The rest of my story….. (If you don’t know the beginning of the story you’ll want to see the post below!!)

After little to no sleep that night I have to get up and go to work. I have truly been blessed at work and have moved into a different position that is requiring me to stretch myself a bit and I stay very busy. I really enjoy my work and even though the nursing shortage always cause us nurses to have increased stress over – plenty to do and never enough helping hands….I still love what I do.

Little did I know when I left for work this particular morning that God had plans to meet me there in just a few hours!

It was actually a morning where I could catch up on some things and help out a little bit. So…not a lot of pressure of things needing to be done asap. I had the opportunity to run someone over for an appt. – which never happens. When I received the call to go back and pick them up I headed that way; along the way someone stopped me to ask a question. As I was standing there talking a lady came by with the person that I was supposed to pick up and as I explained my delay she was very kind and proceeded to take this person back to my floor. I continued on as I had a couple of items I had to pick up from different departments.

This is where my story will get a little strange….

On my way back to the floor – I ran into this lady again. She asked if I had a minute and could she talk to me. It seemed a little odd but I thought maybe she needed a paperwork question answered so I willingly followed her back to her office. She took me to a part of the building I had never been in and you have to keep in mind I had never seen this lady before in my life. I was feeling a little anxious at this point.

She asked me two questions on the way to her office…..
1)Was your husband a pastor? – & -
2)Did your family experience something painful related to his job at a church?

I felt very perplexed at the turn in the conversation….this had nothing to do with my job. I explained my husband had been the CA Director at our church and I related to her that – yes, something had happened that was very painful for our family.

As we entered her office she turned, held out her hands, and proceeded to tell me she was going to pray. I’m really confused at this point!!! As she prayed I heard phrases like…. “take away her negative thoughts, bind them up” & “send satan back where he belongs” & “God has great things planned for you and your husband” & “don’t be discouraged” & “God isn’t done with you yet” & “great things are going to happen”…..this prayer continued for quite some time. Remember this is a person I don’t know & who doesn’t know me. She prayed a prayer so personal it was as if she knew everything about me!!

The impact that prayer had on me…I can’t really articulate. It was as if my very soul had been pulled out….and turned inside out! I was absolutely overcome by that moment. After the prayer…I do remember asking her if she was real, did she really work here or was she an angel? Laughingly she said yes…very real, very human. She did relate in our conversation that she had an overwhelming response that she should pray for me when the person I had brought to the appt. mentioned that my husband used to be in ministry but no longer was. At that moment she said God compelled her strongly that He would give her words I needed to hear and that she should be obedient to what He was asking her to do. Keep in mind she knew no details about my husband other than he was no longer in ministry…that was it. She knew nothing of our circumstances and nothing I had been struggling with for the last year.

I’m grateful….for her obedience, for doing something that stretched her out of her comfort zone. How many times had I felt that prompting and ignored it? I can tell you that I won’t ever ignore that feeling again. Since being on the receiving end I realize that it is so very important…the other person may be crying out for just that moment! I told this story many times over the next few days!

As I close this…I considered not going into too much detail as I wrote this. You see it is very personal to me and it’s one thing to share with those closest to you…but I promised this lady…. as she hugged me before we parted…she looked back at me and said, “Remember to give God all the glory in this.” Not any part of this was me! God is truly amazing and He knew I needed that moment. I hope I’ve finally got my “listening” ears on….

So, if I had to answer that question again…Do I believe that God speaks to us in an audible voice? I can say without doubt that – as long as we are willing to listen – yes, God speaks to us!

What are you needing to hear from God? Do you have your “listening” ears on?