Simple Faith Christian

John 16:13 (NKJV)

¹³ However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

Have you ever had a day or even just the morning where things just bang around in your head? I had a morning drive like that where it was like a pendulum was swinging back and forth. My mind started drifting back and forth between the good and bad with an angel speaking in one ear, while the devil sat whispering in the other.

           I was thinking about the Book I wrote for my poem Shackles. My oldest son started working on the cover art the day before and I was excited about seeing a few of the ideas we discussed come to life. This is when the negative thoughts started with things like, “What does it matter anyway it won’t be good enough, what makes you think it will help anyone, and what makes you think your writing is even good enough to get published”?

          I had to shake myself out of this thought pattern, so I countered this by speaking positive things out loud. I started by first pointing out that the poem had already been well received and many copies were sent to friends and relatives by those who read it. Also, that the people who reviewed the Novella gave praise for how it was written. I then had to point out that it did not matter what happens in the future there were people already inspired by it.

          This is when things got a little strange, because four words came to mind in a clear sentence. They were, “Standing at the trailhead”. I had to let them sink in since they did not connect with anything that was on my mind. Now I knew what a trailhead was, but it is such an obscure word and would not be something that would come into my mind unless God put it there.

          So I had to ask,” Lord, what is this”? Now I really didn’t expect an answer, but maybe an idea about what it meant would have been nice. As you may have guessed all I was faced with was silence. There are many ways to react when you ask a question, but there is no response. I chose to keep on talking with an outline of everything that was going on in my God life.

          It went like this. “God, what is this, a title for another book”? “Don’t I have enough on my plate already”? “I just finished writing the Novella, I wrote a song, I started another book already, I’m looking at getting a website going, I have about five other titles for books I can write, and now you put these words in my head”?

          Have you ever had a day or a situation like this? It was almost funny and I was saying all this with a chuckle in my voice. So after the poor me rant I started into investigative mode. You know where you keep talking through a situation in hopes that it will the answer will appear.

          So I started repeating, “Standing at the trailhead” over and over. I then threw in questions like, “What am I supposed to be looking for, Does this mean I am looking for another path, and Am I on the right path already?” All these words and questions kept repeating, but no clear answer came.

          All day long I had those words repeating in my head, “Standing at the trailhead.” Still no response from God, but I didn’t keep dwelling on it. My mind would still briefly run a possible scenarios, but I felt God would give me the rest of the information when He was ready.

          The next morning I read my morning devotional and since I had time before I got a shower I decided to read my Bible. I sat down at the kitchen table and before I could start reading I had a flood of words connecting with standing at the trailhead. I left my Bible open, but had to move it to the side so I could find my notebook.

          I could feel the Holy Spirit at work again as the words just flowed out onto the paper. I soon discovered that those four word were not the title of a new work, but rather the first words of a poem with the title Simple Faith. The feeling was incredible as I could visualize what I was writing.

          I finished 2/3 of the poem before I left for work and the last part seemed to be a little slow in coming. My mind was actually struggling with the rhyme for some of the phrases that I mulled over.

Later in the morning, after I got caught up with most of my work, I had an opportunity to have a conversation with another Christian. I shared what was happening the past two days and the portion of the poem that was completed. He was very encouraging and a lot of what we spoke about was very helpful.

After he left I was greeted with a quiet moment where fragments started to fall in place. It only took a few minutes till the poem was finished and perfectly conveyed what was put on my heart. I repeatedly thanked the Lord and couldn’t express with enough gratitude how awesome it felt writing the words He gave me.

I have had moments during the past few months where I had a flood of words that I knew did not come from me. Many times this happens during a quiet time or when I first wake up. When it happens, the feeling is so overwhelming that I can not explain it effectively.

I thank God all the time for speaking to me through the Holy Spirit and allow me to write the words. Has this ever happened to you? The right words at the right time or an answer to a prayer. Let me know if you have had similar experiences where you know the words are not coming from you.