It is not a thing 

That feeling you call a ‘thing’, as in, “something told me to do this...”, “something made me look behind just in time...” is not just anything; it is the Holy Spirit.

You may be shocked, but the Spirit of God can talk to any of us, as long as our own spirits are ready and yield to Him. It is the Spirit of God that will wake you up in the middle of the night to go check on your children, only to find one of them in distress.

The Holy Spirit will make you feel terrible as soon as you are done treating someone really shabbily, and you will remain unsettled until you apologise.

Some will call it a sixth sense; a random thought...

The Spirit of God, I have come to realise, works in many ways. Some people will even hear a clear voice. Others will get instructions through dreams. Others yet, will feel an unshakable conviction, and others will find themselves moving involuntarily out of harm’s way. It is all God.

I remember the day I took my mother shopping on Benedicto Kiwanuka Street, a part of the city I fear most, but she wanted to buy bulky things, so she needed my car.

I drove her to the shop and parked outside, remaining in the hot car with both front windows down. Soon, a smartly dressed man materialized at my window, telling me I had parked wrongly and needed to park properly.

When I turned to talk to him, my finger reflexively found the central lock and started pulling up the passenger side window.
Next thing I saw was a burly man struggling to free his chest from my car, as the closing window trapped his torso inside when he tried to steal my phone!

Of course my reflex was to release him, fearing he would break the glass. When I turned back to the man I had been talking to earlier, he had also disappeared.

I later realized that the Holy Spirit dictated my hand’s actions, even in my absent-minded status. Don’t you have examples like that?

Or the time I was driving on a terrible backroad in Namungoona at 9 pm to avoid traffic jam, only to find myself stopped and placed at gunpoint by carjackers.

How my foot found the accelerator and I galloped through the potholes to the main road, I can never explain. That again was the Spirit of God, who is available to all of us, as long as we are sensitive and yield to His workings.

malita@observer.ug