Based on the above I thought I would share a couple of similar items which have happened in my life.
I will try to keep this short but that's not my forte.
Should it be unspoken
Years ago, I was the youth minister for our Church. On a particular Wednesday night the Spirit came over me to talk to my Youth group about Sex. I had never discussed this with our leadership or any of our parents. I was scared out of my mind to be doing this unannounced; made worse by the fact that the woman who usually helped me with the youth was not there that particular Wednesday.
I prayed beforehand, delayed start of class in the hopes my helper would show or something would bring me to my senses. I remained convicted that I needed to have this discussion with these kids and it needed to happen now. I threw out my lesson plan and set loose on this taboo topic. This is the one and only time (outside of prayer) that I ever remember this group being fully silent. When I finished up it was obvious they weren't just being quiet, not a single person was moving; it was as if they had collectively held their breathe.
With the feeling that came over me beforehand and the reaction I received in sharing, I knew this was Spirit led; I just don't have that affect on people.
Dream/Vision
I won't go into the details because it is a sensitive story for someone at my Church. The short of it was that I was having dreams, both sleeping and while I was a awake. They were very specific dreams about someone who was seeking guidance from leadership in the Church. Where I finally realized it was a vision and not just some dream was that in the dreams the topic was always the same but there was a different teenager (that I knew) as the person seeking help. After praying about this I received the knowledge that the teenager was a teen in our youth group but not one that I knew.
I was very confused about why I was receiving these visions because if they were true the youth was already receiving help beyond what I could provide. I spoke with my neighbor (a fellow believer) and after some prayer he told me I was to be in intercessory prayer. I began to be in daily prayer for this unknown teen, eventually the visions went away and I felt that everything had been resolved.
God is good all the Time.
As time went on things became public in our Church about an event that had happened to one of the teen youth in our Church. I believe that this is the same teen I had been praying for from my visions. Years later I was pressed upon by the Spirit to tell this teen about my visions and my prayers. Based on the response this seemed to be something the teen (now no longer a teen) needed to hear about how God works for us often without us even knowing about it.
Her Story
When my wife and I had been married only a few years she told me about a little girl at her daycare who broke down crying and told her about her father being shot in front of her during a convenience store robbery. While I was heartbroken for this little girl and her family I didn't know anything else about her and never heard about this again.
Fast forward over a decade. I became plagued with visions, again waking and sleeping, of the shooting in question. I don't use the word plagued lightly, I couldn't get away from this vision in my head. I had no idea why this had come to mind after all these years and certainly had no idea why it was now attacking me in every quiet waking moment and while I slept. This went on for weeks and I finally prayed for guidance of what I was supposed to do with this. The answer I received was that I was supposed to tell this story and relate her father's sacrifice (which is how I saw it in the vision) to Christ's sacrifice for us.
I didn't know who I was supposed to share this with so I began formulating exactly how I was going to tell this story and present the lesson. I was planning on discussing with our youth pastor about presenting this to the youth group and then I was going to request to present to the entire Church. Before I approached our youth minister he approached my wife and I to be chaperone's on a youth retreat. I was still working on my story presentation so I still did not talk to anyone about sharing the story.
During the youth retreat the Spirit came over me and it was clear that I was supposed to share this story right then. I shared the story and it was far more powerful than I could have imagined.
After that, the visions went away and I now longer felt the drive to share. I know someone there that night, needed to hear those words.
Summary
You never know when God will use you. We should do our best to be open to the spirt at all times but based on my experiences I would say that God uses us whether we are ready for it or not. At times when I feel like I am working against the spirit (or at least being obtuse) I remember the story of Jonah. He outright denied God's will for him and God wouldn't let him get away from his responsibility. If it is God's will that you do something very specific, he will make sure you do it. Keep yourself open to the Spirit and you will save yourself a lot of heartache.
HeIsOnFirst