Drawing Near to God #5: The Still Small Voice Above Fear

Drawing near to God means more than knowing He is with you; it means taking His Word to heart until His voice rises above every other voice in your life. In this fifth message of the series, Dr. William P. Hohman teaches from James 4, Psalm 46 and the story of Elijah at Mount Horeb that fear speaks loudly, but perfect love and the still small voice of God cast it out. It continues from Drawing Near to God #4: Hearing His Voice Above All Others.

Below you will find the full video, a summary of each point with the Scripture behind it (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a table of the voices he names, a timestamped outline and practical steps for this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was posted by NTC Ministries on January 6, 2026, at the start of a new year, and runs about 66 minutes. Pastor Hohman opens with the big plastic ears he once wore in children’s ministry to teach kids how to listen to God, and he uses them to introduce the phrase take heart, which he says means taking something into your heart.

From there he recaps the vision of mountains rising across the region, tells how the church property in Merrill was obtained and the spiritual warfare that followed, and then turns to the many voices that compete for a believer’s attention. The message closes with Elijah’s fear at Horeb, the raising of Jairus’s daughter and a prayer for the year ahead.

Take Heart to the Word

We usually hear take heart as be encouraged, but Pastor Hohman says it literally means to take something into your heart. When Christians gather, they need to take God’s Word into their hearts, because out of the heart flow the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). The goal is to grow better through the problems of life, not bitter.

A couple of months earlier, during a time of prayer, the Lord gave him a vision of mountains growing up all over the state and the region. He did not have the details, but he knew mountains in Scripture always point to seeking God. Jesus took Peter, James and John up the Mount of Transfiguration, where His face shone like the sun and Peter wanted to build tents and stay (Matthew 17:1–4).

Moses was called up Mount Sinai and came down so transformed that the people could not look at the glory on his face (Exodus 34:29–30). The lesson, Pastor Hohman says, is that when we draw near to Him, He draws near to us. That is what God wants in this last day: lives transformed so that He is seen in us and through us.

Pressing Into God Under Pressure

When he first came to Merrill, Pastor Hohman asked the Lord what Scripture the church should be founded on. The answer was Philippians 1:27–28: stand fast in one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing be terrified by your adversaries. He explains that the King James word perdition there means the enemy is a big zero to you.

When he asked what God wanted him to do in Merrill, the answer surprised him: wake up the devil; he is sleeping in the churches. So he walked the whole town seven days a week, praying, declaring and prophesying. He also walked around the burned-out property where the church now stands for a year.

The owner, a plumbing contractor from Chicago, began putting up a new building. When Pastor Hohman introduced himself as the pastor of New Testament Church and said the Lord had given him that land, the owner was shaken. Soon his son and daughter came to church, were baptized in the Holy Spirit, and led their father to the Lord. The father then offered the building and nine and a half acres, and the church paid about $54,000 at a time when land nearby cost tens of thousands of dollars an acre.

Then, he says, it was like hitting a bee’s nest with a baseball bat. The church gave away food from a box truck reading We Care, and rumors spread that they were running guns. Windows were broken and people cursed them, many of them churchgoers.

In that season he learned to press into God. He recommends Praying Clear Through, a 1915 book by William Harney that the church has published. Satan will not lie down when believers press in, because the soul is so valuable that he relentlessly tries to destroy it. But Jesus gave His life for it, and He asked what it would profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul (Mark 8:36).

Drawing Near to God for His Expression

People in church often pray for God’s glory or His presence. Pastor Hohman gently points out that believers already have both; God will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). What they really mean is that they want the expression of who He is and the expression of His love in their lives.

He illustrates the difference with his time in the Navy aboard the USS Compass Island. His wife Pam wrote him every day, sometimes twice, and when the ship came into port he received more mail than anyone aboard. He loved those letters, but they were not the same as being with her. Going home on leave was something he could not even express. Reading the Bible daily is good, he says, but have you experienced an expression of who God is?

During the hardest years in Merrill, thoughts bombarded him to do something to make the attacks stop. He knew he was born again and Spirit-filled, but he needed an expression of God. When it came, he says, he could not have cared less what happened. Fear says look at me and what I am going through. The expression of God makes problems like an ant to an elephant.

That is why James wrote to scattered and persecuted believers who were giving in to the world to relieve the pressure. In James 4:7–10 he tells them to humble themselves, resist the devil, and come close to God, who will come close to them. Drawing near to God is something you do; Pastor Hohman says he cannot do it for anyone.

It’s love that casts out all fear, he told one frightened person, not William. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18–19), and each person must find that expression of God.

Many Voices, One Voice That Matters

Pastor Hohman then recaps the voices that compete for our attention. When you face a decision, you may not know whether it is God’s voice or your own. Your own voice is the one you trust most, which is why he urges believers to speak the Scriptures out loud. The table below gathers the voices he names in this message.

Only one voice matters most. Let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4). Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17), which he says implies repetition. That is why he teaches in series and reviews: we hear again and again until we finally take it to heart. Jesus said that if we continue in His word we will know the truth, and the truth will make us free (John 8:31–32).

To judge what you are hearing, use the Scriptures. Three bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and they agree (1 John 5:7). Peter saw Jesus glowing and heard the Father’s voice on the mount, yet he said we have a more sure word of prophecy (2 Peter 1:16–19). Scripture interprets Scripture, and every word is established by two or three witnesses (2 Corinthians 13:1), so cherry-picking will not do.

In John 10:1–5, the sheep follow the Shepherd because they know His voice, and they will not follow a stranger. But Pastor Hohman warns that if you have not gotten to know the Lord’s voice, born again or not, He becomes the stranger. Then you follow bitterness, criticism, your own desires or fear instead of faith. So keep drawing near; if you have done it a month and heard nothing, keep doing it.

Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ came by revelation from the Father, not from flesh and blood (Matthew 16:13–17). Elders can teach, but revelation comes from God. Some religious people stay away because they hold to the voice of their shortcomings and know God only as a judge. Yet He removes our transgressions as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

Pastor Hohman points to God’s covenant promise that, as with Noah, He will not be angry with His people (Isaiah 54:9–10). So we come boldly to the throne of grace, not a throne of judgment (Hebrews 4:16). Jesus was judged in our place, and believers who know it keep drawing close and maturing.

Elijah and the Still Small Voice

Jesus said to take heed how you hear (Luke 8:18). Judas heard the same voice as the other disciples yet betrayed Jesus, because of how he heard. Hard times do not make you a bad Christian, Pastor Hohman says; they mean you are on the path of training. Nobody is a lone ranger, which is why prayer partners matter.

The key is Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God.” When you are still before Him, the other voices stop. His voice is thunder on many waters (Psalm 29:3–5), something you can feel the way young people love bass. He quotes the Message rendering: “Step out of the traffic. Take a long loving look at me.” In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

To show the power of hearing and heeding, he reads a newspaper story about Tilly Smith, a 10-year-old on a beach in Phuket, Thailand, on December 26, 2004. Two weeks earlier her geography teacher had shown the warning signs of a tsunami. She recognized the frothy, rising sea and kept pleading until her parents listened and the beach was cleared. Not one person on that beach was killed. Other children heard the same lesson, he says; the question is whether we are truly hearing.

Then he tells the story of Elijah. On Mount Carmel, Elijah drenched the altar with water, and fire fell from heaven and consumed everything (1 Kings 18:30–39). After three and a half years of drought he prayed until his servant saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand, and he outran Ahab’s chariot by God’s power.

Yet when Jezebel threatened him, fear gripped his heart. He fled into the wilderness and asked God to take his life. An angel fed him twice, and he went 40 days and nights to Horeb. He knew he had to draw near to God. Being anointed, Pastor Hohman says, does not mean you live in that.

In 1 Kings 19:9–18, God asks what he is doing there, and Elijah says he alone is left. Then come wind, earthquake and fire, but the Lord is not in them. After the fire comes a still small voice, and God asks the same question. Elijah gives the same answer, but the second time without fear, so God can send him back with instructions and tell him the truth: 7,000 have not bowed to Baal.

Fear always says I’m the only one, and it is easy to follow because it is familiar. So James’ pattern matters: submit to God, resist the devil, and draw near.

Keep Hearing What You Have Heard

Pastor Hohman says God’s mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22–23). That is the voice to hear above your own. He recommends Brother Lawrence’s Practicing the Presence of God, which teaches a familiar, humble and affectionate conversation with Jesus even in difficult circumstances.

Bitterness feeds fear. In Matthew 5:43–46 Jesus says to love your enemies, bless those who curse you and pray for those who persecute you. Pastor Hohman urges the church to greet even people who will not greet them back. A heart full of me, you hurt me, why me, cannot follow God.

His final story is Jairus in Luke 8:40–56. Jairus came to Jesus urgently for his dying daughter. Then a woman who had bled for 12 years touched His garment and was healed, and Jesus knew someone had touched Him in faith. Then came the voice saying your daughter is dead, do not trouble the Teacher. Jesus answered, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” Keep hearing what you have heard, Pastor Hohman explains, and do not listen to the mourners.

He links this to the church’s fast: fasting helps you hear one voice for the year ahead. He shares that years ago he told a childless couple the Lord said they would have a baby, and their daughter Anna was born. It does not depend on him, he says; you must learn to hear and take it to heart.

He has the church stand and read Proverbs 4:20–22: God’s words are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. It says find them, not merely read them. In his closing prayer he declares new hearts and new courage over the people (Ezekiel 36:26), and a year of knowing God’s power in new ways.

Living It Out This Week

• Take the Word to heart. Read a passage several times a day this week, since faith comes by hearing and hearing.
• Get still before God. Step out of the traffic each day, quiet the other voices and take a long look at Him.
• Test what you hear. Check every impression against Scripture and look for two or three witnesses, not one cherry-picked verse.
• Name the voice of fear. When you hear I’m the only one or why me, answer it with the truth that perfect love casts out fear.
• Bless someone who is cold to you. Greet them, pray for them and refuse the voice of bitterness.
• Find a prayer partner. Nobody is a lone ranger; press into God together, especially through a season of fasting.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Big ears and what take heart means
• 1:01 A vision of mountains rising
• 3:01 Philippians 1:27–28, the church’s foundation
• 4:05 Wake up the devil: walking and praying over Merrill
• 5:57 How the church property was given
• 7:03 The attacks that followed
• 8:02 Pressing into God
• 10:13 Navy letters and the expression of God
• 13:40 James 4:7–10: draw near to God
• 16:08 The many voices we hear
• 17:23 Faith comes by hearing and hearing
• 19:48 A more sure word of prophecy
• 21:57 John 10: the sheep know His voice
• 26:38 Boldly to the throne of grace
• 30:49 Psalm 46:10: be still
• 36:22 The girl who heeded the tsunami warning
• 41:08 Elijah on Mount Carmel
• 44:33 Fear grips Elijah
• 46:52 The still small voice at Horeb
• 50:14 Fear says I’m the only one
• 52:35 Love your enemies
• 55:09 Jairus and the woman who touched Jesus
• 1:01:06 Proverbs 4:20–22: take it to heart
• 1:02:25 Closing prayer for the new year

Drawing Near to God Series

This message is part of a nine-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: Drawing Near to God #1 — A Vision of Rising Mountains
• Previous: Drawing Near to God #4: Hearing His Voice Above All Others
• You are here: Drawing Near to God #5: The Still Small Voice Above Fear
• Next: Drawing Near to God #6: Hearing His Voice and Pulling Down Strongholds

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Pastor Hohman say we already have God’s glory and presence?

He teaches that when you are born again you are filled with His glory, and God has promised never to leave or forsake you. So praying for His presence is not wrong, but what believers usually mean is that they want to experience the expression of His love. He compares it to receiving daily letters from his wife while in the Navy versus actually being with her on leave.

Does going through hard times mean I am a weak Christian?

No. Pastor Hohman calls that idea foolishness. Hard problems mean you are on the path of training and righteousness, growing and increasing. Elijah saw fire fall from heaven and still fell into fear days later. The answer was not condemnation but drawing near to God again, and he urges believers to have prayer partners rather than trying to be a lone ranger.

What did God’s question to Elijah reveal?

God asked Elijah twice what he was doing at Horeb, and Elijah gave the same answer both times. Pastor Hohman teaches that the first answer was full of fear and the second came after the still small voice dealt with that fear. Only then could God send him back with instructions and correct the lie that he was the only one left.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• James 4:7–10 — draw near to God and He will draw near to you
• 1 Kings 19:9–18 — the still small voice at Horeb
• Psalm 46:10 — be still, and know that I am God
• John 10:1–5 — the sheep know His voice
• Romans 10:17 — faith comes by hearing
• 1 John 4:18–19 — perfect love casts out fear
• Philippians 1:27–28 — in nothing terrified by your adversaries
• Luke 8:40–56 — do not be afraid; only believe
• Proverbs 4:20–22 — life to those who find them

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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