GOD SPOKE. I LISTENED. MY FAITH INCREASED.
It was a Friday afternoon and my dog, Bella, had been to the vet the day before and was not getting any better. Her regular vet could not identify what was causing her to feel so poorly and the anti nausea medication they gave her wasn’t working. She was getting more lethargic as the day went on.
What had me really concerned was when Kevin got home from work she didn’t get out of bed to greet him. He had to walk to her and that NEVER happens. He picked her up and just held her in his lap as she nuzzled into his chest.
I was getting really scared!
Our vet said that if she wasn’t better by the next morning, I should take her to a special internal medicine doctor, not the emergency vet.
The next morning the referral was made and our appointment was scheduled.
Taking Bella to the vet was my thing. Kevin would always stay home with the kids and let me handle anything related to her. She was my first baby and taking care of her always brought me great joy no matter what the circumstances.
PRAYING FOR ANSWERS
As I parked the truck, I began asking God all sorts of questions in my head about what was going to happen. Now, the questions I was peppering Him with were somewhat frantic and all over the place. I really wasn’t giving Him room to answer.
Then this calm came over me as I opened the back door where she was sitting. I heard, “This will cost you a lot of money. You will not get any answers and she will be okay.” I got kind of a smirk on my face and said out loud, “Huh, really?”
Who was I listening to? Was it the Lord? The enemy? Or me?
My thought process when something like this happens starts like this…Scripture says that we are to test all spirits. 1 John 4:1 says, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…” That is what I began to do.
Perhaps they could have been my own thoughts, but really…would I want to tell myself that I would spend a lot of money and not find anything out? If that is what I thought, should I really be going inside? I mean, I desperately wanted answers to what was causing my sweet puppy to not feel well.
I had learned that satan doesn’t know the future because if he did, he never would have crucified Christ. That was where he was defeated and the division between heaven and earth was removed! So, it can’t be the enemy.
My only logical answer was that the Lord was telling me what was going to happen in the future. The only way I could test this was to wait and see.
WHAT IS PROPHECY?
Prophecy is a spiritual gift, according to Scripture (1 Cor. 14:1, Romans 12:6, and Eph. 4:11).
If this gift really is alive and active, what does it look like in the church and in everyday life?
In my pursuit of understanding spiritual gifts, I encountered many authors who spoke of 1 Cor. 14:1.
“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the spirit, especially prophecy.”
1 Cor. 14:1
I looked at this verse with fresh eyes – eyes that wanted more of the Holy Spirit and eyes that saw the Scriptures with a new lens, that this was for ME and not just the early church.
Shawn Bolz said this in his book, God Secrets,
“Prophecy is a word about the future that shows the plans God has for someone or a group/region/business etc. With prophecy, people’s affections lie in the fact that God knows them and has plans for them. Knowing God’s plans and future for their lives gives people the opportunity to partner with Him and actually see those plans fulfilled.”
He continues,
“This isn’t about gaining information, it is about having intimate knowledge of the mind and heart of God.”
Is that what was happening here? Was God giving me a glimpse of what was going to happen with Bella?
If this was the Lord, then He had just given me a prophetic word about the future to help me draw closer to Him by increasing my faith AND to let me know that He was in this with me.
AT THE VET
When Bella and I entered the vet, she started to perk up. She became really aware of her surroundings and her ears were going a mile a minute. She still was not her full energetic self, but I was happy to see her energy level change.
Still happy!
When I met with the doctor, we talked about Bella’s symptoms and then she laid out her plan of action. I was taken aback by the total cost, but not really surprised. The total bill, if I agreed to everything she wanted, was going to be over $4,000.
$4,000? WHAT?! I was shocked by the amount. I hoped I wouldn’t have to pay all of that, but didn’t I just hear in my spirit that I would be spending a lot of money? Oh man, I hoped it wouldn’t be that much.
However, at this point, my faith started to grow. Did I really hear from the Holy Spirit? Was He trying to tell me about the future (remember, I am waiting to see how this all plays out to discern if it was the Holy Spirit talking to me).
I started to calm down thinking, “She is going to be okay! They are not going to find anything.”
I began to ask the vet a lot of questions about the all the diagnostic tests and together we created a plan of action that would rely on each test and its results as the deciding factors to determine the next moves.
We were there for over four hours. They had to do only half of the tests and all tests came back normal.
The vet said that based on the images she could only guess at what was happening inside her. She believed Bella was out of the woods and would return to normal by the end of the day.
As I paid the bill, I was smiling from ear to ear.
I wonder how many people can say that as they pay a vet a large amount of money?
This bill confirmed everything I had heard from God before I stepped into the vet clinic.
I honestly was in awe. The peace that was flowing through my body at that moment was divine!
As I grabbed her leash and walked her back to the truck, all I could do was thank God over and over with a HUGE smile on my face saying,
“Thank you for speaking to me. Thank you for being a God who never changes. Thank you for trusting me with this information. Thank you for caring about my sweet puppy and thank you that she is going to be okay.”
This event totally increased my trust in listening to the voice of the Lord! I was so excited and couldn’t wait to continue learning how to listen and continue practicing what I was learning.
He has been so faithful and I look forward to sharing more of my God stories with you.
LET’S CONNECT
How have you heard the Lord? How has hearing His voice increased your faith? Have you been told something that would happen in the future that drew your closer to Him?
I would love to hear from you. You can reach out through my CONTACT page or leave a comment below.