“Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NLT)
Oftentimes, the Holy Spirit will impress someone on our heart. I used to question God, especially when it made no sense. Is this really You? I haven’t seen or talked to this person in years? I don’t even know them? Now, I know, no matter what, I pray for that person. If God lays it on my heart to call or text to check on them, I do.
This past Thursday, one of my husband’s friends was having a major surgery for colon cancer. I woke up around midnight with a sharp pain at the tip of my finger that I had surgery on in February. My initial thought was, I need to get into the doctor tomorrow. This doesn’t feel right. I felt God whisper, this pain will go away, but every time you feel it, I want you to pray for Terry and his surgery today.
From Midnight until 6 am, the pain would come and go. While it isn’t a normal response for me to not message the doctor office as soon as it has opened, I thought, no, God said to wait. When I felt the pain, rather than pray for God to take it away, I prayed for our friend to feel God’s peace and presence before, during and after his surgery as well as the medical team tending to him.
By mid-day, the pain was no longer persistent. That specific shooting pain has not returned since Thursday. Typically, when I am asked to pray for someone, I say a prayer right in that moment or during my morning quiet time. However, in this instance, God wanted more from me. He was using that pain to prompt me to pray.
Other times I may feel led to pray for someone I personally don’t know. A few years ago, while I was driving, I felt like I needed to pray for the daughter of one of my sister-in-law’s good friends whom I had never met. I was so moved by this urge, I journaled about it.
I called my sister-in-law the next day to let her know God had laid her friend’s daughter on my heart to pray for her, so wanted to check on her. She said, she is doing well. Funny thing you should ask about her because her birthday was yesterday. I love that story because I didn’t know what to pray. I said, Lord, I lift her up to You and ask for Your blessings on her today. God knew it was her birthday, not me, but He laid her on my heart to pray His blessings on her. What a loving God we have!
God will nudge us toward His purposes, but if we don’t listen, we will miss out on His best for us. In fact, just a few weeks ago this happened to my husband. He heard this faint beeping sound that was driving him crazy. My hearing isn’t the best, so I wasn’t much help in finding the source of the sound.
He was walking around the house trying to figure out where it was coming from. When he had isolated it to my closet, I checked my air tag and it showed low battery. When I googled if it beeped when battery was low, it said it did. My husband didn’t think that was it.
Shortly after, on his way to work, that beeping sound that he couldn’t find, reminded him of a work situation from at least 20 years ago where some coworkers played a joke on one of the others by hiding a beeping sound. It had been at least 5-6 years since my husband had seen this man.
He called him and told him he was on his mind and told him why. He then asked how he was doing. It turns out this person has terminal cancer. My husband had no idea and probably wouldn’t have ever known he was sick until maybe the funeral.
My husband called me as soon as he hung up to share what had happened. I told him; the beeping will probably stop now. God did that to remind you of him which prompted you to call him. He would have never come to mind had that not happened. He hasn’t heard the beeping since.
When we ignore these heart impressions from the Holy Spirit, we are ignoring God. Had my husband dismissed the nudge to call this this man, he would have felt bad about not knowing he was sick. God does what He needs to do to get our attention. It is up to be obedient to His promptings.
Father God,
I ask for boldness to act on Your nudges that don’t seem to make sense to me. While I may not ever see or hear about the impact of acting on them, I know I am being obedient to what You are asking me to do. Intercessory prayer is a gift that every believer has to give. Thank You for being able to use me to pray on behalf of others. I lift those up to You who doubt what You may be asking them to do. May You speak to them through scripture confirming what You have laid on their heart. I pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
April Verse
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”—John 14:6 (NASB)
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