A CHILD’S VOICE by Carter Conlon

In the book of Luke, we see yet another time that society was in total upheaval. People were clamoring for influence and authority and the place where the testimony of God physically dwelt was being dominated by a foreign power.

I am sure there were prayer meetings and people crying out to God, for there were religious and devout people in that generation. However, while everyone had a mental picture of what the power of God should look like, suddenly something came on the scene that was not understood.

THE WHISPER IN A MANGER

Nobody expected God to show His power and give His people strength to go forward in the manner He did. In the midst of all the voices, the chanting of religionists, the power of God appeared—and it was a child’s voice! It was not the wind, the fire or an earthquake—it was a whisper in a manger. Yet, who was able to hear it?

The religious could not hear it. The movers and shakers could not hear it. The self-focused could not hear it; neither could the Romans who were intent on dominating with power. And so God went to a few shepherds in a field, broke open the veil between time and eternity, and sent angels to burst forth singing, “Glory to God in the highest! On earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (see Luke 2:13-14). In other words, “Everything you have ever longed for has come.”

BE QUIET SO YOU CAN HEAR

Those shepherds rose up and went to the manger, only to find nothing more than a baby’s whisper. It would have been a voice so still that everybody had to be quiet in order to hear it. Yet in the end, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them” (Luke 2:20).

In the natural, this would have been regarded as foolishness! But the still, small voice was the power of God being made known to man once again.

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001.