I was twenty-four, lonely, and certain I had only one option. So when God sent a warning I didn’t want, I rewrote it into permission — and called it a prophecy. This is the story of the lie I told myself, and what it cost.
Discernment, Warnings & Protection
A reflection on the difference between judging a person’s soul — which belongs to God alone — and the loving discernment Scripture actually calls us to, from someone who remembers being the Christian others might have written off.
He rarely booms from the sky. He repeats Himself — a verse that keeps surfacing, a thought that won’t leave, a burning in the heart that says this is the way. Here’s how I’ve learned to tell His voice from my own.
Witnessing God’s goodness through the long unfolding
For years I called endurance faith — I prayed, but I kept my hands on the wheel. Then, in a campus parking lot on a cold February afternoon, my degree nearly finished and my life still hollow, I ran out of strength to steer. That’s where God had been waiting all along.
Learning to hear God isn’t about certainty or spiritual performance. It’s a slow education in trust — one shaped by patience, humility, and a God who stays with us as we learn to listen.
A clear word was given—but it wasn’t followed. What came next was a painful detour, revealing the cost of running ahead of God’s timing and the grace that meets us there.
A night of unexplained fear revealed something deeper. In the midst of anxiety, a name was spoken—one that uncovered identity, exposed what had been attacked, and pointed back to the peace God restores.
God spoke a promise over my life—but didn’t explain it. I thought I would be waiting for clarity. Instead, I found myself moving forward without it. Somewhere in the middle of that tension, I began to understand what waiting with God really means.
Sometimes obedience isn’t about moving quickly, but about trusting God enough to wait without trying to force His promises into existence.
Our mission work in Togo was done and our bags were packed when the COVID tests came back positive. Flights canceled. Borders closed. Quarantine stretched to nearly double. Nothing about our situation improved — and somewhere in that locked room, God handed us a peace that made no sense at all.
A quiet warning came before a moment I could not have anticipated. Only later did I understand that God was not stirring fear — He was offering protection.
A sixth-grade car accident became the moment I first recognized God’s prompting, revealing how God’s protection can come as a simple, timely instruction.
We picture discernment as goosebumps and dramatic signs. Mostly it’s quieter and far more useful than that — a steady knowing in the middle of ordinary decisions. Here’s what it actually is, and how to tell it from mere discomfort.
For years I blamed caffeine and hormones. Then, at two in the morning, God named what was actually happening in my mind — and once it had a name, I finally knew how to fight it.
I don’t mean spooky, and I don’t mean metaphor. I mean God still speaks, still warns, still shows up in the middle of ordinary days — and I’ve stopped explaining that away.
