A listener named Chelsea writes, and hello, Pastor John, thank you for providing so much

wisdom and encouragement through your answers on this podcast.

I've been thinking about how the Spirit speaks to us among things that are not necessarily

evil or wrong.

In those things, does God ever give us an anxiety or a fear in order to direct us away from

something in our lives?

What would you say to Chelsea?

Well, first, let me try to imagine some situations that Chelsea might be talking about, because

I'm not sure.

So I need to tell her what I'm thinking she's meaning.

So she'll know what question I'm really answering.

She explicitly refers to things that are not necessarily evil or wrong.

So the question, it seems, is not whether God could put a fear of sin in our lives, to

direct us away from sin, which he certainly can, but whether God might use fear or anxiety

to direct her away from something which in itself is innocent.

So perhaps she might have in mind, this is what comes to my mind, should I accept an

opportunity to become a missionary in Saudi Arabia, where you can be jailed for practicing

the Christian faith, or should I move into the inner city of a crime-ridden neighborhood

to live and minister there, or should I go hunting for grizzly bears?

I don't know what kind of things she might have in mind.

So her question would be in any of those situations or others like them, does God give us an

anxiety or a fear to direct us away from them, because those aren't his will for us, even

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