Signs Can Move You Forward, Or Move You In Reverse
Signs are tricky things. Depending on where you’re coming from, the same sign can send you North or it can send you South. It is the same way with Signs and Fleeces.
Isaiah 7:11 says, “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights” but in Matthew 16, when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to ask Jesus to show them a sign, He said “…An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” So is it good or bad to ask for a sign?
The answer is, both! It depends on which side of the sign you are on.
Going Backwards
If you are asking for a sign because you are being spiritually lazy and don’t want to use your faith because it is “too hard”, then seeking a sign will backfire, even if God sends the answer. If you don’t work on your faith, then your faith muscles will atrophy. When this happens, one sign will not do. You will need more and more signs to keep you going. You will even need a sign to help you believe the other signs. I’m sorry, but the truth is that God isn’t in the business of helping you be helpless.
The Problem With Signs
The problem with asking for a sign isn’t that sign-asking is bad. The problem is that our faith won’t have a chance to grow if God keeps removing all doubt. If God just hands things to us all the time, our faith will move backwards. If we don’t ask from a place of faith, then even when we do get a sign, it won’t get rid of our fears or doubts.
This is what happened to Gideon. Even though God answered his first fleece, Gideon still had doubt, so he asked God to answer another.
I am not going to pick on Gideon and blast him for not having enough faith. Instead, I’m going to focus on God’s willingness to jumpstart Gideon’s faith by sending him signs. I believe that God answered Gideon’s requests because He knew that they would strengthen his faith. Gideon finally learned to trust his “God hearing”!
Another problem with asking for a sign is that the enemy has a better chance of fooling us. (Remember that the Pharoah’s magicians could also produce signs.) When we look for signs, we see signs that may or may not be from God, especially if we are attached to one side of the outcome.
Going Forward
If you sincerely need confirmation, and are doing your best to have faith and hear God, regardless of whether you like the answer or not, then you are like Ahaz who says, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.” (Isaiah 7:12). YOU are the one God invites to ask for a sign.
Here are a few faithful people that God answered with a sign, and it increased their faith:
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He showed a cloud the size of a man’s hand to Elijah and also earthquakes and fire.
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He sent Noah a dove come back with an olive branch as a sign that dry land had appeared. He also made the first rainbow as a sign that He would never flood the earth again.
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God had Elisha see Elijah leave the earth in a fiery chariot as a sign that he had received a double portion.
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God gave Abraham’s servant a sign that Rebekah was the right wife for Isaac by having her offer to water his camels.
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Jesus let Thomas touch his nail-scarred hands and the wound in his side as a sign that He really was alive
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God gave a sign of a star in the sky so the wisemen would know the Messiah was born
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John the Baptist saw a dove coming down from Heaven onto Jesus as a sign that He was The One.
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God answered Gideon by making his wool fleeces wet, and then dry
(I know this isn’t a full list, but you get the idea.)
My Sign: Snow In The Summer
Last year, starting in January, Mom and I were praying about something very important. By June we still did not know the answer. Mom said she wanted God to make it so clear that there would be no question about what God’s answer was, so her prayer was, “make it obvious, like snow falling in the summer.” Within half-hour, look what happened:
We could have doubted and asked for a sign: “If that counted as snow, please send a hailstorm”, but deep down we knew God was doing something special. Which side of the sign you are on makes all the difference.
