A few years ago, I started to just gamble on believing maybe the subtle every-day promptings on my heart were the Holy Spirit working in me. For a long time, I just assumed those promptings were just myself telling myself to do stuff. And sure, I knew doing xyz would probably be a good thing to do. But I never felt like doing whatever it was anyway and I would always conclude that God couldn’t care about something that small anyway. So I would push the prompting away and keep going.
I’m talking small things. I started growing in this area when I felt prompted to call Walmart about an eye drop prescription — something I would have put off for a while because I have this irrational fear about calling business places. But instead of doing what I would have normally done, I went ahead and made the call based on wondering if maybe that prompting I felt was from God (but why would he care about eyedrops?).
I remember in that moment I was overcoming a fear (granted, a small one) because I was obeying God. And I also remember seeing the benefit: I think the prescription hadn’t been processed properly and I would have been out of eye drops if I hadn’t called that morning. (Side note, this was post-LASIK so the eye drops were kind of a big deal.)
That started me on this journey of being sensitive to God’s voice, the Holy Spirit’s promptings, in the small things. I’ve learned a few other things along the way:
- I’m more ready to obey God in the bigger things if I’ve been following Him in the smaller things. If I have this default of saying yes, I tend to default to yes for something that’s farther out of my comfort zone. Conversely, if I’ve defaulted to saying no for the everyday things, ultimately I’ve put myself in the driver’s seat and told God I don’t want to do things I don’t feel like doing.
- When I obey God, I walking across the Jordan into the promised land of His blessing. This may be something I see in this life, or something I don’t see in this life, but I do believe that obedience always proceeds blessing. I’m not saying we should obey God “so that He’ll do what I want Him to” — not at all. Rather, why wouldn’t I obey Him when I know there will always be fruit on the other side?
- When I disobey, I am choosing to forgo the promised land and wander around in the desert. Sometimes you can wander around in the desert a long time (hopefully not for 40 years, but I wouldn’t put it past me). Is there something that for a long time you’ve subtly known God would have you to do, and for a long time you’ve sidestepped it? What would happen if you just stepped out in obedience today? Oftentimes continued disobedience leads to an overall dryness in our walks. And if you don’t have the strength to obey? Just start there! Cry out to God: ask Him to forgive you for walking around in disobedience and ask Him for the courage to obey. Believe He will do the work in you!
- The Spirit’s guidance will always be inline with God’s Word. If you don’t have a steady intake of God’s Word, you’re subjecting yourself to believing lies. The world, the devil, and our flesh constantly berate us with falsehood. The way to tell the difference? Spend time in what God has already said. I do believe God guides in the little things, in the day-to-day, in conversations, but I don’t believe He will reveal something “new” to you that goes against something in Scripture. Not gonna happen.
At the end of the day, for those who have put their faith in God, His Spirit is in you. I pray that we grow in our awareness of, and obedience to, Him and He would use us to glorify Himself and build His kingdom — even as we wait for Jesus to return!
Scattered in all Directions 