Acts 1:8 (NIV)
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
CONSIDER THIS
Today’s Holy Spirit Story comes to us from Katie Zettle. Katie is a pastor serving her seventeenth year in a community recently renamed “Following Jesus at Harris Hill.” I love that! She has been a longtime sower among our Wake-Up Call community. In today’s entry, she tells a collage of short Holy Spirit stories and, in doing so, helps to answer a question so many are asking—How do I hear from the Holy Spirit? It is the process of learning to listen differently. It’s not so much a technique as it is a growing attentiveness in everyday life and a willingness to trust it and move into simple obedience. Below you will read Katie’s story in her own words and, if you listen, you will hear it in her own voice.
I must confess, for a long time I didn’t understand when people said they “heard from God” until it happened to me. I think the problem was that I already knew what I wanted God to say, and I was busy waiting for confirmation on that.
About twenty years ago, I was struggling with the newness of a daughter being married and what the holidays would look like having to share with her new family. It proved extremely difficult that first year when she and her husband went to her in-laws for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I felt that we had been sidelined.
One December morning while I was driving in my car, the radio was turned off for space to think and pray. Staring down at Christmas number two on the horizon, huffing and puffing my frustrations and pride, I felt a silent urging inviting me to stop it. I “heard” to “not get focused on this one day of the year. Be joyful for them and be glad that they choose to spend so much other time with you and your family.”
This was not me. Remember I was busy feeling sorry for myself, but where did the word of understanding come from? This was when I was assured the Holy Spirit was speaking directly to me. Some call it conscience, but I believe when we are open to hearing the actual heart of God, the voice we hear is the Holy Spirit planted in our hearts at baptism.
Since then, I have listened differently, ready to face correction or encouragement, a fresh idea or face a sin, knowing and believing it is for my good, others’ gain, and God’s glory.
One day I was driving down a road I travel daily for work when I saw a crowd gathering on the side of the road. I was going to keep on driving. It looked like a motorcycle accident. I thought I should pray. The Holy Spirit said, “Pull over.” I did, but I am not a nurse. I went over and found out 911 had been called, a nurse was on the scene. I did what I was told to do. I quietly leaned over and began to pray for this man, for those coming to help, for the medical team and his family in Jesus’s name. I said amen then walked away. A week later, my sister-in-law called and as we were talking, she told me that her boss had been in a motorcycle accident the previous week and that he heard someone praying over him. Yup—that’s how God works.
Another time, I was in the car heading to the grocery store when I drove past a motel, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman and a small boy. As I drove on I heard, “Turn around and go to them.” Frustrated but obedient, I did turn around and found out this woman and her eight-year-old were in the motel due to domestic violence. They had to leave without their things. It was January and snow and cold is all we know here in the Northeast. I asked what immediate needs I could help with. I arranged for the church to get winter coats, gloves, boots, clothing, toys, and food for her a few hours later. We also learned that she needed money for her security deposit for the new apartment. She had the first month’s rent, but couldn’t move until she had that deposit. We called the apartment complex, paid for her security deposit, and a couple of folks from the church began a relationship that lasted about a year until she moved closer to a daughter in another state. Holy Spirit, come.
The Holy Spirit often gets my attention in the car. I was on my way home one night and took a different route. I came to a light when I saw a man with about ten garbage bags sitting on the steps of an abandoned church. I again heard, “Talk to that man.” It was getting late, but I drove around the block so I could pull up to the church building. I rolled down my window and asked him, “What is your name?” “Roach. Everyone calls me Roach.” I learned that he had several medical conditions, that he had housing but lost it, and that the police in the neighborhood would often give him rides to soup kitchens or the hospital if he needed treatment. I offered him a fast-food gift card as well as a card for the grocery store nearby where he was that evening. We talked for about fifteen minutes. He didn’t want prayer, but I prayed for him on the way home. The Holy Spirit wanted me to meet a man named Roach.
I wish I could say that I am obedient each and every time I experience a call from the Holy Spirit, but I haven’t been, and I am sure I have missed out on opportunities and experiences that would have blessed me and others in some way, but I know the voice now.
I keep a quote on my computer that speaks to me as a reminder that as a follower of Jesus, we need to do his will. It needs to come before my schedule. “Obedience isn’t obedience until you disagree with God.”
Lord, I want to be obedient, forgive my selfishness, put my calendar ahead of you, and trust me with other people you want me to love in Jesus’s name.
THE PRAYER
Father, thank you for Katie and these small, simple, everyday stories in which we see you doing significant and often complex operations. Teach us to “listen differently” as Katie said. Train my ear to hear your inward voice and give me the grace to not complicate it but to take simple steps of obedience. Lead me into these kinds of Holy Spirit stories for others’ gain, for my good, and for your glory. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
THE JOURNAL PROMPTS
Are you the type of person who hears easily and obeys readily? Or are you more the type to endlessly analyze whether this was the Holy Spirit leading or you talking to yourself or your conscience? Or are you the type to need more data and more confirmation and such? How about asking Jesus to make it simple for you and to speak to you today then exercising simple faith to respond?
THE HYMN
Today we will sing our Saturday song: “Sanctuary.” We will sing it through twice.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
P.S. ORDER YOUR WAKE-UP CALL EXODUS SERIES JOURNAL TODAY: Here’s a deal just for you.
Yes, friends. We are diving into Exodus beginning September 2 and running right up to Advent. It is going to be a wild ride—forty chapters in thirteen weeks. The journal is an essential resource to optimize the journey. See what I did there—journal the journey. Order your journal today so we can make sure to have it in your hands for the starting line. I had faith and ordered a lot so don’t prove me wrong and turn them into toilet paper! Here’s the opportunity. It’s called BUY ONE SOW ONE. If you buy one journal, I will send you two—one for the person you are praying about inviting to join the Wake-Up Call for the Exodus series. Use the code SOWEXODUS.
P.P.S. Holy Spirit Stories Welcome
I would love it if you would send a story of faith from your life we might use on a Saturday in the future. We will be glad to attach your name or a pseudonym or anonymity—it’s up to you. It can be a story of coming to faith, a story of transformation, a story of healing, deliverance, suffering and sufficient grace, family reconciliation, prodigal returns, answered prayer, and so forth. A word count of 500–800 words works well. We can’t guarantee publication, but we assure you of our prayerful discernment. You can reply to this email with your story and it will come to me.
One Response
Such powerful words about Jesus from Katie Zettle! She confirms these words that were forming in my heart when I woke up this morning!
“Words about Jesus without a godly lifestyle are hypocritical. A godly lifestyle without words about Jesus makes people think you’re a good person. Don’t let people give you credit for what Christ is doing in you. Show and tell what Jesus has done and is doing in and through your life. Use actions and words to declare His glory. Both are necessary.”
Following Christ is about daily attentiveness to, obedience to, and reliance on the presence and power of the risen Jesus. Are you willing to humbly hear, obey, and rely on what Jesus has to say in your heart, even if it is something you don’t want to hear? Dare to let your heart be continually aware of and surrendered to the heart of Jesus. “Whatever He says to you, do it.” “He that has ears let him hear what the Spirit is saying . . .”