These last couple of weeks I have been freshly aware of how timely and significant the subtle nudges of Holy Spirit are – and how easy it is to miss them!
Some of these nudges have revolved around my “blessing box”. This is a simple credit card-carrying case I have felt recently prompted to fill with cards that have different scripture promises on each side. There are two occasions that stand out in my memory where I was just about to leave the house when the thought of needing to take my blessing box with me “crossed my mind”. Here’s what happened next.
One of these occasions involved walking to our local town centre and unexpectedly “bumping into” someone en route. Before I left the house, I’d had a fleeting thought of taking the blessing box, but I had no jacket pocket that day - or some other banal reason - so I dismissed the prompt. Now, as I talked with this person in front of me, I “just knew” that this person was why I had sensed the “blessing box nudge” – this would have been a perfect and timely opportunity to bless them with a specific promise from scripture, right in that moment. Who knows where that conversation might have led, too?
Well, I missed it, and I freely hold my hands up to my mistake. My prayer is that Father would make it up to that person by encountering them another way, or by giving me another opportunity to bump into them again – I don’t know where they live or anything much about them, really. I do know that Father is pursuing them, though.
The other occasion was when I was about to leave the house with someone else to drive to a garden centre, near closing time. Once again, the thought came to my mind to take the blessing box with me, but, being in a rush, I assumed we would just be quickly in and out of the centre and I wouldn’t meet anyone for long enough to give them a scripture blessing so left the box behind. Wrong again! It turned out that closing time was later than I thought (!) and I had plenty of time to wander at leisure. There weren’t many people about, but I had an item to purchase and the two ladies at the desk I “just knew” were the ones that Father would have wanted to have a scripture blessing from my box, without crowds around to cause pressure or rush. I did bless these ladies as I left, but Holy Spirit had a more beautiful and powerful encounter in mind than that.
I intend to return to the garden centre again soon and to ask Holy Spirit for an opportunity to see and bless these two ladies again – His way!!
The following week, I DID follow His nudge to take the blessing box with me to a nearby town centre!! There was a certain shop I went into where a young lady was at the checkout desk. It was busy in the shop and, although no one was behind me as I approached the checkout initially, some others soon arrived. As I waited my turn, I had a “nudge” to give a promise from my box to this young lady. It took determination to carry through on the nudge, as thoughts bombarded me like “it’s too busy in the shop, she’s going to be irritated that I’m taking up time….she doesn’t look interested….she’s probably from another faith/culture” (you know those kind of “arguments” that assault our minds??!!) But I took out a promise card that I sensed was the one for her.
One side had the verse from 1 Peter 5 v 7 about “casting your cares on the Lord because He cares for you” the other was about refuge and safety in God alone. This young lady “Tanya” was so touched when I gave her the card and told her I sensed that Father God wanted her to have it and I would be praying for her. She said she would keep the card in her phone and read it often. She was almost in tears that someone would do this for her and seemed excited at the thought that I would come back another time and speak more with her when it wasn’t so busy!
And that’s what can happen when a Holy Spirit prompt is followed and not dismissed!!
Finally…..last week I was in a supermarket shopping for Easter weekend when some family would be coming with a baby boy who is part of our support bubble. I had finished getting the items I needed but “just felt” I needed to go down a different aisle first. There were baby items in this aisle, and I looked at them casually but didn’t pick anything out – until I came to a bottle of infant Calpol (baby pain relief). Knowing the parents of the baby coming over are typically well organised and equipped, I hesitated about the Calpol, picking it up but putting it back again and walking away, only to come back a moment later to put a box of the medicine in my basket.
The little chap was bonny and bouncy the whole time he was with us, but on the morning they were leaving, his nose started streaming and he became feverish, wanting to gum everything. Guess who had the Calpol? Not Mum and Dad!! But there it was, ready at the perfect time, to bring relief to this little lad (and his parents!) before the car journey home. Holy Spirit had it all set up – but I still needed to follow the nudge!
I hope these simple examples will remind you of “nudges” you might have had – either ones you dismissed (like me) but realised later were from Holy Spirit’s “basket of Grace”, or ones you followed and saw blessing come in wonderful ways, however small. Maybe they will help you watch out for some of His subtle prompts coming to you in the next few days! Have you noticed how His nudges are more like butterflies flitting than billboards shouting?! Sometimes they are “just knowing”,or “just feeling” something from Him.
Isn’t it amazing that this same Holy Spirit who sends an almost missable “nudge” in the middle of our unspectacular daily life, is that same Spirit who called complex, intricate, mighty planets, organisms, universes into existence – from nothing! That silences every inner argument that says “But I don’t have enough…..”!
And when we partner with Him, the possibilities are endless and everlasting!!
Bless you as you follow His nudges!!