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The world is full of noise. My use of noise here is broad — it includes sounds, mostly unwanted, heard with the ear, as well as irrelevant, unhelpful, or meaningless data that can be seen with the eye. Anything that interferes with one’s serenity and makes it difficult for that person to be still, my operational characterization of it here is as noise. Your wandering thoughts may be the culprit here and your mind can be said to be noisy. As you commute to work or school, depending on how metropolitan your city or town is, you will be inundated with advertisements on print or electronic billboards. If you’re not looking up at those, you are very likely to have your eyes buried in your phone, as you switch from one application to the other, socializing with distant persons or catching up with never-ending streams of news updates, from gossip to politics and many in-between. Sometimes it is a notification from your smart device that even wakes you up to begin the day or you’re so attached to the device that it is your go-to thing in your first wakeful moments. We are a distracted people.

It is apt that noise has a category that we call noise pollution and it is detrimental to our physical and spiritual health. Noise makes it difficult for one to hear God when he speaks. It is why God resorts to speaking to his children in dreams sometimes: “For God may speak in one way, or in another,
yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men,
while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction” (Job 33:14-16).

Noise makes it difficult for one to hear God when he speaks. It is why God resorts to speaking to his children in dreams sometimes:

Another time when God seizes the moment to speak to his children or provide an opportunity for them to seek him and hear his voice is the period of isolation — when one is alone or apart from others. It was during the “cool of the day” that Adam and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden (Genesis 3:8). To hear God speak during alone moments is mostly not automatic. The voice of God is precious and such precious pearls are not cast to swine (Matthew 7:6) — people who do not know the value of it. The Kingdom of God, after all, is like a treasure hidden in a field; you must demonstrate your proper estimation of its worth by selling all to acquire it (Matthew 13:44-46). We must be people who know how to take advantage of alone moments or create them so that detached from noise, we can hear God speak to us.

Another time when God seizes the moment to speak to his children or provide an opportunity for them to seek him and hear his voice is the period of isolation — when one is alone or apart from others

The scriptures have recorded for us examples of men who knew how to turn their islands of isolation into listening posts. (I have the Rev. Dr. Selwyn Hughes, of blessed memory, author of the devotional Every Day With Jesus to thank for the coinage ‘islands of isolation into listening posts’). The things they heard and experienced in such times benefited them, outlived them, and continue to bless us even today.

JACOB: The man was noisy. Noisy was he in planning how to outsmart his brother Esau to their father’s blessing. His heart was so noisy that even when God appeared and spoke to him in a dream at Bethel, on his way to Uncle Laban’s house as he fled from Esau’s wrath, all he could say was, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16). In all his struggles and the wealth he acquired, this man knew no rest. It only came to him in a period of isolation: “That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak (Genesis 32:22-24, my italics). No noise from family or possessions, alone with his God, and then the encounter happened. His name was changed from Jacob (supplanter) to Israel (God perseveres). He said he saw God face to face (Genesis 22:30). The sun rose above him and he was never the same again. It took a moment of isolation. Permit a personal question: what has your moment of isolation or aloneness brought to you?

ELIJAH: This man of God was used to noise too. The noise from his kind of fiery ministry and the noise from the palace of Ahab and Jezebel. The noise pollution brought exhaustion so much so that such a mighty man prayed that he might die. To him, all other prophets had died, everyone had compromised and bowed to Baal, leaving him as the last man standing but with a death penalty hanging over his head. He stopped on the way as he fled and there was a wind, an earthquake, and a fire but the LORD was not in any of those (1 Kings 19:11-12). It was in a gentle whisper that the LORD spoke (1 Kings 19:13). At this point, he had passed through Beersheba in Judah and left his servant there while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness (1 Kings 19:3-4). Elijah had to separate from even his personal aide to be alone, creating an opportunity for God to speak to him. The seriousness of this matter might require temporary isolation even from the brethren so you can be one-on-one with God. That encounter allowed Elijah to end his ministry well, as we say about finding a worthy successor. The encounter also included instructions for the anointing of Hazael and Jehu as kings over Aram and Israel respectively. Imagine leaving with all that power without handing it over to Elisha. Those nations would also have struggled to find God’s choice of their leaders. An island of isolation became a listening post where these instructions were transmitted and the ministry ended well.

PAUL: A busy itinerant missionary, Paul also needed to be isolated so God could speak to him and us by extension. When he first met the Lord, he did not confer with flesh and blood nor did he go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before him. Instead, he went immediately into Arabia (Galatians 1:16-17). Incarceration didn’t stop him but provided opportunities for him to pen down some of his letters to the churches such as Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and a personal letter to Philemon. You can also make your alone moments count for something larger than yourself.

JOHN: The beloved apostle was already an old man when his persecutors dumped him on the remote island of Patmos to die. To them, all that remained for him was death but God had other plans, nay, better plans, for his isolation. Hear him: ‘On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: …”’ (Revelation 1:10-11). What followed is the Book of Revelation. Away from the noise of the world, John’s isolation became a place to listen to such depths of mysteries revealed to him for the church down the ages. What will your isolation bring?

JESUS: The master was an expert at isolating himself from the bustle of first-century Jewish society and being alone with his father. You and I must emulate this example of his. Even before he began his public ministry, Jesus took time to separate himself from the crowd and spent forty days and nights in fasting and prayer (Matthew 4:1-11). If it were some of us in contemporary times, our ministries would be launched with publicity flyers and jingles emblazoned with our faces shoved into people’s faces. Not Jesus. Luke says following his isolation, he “returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside” (Luke 4:14). This was not a one-off event in the Saviour’s life. Mark tells us of him getting up very early in the morning, while it was still dark, leaving the house, and going off to a solitary place so he could be alone in prayer to God (Mark 1:35). After the miracle of feeding the five thousand, Jesus didn’t hang around to take in all the praises and admiration that such would bring, he dismissed even the disciples while he went up on a mountainside to pray (Matthew 14:22-23). Very close to the time of his passion, Jesus went with his disciples to the usual place of prayer, the Mount of Olives, to pray. Even while there with them, he still isolated: “He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed” (Luke 22:41). If the only begotten, full of grace and truth required times when he would isolate himself from even his disciples to be alone with the father, you and I will do well to follow in his steps.

If the only begotten, full of grace and truth required times when he would isolate himself from even his disciples to be alone with the father, you and I will do well to follow in his steps.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR STORY?

What have you done with your island of isolation? Have such times been used to binge on movies or TV series? I am not saying you shouldn’t watch movies, but that you’ll learn to use your alone moments not only for leisure but for more spiritually productive, eternally consequential things. Has it been filled with gossip? For many of us, isolation is a time to be on the internet for long hours through phones. Those who battle any kind of sinful habit will know that purposeless isolation tightens the chains of such addictions and does not provide them an opportunity to hear God. It is said that an idle mind is the Devil’s workshop and that holds if one does not decide to turn idleness into an island of isolation where the ear is tuned to hear God.

It is not every time you travel that you should have ear or headphones on, listening to music or watching some other thing; be there but be isolated, locked in with the father. If you need to listen to some kind of message to help you tune in to the father, good.

YOUR TIME TO ISOLATE AND LISTEN

There is the need to be deliberate about this or else you will not have the time. Even when you do have time, because you have not purposed in your heart to turn the isolation into a listening post, such times will pass you by with nothing to show for it.

Before you think this is beyond you, let me inform you that every day gives you this opportunity at night. The nighttime, when darkness falls upon the earth and people go to sleep, is when most people are left alone. You can (and should) decide to use some part of your night hours as alone moments with God. Remember Jacob’s encounter above. Samuel, even though under Eli’s tutelage, required the alone time of the night to hear from God (1 Samuel 3:1-14). When you suddenly wake up at night and sleep disappears from your eyes, what do you do with the time? Be like the Psalmist, he said: “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night” (Psalm 63:6); “At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws” (Psalm 119:62); “I rise before the dawning of the morning and cry for help; I hope in your word. My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on your word” (Psalm 119:147-148). The person who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night is blessed (Psalm 1:2).

Before you think this is beyond you, let me inform you that every day gives you this opportunity at night. The nighttime, when darkness falls upon the earth and people go to sleep, is when most people are left alone.

Are you a retiree who is in a season of life where you have a lot more time on your hands? Don’t while it away, remember how Simeon and Anna used their time to wait for the coming of the Saviour (Luke 2:25-38). Do you go out on exercise walks or runs, use that alone moment not to mope around but to tune your heart to God.

Whatever time you choose, make sure that you make this one of your spiritual disciplines. Find time to isolate and tune your heart’s ears to hear God. Turn those islands of isolation into listening posts.