Listening to the Spirit

One Saturday morning, Faye and Bryant and I got in the van to leave our home and go do something. I don’t remember what it was we were planning to do. I do remember that in order to do it, we would turn left out of our driveway.

When I started the motor of the van, I felt that I should turn right onto the street instead of left. I paused, thought about it, wondered why I should turn right, and was quiet for a moment. No further idea about it came to me, so I dismissed it as simply strange.

I put the van in drive and started to move forward, and again I had the thought that I should turn right onto the street instead of left. Again, I paused, thought about it, wondered why I should turn right, and was quiet for a moment. Again, no further idea about it came to me, so again, I dismissed it as simply strange.

When I got to the street, I stopped, looked both ways, and was about to turn left when I sensed the same idea again. Deciding that it was possible that the Spirit of God was trying to tell me something that I was too dense to hear, I pulled into the street and turned right, expecting the “revelation” to be proven real or false as I drove along.

4 houses down the street, a neighbor was dragging a desk across his front yard to the street, where there were already several pieces of furniture and a few floor lamps. Faye shouted, “Look! That’s a desk just like I have been praying for for Bryant!”

I rolled down my window and asked the neighbor if he was throwing the stuff away, or was someone coming to pick it up, or what. He said it had been in a storage building in his back yard for a decade and he had decided to get rid of it. I asked him to let me have it, went back home to drive over in my truck, and carried it back to my yard. He was happy to give it to us.

This time as I drove out of the yard, I felt that I should turn left. We went and did whatever it was we planned to do, and did another thing, and then came back home. Our return from doing the second thing brought us from the end of the street that caused us to pass the neighbor’s house again. This time, though, there was nothing in his front yard. If I had not finally listened and obeyed, I would not have even known that I had missed the answer to Faye’s prayer.

You don’t have to be Elijah to hear something from the Spirit. You don’t have to be John to get some revelation. You do need to be born of God to see the Kingdom. Then you need to be looking and listening. He knows you need the cookies to be on the bottom shelf if you are going to notice them and be able to reach them. Just be interested, sensitive, and obedient. Maybe even take chances on things you are not sure about.