Learning from a Bush

God prompted me to look at a bush. I’m proud to say that I turned my bike around and obeyed! Later He used that bush as an object lesson to answer my prayers. What are God’s (or the Spirit’s) promptings like for you? How do recognize them? What makes it hard or easy for you to obey? When have you obeyed and what miracles have you seen as a result?

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Video transcript (edited):

Frequently, -- or infrequently depending on how I give heed to them -- I get a little thought to do something. I call that thought a prompting from the Spirit or the Holy Ghost. The thought pops into my mind and usually it's best if I act without thinking about it. If I stop to think about it, my thoughts usually go something like this:

"Oh yeah, I could do that but there's this reason and that reason suggestion I shouldn’t... so maybe I'll do it later or maybe I won't do it or… you know, I’ll do this other thing instead."

And I don’t act on the original prompting. So I have found that it's best if I act immediately, usually without thinking about it.

There was a period of time where I was acting immediately. I was getting these little nudges from the Spirit of God over and over. I was acting on them immediately and I did so much good! I helped a lot of people in beautiful ways. It wasn’t  my own doing. God orchestrated it all, and because I was willing to act without doubting, questioning, or stopping to think, I was able to help people on His behalf.

Then, you know what? God told me to do something one day and I resisted. Just the tiniest bit of resistance. Then I didn't act. The next prompting came, and I didn’t respond. Then I stopped hearing Him. When I realized the change that had taken place, I felt frustrated. I wanted to get back into that place of hearing and obeying His Spirit. I worked hard to seek and listen and recognize His promptings, and then act on them immediately, and I ended up returning to that state of helping God.

Then one day I was on a bike ride. I was going fast and all of a sudden one of those little thoughts popped up, "Look at that bush." Before I could respond, I had passed the bush and so instead of acting immediately, I thought, "Oh, I've already passed it." It was a knee-jerk response, and then I've already passed it, so then I start arguing with myself about whether to go through the effort of stopping my bike and turning around, and whether it was important to obey God’s prompting and look at a bush. I mean really, why would a bush be important?

I'm excited to share with you that I did stop! I remembered the effort it took to get back into the habit of obeying promptings, and it was easier to turn the bike around than go through that process again. The whole way back, I expected to look at the bush, observe that it looked just like I expected, and head on my way with little fanfare other than an exercise in obedience.

But when I looked at that bush I saw something I'd never seen before! And I thought I knew this bush! I love earth science and biology, so I notice bushes and plants and animals and the environment. I’ve particularly observed this bush because I want to plant one in my yard. And yet, there was something on this bush I had never seen before. I didn't understand where it came from or what it did or what purpose it served. It was totally new.

OK, so that was fun. As I turned away from the bush I concluded that God had given me an opportunity to appreciate his creation a little bit more. I got back on my bike and I started riding.

But there was more! Because God’s that great. As I'm biking along, heading on my way and quite a distance from the bush, all of a sudden God whispered to me, "Sarah, did you notice that bush? There was more there than you knew about that bush. And these other things that are in your life, -- that you're struggling with and that you've been praying to me about -- there's more there than you know. There are surprises in store, good things. You just haven't seen them yet."

Here's what I love. I love that there was this tiny prompting that I chose to obey even when it was mildly -- very mildly -- inconvenient. I love that God used that prompting to answer my prayer, and I love that in this case I did turn around.

So I have a couple questions for you today. And I’d love for you to answer in the comments below or by messaging me.

Do you hear and obey promptings from God? What are they like for you? How do you recognize recognize them? What do they sound like or what do they feel like? What makes it hard for you to obey or respond? Finally, when have you obeyed and what miracles have you experienced as a result?

That's all for today.

Keep shining!