I am amazed at the way the Holy Ghost prepares me for things to come. I am also very ashamed at how long it has taken me to learn that He is the Spirit of Truth and take it to heart.
In His word, the Lord Jesus Christ said, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will shew you things to come, " -St. John 16:13, Old King James Bible. That is the truth, and I had to learn the hard way to recognize and accept this.
A few years ago, when I was living in New York city, I needed to see a dentist. Now I did not know New York, and I knew even less about the dentists there. My spouse however, knew of a coworker who had just had dental work done. So I talked to the coworker, and from my human perspective, she had received very good treatment and fine dental work from an upscale dentist on Madison avenue. "What luck," I thought. But when I prepared to go to that dentist, I got a gentle nudging from the Holy Ghost which said, "do not go". It was not the audible voice of God which I do hear from time to time, but it was the unmistakable leading of the Holy Ghost.
My flesh told me that the Lord would not tell me not to go to the dentist. After all, I thought, I have done my research, and all indications tell me that I now have the opportunity to have my aching tooth taken care of. So I went. I went directly to the dentist that was recommended by the person who had had very excellent dental work done there.
My aching tooth was patched up and at the suggestion of this New York dentist, and at his suggestion, I had my four back crowns re cemented. All was well until I thought. However, two years later in a far away city and a distant state, I was at work when I bit into a snack and I felt something like a nail shoot through my head! "Ouch", I yelled! My head was on fire! I was in such pain that I wept much of that day and the next until I got an emergency appointment at a trusted dental clinic. To my utter dismay however, I went to that clinic only to be told that I had been horribly deceived!
"Who did this work," exclaimed the dentist while examining my aching mouth! She was horrified and disgusted all at the same time. And as for me, I looked at her with a growing sense of powerlessness and shame!
"The person who worked on your crowns", she said, " simply sawed the top off of them and cemented a substitute on top!" The teeth underneath the fake crowns had deteriorated so much that they could not be repaired. "I'm sorry", she said, "there is nothing that we can do except remove what is left of those teeth, we cannot fix them!"
It is now many years later, I am missing four precious molars, and I am still smarting about the way I ignored the nudging from the Holy Spirit and followed my flesh ignoring the leading of the Holy Spirit of God! I praise God, that I survived this painful lesson! I praise the blessed name of Jesus, my savior, and I thank him for all he has done for me. Praise God! I now know and understand the importance of attending and listening to the nudging from the Holy Ghost!
