How to Recognize the Voice of Godಮಾದರಿ

Day 7 – It Pays to Listen

One time years ago I was driving on a long trip by myself. I started to get sleepy so I pulled over to the side of the highway, leaned my seat back, and took a little nap. I don’t know how long I’d been sleeping when, suddenly, I woke with a start and felt the Holy Spirit prompt me, “Move—now.” So I started the car and drove away.

And that’s the end of the story! Who knows what might have happened if I hadn’t moved? Maybe a tired trucker would have veered off the road right where I was parked and squished my little Honda like a bug. I don’t know. But the Holy Spirit is inside us to lead us and help us.

Another time, I was on my way to a meeting, which was quite a few miles from my home. Suddenly, while I was driving, I just had a “knowing in my knower” that I’d left the stove on. I can only describe it as an urgent thought —and I recognized it as the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

(Now, I try to follow those promptings every time. And there have been times when I’ve followed them and nothing happened—like I’ll check, and I hadn’t left the stove on or forgotten anything. But I’d rather be safe than sorry, wouldn’t you? Because there have also been times when I felt the prompting and I didn’t do anything about it, only to look back afterward and say, “Oh, phooey, that was the Holy Spirit trying to help me!”)

It was too far to go back to the house and still arrive on time for my meeting, so I called my neighbor and asked if she would check for me. In a few minutes, she called back to say, sure enough, I’d left a saucepan of eggs boiling on the stove. By the time she got there, the water had boiled dry, the eggs had exploded, and the pan was glowing red! She turned off the stove before anything caught fire, and bless her heart, she cleaned up the mess for me.

Thank God for the Holy Spirit’s prompting! If I hadn’t listened and called my neighbor, my house could’ve burned down. It pays to practice listening to the inward witness.

(Has this plan helped you? It was adapted from my book "How to Make the Right Decision Every Time" - read the first part here).