Is It Ok To Ask God For A Sign?:
1. This passage about Gideon’s fleece is a true story, but not an ironclad promise.
- Judges 6:36-40.
- God is under no obligation to answer “fleece” questions.
- Not all Bible stories are directly applicable in the sense of being able to expect God to do the same thing for you. Short of a direct promise, you can’t presume that God will do the same thing for you that He did for someone else.
- Just because something is in the Bible doesn’t mean that it’s a precedent for us to claim.
- Some misuse Scripture that is a story and treat it as a promise.
- Going back to Gideon, he was publicly looking confident, but privately He was very uncertain. What was in front of him was a huge challenge and there were many lives that would be his responsibility.
- It was a big step into the unknown. And Gideon was doing his best to obey, but was just looking for a little help.
- There are times in our lives when publicly we’re saying, “God is going to come through!” while privately we’re praying, “God, You’re going to come through, right?”
2. Demanding a sign can be an indication that we’re “putting God to the test.”
- Exodus 17:2; Psalm 78:18, 41, 56; Psalm 106:14; Matthew 4:7; Luke 4:12.
- Sometimes demanding a sign shows that we feel like God owes us something to get our obedience. And we won’t step forward until He does what we demand.
- It’s kind of like treating God like He’s our trick poodle. “Roll over!” “Bark!” “Here’s a treat!”
- We need to be wary of making threatening demands of God.
- Acting like a diva isn’t going to get you very far.
- Examples:
a. As a high school student lays on his bed: “God, if You’re really there, make this light bulb flicker.”
b. The man out of job: “God, give me a job by Friday or I’m done with You.”
c. The woman in a struggling marriage: “God, if You’re real, You will save my marriage.”
- How often is asking for a sign legitimate and how often is it a cover for not wanting to obey?
- Two images: a runner in the starting blocks eagerly awaiting the gun vs. a government bureaucrat sitting behind his desk with his arms crossed.
- The one speaks of someone eager to run the race, eager for the ok to get started.
- The other speaks of someone who will obey only after every i has been dotted and every t crossed.
- Often asking for a sign puts us more in the territory of the second image: “We’ll obey You, God, after You line everything up and let us know exactly what’s going on and how everything will progress.”
3. Signs are usually not enough to inspire belief.
- Matthew12:38; Matthew 16:1-4; Mark 8:11; Luke 11:16; John 2:18; John 4:48; John 6:30; 1 Corinthians 1:22.
- John 12:29 – Some here a voice; some hear thunder.
- Luke 16:31 – Lazarus – even if someone rises from the dead, they won’t believe.
- John 7:16-17 - believe and then it will make sense.
- Often people asking for a sign won’t be convinced when they see it.
- A sign may guide a willing heart, but it will rarely change a reluctant one.
- Several years one of my cousins had a scare. One of his two boys was put in the hospital after a growth of some sort showed up on tests. Was it a tumor? Was it cancer? This was on a Saturday and we were anxiously awaiting the next step on Monday. On Monday, they reran the tests and the growth was gone. There are the two pictures – it’s there in one, it’s gone two days later. My cousin, who hasn’t been to church in a long time, told one of our relatives that it was a miracle (a sign, if there ever was one) and that he needed to get back in church. He never went once.
The Way It Usually Happens:
1. Your step is a step of faith.
- Hebrews 11:1.
- Luke 18:8 – will He find faith on the earth.
- The definition of faith is that we step out without having everything in our hands.
- This glorifies God more because it shows that we trust Him and believe that He will come through for us.
- It starts out with us taking a step of belief while everything is not clear.
2. God only reveals what you need for the next step.
- Galatians 5:16, 25.
- Often God gives us “enough light for the next step.”
- In one sense, this is annoying because we think it’d be better if we could see the big picture. In a deeper sense, though, this is merciful because we’d likely be overwhelmed if we saw everything that walking down this road would entail.
- As a 15-year-old brand-new Christian, if God had showed me that one day He was going to ask me to step out in faith with no money to start a new church, my first response would have been, “I have to be a pastor!?” The second would have been, “I have to do what!?” It would have overwhelmed my new faith.
- It’s ok to ask God to provide what we need to be able to obey Him and follow His path.
- God knows our situation and our limitations and will give us enough to be able to honor Him.
- But that’s not the same as demanding a sign.
- We need to do what we know we should do. What we know is God’s will should be done by us without sitting around waiting for a sign.
- Examples:
a. Two college students are sleeping together. The girl decides that she wants to honor God in her life, but is scared of losing her boyfriend. She asks for a sign from God as to whether she should stop having sex with him. Well, if she truly wants to do God’s will, she doesn’t need a sign – God’s Word has made it clear that she shouldn’t be doing that. What she’s really hoping for is God to confirm that doing His will won’t cause her to lose her boyfriend.
b. Someone is being asked to do illegal things in their workplace. They want to quit, but want to have a job lined up before they call it quit. Yet they know with certainty that God does not want them working there for even another day.
- Sometimes we use “asking for a sign” as an excuse for inaction.
3. God will give confirming signs as needed.
- Acts 2:3-4; 2:41; 3:7; 4:31; 5:5; 5:7; 7:55. (Just a few examples from early in Acts.)
- Judges 7:9-15 is another example of Gideon getting a confirming sign.
- This will not be the same things for each person. They will not come at the same times in this situation. God tailors what He gives to the person and the situation.
- We have the Holy Spirit within us guiding us each day and His answers are individually created for us.
- Sometimes the “sign” that God gives is simply that things all come together and things move forward. It doesn’t always have to be something miraculous.
- Sometimes God does something that is clearly divine intervention. The day after we stepped out to start NewPoint, a “Home For Sale” sign went up just down the street from the parsonage. When we looked at it, it was everything we wanted in a wonderful little cul-de-sac at $40,000 less than every other four-bedroom house we’d looked at. It was a confirming sign that He was with us as we stepped out in faith.
- It’s worth noting here that the difficulty of what God is asking you to do is a factor in Him giving you confirming signs.
- Unlike Gideon, we do not get to choose the sign (except in very rare situations).
- We generally just need to walk forward and trust that God will give us what we need to be able to keep after it.
- God knows when we genuinely need a sign and when we’re just delaying.
- I should probably note here that not all signs are miraculous, as happened with Gideon’s fleece.
- Sometimes God speaks through His Word and He’ll give you a verse in your daily reading that so fits what you’re going through that you know it’s from Him. (My 4 a.m. in China story.)
- Sometimes God speaks through wise Christians friends, confirming what you’ve been sensing He is leading you to.
- Sometimes God speaks through circumstances and you find yourself in the right place at the right time.
- It doesn’t always have to be a miracle per se. It can be other things that happen, but you sense that God is in it.
- A cautionary note: I think that sometimes people read signs into things that aren’t there. We need to be careful that we don’t get so desperate for a sign that we’ll count anything as a sign.
- Examples: a man prays for a girlfriend and the next day a female co-worker calls him to ask about something and he takes that as a sign that she’s the one; a woman wonders if it’s ok to buy a new car and sees a TV ad for that car a few minutes later and takes that as a sign to buy it.
- Personally, I am wary when a sign lines up perfectly with what I really want to do. It’s possible that it could be from God, but I know myself well enough to know that I need to be cautious about finding ways to justify what I already wanted to do.
