That stirring in your heart

I got a funny feeling. We have all had it, and sometimes ignored it. Sometimes we have changed plans just because of it. A gut feeling, a premonition, women’s intuition or whatever else you want to call it. The fact is that we sometimes get these feelings and just know something’s not right, or that something is.

Recently I have been stirred, something deep within me that is begging to get out. Not like in the movie “Alien,” where there was an actual monster inside, incubating until the right moment to burst through your chest, but a heartfelt feeling of change coming. The wanting to burst out is very similar though. As I look out into the world I see stuff that just is not right and I am stirred deep within to say or do something. Where is that stirring coming from?

There have been times in my life when I chose one path or made a decision that ended up being the perfect decision, and if I had stayed the other way disaster may have erupted. But I have also chosen the wrong one too and suffered the consequences.

For example, one time coming home from a sporting event we decided to take a different route home. We found out later there was a major accident on the normal drive home and we missed it. Thoughts pour in: we could have been in that accident, we could have been a part of the two-plus hour delay and road closure, we could have been a witness to a tragic death. Some may call it luck, a coincidence, but was it?

I am stirred that God is doing something. Not just in my heart, but in others’ too. I see, listen and hear it almost every day now. Yes, there are some scary things going on out there. Civil rights demonstrations turning violent against others. A never-before-seen storm in the Texas region. North Korea preparing for war. A government splitting hairs, biased news, and those just going on with their ways with discontent and abandonment of the people around them. But I have seen other things too.

I have seen people healed. Of afflictions, ailments, deep-rooted scars that have been there for years. I have also heard of people being raised from the dead and visions and dreams of angels, Jesus and powerful holy things that cannot be explained. I am stirred.

I sit at church on most Sunday mornings and wonder if others are stirred too. Are they being called like I know I am? You see, I have come to conclude that the voice, the feeling, my consciousness that is pointing things out to me is not mine at all. It is this thing that was placed inside me in the summer of 1992 when, on the couch of a youth pastor, he shared with me a story about his life and his Savior. I accepted what he said. I had that stirring then. It was small but powerful, and I submitted to it. A gift was given to me that night. The Holy Spirit came and started dwelling within me and has been there ever since. That same stirring is happening still, but now I know it is God, directing me one way or steering me away the other. We need to start listening.

The world is filled with a lot of things to take our attention off the cross. But it does not stop there; that is only the beginning. We are to experience daily that power that was nailed up, raised again and placed inside of us. Salvation is only the beginning of the journey. Power was placed in our souls to be used to make disciples of all men, to baptize and to love. Yes, we must accept the fact that it did happen all that time ago, but we must also walk in the gifts given to us. All of them, not just the ones that are convenient for us. So, what am I saying? That stirring, that conscious, that little voice in your head: could that be God talking to you? Not just on Sunday morning sitting in a pew watching your watch, but all day, every day.

Listen you what God wants for your life, submit to it and be filled up. That stirring in your heart could just be what I need to hear or it could be for you. There is no such thing as luck or coincidence. It is not a coincidence that you read this today. Act upon the stirring.