SHERRI COLVIN

We’ve all been there, we have a thought out of nowhere about an individual or a situation, a sense that we suddenly become aware of, or maybe even out of the blue, a particular emotion unexpectedly overwhelms us. And immediately we’re stuck asking the question,

Is this me or is this God?

And if it is God what am I to do with it?

I’ve been in this place many times, and some moments still find myself there. In the early days when I was first beginning to understand the prophetic and learning how God speaks to me, I found myself in this place a lot. I remember one of the first times I had a name instantly pop into my head, it wasn’t the name of a friend or relative, as a matter of fact I didn’t even know anyone with that name.

I was in the store picking up some items for dinner, had two of my children in tow, distracted, in a hurry, my mind cluttered with several other things at the same moment the name “Rhonda” came to me.

At first I dismissed it as a fluke but it wouldn’t let up.  I immediately thought I had subconsciously grabbed a hold of this name and it kept replaying in my head but something in my spirit arrested my attention. Fast forward twenty minutes and I’m standing five carts deep in the check-out line of a busy grocery store at 5:15 pm. Suddenly my insides felt like they were going to jump outside my body – but in a good way ☺

I knew that this person was on God’s heart and He was inviting me to partner with Him to bring them hope, but who was it?  I looked down at Annie my toddler and River my infant son, who both happened to be restless and fussy and wondered, “God if this is you, why wouldn’t you give this to someone that isn’t so distracted”? Have you ever asked that?

So I decided the least threatening way to test this out was to just simply state the name “Rhonda” in the midst of all the noisy chaos at the check-out line! If that name wasn’t anyone there, then they would just think I was calling out trying to get someone’s attention and not a crazy person talking to myself!  As my hands started to sweat and with my heart pounding, in my normal volume I said “Rhonda”.  The woman in front of me turns around and says “yes”.

I didn’t know anything beyond her name so I began to panic!  I told this woman that God had given me her name earlier and that she was on His heart. As I began to share this with her, the Lord so faithfully gave me more instantly, He told her that help was on the way for her mother whom she had been caring for all by herself.  That she was coming into a season of rest and personal rejuvenation. When the cashier was ready for her to pull her cart up to the register she was in tears.  She was baffled that God had singled her out and she was hopeful that if He knew her name and her situation, He was present and loved her. So was it me or was it God?

It was a word of life and hope, it brought her to an awareness of God’s love for her, and encouraged her to continue on.

In Mark 4:14-15 (the parable of the sower) Jesus explains why Satan comes immediately and tries to take away the word that was sown. A lot of times this looks like God speaks something to us and then the enemy comes along and tries to convince us that we didn’t hear Him!

Satan wants to keep us silent, when we are silent we aren’t bringing the comfort of heaven to a person or situation.

If He can convince us not to speak the word of the Lord by causing us to become introspective, or feel it was “just us”, then he has succeeded in robbing us of the fruit to come! The increase is coming, you do have ears to hear and eyes to see!