Listening to God's Promptings
One day as Henry was still wrestling with his call to mission work, he got on a train for New York. And shortly after the journey began he looked up and saw a sign for a different stop - long before he was supposed to get off - and he says “I was aware suddenly of an inner voice that said ‘Get off the train!’ I argued that it was a foolish idea - that I had paid for a ticket to New York City, that I didn't know a soul in this town, that I was practically penniless. It did no good,” he said “the inner voice of the spirit was loud and clear. And so just as they were shutting all aboard, I grabbed my suitcase and got off the train. Now what? I walked over to the station house and saw a poster advertising a Pentecostal camp meeting. A man with a team of horses was putting cargo that he just unloaded from the train onto his wagon.”
Divine Intervention Accepted
Then he talks about how he asked somebody if they knew about this meeting and guy said, “yes I'll give you a lift!” And so he arrived at this tent meeting and an elderly man came to him and said to him “Oh are you a preacher?” And he said “Well, yes, I'm a missionary.” And this man said “Praise the Lord! He's answered our prayers! Our evangelist has lost his voice and we've been praying that God would send us a preacher! Will you preach tonight?” And he ended up having a successful few days there preaching and leading people to God.
Divine Promptings Embraced
And amazingly he was able to receive a great love offering from these people which would really support him financially during his first term as a missionary in Africa. Amazing how God works!
He says “How grateful I was that I'd obeyed the prompting of that inner voice to get off the train.” Friends, let's not ignore God's promptings in our lives. Imagine if he just said “Nah I'm not getting off here Lord.” I mean I do believe God would have still probably worked his well into this man's life but what blessing he would have missed out on.
Here’s a challenge: let's listen for God's prompting today - maybe to share the gospel with somebody, maybe to do something here or go there. If God prompts let's follow and let's see what he does in our lives.
I'm sure that we won't regret it!
