GOD SPEAKS THROUGH
PERSISTENT PROMPTINGS

The Apostle Paul said his inner conscience was
enlightened and prompted by the Holy Spirit bearing
witness with him (see Romans 9:1). We can know if we
are doing right, because our conscience will sense the
evidence of truth. My conscience becomes more sensitive
the more I grow in the Lord and the more responsibility
He gives to me.
If I drop a piece of paper in the street and keep walking,
my conscience convicts me, so I have learned to quickly
turn myself around and pick up whatever I have dropped.
It may sound extreme, but God is very involved with my
conscience. Being faithful in little things is important to
God. According to Song of Solomon 2:15, it is the “little
foxes” that spoil the vineyard. When we are willing to be
faithful and obedient in little things, then God can trust us
to be faithful over much greater things (see Matthew
25:14-23). I also believe being faithful to the small things
God requires gives us faith for the greater things because
our conscience is entirely clear. Obedience to our inner
conscience brings the power of God into our life.

If we don’t feel right about something like littering, we
shouldn’t just go ahead and do it anyway. It doesn’t work
to use the excuse that everyone else does what we’re
convicted not to do. Many of God’s people are powerless
because they continually do things their conscience tells
them not to do. When we don’t pay heed to our
conscience, we lose our peace. The Word teaches us to be
true to our convictions; if we do something we feel uneasy
about, we stand condemned because we are not acting
from faith (see Romans 14:23).
Sometimes God even prompts me to pick up somebody
else’s trash. I don’t hear the audible voice of the Holy
Spirit, but I feel an inner nudge to leave a place better
than I found it. The Lord uses my obedience to teach me
more about His character. He says to me, “When you
make messes, would you like somebody else to clean after
you? Everything you do in life is an act of sowing seeds
that will return to you. You will reap whatever you sow. If
you leave a mess for somebody else, someday someone
will leave messes for you.”
Quite often, Dave and I are led of the Lord to do
something for someone who has demonstrated a valid
need and a right heart before the Lord. We knew a man
who needed a financial blessing. He had worked hard,
and we had noticed his faithfulness over a long period of
time. But, God had not led us to contribute to him in any
specific way.

Then one day, I suddenly felt a prompting to do something
for him. I let it rest and didn’t act on it, but a few days
later, I felt an inner prompting to give him a gift of money.
Over a period of days, that prompting became stronger
and stronger until I finally mentioned it to Dave. We were
in agreement that the Lord was leading us to do
something extra to help this man with his debt so he
could move on in God.
If God is leading us by an inner prompting, that nudge
will become stronger until it is obeyed. The fruit of our
obedience will prove the prompting was truly from God.
If we wait too long to respond to that prompting, God may
have to move on to someone else in order to get His will
accomplished. Therefore, we see that even in waiting we
need balance. Don’t move so fast that you don’t even
know if you have peace, and don’t wait so long that God
must choose someone else to use.