Those Unidentified Inner Promptings, Part 1

Pastor Chuck Swindoll: There are inner secret chambers within our being. We call it our heart, where the Lord speaks to us, if you will. He prompts us. Inner promptings. He urges, He moves, He convicts, He directs, He stops, He guards, He guides.
Bill Meyer: You've felt it, that quiet nudge in the middle of a noisy day. That inner whisper that says, "Wait," or "Go," or "Not this one." You couldn't quite explain it, so you called it a hunch. But what if it was something far more significant than that? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll invites us to slow down long enough to hear what God may already be telling us. In a world that never stops accelerating, where stillness feels almost countercultural, this is your invitation to understand those unidentified inner promptings.
Pastor Chuck Swindoll: Two sections of Scripture will be our reading this morning. First from Genesis 1, I'll read a couple of verses from that first chapter. And then locate Psalm number 139. Psalm 139. Following the reading in Genesis 1, I want to read a few verses out of that 139th Psalm. First Genesis 1, beginning at verse 26, and then Psalm 139. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them. And then Psalm 139, beginning at the first verse. Notice it is a prayer. "O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all." Verse 13. "For You formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works and my soul knows it very well."
Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into today's topic on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message, "Those Unidentified Inner Promptings."
Pastor Chuck Swindoll: There are times we just don't know how to describe what's going on inside. We have struggles that occur and because we are not able to get our minds around them, we're at a loss to know the solution. And so we wrestle and we wonder through this uneasiness how we're going to get through this, how we're going to make this decision. On the one hand, it looks good this way, but on the other hand, it seems wrong. And then something happens. Something occurs in the unseen realm down deep in our spirit that changes us, and we feel this is right and we go there. Or we are assured this is wrong and we don't. Amazingly, we look back on those times and feel so grateful that at the time of decision, that right decision was made. There are other occasions when we can't quite see what the Scripture is teaching. We're working on a verse or a section of the Scriptures and we can't, again, get to an understanding of what that's about. And so we pray and we wait and we check other verses and we fall back on what we have been taught and we go to books that we have or we talk to people we respect and nothing seems to break through. But then over a relatively brief period of time, the light dawns. And you see as you've never seen before. It comes to light. It's one of those "aha" moments. We call that insight. Why is it we don't realize that was the Spirit's working in an inner prompting, in a realization of revelation or illumination as we see truth like we've not seen it before and the mystery leaves and clarity replaces it? The first thing I described, we could call intuition. We just felt like we should do that or we should not do that. This which I've just described, we call insight. We get an insight into some truth that we had been wrestling with over a period of time. Can't tell you the times both of those experiences have happened to me. One more. You're experiencing a strained relationship with someone you've been working with or you're related to or you've known very well. And the strain won't go away and you can't seem to broach some way to reconcile the strain. It goes on and after a while it eats away at you and you maybe try to confront something or address something and it doesn't get accomplished. In fact, sometimes in doing that, you make things worse. And then it's like without your involvement at all, there is a phone call. And following the call is an encounter where there's reconciliation. Why is it we don't realize that that whole thing fell in the category of the work of the Holy Spirit? I want to talk about this today. And in doing so, I have to tell you I have never heard it addressed publicly. I've never heard anyone talk about UIPs. I've heard a lot about UFOs. In fact, let me just say this as a sidebar. I once checked into a hotel—didn't know it at the time—but a convention of UFO people were there. If you ever find out that that is happening, don't check into that hotel. Trust me. Every elevator ride, everybody in the restaurant, everybody waiting for a taxi, every long line to whatever was filled with people who saw things in the night that for the life of me I could not see. Right next to my room was a couple that was I guess the ringleaders of the group, so they had people in all the evening and sometime into the wee hours of the morning looking out their window. They'd sometime open the door to step out on the ledge. "Oh, look at that! Look at that!" I mean, one night it was about 2:15, I had to get up. I mean, if it was that obvious, I had to see it. And I stood there and I looked and I looked and I thought, "That's it!" But it was the reflection from the hall light under my door on my window, so I didn't see it. If it's there, I've never seen it. We're not talking about UFOs. We're talking about UIPs. Those unidentified inner promptings. Those hunches. Those uneasy moments that say, "Don't go there," or "There's danger lurking," or "There's harm." Or the other side—and it's so great when this occurs—"This is where you ought to go." Now, having said all of that, why is it we never give the Spirit of God credit for such things? I know I'm talking about outside our five senses, so this is extrasensory stuff. And so it's subjective. That makes it difficult to address, which may explain why I've never heard a message on it. But it seems to me, thinking about the work of the Holy Spirit, we have an incomplete series without addressing those unidentified inner promptings. And unless I miss my guess, some of you have them right now. You are on the verge of a decision and you don't know what you ought to do. You've prayed, you've checked the Scriptures, you've sought the counsel. And remarkably, in God's time, there'll be a breakthrough and you'll know what you ought to do. How does that happen? Why does that happen? My Bible is open to chapter 1 of Genesis. And in this chapter, we have, of course, the story of creation. And the climax of the creative week is, of course, the creation of humanity. He creates Adam, He creates Eve. And up until now, the planets are in place, the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night, and the seas are there and land is there and plants are there and shrubbery's there and trees are there and life in full bloom. But now there is brought onto the scene humanity. And there is something altogether distinct about the creation of the man and the woman. And you'll read of it in these two verses, 26 and 27. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." I've got both of those phrases underscored in my Bible. The plants were not made in His image. The animals were not made in His image. The stellar spaces did not bear His likeness. But the man and the woman did and do. See the next verse? "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Three times He mentions image, once He mentions likeness. There's something to this. Anyone who does a study of the creation has to pause here and let some of the wonder in. What is this image? Well, it is interesting when you go to chapter 5 that the image changes. Genesis chapter 5. By the way, when we move from chapter 1 to chapter 5, we have to understand that between the two, sin has occurred. Sin has invaded and polluted the human race. Adam and Eve no longer in innocence, they are now sinners and they are now distant from God and hiding from Him and all that followed that. But now their family comes along and notice the difference in the likeness and the image. Verse 1: "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God." We just saw that. Read on: "He created them, male and female. He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created." Watch closely. "When Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his, Adam's, image, and named him Seth." Something has changed regarding this image. Adam made in the likeness of God and Adam and Eve in the likeness and image of God. Now they have a son named Seth who comes in the likeness of themselves. Before I tell you the change, let me suggest what the image may include, though I realize in doing so it's a little presumptuous. Theologians write volumes on this. So there's all kind of controversy over what it would include or exclude. I want to suggest there is a capacity in humans not found in animals. There is an ability for God to communicate with His own people in a way that He does not communicate with animals. Animals have instinct. We have image. Think about it. There are inner secret chambers within our being. We called it our heart, where the Lord speaks to us, if you will. He prompts us. Inner promptings. He urges, He moves, He convicts, He directs, He stops, He guards, He guides. That's why I think Solomon writes, "Guard your heart, for out of it are all the issues of life. Watch over that spirit of yours." When God made us, He gave us body, but along with that, the immaterial soul and spirit. Animals do not have a spirit. There is no connection between God communicating with animals except by way of instinct in the natural order of things. But humans, it's different. Now we see when Adam and Eve have a child, it's in their likeness. He is in their image. One theologian writes this about that statement: "Sin damaged the created ideal, but that damage must not have been complete. For this reason, one may say that the image of God has been defaced, but not erased. It has been tarnished, but not destroyed." What are we saying? Only this. When Adam was originally created, he was created to have that sense of community and connection and communication with the one who made him. That broke down. It wasn't erased. It was effaced. Wasn't destroyed. It was damaged. And the same is true with us today. We live with a defaced and damaged image. Nevertheless, unlike animals, we are able to connect with our God in the inner person like our pets never can and never will. I know you think your pet's different, but just accept it by faith. Just take it. Oh, the stories I hear about pets, that's another subject. Psalm 139. Turn to Psalm 139. David is all caught up in the magnificent hand of God in his life. I love the way he writes this Psalm. It's fast becoming my favorite. "You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down, You know when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar." Meaning long before I have the thought, You already know it's there. You understand it. "You scrutinize my path." That's a wonderful translation of the Hebrew verb. "You scrutinize my path and my lying down. You are intimately acquainted with all my ways." When our kids were little, we bought them an ant farm. Ever seen an ant farm? Little plastic sheets on each side and inside is sand. And then you dump all the ants inside and you get to watch them as they move because they're doing that normally in the ground. All you see is a mound and little creatures that bite you on the feet. But in this ant farm, you're able to watch them as they're making their paths and their movement. That's the thought that comes to my mind. The Lord sees us just that clearly, in fact, more clearly. He not only sees our paths, He knows our motives. He knows our words before we say them. He knows our thoughts before we think them. And He's intimately acquainted with all of our ways. This is our Creator. Now go to verse 13 and you will move from that general fact into the womb of the expectant mother. Watch how the probe of God's spirit drives us to the very life of the embryo, the fetus. David writes, "You formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb." Very colorful Hebrew wording for putting together as if putting a piece of tapestry together. All the intricacies of personality, all of the things that make each individual unique, God watches over and cares about and carries out. And then we read, "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well." One of the old Hebrew scholars writes this about that statement, "fearfully and wonderfully made." Reflecting upon the marvels of the human body, even with his elementary anatomical knowledge, the inspired psalmist is in awe and wonder. As I analyze my makeup, as I realize how You put me together, there is a wonder. There is a fearful realization that I am different. A better word is distinct. I want to suggest the statement includes secret inner chambers within the capacity of humanity. Hidden capacities within the spirit of human being, such as the intricate inner systems providing for the reception and the understanding of divine information. All of this is foreign to the natural world. But to people like us, there is an ability to perceive spiritual things so that we can detect the hand of God. I realize as I address this, I'm in a realm that's, first of all, outside my expertise. For some of you, you would think it's in the realm of the paranormal. It could be called that. It certainly is in the extrasensory realm. But you cannot deny it. Occasionally we have a premonition. Sometime the premonition is wrong. Other occasions we were right. We have an uneasy feeling about going into partnership with an individual in business, let's say. The person may be a Christian, but there's something that isn't right in that linkage. And we're held back from it and look back on it later and say, "So grateful I did not go there." We fall in love and the individual meets so many of the things we're looking for in our marriage. And we anticipate possible marriage. And then those inner promptings begin to change. And we're moved in another direction. And even though the other person isn't, we feel the need to break off the relationship. It's an inner prompting that comes from this fearful and wonderful system of guidance. I love the way Eugene Peterson writes about it. Listen carefully. "Our lives, that is, our experience, what we need and want and feel, are important in forming the Christian life in us. Our lives are, after all, the stuff that is being formed. But they are not the text for directing the formation itself. Spirituality means, among other things, going against the cultural stream in which we are incessantly trivialized to the menial status of producers and performers, constantly depersonalized behind the labels of our degrees or our salaries. But there is far more to us than our usefulness and our reputation, where we've been or who we know. There is the unique, irreproducible, eternal image of God—me." He's right. He's right. Romans 8:16 says that God's Spirit testifies to my spirit, our spirit, that we are the children of God. Somehow there is a connection in that inner prompting that assures me I belong to the Lord. Now, some of you still have a little bewildered look. I understand. This is not an easy thing to talk about. But I think it's an important thing to address. I believe that, truth be told, we, as a result of not linking these promptings to the work of the Spirit, we devalue His presence at work within us. We have God the Father who has planned our salvation. We have God the Son who has implemented our salvation by dying in our place on a cross, giving His blood to cleanse us from sin. And then we're left with the Holy Spirit. For what? To link up with the Godhead. To live our lives before our God in an intimate manner. It's the image of God in me, in you, that makes that happen.
Bill Meyer: Maybe you've had some quiet inner nudges that you've been dismissing as coincidence or intuition. Well, Chuck Swindoll says it's time for us to reconsider. Because when we discount those unidentified inner promptings, we're not just second-guessing ourselves, we're underestimating the Holy Spirit. This is Insight for Living. On Monday, Chuck Swindoll will open the Bible to show us exactly what that looks like in the lives of real people who respond to what he calls those unidentified inner promptings. And a reminder that we offer a wide variety of helpful resources so you can dig deeper into this 12-part teaching series on your own. To access these Bible study tools, look for the series called How Great Is Our God at insight.org/offer. Well, summertime is here, and it's the perfect season for equipping your children with soul-feeding entertainment. When was the last time you placed a book in your child's hands that you knew, truly knew, was going to do them good? Well, The Overcomers is the first-ever Paws & Tales novel from Insight for Living, and it was written with exactly that purpose in mind. The author is the creator of Paws & Tales, Dave Carl. There are 300 pages of adventure, imagination, and gospel-rooted storytelling designed for the 10-to-12-year-old reader who's ready for something with real substance. The Paws & Tales audio series has shaped young hearts for years, and now this book carries that same mission into a whole new format. These are characters that kids already love, set in a world they already know, and the story they're about to discover may be the one they remember best. To purchase The Overcomers novel right now, call 800-772-8888. That's 800-772-8888. Or go online to pawsandtales.org. In addition to this brand-new novel, Insight for Living continues to offer our classic line of Paws & Tales entertainment. To see what's available today, visit pawsandtales.org. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues to describe those mysterious inner promptings of God, Monday on Insight for Living.