How to interpret feelings or impressions

If you have told others about a major decision you are making, then you have probably heard this advice: "Follow your peace."If someone is giving you this advice, they are identifying the fact that God can speak through your feelings, and so when you have a feeling of peace, this means "Yes, go and do this."The feeling of peace is fairly easy to interpret, because it's hard to imagine a context in which God would give you "peace" and be telling you not to do something.But what about other feelings? What if you feel dread when you walk into a room? Or what if you feel compassion when you see somebody across the street? Or what if you get a rush of the Holy Spirit when you are sitting in worship? Are these feelings inspiring you to action as well?I discovered that God-inspired feelings can be misinterpreted. As somebody who is extremely driven by the plight of people who don't know Jesus, I feel deep compassion when I walk past lost people. Sometimes that feeling is particularly acute.  I used to assume that when I had that feeling, I should go do something about it. I would often stop and talk with the person or feel guilty if I passed.The result was that sometimes I might leave my family in the car and go talk to somebody without checking in with my wife or telling her what was going on.Then one night, I had a dream. In the dream, I was married to somebody else and I found out that the person's name was compassion. I woke up knowing that I had allowed compassion to become more important than my own marriage.But what was I to do? Isn't compassion a feeling from God? Wasn't Jesus moved by compassion and then into action?The answer is yes.But the reality is that Jesus' response to his compassion varied in different situations.In Matthew 14:14, he felt compassion for the crowds and healed the sick. He personally did something about it.In Mark 8:2-3, Jesus felt compassion on people because they were hungry. But he didn't go out and try to feed every person. He looked at local resources (food and disciples) and through a miracle saw these multiply to provide for the needs of the people.In Matthew 9:36, he is healing and preaching when he feels compassion for the large crowds that are coming to him. He doesn't dig in and work harder, driven by the compassion he feels. He encourages his disciples to pray that more people would be sent out. And then he sends out the disciples.Jesus' compassion caused him to respond differently depending on the situation. Sometimes he would take direct action, sometimes he would direct a ministry and coordinate a response, and sometimes he would mobilize others to go.Jesus said that he only did what he saw the Father doing. He knew that his feelings couldn't dictate his response. We can infer that he asked the Father a follow-up question of what he should when he felt compassion.Compassion is a feeling from God, but we can only know how we are to respond to the feeling of compassion by asking God a follow-up question about what we should do.Next time you feel compassion for a person or a situation, stop and ask God, "What are you doing here?" You might feel a sense to go and talk to the person, you might be inspired to just pray quietly in your spirit, or you might be called to mobilize others to do something about it. But if you don't ask, you might end up either missing out on an opportunity or doing a ministry that God didn't intend for you to do by yourself.What do you do when you feel compassion about a certain situation?