Thursday, January 10, 2013

Listening and following



John 16:13
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.

Isaiah 11:2
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him-the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord-

Do you ever have that nagging feeling in the pit of your stomach?  The one that makes you feel like something isn't right?

If we are being honest with each other, how often do we actually listen to the feeling and act upon it?

As women, we tend to second guess ourselves.  We justify the feeling and rationalize it to be coming from our fears or anxieties.  Many times, we don't act upon the feeling because we fear being judgemental and/or....dare I say it....wrong.

I have come to believe, know rather, that the nagging feeling I get that something isn't right comes from the Holy Spirit.  His desire is to lead us in the way of truth.  He warns us and guides us.  Let's face it, He isn't going to send us an email or a text.  He is going to speak to us.  He is going to warn us of danger and/or problems. 

The question is, will we listen to Him?

My husband is an active father.  We have three children and he has coached all of their sporting teams at one time or another.  One year, he was coaching one of our children's teams and I noticed at one of the practices that I attended that one of the moms just wasn't looking at him like she should.  She was very made up and had on tight, revealing clothes. 

I generally didn't go to the practices because my husband was the coach and took our child.  I immediately got that nagging feeling and knew something wasn't right.  I did an insecurity check and knew, without a doubt, I wasn't experiencing some insecurity.  This woman was trying to move in on MY man. 

I don't play that game.

When we got home, I brought it to his attention.  I told him I was very mad and would not stand for her flirtatious looks and comments.  I noticed during the practice that if my husband gave her child attention, she would smile and bat her eyes at my husband.  Growl, growl, growl!

I told my husband that, unfortunately, he was going to have to stop giving the child attention because the mom sees it as an advance towards her. 

Thankfully, my husband was very receptive to our conversation.  He said he hadn't noticed her, but wouldn't put it past her.  He wanted to honor God and his family. 

We noticed that throughout the season when we would see her at our child's school, she would smile at him, say hi to him, and watch him walk away.  Oh, yeah....I forgot to mention that she is married!!  She would never give me the time of day.  It got to the point where my husband would put his arm on me and not even say hello back to her. 

I am so glad that I listened to the Holy Spirit.  I could have chalked it up to insecurity.  I could have feared talking with my husband.  However, I knew something wasn't right.  I knew the Holy Spirit was warning me of impending danger.  I certainly am not saying that my husband would have been swayed by her immorality.  I am saying that we must always listen to the Holy Spirit.  He speaks for a reason.  We must listen and following His lead.

Is the Holy Spirit trying to tell you anything?