.

Dogs show this even more clearly. At sheepdog trials, a single one-syllable command sends a dog racing across a field, turning an entire flock. When the work is done, the dog trots back, sits beside the shepherd, and looks up as if to ask, Did I do it right? — tail wagging so hard you think it might fly off.

I once spent a day with sled dogs. The moment they saw the harnesses, they began leaping into the air, wild with excitement. Pulling a sled is hard work — yet they could hardly wait.

These animals had to learn. But once they had been trained, they found tremendous joy in doing exactly what their master wanted.

Warhorse or Whisperer?

So how do you see God as He works to train you?

Some imagine He wants to turn them into a warhorse. A century ago, the life of a warhorse was brutally short — most didn’t die from bullets or explosions, but from exhaustion and disease. Very few came home. Some people believe that if they give their lives to God, that’s what awaits them: to be used up, to suffer, to enjoy none of it, and to die early.

But God is the Whisperer. He trains us gently, patiently, and for our good.

The deeper question is whether we have come to want what God wants. If God wrote a message to you on the wall of the bus on the way home today, would your heart leap — or sink, thinking of all your plans?

As Christmas approaches, consider Mary. When the angel told her she would bear the Messiah, her life was about to be turned upside down, with pain and anguish ahead. Her answer? “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). In other words: Here I am. Whatever You want.

Not all of us are called to such a path. But is our relationship with God strong enough that wherever He says go, we’re willing to go?

The Pups Who Walked Like Their Mother

God has built a powerful bond between parents and children. Watch a little boy with his father: he walks like Dad, talks like Dad, cares about what Dad cares about.

Someone once told me about a pregnant German shepherd injured in a car accident. She would fully recover, but for a while she dragged her back legs as she walked. Her pups were born perfectly healthy — and yet, as they learned to walk, they dragged their back legs too. They were simply copying her.

She wasn’t trying to teach them to walk poorly. That’s just who she was at the time. Our children learn from what we are, not only from what we say.

Breaking the Chain

This is where we put gas in the tank. We recognize that we are frail and that we need the one Teacher who is here for all of us. When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, giving us wisdom, understanding, power, and freedom.

Sometimes that means learning that our culture isn’t always right — and that our parents were part of that culture too. I love my parents, and I thank God for the countless good things they taught me. But there were also things I had to unlearn. Sometimes the chain has to be broken.

If we love God all the time, we will naturally worship Him. We’ll naturally share the good news with those who don’t know Him. We won’t wake up thinking, I have to, the way we drag ourselves off to a hard day at work. We’ll wake up ready to be blessed by God — and blessings overflow.

God gives us the extraordinary opportunity to know Him, to share His truth so others may know Him, and to watch them grow in Christ because we took the time to share it, in words and in the way we live. The world may try to discourage us. But God can and will accomplish everything He intends when we give Him our love, our worship, and our lives.

When the Whisper Grows Serious

When you open your Bible, no one is yelling at you or threatening you. God whispers truth to your heart.

But there’s another side. When my father taught me something my life depended on — like how to drive — he could stop whispering and become very serious. God does that too. If you sense Him working hard to get your attention, it may be because you haven’t been listening.

And yet even that is a sign of His love. The worst thing that can happen to a student is a teacher who stops speaking to them. When a coach stops correcting you, you’re probably not making the team. God trains us because He loves us. May we be like children who want to get in the game — listening closely so we can learn how it’s played.

Fill the Tank

So as you go, fill the tank. Let the Holy Spirit fill you as you die to self. Let His power flow into every part of your life — and then let it spill over onto everyone around you. It will.

Puppies learn to walk by watching their mother every day. We learn to walk with God the same way: day by day, by loving Him.