The Holy Spirit Speaks

How do you know when the Holy Spirit speaks?

I’m a guy who forgets birthdays. Aside from Joy’s and mine’s, more often than not, I’ll forget everybody else’s. I remember a time when my brother and I still rent together an apartment. Two days had past when I over heard him talking with somebody on the phone, greeting him belated happy birthday. I realized I missed his birthday by 2 days! And we see each other everyday. :-) Same thing happened 2 years ago on my Mom’s birthday. If it weren’t my brother reminding me, I would have missed the day without even greeting her.

Today, October 28th, is my Dad’s birthday. I would have missed his birthday, too, not with Somebody’s help. My daily routine is to wake up at 8 am. Around 7:45 am, I had a dream. The dream was about a voice telling me the date today is Oct. 29. The 29th?! That would mean I missed my Dad’s birthday, again! So, in the midst of my dream, I woke up, picked up my cell phone, called my dad, and pretend his birthday was today and not “yesterday”.

I greeted him and had a little talk. After we hang up, I wondered why he never said “Today’s the 29th, yesterday’s my birthday.”

As you know, today’s the 28th and I did not miss his birthday.

How do you know when the Holy Spirit speaks? If it’s too urgent you wouldn’t miss it. Not that He didn’t know the exact date today, but I think if He told me in my dreams that today is the 28th, I would have allowed what Filipinos call the “maniana habit” (“I’ll do that later”) and would have relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the 15 mins before I woke up, did my routine, went to the office, and totally forget about the day today.