Do you feel His nudge?

God is with us all the time.  He never leaves our side.  He has filled us with the Holy Spirit, who guides us along the path of life.  But how often do we notice His presence?  How often do we hear Him talking to us or feel a nudge in one direction or another?  Are we too busy to notice or just not paying attention? 

How often have you heard people say, “Just give me a sign,” so I know what to do?  Or have you prayed for a sign?  In the Old Testament, we read about how God spoke.

2 Samuel 22:14 The LORD thundered from heaven, And the most High uttered his voice.

1 Kings 19:12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Psalm 68:33 To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times; Behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice.

Has He stopped speaking to us?  I do not think this is the case, but we do not recognize His voice.  He speaks to our hearts and not to our ears.  I was sitting on the balcony at church over 20 years ago and looking over at Gary running the sound board for the praise band during the service.  I remember thinking to myself (or so I thought) that learning how to work the board would be neat.  That thought quickly went away as the service went on.  After the church service, we had our Sunday school class.  After class, Gary asked me if I would be interested in learning how to run the soundboard because he could use some help.  If anything, it would give him an occasional Sunday off from working it.

 I immediately knew God had listened to my conversation and set up this situation before me.  I did not even have to think about whether to pursue the soundboard training.  I was all in.  I do not know if God knew of Gary’s needs, put the thought in my head, or heard the idea and nudged Gary to speak to me.  I guess it does not matter since it was all God’s plan.

God is constantly communicating with us.  He puts signs in front of us.  There are feelings in our hearts that lead us.  He speaks to us through others.  Yes, that is what I said.  He speaks to us through others.  God has communicated in various ways, including angels, His chosen spokesmen (prophets), dreams, visions, miracles, and even through a donkey that He enabled to speak as a man speaks!  I do not have the space in this blog to tell you the story of the donkey, but you can read about it in Numbers 22.  My point is that He is not limited to what our minds can think about His ability to communicate.  As we talk to others and share our stories of what God has done in our lives and hear others’ stories, God speaks.  I know He puts words in my mouth when I converse with others. 

Now, you must discern when God is speaking and what is not Him.  You must know if it is something that is God’s will.  The more you study the bible, the more you can recognize His “voice” or “nudge’.  With so many distractions in this world, it gets harder and harder to “hear” Him.