When I was younger, I was always oblivious to the signs from God. As I became more mature in Christ with the help of a Christian mentor about 13 years ago, I began to see all the signs that God would put in my life and honestly it shocked me how many signs God gives us. I think the hardest part about being a non-believer or being a young believer in Christ is that you don’t see the warning signs that God puts in your life until it’s too late. And there are signs everywhere! They begin gradually and become more aggressive before He allows us to be “sifted like wheat” with the evil one (Luke 22:31)
What Do Gods Signs Look Like?
I never understood that God communicates with us in our daily life until I was made aware of the fact that the Holy Spirit always wants to be in a relationship and in contact with us. What I learned is that the more you read the Bible and the more that you seek out God, the more you hear His voice and the more you see His signs. Looking back at my life I now know what those signs look like and I can recognize them immediately without fail. There are so many things that I completely disregarded as bad luck, “stupid people” or weird circumstances in my life that are very clearly part of God trying to correct me. God uses people, circumstances, and situations to correct us because he wants us to repent and move away from our sin. And He continues to show us signs and put obstacles and roadblocks in our life until we change. Eventually if we do not change, he allows us to be given over to the sin that we desire and/or are committing. I will give you an example. I referenced in the blog from the past, that I didn’t think God‘s timing was happening fast enough for me so I pushed the issue and took it upon myself to travel a ton for work and do everything I could to land these “whale” clients. God did not want me doing that and He began to provide subtle hints to me about that. First, He would alert me to situations that I found myself in such as things that my client were doing that God would not support. Then it became more aggressive. He would put me in position where my integrity and things I promised to never do would be in play. I had to choose, and the choice wasn’t always easy. Then God got even more aggressive with His signs. He began to allow it to creep into my personal life where I had to choose between sitting at dinner with my family or taking that phone call from the needy client who thought they owned you because they paid you some money. Pay attention, because this sign cannot be overlooked as it happens daily to people who choose to “toil for their daily wages”(Proverbs 23:4). If it is God’s will, your family will not suffer and say things like “I wish they would put down the phone” and spend time with me, or that “they didn’t have to travel away from me”. I later got this message so deeply that I made me give up everything I had in those towns and moved on for the good of my family. Before I did that however, the signs got stronger. He would put me in a place where I saw my family and wife suffering from fatigue and where I hated being on the road and disliked being at home because all I would hear at home was how being on the road was making everyone miserable. Gods’ signs were neon or LED bright at this point and I still didn’t see it because my rationale was that my family traveled with me for work and it “didn’t matter because it was what I felt called to do and we could afford to do it”. I continued to ignore signs until God said enough and allowed me to be turned over to the desire of what I continued to keep doing (Romans1:1-31). It hasn’t ended well for me. In the south here I learned a new saying; “I need to keep my stupid on a leash”. For you maybe it isn’t about signs of you being on the road. Maybe it comes in the from a car being damaged or totaled when you are in a place that God doesn’t approve you being at. It may come in the form of your kids or your spouse calling at the most inopportune time when you were unable to speak to them because it will shine a light on your sin, where you are, or what you are doing. It may come in the form of a delayed or cancelled flight when you are on a trip and being somewhere that God doesn’t want you to be(I had dozens and dozens of those). Maybe it comes in the form of losing battles and things going against you as you continue to listen to voices that guide you in life that are not from the Lord. What person are you listening to over God? What signs have you been ignoring in your life? God‘s prosperity will never cause your children or your spouse to suffer and he will never put you in a position where you feel like you need to lie or cover up what you are doing if it is righteous. If those things are happening, God is giving you a sign and allowing you time to change your mind and stop doing what you’re doing. If you are like me and continue to ignore those signs, eventually God will turn you over to whatever sin you are committing, and I can speak from experience, the evil one will destroy everything including the things that you covet and try to destroy the things that you love like your family because if it. (Romans 1:1-31-last 7 verses are the most detailed)
Summary
In summary you should be looking for God’s signs. God wants us to see His miraculous signs and wonders so that we turn from our sins, our behaviors that harm and scar those that we love and He wants us to forgive those that harm us. The Good news is that if “our stupid on a leash” is too strong for us to overcome, Our God is full of redemption and Grace (John3:16) which allows us to repent, ask for forgiveness and to start over new. My hope for everyone who reads this is that God’s Grace and Mercy is met with your desire to follow the Lord
Romans 1:1-24-25
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
