Friday, June 20, 2008

Responding to the Spirit

I have to admit that one of the areas I have always felt confused by in a life pursuit of Christ is the realm of "being led/prompted by the Spirit." I know it happens. I have experienced in my own life and seen it in the life of others. But its just a weird concept. How do you know? What happens if you miss it? How exactly do you describe it? In my own experience I have seen that being connected to God through prayer, Bible reading, quiet time, and the willingness to listen are all keys for His movement in my life. Yet it is still so crazy for me to see when things just happen and the only reasoning I can come up with are either coincidence OR God truly is moving, guiding, and directing.

Last night, Danielle and I had an argument. I have been really busy with work lately and she was out of town for a couple of weeks so its been a long time since we have had the opportunity to sit down and chat. I really feel like things escalated from that and we just lashed out from there. Anyway, the real interesting thing is that we went to bed just after 10 - both still frustrated and hurt. At 11:31 pm, I got a text from one of my friends Don Quinn. The text simply said, "Trying 2 sleep but cant, feel led to be praying for u. I love u - God's moving. Quinn" Wow. He had no idea how much those prayers were needed for my life. The funny thing is that I honestly did feel better when I woke up this morning. I felt bad for my role in the conflict last night. I honestly saw God moving and I know that things will get better. This is such a cool thing to me.

What if Quinn had ignored the promptings from the Spirit? What if he would have just forced himself to lay in bed and try to sleep? What if my name wasn't the one that "popped" into his head? What if... I still don't completely get the whole thing, but I am thankful that God works in that way.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was very moved by your blog. I know God talks with all of us. I've never heard Him speak to me in an audible voice, but His Holy Spirit presses upon us. The first time I was willing to listen was some 12 years ago, and I'll tell ya, the more you take the risk and follow His promptings, the more He will speak to you. I am still a complete screw up! I still struggle with sin. I try and run my own life my own way all the time - and screw that up too. But no matter what I mess up, God is in control and His will is always accomplished - and I know, without a shadow of doubt, I will spend my eternity in Heaven with Jesus - I wish He'd come back now - before I can mess anything else up.

I love you Skippy, and I really appreciate your blog. Hug your wife and chitlins for me. Bless you brother. - Quinn