Unidentified Inner Promptings: I Can’t Seem to Shake This Idea. I Wonder What the Lord is Doing?
By Pastor Chuck Swindoll
Do you ever have those unidentified inner promptings? (Don’t worry; Swindoll hasn’t lost his marbles—at least, not yet!) I’m talking about when the Spirit of God urges your spirit in a very specific direction.
The book of Jude offers a wonderful example of the powerful prompting of the Holy Spirit:
Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. (Jude 3)
Jude started to write a letter to his fellow Christians about salvation—the finished work of Christ on the cross. That was his original plan . . . until the Holy Spirit prompted him to do otherwise. “I find that I must,” Jude admits.
I’ve underlined that phrase in my Bible: “I find that I must.”
The Spirit’s Prompting
That was nothing less than an inner prompting from the Spirit of God. Granted, Jude was inspired, and we’re not.
But God still prompts us. No audible voice. No image of Jesus in an enchilada. Nothing mystical or magical. But as you are moving along and trusting Him, stay sensitive to the quiet yet all-important prompting of God through His Holy Spirit.
By doing so, you may well sense inner promptings that will spur thoughts, such as, I can’t seem to shake this idea. I wonder what the Lord is doing? Where could He be going with this?
Quiet and Solitude
As you mull over the thoughts, you may not be able to figure them out. Take time in quiet and solitude to evaluate the prompting. Obviously, you know the Spirit of God will never contradict the Bible. In fact, the prompting often is a passage from Scripture.
Nothing wrong with planning. Nothing wrong with thinking it through. There’s everything right and wise about listing all the pros and cons. But stay sensitive to God’s leading. His plans may be different than yours. By the way, His are always better.
We make our plans,
but the Lord determines our steps. . . .
The Lord directs our steps,
so why try to understand everything along the way? (Proverbs 16:9; 20:24)
I love that! When all is said and done, you’ll say, “Honestly, this direction didn’t come from me. It must have been from God.”
Talk about mysterious! The longer I live the Christian life, the less I know about why He leads as He does.
But I do know that He leads.
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About the author
Pastor Chuck Swindoll
Pastor Charles R. Swindoll has devoted his life to the accurate, practical teaching and application of God’s Word. He is the founding pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, but Chuck’s listening audience extends far beyond a local church body. As a leading program in Christian broadcasting since 1979, Insight for Living airs around the world. Chuck’s leadership as president and now chancellor emeritus at Dallas Theological Seminary has helped prepare and equip a new generation of men and women for ministry.
