What is Word Unsilenced?

There’s a saying that silence is golden. Being a quiet person, I’ve always found it to be an interesting phrase that almost encouraged my reserved nature. The phrase seems to position the act of being silent as a virtue that is at odds with speech, or perhaps just speaking too much. In the Bible, often referred to as God’s Word, we’ve received a message that is by its very description God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). God’s divine transmission reached the hearts and minds of the writers of the books in the Bible, and they were not silent with what they received. The result is that God’s spirit lives within scripture and by the moving of the Holy Spirit within us, the Word is anything but silent.

In the Beginning

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:1-5 NIV

The beginning of the gospel of John is reminiscent of the very beginning in Genesis. God spoke creation into existence and His Word, that became flesh (John 1:14), existed long before it walked the earth in human form. Thinking very literally for a second considering how much focus we put on Christ, if the Word became flesh as Jesus, a literal manifestation of God, that spoke with authority as the Son of God, does that mean silence prevailed before the Word became flesh? A quick response would be of course not, since we have what we deem the Word of God, chronologically prior to Jesus, that was God-breathed into prophets and writers of the Old Testament. Furthermore, Genesis also says that the cosmos was spoken into existence so, no, it doesn’t seem that God was silent.

I believe the striking takeaway is that it must mean that God isn’t silent now. For if God was not silent before Jesus, as demonstrated by the preparation for Jesus through prophecy, and Jesus being the Word become flesh, the rebuttal to death’s persuasion, then why would God be silent now? In fact, we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) and it moves within us as we read God’s Word. The story has been told and we have been thoroughly prepared by it (2 Timothy 3:17). We can find revelation scripture.

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Luke 24:32 NIV

The Need for Silence

The world is a chaotic place. Our own little worlds within which we live can often seem extremely chaotic. They take us to extreme highs and lows. Both good and bad things happen. Within the last few days, I’ve become ultra-aware of my need for silence. I’ve been bombarding myself with music, TV shows, and mobile apps all while under the stress of work. I’m probably not alone with the feeling that when I drive, I must have music or something playing. I actually realized its been awhile since I’ve driven in silence. The thing I’m realizing about silence, though, is that it has separate effects depending on whether that silence is bound to input or output.

For myself, I really needed input silence. It’s in those times that I’m learning that God is trying to tell me something, but I let the chaos of the world into my mind instead of letting God into my heart. In a particular rough week, to which I can point no particular reason for why I felt so terrible, I became upset with a couple of my friends because of their silence. I had made plans and started executing my vision for a wedding gift for them, only to find out that they had made the existence of my gift obsolete, without telling me they were going to. What entered my mind were thoughts that I didn’t matter enough to warrant a text message or call regarding it. Those thoughts fuel questions of worth. It was a collision of chaos.

As I struggled with my racing thoughts, my first action was to voice how upset I was, hoping that would enable me to sleep. I didn’t sleep very well. My second action was one of silence. I stopped responding to text messages. I made plans to literally isolate myself by driving somewhere. I was isolating myself in silence. That silence, although, was output silence. I feel confident in describing that silence as anything but golden; more like rusty, irritating, and more likely to give you tetanus. I unwillingly broke that silence by reminding myself of the type of person who I believed myself to be, through the feeling that I needed to honor my word and follow through. I joined my friend, the groom, on a trip to a mine to quarry for a quartz crystal containing black tourmaline. There was plenty of silence that trip, but there was also great healing. The silence wasn’t isolating. It was a reminder that my thoughts are sometimes influenced by the chaos around me, and friendship has greater purpose than the superficial.

This experience reset me. I came to realize that while I was isolated, I was letting things get between me and my faith once again. When I came to read the words of John 1 this morning, with an open heart and a clear mind believing in the silence that surrounded me, I felt true rest. I also decided to create this blog because in that moment, God’s Word burned within me. I found myself in a familiar place, following a bread trail through scripture, finding some strange truth in all of it. It’s a powerful experience and I pray that everyone experiences it.

So what rabbit hole did I find? In the beginning, when the spirit of God hovered over the earth that was “without form, and void” (Genesis 1:2), I believe it describes a chaotic place. A place with maximum entropy. Ever since I was little, I’ve always imagined that passage describing a silent place. But how could it possibly have been silent when all the matter and energy of the cosmos suddenly burst into being, without form or purpose? I now imagine it as a traumatic and chaotic place that was anything but silent. It was chaos until God spoke, and the Word of God formed the world, instantly silencing the chaos, reducing its entropy, bringing order and life.

But then something happened which let chaos, death, and destruction, back into the world. God could have spoken that chaos out of existence, but it had become intertwined with the creation that He loved: mankind. So He spoke differently. He spoke into mankind as a loving Father. He spoke a plan to bring an end to the chaos. He spoke a plan that would save us from it as long as we heard and believed. He spoke Himself into mankind as Jesus, God’s Word incarnate. The remarkable thing is that in all of this imagery of God speaking and God’s Word becoming flesh, Jesus needed to be silent. He endured the chaos, death, and destruction without speaking against it.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

Isaiah 53:7 NIV

What is Word Unsilenced?

So what is Word Unsilenced? Well it’s the name I chose for this blog, but why did I choose it? I chose it because Jesus is the Word Unsilenced. God has spoken into our lives through Jesus and while Jesus needed to be silent, His message is one that He has commissioned us to carry on. So until Jesus comes again to be unleashed, or perhaps unsilenced, upon the chaos to end it once and for all, we the church, the followers of Christ, are the ones who need to speak up. We’ve been given the gift of the Holy Spirit which enables us.

And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.

Joel 2:28-32 NKJV and Acts 2:17-21 NKJV

How could we be silent if God has poured out His Spirit upon us? Chaos, death, and destruction rule this world and we struggle amidst it. Let’s face it, Jesus endured it while living a perfect life. He had the power to stop it all for His own sake, but that would have broken us off from God because we exist in the chaos. Instead, He undertook it all to reconcile us back to God. Not only that, but we’ve been given the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the silence that carries the whisper. We just have to realign our inputs and our outputs long enough to hear it.

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 1:16-21 NKJV

It is with that conviction that I have started this blog. Should I find my self reveling in the Word, feeling the Holy Spirit stirring in its revelation, I will no longer hold back from sharing because that silence is treacherous; not golden. If only one person should read what I write, then that is sufficient to fulfill the purpose of this blog. I cannot keep silent to what whispers above the chaos. I will battle my flesh, my reserved and quiet nature, to echo the words, interpretation, and perspective that comes upon my heart. That is my commitment.

Written by Blaine Jester