It was one of the coldest days we\u2019d had all winter, and I was in a hurry to get back to the office after a lunch meeting in town.<\/p>\n
Driving along the highway I noticed the car stranded along the shoulder of the road, but didn\u2019t think much of it. But as I motored on past I couldn\u2019t shake the nagging sense that I should go back and check things out.<\/p>\n
![\"Snow](\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/snow_road-300x199.jpg\" "\\"snow_road\\"")
I pulled a U-turn in the middle of the highway, turned back past the car, pulled another U-turn, and parked behind that beat-up old rust-bucket parked there. There didn\u2019t seem to be anyone around, but as I peered through the swirling snowfall, I saw further up the highway what must have been the vehicle\u2019s occupants. Bracing the bitterly cold winter air I got out of my car and ran up the highway to catch up to the young family I saw wandering along the road.<\/p>\n
There was a young mom and two small children, none of whom were dressed warm enough for these severe conditions.<\/p>\n
I asked if everything was alright. The mother, putting on a brave face, said she was having car trouble and was walking up the highway looking for a service station. Looking at these shivering youngsters I quickly said, \u201cHop in my car and let\u2019s get you some help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments later we were at a nearby service station, and it was then that the obvious truth came out. She had not only run out of gas, she had no money to even purchase any. She really didn\u2019t know what to do next.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me take care of this, okay?\u201d I asked. I purchased a jerrican of gas, took her back to her car, then had her drive with me back to the service station where I filled her tank.<\/p>\n
Before I left she asked me a question I hadn\u2019t expected. \u201cAre you by any chance a Christian?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
She smiled knowingly. \u201cI knew it<\/em>,\u201d she explained excitedly, \u201cI just became a follower of Jesus, and I\u2019ve been learning how to pray. When I realized I was in trouble back there on the highway I prayed and asked God if he could please have a Christian stop and help me out. Prayer really works, doesn\u2019t it!\u201d<\/p>\n As I drove away, several thoughts swirled through my mind.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>I was convinced that God had indeed heard her prayer and fully intended to answer it for her. <\/strong><\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>I realized that in answering her prayer, God had given me the opportunity to participate in this story by having his Spirit prompt me to turn my car around. <\/strong><\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Had I ignored that prompting, I\u2019m convinced that God would have still answered her prayer; he would have simply prompted the next Christ-follower driving along the highway to stop and help.<\/strong><\/p>\n The point is that in listening to and obeying a Holy Spirit prompting, I was given the tremendous opportunity to be a part of a much greater story that God was unfolding there at the side of the highway.<\/p>\n Since then I\u2019ve often wondered how many times I\u2019ve missed out on being a part of other \u2018God-stories\u2019 simply because I either ignored or completely missed Spirit promptings in my life. And I\u2019ve committed to developing a discerning heart; one that can more easily recognize when the Spirit is nudging me and is quick to respond in obedience.<\/p>\n If you resonate with this journey, let me urge you to join Bill Hybels in a free webinar discussion on Whispers: Hearing God and Responding. <\/strong>On Friday, October 29th<\/sup> from noon to 1:00 pm cst (1:00 \u2013 2:00 pm est, 10:00 am \u2013 11:00 am pst), Bill Hybels will discuss this in a Q&A format with Jim Mellado. To register and to submit a question for Bill click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n And let\u2019s take this journey together.<\/p>\n How can you tell when God\u2019s Spirit is \u2018whispering\u2019 to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Share a story of when you heard and obeyed God\u2019s whisper.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was one of the coldest days we\u2019d had all winter, and I was in a hurry to get back to the office after a lunch meeting in town. Driving along the highway I noticed the car stranded along the shoulder of the road, but didn\u2019t think much of it. But as I motored on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canadian","category-tension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}