In the following scripture, Jesus speaks of needing to go away so the Holy Spirit will come.

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

John 16:13

(New American Standard Bible)

 Is God Tapping You on the Shoulder?

            It’s not unusual for someone of faith to say that it’s a sin to worry, we should just put our faith in God and He will take care of the situation. For sure, our Father does handle those things that are committed to Him., but is there a possibility that sometimes what we call worry could be God tapping us on the shoulder, saying check this out?

            There was no doubt that I’d been called to buy my house. Awakened about 2:30 a.m. fearful thoughts raced concerning the cost of the taxes on my new place while the threat of losing everything played out in my imagination. Though knowing better, I never figured out the approximate amount of the yearly taxes before writing the contract, and now guilt and worry overwhelmed me. Later that morning my sister was able to help calm the fears. The concerns, however, raised their ugly heads many times over the next few months. A visit to the tax office for possible figures of what would be owed brought to light an interesting situation.  There was a problem with my home-ownership record and the county had removed both my homestead exemption and my over-65 exemption which would have almost doubled what needed to be paid. The mistake was discovered, the records updated and though it took some doing, the tax amount was made right.

            It was because of fear and worry that the problem was exposed. Not being a person to check all of the fine print, my suspicion is that a lot more money than necessary would have been paid out before the mistake was finally discovered.

            Thought: My experience illustrates that maybe God is tapping us on the shoulder saying, there’s a problem here, check it out.

            You need to go to the doctor about that place on you, her friends warned. Each time something was said, the answer was always the same, God will take care of me. God did heal her through the work of the doctors, but having waited so long, surgery with notable scars was unavoidable. Tap, tap, listen to what’s being said. Your thinking could be wrong.

            Years ago, a friend came to Houston for cancer surgery, and the findings were serious, but there was hope. After she returned home, her name with the thought she needed a call kept coming to mind, but I put it off. Sadly, in the weeks that followed she died a tragic death. Tap, tap, you need to call this person.

            Though I hadn’t seen her in at least thirty years, and she probably didn’t even remember me, her name continually came to mind. The only thing I knew to do was to lift her up in prayer.  Tap, tap, someone needs your prayers.

            An experience that happened many years ago illustrated how truth is often revealed through animals. My friend’s sister’s dog was visiting. He didn’t know me nor the man, I will call Rick, I was sometimes dating and who stopped by for a brief visit. Throughout the visit, the dog continually made his dislike for this man known by barking and becoming agitated every time Rick made the slightest of moves. That night I had a date with someone else. When he walked in, the dog barked once and went under the table. As time passed and the reality of how Rick was living his life became apparent, it occurred to me that this dog’s agitation was a warning, he’s not a nice person.  Years later a friend who had an undercurrent of anger toward me came to my house. My golden retriever, usually friendly, was noticeably concerned, and placed himself in a position to take care of me. Tap, tap, your dog understands something you don’t.

            When I began these blog posts, the Holy Spirit almost had to hit me upside the head about getting them out. After completing the first post, I read it to my friend Susan. She liked it and then said, you now have to post it to Facebook. The thought of putting myself out like that was too much. No, I protested. Not going to happen. It took more prodding, but with fear and trembling I posted my first blog post. It got easier over the weeks, but boy were those first few times scary. Without following Susan’s input, I would probably be sitting here with 38 posts saying, okay, God, show me what to do. Tap, tap, you need to step out in faith.

            In our fast-paced world, we are often racing from one task to another with our mind on what has to be done next. This running often makes it difficult to experience and/or acknowledge that sudden tapping to stop, don’t go there, make a call, listen to the advice, pay attention to what’s happening, ask yourself why that decision feels wrong.

            Someone once said to me, we all know you believe you have a hotline to God. The truth of what I believe is the above scripture—The Spirit will guide us into all truth. God’s ways of getting our attention exceed these pages, but often the leading may be through a friend, a thought, an animal, a gut feeling, a strong sense, an intuition about something.

I am in no way claiming that every thought that comes to mind is of God, just as a friend’s advice might be wrong. What I am suggesting is that we might get more accomplished and get more out of life if we learn to stop, think, and pray because the Holy Spirit is available to lead us into good experiences as well as away from bad decisions.

The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy;

 I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.

John 10:10

(New American Standard Bible)