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I can’t stress this enough on how important it is to listen to your gut feeling. I wanted to share what I have learned about this gift through my experience and personal findings.

I did not come to realize the true importance of the gut feeling until I went through cancer. It was my gut feeling from GOD that truly saved my life. I had incidences before my cancer that I later came to realize that these just were not coincidences, but “GOD incidences”, like a friend once told me.

If you wish to read more about how that gut feeling did indeed save my life, you can read my writing, “Breast Cancer-My Story.” This is on my second blog site. http://godgivesblessings.wordpress.com

You will also find two other stories I had written on my site called, “GOD IS THERE!” and “The Stranger.” You will see after reading these stories just how that the gut feeling of yours is truly an amazing gift given to us from GOD. It is unfortunate that many of us ignore that feeling, not knowing GOD gave us those gut feelings for a reason. I feel there are people praying out there for things such as having someone come visit them or to even to have someone come and help them. GOD is trying to answer their prayers by giving people those gut feelings to others to visit someone or to even help them, but they are ignoring what GOD is asking from them. So you see it is not GOD that is not answering your prayers but, HIS people, us, not being obedient to HIS word. If people truly understood this, there would be more prayers being answered the way we would like.

(Image Source: Buhay Party-List’s photo)

Now that you know this is a gift, please don’t ignore what those gut feelings may ask of you to do. Your gut feelings from GOD will never steer you in the wrong direction.

Sometimes when I share this with people, they give me a funny look, like I might be crazy but, I know what I have learned and I know in my heart that I am quite certain about all this.

Another experience that occurred to me actually happened many years ago. I had been taken by ambulance because I had been in severe pain and had been lying on the bathroom floor with stabbing pains, feeling as if I was being knifed in the back and chest. My husband, Martin was frightened and had called the tele health number right away and he had said to them, “Are you suggesting I call an ambulance?” She replied, “I have already sent one to your house.”

I quickly then called my parents and a dear friend to tell them I needed to go to the hospital, as I wasn’t doing well.
When the ambulance got there, they had checked my vital signs and it was not good, as they were very weak. The ambulance attendants then put me on a stretcher in their amblulance. My husband wanted to come with me for support but I said you better stay back because I didn’t want the children being frightened when they had woke up. I have four children and the oldest two had been old enough to babysit but, I didn’t want to put extra fear in them because of both parents being gone. I then tearfully said good-bye to my husband.

On the trip to the hospital, the ambulance attendant said, “Diane, this isn’t good. Your vital signs are not good.” We need to improve them. I then cried, “I am too young to die; I have 4 children and they still need me.” I was so terrified because I didn’t know what was going to happen to me.

A short time later, I heard a voice from the dispatcher over the speaker saying that they needed to pick up a gentleman from Ridgetown who was in his 80’s, which was having problems with his heart. They were to pick him up immediately after transporting me to the hospital. All of sudden all the fear I was feeling, started to leave me and I started to change my focus and started praying for that stranger and his family. I said to myself, quietly in my head so the ambulance attendants didn’t think I was losing my mind, “Please GOD, let this man be alright. His family still needs him. I only wish there was a way you could let me know if he is going to be alright and if he makes it through.”

On the trip there I began talking to the men about GOD. The poor guys had no choice but to listen to my stories because there was nowhere for them to run.
When I had arrived at the hospital, my friend, Amie who had a broken foot had walked with a cast all the way from her home, in the wee hours of the night, was waiting at the hospital, just to see if I was alright. She yelled out when the ambulance opened the doors, “Is that you, Diane?” By that time, I was feeling so weak that I couldn’t respond. The ambulance attendant said, “Yes, this is your friend, Diane, but she is extremely weak and needs to see a doctor right away.”
I was taken into the hospital where they had run several tests, to figure out what was actually going on with me because of all the issues I was experiencing at the time.

While being at the hospital I had shared stories with the nurses that I had experienced or heard about, that were about GOD. I know that I had left an impact on them because I could see their eyes watering up with tears. It then dawned on me maybe that just maybe this is why this was all happening to me. I thought it was quite possible this was what was meant to happen tonight and that was for me to talk about GOD with the ambulance attendants and those nurses because they needed to hear my testimonies, to strengthen their faith. I was amazed how I was able to open up and share about GOD because I wasn’t used to doing this before but, something in me, my gut feeling told me to share those words with them.

With GOD, there is always a purpose or reason for something and maybe that night that was my purpose to share the GOOD NEWS, making them each stronger believers and making me a stronger believer too!

My friend, Amie had later come and stood by my bed in the emergency room. To be honest, I have never felt so weak in my life. I felt like my life was literally being sucked out of my body. I was so terrified I would never see my loved ones again. I prayed to GOD begging HIM for forgiveness for anything that I may have done wrong in my life. I then asked if my friend would hold hands with me and pray that GOD would give me another chance to be here with my loved ones.

It was amazing what happened to me next; it was so hard to put into words, as I had this beautiful warm feeling flow throughout my body as we prayed. I then looked up seeing a sign in the room, saying “resus” and it right away reminded me of “Jesus.” I told my friend I know this is going to sound crazy but, I am not worried at all anymore. I feel like everything is going to be okay with me and I will be just fine.

A short while later, the emergency doctor came in and said that I was going to be okay but they had no explanation to what had happened to me. They said what had happened to me, never should have happened. I was soon discharged from the hospital to be reunited with my husband and kids.

I learned a few days later, after talking to my friend over the phone that she too had that warm feeling flow through her body when we had prayed together, that one night in the emergency room. Wow! I knew in my heart that I couldn’t have imagined it. Here was living proof of it.

A few days later, while visiting at the nursing home, I was walking down the hallway, just getting ready to leave to go and pick up pizza for supper for my kids, when all of a sudden I had this strong gut feeling come over me; It was telling me to go into this one room I had never visited before. I thought to myself, I have no time, I will do so another day but then as I peered into the room, I saw this beautiful wooden spindled bed and the gut feeling grew even stronger. I felt like GOD was luring me in with that beautiful wooden piece. Well it worked, because curiosity got the best of me. I kept wandering to myself, why is it that I am having such strong feelings to go into this room? I thought the only way I would get my answer was to feed my curiosity, to which I did.

I then knocked on the door to the older gentleman’s room saying, “I am so sorry to bother you. It’s just I had this strong feeling to come in and visit with you.” He then responded, “You are so lucky you caught me, as I have just gotten back from the hospital after being taken from an ambulance, on Saturday night.”(The same night I was taken too.) This couldn’t be just a coincidence, could it? I then got my answer to my question when I had asked him, “You aren’t by any chance in your 80’s?” He then said,” as a matter a fact, I am.” “I am 89”, he said proudly. Wow, I was in astonishment, there was no doubt in my mind that this was the man I had prayed for just a few days before. I had prayed to GOD if HE could somehow let me know that this person was alright and here I was standing in that man’s room. GOD had literally brought me to him.

I later became friends with this elderly gentleman that I had met. He was such a sweet lonely man, who had lost his wife and had no one. I began to try and make regular visits to see him and he would then share stories about the little wooden helicopters, he was so proud of making and talk to me about his wife and other loved ones. He has now since passed but, I thank GOD for bringing me in his life, even though it was for a short while because I know I made that man happy when I had come to visit him. Just think, what would have happened if I didn’t listen to that gut feeling? I know what would have happened, I never would have made friends with this man and he would have spent his last days being extremely lonely and sad.

I had another incident with my gut feeling. It happened just a few years ago, when I had been taking care of a 90 year old woman, every night in her apartment. It was on one of the occasions that I had gone to work that I had noticed some beautiful red chairs, sitting outside one of the lower apartments. I had noticed them several times before, but today for some reason, it enticed me even more, as red just happened to be one of my favourite colours.

On this particular day, I had felt so drawn to going to that apartment. My gut feeling told me to ask where they bought those red chairs, so finally I gave in to those feelings and knocked on their patio door. A cheery lady, with the same name as me answered the door and her and her sweet husband had invited me in. I had asked ” I hate to bother you but I was just wandering where did you get such beautiful red chairs?” “I would love some just like that for my front porch.” They chuckled, “Oh honey we bought those chairs years ago, we just bought some red spray paint and painted them that colour because we love that colour too.”

We soon became quick friends and I would visit them frequently. I soon learned that he had cancer and then it dawned on me, that this was not just a coincidence but GOD wanted me in their life. GOD knew how to get me there, by luring me in with my favourite colour of red.

I had shared my stories, my experiences and my writing with this couple. I later too learned that I also had cancer. They were so concerned for me. My friend, Andre, GOD bless is soul, had his cancer spread and died. He was a great man, no, an amazing one! and I am so fortunate that GOD put him and his wife, Diane in my life. It was after his passing that his wife had told me that both her and her husband could not have loved me any more, than as if I were their own daughter. She then told me something that brought me to tears. “Diane, I thank GOD that night HE brought you into our lives because my husband’s faith was faltering and after he met you, his faith came back.” I replied, “I, I don’t understand. I didn’t do anything special.” (I spoke through tears) “Diane, you did do something. He saw your faith, Diane. It is your faith that made him get his back.” I was so amazed how GOD had brought me in this couple’s lives. This experience has forever changed me.

I have another experience with the gut feeling but this time it is actually about someone else, one of my sister’s in fact. I had been sharing to everyone in my family the importance of listening to that gut feeling and now I had received a call from my older sister, saying she had something to share, that she was sure I would be interested in hearing. She was staying up in the busy city of Toronto, Canada because she was having testing done because she had several concussions,
so they were doing a study on her.

She had decided to go out and treat herself for a delicious meal. She said that when she had finished her meal, there were some leftovers but she was just going to have the waitress throw it out because she thought there was need of keeping it because she was staying in a motel. But just before she was about to leave, she had a strong gut feeling to save it instead and had the leftovers packed up with plastic utensils. She thought she could give this to someone, who was less fortunate that might need it. She had no idea that this was to happen sooner, than later.

Because soon later, she had got into a bus to travel back to her motel, as she stepped on to the bus, a lady yelled from the back, “Here is a place for you to sit right here!” My sister walked down the long aisle to where the lady had motioned for her to sit down and there she ended up sitting beside a poor, homeless man. He right away said to my sister, “I have just come from the hospital and I am starving, could you please spare some spare change so I can buy myself a sandwich to eat?” My sister said, “I have actually a delicious meal that is still warm right here, that I was not sure what to do with. You can have it if you like.” The homeless man graciously took the meal and took the plastic fork and devoured the meal right there in front of her on the bus. My sister, had then thought to herself, “This is what my sister meant. What she has always been talking about.” She soon realized that GOD had put this feeling in her head to do this to help someone and I feel in my heart that the homeless man must have been praying to GOD for help because he was so starving. This man’s prayer was answered because my sister did her part in answering GOD because she was obedient to HIM.

You see miraculous things can happen every day in our lives but to really make them happen, we sometimes have to do our part or those prayers that we pray about, may never happen.

GOD gives us those gut feelings for a reason, not only to help us but for us to be able to help others who may need our help.
So remember, the next time you get that gut feeling, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to walk away from it or are you going to be obedient to GOD’s word this time?

Written By: Diane Van Bommel

(pictures of chairs taken from a Kmart site)

(picture of poster bed, taken from Kijiji Vancouver)

(picture of ambulance and bus from Office.com)