How can it be that a soul should desire the whirlwind, the deluge, the terror of a hurricane? Consider what you ask. The storm you would summon may tear roofs from over the heads of the poor, dash ships upon the rocks, and sweep the unwarned into eternity. Shall we pray for the howling tempest when Scripture teacheth us to ask, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will”? You know not what an hour may bring, nor who among the unprepared might be hurled before the judgment seat. Have you so little compassion that you would invite calamity for the mere spectacle?
There is a deeper sickness of soul in this request. It reminds me of those who “may sit for fifty years in the sanctuary of God hearing the gospel, and be rather the worse than the better for all you have heard.” You have heard that God’s ways are unsearchable, yet you would direct His hand to affliction. You have forgotten that “power and displays of terror do not win the heart.” The Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the still small voice. The whirlwind is His servant, not our entertainer, and woe to him who trifles with the rod of the Almighty.
O that you would seek, not a hurricane’s fury, but the gentle dews of the Spirit upon your own soul! Does your heart not tremble to think that you are so far from the mind of Christ that you would ask for that which may bring sudden death to multitudes? “Marvelous are Your works; and that my soul knows right well.” But to gaze upon the storm from safety and call it good while others perish, is this charity? Rather pray, “Lord, look for the dross, to consume it; look for the spots, to wash them away”, beginning in your own breast.
Turn your desire instead to the tempest of conviction that breaks the heart of stone. Pray that a hurricane of grace might sweep through this city, uprooting sin and laying low the proud. Ask that the sound of a rushing mighty wind might fill the place where believers are assembled, and that sinners might be brought to cry out, “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” This is the storm for which I never cease to plead, “that I may plead with you for a little time with all my might, seeking to exhort and stir you up, that you may get a like revival in your midst.”
Oh, beware lest you awaken the whirlwind of divine wrath by your own impenitence! “Give up your own ideas of how to get peace, take God’s method of salvation, and lay hold on eternal life by trusting in the slain Savior.” For if you call upon the name of the Lord, you shall be saved; but if you harden your heart and ask for judgment, you know not where the bolt may fall. “It stirs not in the fiercest storm that ever rages. God is Immutable.” His justice, like His mercy, standeth sure. Flee to the cleft of the Rock, Christ Jesus, while yet the day of patience lingers.