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Don’t be afraid to practice. You have to practice if you want to become proficient at anything.

There are a lot of experiences I’ve had in the Lord when I really didn’t know what I was doing. Looking back, though, I can see I was unwittingly tapping into spiritual laws that worked. But there was one thing I began to do on purpose that helped me gain a sensitivity to and a confidence in His leading.

It began one evening when I wanted some fried chicken for dinner. There was a Church’s Fried Chicken about a mile up from my apartment, and I headed for the drive through window. I was informed by the man at the window that they had just repaired the fryer and it would be at least 20 minutes before they could get the oil hot enough to begin frying chicken.

I wasn’t willing to wait… My taste buds were set for fried chicken, and I wanted it now! BUT I didn’t know of any other Church’s locations in the city. (I knew of some Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, but that wasn’t what I wanted.)

As I pulled out of the parking lot I said, “Holy Spirit, I want some Church’s Fried Chicken tonight. I don’t know where one is, but You do… Please show me how to get there.”

I felt I should turn right onto the street, and so I did. I prayed in tongues quietly as I drove, trying my best to be sensitive to his soft inner nudges.

After about a mile I felt I should ease over into the left lane, and I did. Then, at a signal light, I felt I should turn left, and I did. I said, “Holy Spirit, which lane should I be in?” There was no response… but soon the street narrowed to two lanes instead of four, so it wouldn’t have mattered which lane I was in.

There were no further urges to turn, so I kept going straight. After a couple of miles I saw a Popeye’s Fried Chicken restaurant and said, “Close enough!” I turned into the parking lot, got my chicken, and headed home.

Pretty amazing, isn’t it? I thought so, until…

Two or three days later I was back in that area of town (where Popeye’s was located) and saw something that blew me away. If I had just continued going for another half mile that night I would have found the Church’s restaurant I had asked for. Was I disappointed? No… I was amazed at how accurate the leading had been… and became resolved to trust Him more.

In the scope of life the subject of my experiment was an inconsequential thing… but it was something I could “miss God” in and no one would have been hurt.  I think God likes it when we experiment to learn more about Him and our relationship with Him.

What can you experiment with?