What to Do When the Holy Spirit Whispers to You
Many of us have a desire to live lives of purpose and meaning. The Bible is full of messages about loving our neighbor and serving each other and God. But when it comes to taking a leap of faith to answer a quiet calling, that is when things get much more difficult. If the Holy Spirit has ever whispered to you, chances are you were inclined, at least in some small way, to ignore it.
Those whispers can feel inconvenient, unexpected, and uncomfortable. They call us to projects and ideas we feel we’re unqualified to do anything about. But the genius of those Holy Spirit whispers is that they are impossible to ignore. They keep whispering until we’re left with one question: Are we going to spend the rest of our life listening or pretending we never heard it?
The spirit within us often nudges us toward a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us. It opens our hearts to the unseen and encourages us to seek clarity in the midst of confusion. Many people find that, as they become more attuned to these spiritual whispers, they seek additional guidance, such as preparing for a psychic reading. This process can be an enlightening way to explore the messages our spirit is trying to convey, providing a bridge between our inner thoughts and the broader universe.
Feeling Restless?
By the time she was in her 40s, Jackie Craig of Raleigh, North Carolina, had volunteered at her church and at a local women’s prison trying to live a life of purpose. As the mom of two daughters, Jackie felt like she was doing good, yet she kept feeling as if there was something more she should be doing.
Jackie knew part of the restlessness she was feeling was from hearing some of those Holy Spirit whispers. Although she was trying to listen, Jackie did not really understand what they were trying to tell her. She felt like the women’s prison ministry might have something to do with those God nudges and maybe something around furnishings. Jackie loved decorating but that made no sense. What was that whisper suggesting? Decorate the women’s prison cells?
In 2010, Jackie was once again volunteering at her church, this time hanging large portraits of people experiencing homelessness in the sanctuary windows. Along with the photography installations were banners that read What Are You Waiting For? The exhibit was designed to spark a sense of urgency around creating solutions like housing for those without homes, and those larger-than-life faces seemed to be pleading for her help.
As she climbed up and down the ladder, Jackie felt a more personal sense of urgency—what was she waiting for? She couldn’t shake the idea that she was meant to be doing something but she had no idea what that something might be.
Go to God
Although Jackie’s whisper felt very vague, it was also very insistent. One day as she was getting dressed for her Bible study group, Jackie decided she had enough. She remembers actually speaking out loud, “God, whatever this is, either get it out of my head or let’s get on with it.”
As she was walking into church later that same day, a woman approached her. “Jackie, I was cleaning out my home and I have a lamp and a toaster in my car. Do you know anyone who might need them?”
Why yes. Yes, she did.
Jackie knew a woman who was getting out of prison, starting her new life with few possessions who could use that toaster and that lamp. At that moment, Jackie’s whisper became perfectly clear to her. It would take months to create and years to fully grow into what it would become, but standing in the church hallway thinking about gifting a lamp and a toaster to a woman seeking a fresh start was the beginning of The Green Chair Project.
Jackie began asking friends and neighbors to donate furniture and items they no longer used so they could be repurposed for good. The core idea of The Green Chair Project was to collect and reuse essential furnishings to benefit their neighbors in need. But at the heart of the program was the dignity of choice. People are not made to take something because they have nothing. Just as one might in a traditional furniture buying experience, people choose what makes their space feel like a home. Jackie began with a closet at her church but that has grown into North Carolina’s leading nonprofit on sustainably-driven, furnishing essential services that to date has helped more than 24,000 individuals.
What to Do When the Holy Spirit Whispers to You
Jackie has come a long way since she climbed up and down that ladder in her church wondering exactly what she was waiting for. “Maybe I always knew what I would be doing,” Jackie said. “But it was never my idea; it was all God.”
Somewhere between the women’s prison ministry and the lamp and the toaster, Jackie finally understood and listened to her whisper. She never could have imagined the scale of what that would become, but she began with the first simple step—to match that lamp and toaster with the one person who needed it. And throughout the next 14 years, Jackie kept taking the next right step.
Trusting that faint, vague whisper strengthened Jackie’s faith about her own life. “In all these years, we have never run out of couches and we have never run out of beds,” she said. “If God can do that, I can trust him in my own life.”
Jackie knows she was not special or chosen. The Holy Spirit whispers to each of us. God is waiting to co-create to make this world a better place and help us lead lives of purpose.
What should you do when the Holy Spirit whispers to you?
Trust the whisper.
Take the first next step and the next. Stay on the path to see where it might take you. When the Holy Spirit whispers, take good notes. It’s only the beginning of a life you never thought possible.
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Jackie Craig’s full story, and others who have listened to their whispers, can be read in Kathy Izard’s newest nonfiction book, Trust the Whisper: How Answering Quiet Callings Inspires Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Grace (Baker Books, June 2024). Speaker and author of five books, Kathy listened to her own whisper in 2007 to quit her job and help build housing for those experiencing homelessness. Kathy believes the Holy Spirit is patiently waiting and whispering to each of us. Learn more www.kathyizard.com
