Excuse Me, Lord? Responding to the Peculiar Promptings of God

I'd like the number for Dave Collins, please."
"Would you like the one on Kent Road or the one on State Street?"

Oh great! I thought. There's more than one Dave Collins in St. Louis. (Note: the name and location have been changed.)

"Uh, the one on Kent Road," I ventured.

"Hold for the number."

A moment later, with sweaty palms I began to dial. "I sure hope I have the right guy," I muttered as the phone began to ring.

"Hello?"

"Um, yes, hello. Is this Dave Collins?"

"Yes it is."

"Well, you don't know me, but God has really put you on my heart. I've been praying for you."
There was a brief pause, but thankfully he didn't hang up!

Dave is a high-profile person in the Christian community. At the time of this phone call, he was going through an especially difficult time and needed not only prayer support but encouragement. Calling Dave was my first experience with responding to a peculiar prompting from God. Although it was a hard thing for me to do, I've never regretted it. That phone call led to several years of prayer support and mutual encouragement.

Listening is perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of prayer-especially when God seems to speak things that make the cerebral part of our beings uncomfortable. But as we look into the Word of God, we see that unusual promptings are nothing new. In fact, for those who walked with God in an intimate way, they seemed to be the norm.

Just A Little Peculiar

Look at the life of Isaiah, for instance. Don't you think it was considered a tad unusual for him to walk naked and barefoot for three years? What's the scriptural basis for such "wanton" behavior? What did his neighbors think? Were the followers of Yahweh understanding? Or did they think he was crazy? You may say, "Well, he was an Old Testament prophet." It's true: our culture is drastically different from Old Testament times. But even back then his behavior was, well, peculiar.