What happens when you sense God leading you in one direction … and you intentionally go the other? In the moment, this doesn’t feel like disobedience. The Lord’s guidance didn’t come through a flashing neon sign, after all. Yet, deep in your gut, you knew. Or at least, had a strong hunch that the unease you felt in your gut came from Him. That He was warning you of something.
And you disregarded that nudge and elevated the opinions and desires of fallible humans instead?
Would you expect heavy consequences? Maybe even to remain stuck in whatever unpleasant outcome your disobedience caused?
This isn’t a hypothetical scenario.
Around ten years ago, during a highly stressful time that triggered some deep unprocessed wounds, our family moved from our close-knit community in Southern California to Bossier City, Louisiana. Initially, the company that hired my husband placed us in one of those extended stay hotels. And while I was super grateful for the accommodations, they quickly became cramped.
Due to contractual agreements in my husband’s relocation packet, we also felt rushed to find a permanent home. The problem was, there were way more houses on the market than we had time to tour. I once read that our brains tend to shut down when faced with too many options. That’s definitely how I felt. Each home the realtor showed us increased my fears that there was another one, potentially perfect for our family, that we hadn’t yet seen.
Plus, the properties began to blur together.
Frankly, I was exhausted. From our cross-country move, trying to parent and home school while in transit and from a noisy and small hotel room cluttered with … a LOT. And so, when I walked into this particular home the afternoon of our second over-booked house-hunting, heard my husband’s approval, and saw the hopeful look in my daughter’s eyes—who ached for her own space and to finally feel settled, I caved.
Sensing, in that moment and again the day before closing, that this wasn’t God’s will for our family.
Fast forward six months, and my husband quit his job unexpectedly. (If you want to hear more about that time, you can listen to the Faith Over Fear podcast episode in which he joined me to talk about taking God-led risk here.) Thankfully, he found contract work. The problem was, this was six hours away. Plus, his new salary was considerably less than what we’d been receiving and had based our expenses on.
In short, to stay out of debt, we needed to sell our home quickly. Only problem, we’d purchased in a new subdivision in which construction workers were continually building new houses.
Why would someone pay full price for a lived-in home when they could purchase a new one, and influence the interior design, for the same cost?
We knew that wasn’t likely. Our only option, then, was to greatly under price our listing. The result of all this: We lost tens of thousands of dollars and experienced a series of additional setbacks related to my husband’s employment transitions. Unfortunately, I don’t have the space to expand on that now, except to say, this led to a difficult and uncertain time during which we needed God’s protective and providing hand but I, at least, feared we’d forfeited that care.
Oh, how I misjudged the Lord’s fatherly heart! Yes, we experienced a season of consequences—just enough, and for just long enough, for certain necessary lessons to land and important healing to occur. (That’s also another post for another day.) But God wasn’t punitive or absent. Not once. And, over time, He restored what we’d lost—financially, yes, but more importantly, some things we’d lost in ourselves and our marriage.
All that to say, when we hear God wrong, or harder still, ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we might fear we’ve blown things. We might worry the results are irrevocable. Yet, we belong to and are held and cherished by the Redeemer. Redeeming things isn’t merely something He does on occasion. It’s who He is. Redemption is an inextricable part of His character. Scripture also tells us that He is for us and promises to use all things, our mess-ups included, for our good and His glory.
That doesn’t mean He’ll respond to your mistakes like He did ours. But regardless of how He works through your circumstances, you can trust this: His plans for you are good! He also excels at turning obstacles into opportunities and blunders into beautiful testimonies of His grace.
How does this hit you today?
May my experience relieve any fears you have that God is upset with you or out to punish you. May it remind you of His incomprehensible, inexhaustible grace for you, His beloved.
If this post resonated with you, make sure to catch my latest (as of October 29th, 2026) Faith Over Fear episode titled, “Hearing God: How to Move Forward in Confidence When You’re Unsure” found wherever you get your podcast content.
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And to all, may you live as a deeply loved and eternally held child of the Almighty.
Hearing God: How to Move Forward in Confidence When You’re Unsure – Faith Over Fear
- Hearing God: How to Move Forward in Confidence When You’re Unsure
- When God Seems Silent: How to Trust He's Still Near
- When You Fear You'll Miss God's Will: How to Hear Him with Confidence
- Does it Feel Like You Can't Hear God? Practical Steps to Increase Spiritual Sensitivity
- Why God Might Feel Distant and How to Connect With Him More Deeply