The Nudge of the Holy Spirit

Have you ever felt that Spirit-led nudge that pulls you to talk or pray with a stranger or friend about their spiritual life?

This kind of nudge is more than an intuition.

This is the voice of God inviting you to join Him in His redemptive work.

This nudge is God speaking to you through the Holy Spirit.

Detecting and obeying these nudges is one of the most important habits in personal evangelism.

Holy Spirit nudges look like….

I think the nudge starts off as a feeling or a thought that “pops” into your head at just the right moment.

For example, maybe you are talking with your neighbor and it seems a random thought pops into your mind: “Ask how you can pray for their children….”

Maybe you see a person sitting at the lunch table at school, and this feeling suddenly surfaces: “You ought to sit next to them and listen.”

Maybe as you scroll through your Facebook feed, an impulse rises up to stop the scroll and pray for a friend in the photo. You feel an urge in your heart to send them a direct message asking how you can pray.

No matter how you experience the nudge of the Holy Spirit, it is an invitation to take an action that has the potential to lead into an evangelistic moment.

However, our fears of evangelism often put the brakes on obeying those nudges. We have counter-thoughts in our heads that say:

“This is something I ought to do, but I’m afraid of taking that step.”

“I’m not sure this nudge is of the Lord, so I’ll just go on with my life.”

Yet the nudge from the Holy Spirit is the kind of nudge that grows heavier and more urgent as we wrestle with it. 

The nudging of the Holy Spirit becomes a sense of intense spiritual heaviness that God is underlining this person for you.

The longer you reflect on it, that feeling moves from hesitancy and wrestling to

“I think I have to do something and I better do it now.”

Through that nudging, the Spirit of God is inviting you to participate in the work of drawing a person to Jesus.

You might call it a prompting, a leading, a nudge, but its origin seems to be “not you.” It is definitely not your normal inner monologue.

Examples of that nudge

I felt that nudge to go to the swimming pool area of my apartment complex. There I found my neighbor. 

He started a conversation with me about his spiritual life.

My friend Jimmy felt this kind of nudge when he noticed a man standing outside the door of a drugstore. 

He felt compelled to engage the man in a conversation. 

It led to a conversation that helped that man move forward in his journey to faith.

Pastor Richard White felt this kind of nudge to talk with a man whose car had broken down on the side of the road.

It led to a conversation about who Jesus is and what Jesus can do. (See this video Can Pastors Find Time for Evangelism?)

Remember Phillip in Acts 8:26 and following? When Philip was wandering on the desert road, he felt that Spirit- given nudge to approach a stranger on the roadway. Read Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch.

Describing your experience

Have you felt that nudge?

How would you describe that?