The wife and I recently went down to our home town in Pensacola Florida to help out my brother in law get a van and equip it with a handicap ramp for mobility. He had polio as a child and is getting up in years. Also has other health issues thus preventing him from having the freedom to get around as well as he did in his earlier years.
The day before we were to leave, the Weather Channel reported a major storm with tornado watches, warnings, and thunder storms in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida heading right into our path back home to Cincinnati, Ohio. We were to take I-65 straight through Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. It didn't look good at all.
All I could think was "Dear Lord, how are we going to get through all that? I have to be back before Monday?" As I watched the weather radar images, I heard a still voice pointing out to me the path up in between the storms saying "You can make it, I will guide you."
The next morning we got up and packed the car and took one last review of the weather channel radar images and found a semi clear path right up the center of Alabama where I-65 is located but seemed to have storms on either side of the interstate. We took this as the path we were to follow. We had rain all the way but it was mostly light or moderately heavy except in 5 places. When we hit our first torrential down pour so bad you could barely see out the windshield and high winds, I heard a still quiet voice saying to pull over under an over pass and wait out the storm as cars whizzed by us doing 70 to 85 MPH. After the heavy rain and hail passed by us we started back on our journey only to see a major wreck involving several cars that lost control just a mile or two up the road. Each time we encountered a major torrential down pour, high winds, and hail I heard that voice again saying pull over or get off the interstate and I did. Getting back on our journey, we encountered several wrecks along the way. We experienced this all through Alabama and Tennessee. I would imagine had we continued with out pulling over, we might have been one of those wrecks.
After a harrowing day on the road, we decided to stay at a motel in Franklin Ky. that I made reservations for 4 days earlier as it was getting dark and the rain was becoming torrential again. After getting a room we turned on the weather channel and found out just how big and bad this storm was. Mississippi was hit with a 1/2 mile wide tornado that devastated a small town there. Several tornado sightings were noted in Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee right along or near the I-65 route we took. Franklin Ky. was under a tornado watch at the time. The next morning the skies was clear and not raining thus the last leg of our journey was smooth sailing all the way home.
Looking back over this experience, what led me to believe we could get through harms way unscathed? What prompted me to make reservations at this motel 4 days before we left Florida to go back home? What were those still silent voices I heard prompting me to pull over during the violent storms? Was it luck or divine guidance? I know what it was but I will let you be the judge.
6 comments:
You can never go wrong using God as your GPS.
Glad you are safe!
It always blesses me to see how God works in the ordinary, daily, specific aspects of our lives. It's cool to read how He guided you down to the small details.
Michelle:
I have to agree. Amazingly, over the last couple years, I hear that still silent voice frequently.
Once in Mid Ohio, we were at a Burger King and a person approached us and I was alerted he was a pastor from a Vineyard church in Columbus before he ever spoke.
Another time I was at an encounter ( mini Revival) and heard a voice telling me to lay my hand on the persons shoulder in front of me as they were hurting and wanted prayers.
There were other times that I heard this voice which led me to talking to some one I have never met before and won him over to Christ, another incident I was told about a person I had never met before but I knew about their illness and recited it to them to their amazement.
It doesn't happen all the time but when it does, it un nerves me greatly.
Tracy:
I think if we all would just listen, we would realize how much the Lord or the Holy Spirit does try to speak to us about things. We just have to keep that frequency open for His voice.
Photgr,
That is so awesome that you hear the Lord speaking to you. And that is because you a willing to listen and obey.
As you said, had you not stopped under those underpasses you and your wife might be in Heaven with Jesus right now.
Sometimes you have spoken about your not experiencing the gifts of the Spirit. Well, all those experiences show you have and you do.
And at times it is the little things the Lord leads us to do. Like when my hair salon had a big discount I gave the hairdresser a big tip for about the difference in the discount. She had told me how it was hard raising two boys.
I may not have led her to Christ, but I obeyed the Lord. And I did speak to her about some spiritual things. I told her I wanted to bless her.
Sometimes it is a prompting to pray for a particular person. And then you find out that they really needed prayer at that time.
And then there are times of stepping out of the boat like Peter, as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus we are o.k. We may be doing something we have never done before, but there we are walking on the water with Him.
Carol
Amen Carol. It is always good to tell others of the rewards of faith in Jesus. We may not win them over at the time but we have planted the seed that may grow.
As much as I profess not having some gifts, I always seem to be proven wrong later. However, it is something I don't like to openly profess very much for fear of exalting my self.
Yes, I might have some gifts but I don't have a clue what they are.
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