This past Friday morning I was checking my e-amil before getting ready for work when I heard the Lord whisper to my heart "Use your on-line banking to record the debit card purchases in your check register." Now I don't know about you but for some reason I always seem to put this off (not a good idea).
Anyway, I was obedient, logged on and discovered that someone had stolen our checking account number, made electronic purchases and even had checks printed with our account number and had stolen over $1,000.00 of our funds in less than two days!!
I was horrified to say the least.
To make a long story short; it took two hours on the phone and three hours at the bank just to clear things up, close all accounts and open new ones. I lost half a day of work and the salary that went with it.
Do you know what the saddest part of all of this is? We believe the theif is someone from a bogus organization raising funds for our local police department.
I won't mention the name of the organization just in case our detective skills have led us in the wrong direction.
I share all of this with you because I want to share some helpful tips with you.
1. Keep a close eye on all of your accounts.
2. Don't send checks to organizations who call for donations unless you are 100% sure thay are legitimate.
3. Just because an organization calls and says you have donated in the past; check them out before you mail them a check. I think I'll send a money order from now on.
4. Be sensitive to the quiet whipsers of the holy spirit and obey them without delay.
Anyway, I was obedient, logged on and discovered that someone had stolen our checking account number, made electronic purchases and even had checks printed with our account number and had stolen over $1,000.00 of our funds in less than two days!!
I was horrified to say the least.
To make a long story short; it took two hours on the phone and three hours at the bank just to clear things up, close all accounts and open new ones. I lost half a day of work and the salary that went with it.
Do you know what the saddest part of all of this is? We believe the theif is someone from a bogus organization raising funds for our local police department.
I won't mention the name of the organization just in case our detective skills have led us in the wrong direction.
I share all of this with you because I want to share some helpful tips with you.
1. Keep a close eye on all of your accounts.
2. Don't send checks to organizations who call for donations unless you are 100% sure thay are legitimate.
3. Just because an organization calls and says you have donated in the past; check them out before you mail them a check. I think I'll send a money order from now on.
4. Be sensitive to the quiet whipsers of the holy spirit and obey them without delay.
I'd love to hear your experiences of listening to and obeying the small quiet voice of the Holy Spirit.
5 Comments:
A little over four years ago my kids and I had gone to lunch with my husband. Before we left home I had been boiling ribs for supper that evening.
After lunch I was planning to head to another town to run some errands. But I couldn't get past the Holy Spirit's prompting to head home first. I could not remember if I had turned off the burner on the stove or not. Well, I arrived home to see smoke pouring out of the vent in the attic.
We had our dog and guinea pig still in the house. I tried going in the front door but it was too smoke filled. All I could think about was getting the burner turned off as well as the pets out.
I did manage to go in through the basement and feel my way through the smoke and turned the burner off. I was unable to get the animals out because it was just too smoke filled and my lungs couldn't handle anymore. My boys had run to the neighbor to call 911. They arrived shortly afterward and were able to get our pets safely out.
It took many months to get our home cleaned up and back to normal. The firemen had told us that if the pot had gone a little longer it's likely that the whole house could have exploded because of the smoke, and the grease that was in the air due to the ribs.
Even though it wasn't the smartest idea going into a smoke filled house, I know that the Holy Spirit had prompted me to go home that day.
Someone stole our check card number and used it to join a mate matching website. Funny thing is we are in marriage ministry. We were able to recover the $ and get it closed pretty quick. It was quite the joke at work though!
Zoe,
What a great warning. I can think of a huge number of times the Holy Spirit has prompted me to change something, and as long as I obey it is okay. It is when I override that voice that I get into messes. I am looking forward to our conference next week.
I am praying for you.
Charlene
Hey Zoe! Wow, what awesome stories of obeying that still, small voice! I have also had the Holy Spirit speak to me, what sticks out to me though, is what He nudged me to do recently. It's not a dramatic incident, something different. My aunt and uncle are in the process of remodeling their home, and were getting rid of their living room furniture. She called me and asked me if I would like it, of course I was excited! Our living room furniture is @ 12 years old(it is handed down from my in-laws)and as you can imagine with four children and a large dog, well I guess you get the picture! She suggested we come and look at it because the couch and loveseat were rather large and she wasn't sure it would fit in our tiny living room. Well, it was way too big for our home, and I was sooo disappointed, it was very nice furniture and in great shape! I really had not given the furniture anymore thought until the Holy Spirit put a family on my heart. They went to our church and had a large family. I knew them, but not really well and had not spoken to the wife in quite some time. I kept questioning that nudge from the Holy Spirit, I mean could I really call someone up I didn't know very well and ask them if they needed furniture? Couldn't that be considered an insult, questioning the state of their own furniture? Boy, did I wrestle back and forth until finally I decided it really had to be the Holy Spirit urging me to call, so I grabbed the phone book, found their number and called! I'm so glad I did! It turned out that they had not had a couch in four months, and desperately needed furniture! Everything worked out great, they now have had a living room makeover(someone else gave them an entertainment center the same week!)I'm glad I didn't let the fear of rejection and ridicule keep me from obeying the Holy Spirit! It's amazing, sometimes He warns us and other times He uses us to help others, He truly is our Helper, in every way! God Bless, April
ps-thank you for the warning, I'm going to be very careful from now on when I get calls from organizations!
Lesson to learned from this post ~ it pays to obey! I have cute story about how my widowed grandmother stopped a scam artist on the phone: She received a phone call from someone saying that they were with such and such charity and from their records her husband had made a significant donation of X-amount of dollars to them last year and could they count on that much or more this year. Without missing a beat she quipped, "Well that's news to me, he's been dead for sixty years!" The caller abruptly hung up.
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