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Transcript:
Hello, welcome to Walking in Step with God. I am Steve McDonald. Today we explore the topic “Look for Signs” as the next installment in our series “Grow Deeper in Faith”. I hope you have enjoyed the series thus far as we explore ways to stretch our minds, our hearts, and our spirits to grow deeper in our faith and grow stronger in our relationship with the Father.
Today, I’d like to explore how we can expect God to show up in our lives following our prayers. I’d like to discuss 3 ways that we can experience signs from God.
As beings with 5 senses, it is only natural to base our trust and beliefs on what our senses can experience. We believe something to be real if we can touch it, taste it, smell it, etc.. What I have learned in my walk with God is that He will reveal Himself in ways that may or may not directly involve our senses. In my experience, God has revealed His influence or His presence to me in very subtle ways, as well as profound.
Let us explore 3 ways that God can and will reveal His influence, His input, His guidance and direction – in other words, signs.
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Welcome back. Let’s continue our discussion of 3 ways that God will give us signs of His presence and influence. While there are many more than the 3 I share today, I would like to focus on 3 ways that I have personally experienced signs from God and provide you with my testimony.
#1 God heals the body and mind
God can and will heal the body and mind. We can and should ask God for healing of mind and body. We don’t always know or understand why God chooses to heal the body and mind in some circumstances but not others, but I do know that God’s will is the most important thing we should seek when praying for healing. I have witnessed healing following prayer, and I have witnessed times when no healing took place. In the case of the latter, I suspect there are reasons beyond what was known to everyone involved.
My personal testimony of healing involves the healing of depression. I have been diagnosed with depression and experienced depression for all of my life. I have taken medication and supplements and there was always relief from these treatments – up to a point. There was still a part of my experience that was a void of darkness and depression that treatments could never reach. This affected my mood and disposition every day of my life. I had many doctor visits and concluded that there was nothing that could be done. One day, at church, I decided to respond to an altar call for healing. I approach the altar, with tears flowing, asking God to take this depression from my mind, but that His will be done first, and foremost. Following that altar call, I felt something had been lifted. I struggle to explain it in words, but what blew me away was when I exited the church. As I approached the doors and exited the building, I noticed the blue sky was deeper and richer and I did not feel that dark void I had felt when I entered the church that day. That void of depression had been lifted away and has never returned to this day. I believe with all of my heart that God healed my mind that day. I believe He healed what the doctors had said to me was untreatable. I don’t know why God waited until my 50s to heal this depression, but perhaps it was so that I could share the testimony with someone I am speaking to right now. I fully trust that the timing of my healing was at the appointed time according to His will.
#2 God touches the hearts and minds of others
Another way we can see signs of God’s influence is how He will touch the hearts and minds of others. We all have free will and make our own decisions, but God can and will still touch the hearts and minds of someone to allow them to notice a new thought or circumstances in the physical world. For example, consider an HR recruiter that has 100 resumes to go through to shortlist candidates. I am not suggesting God will ‘make’ the recruiter choose You, but He may cause the recruiter to notice or come across your resume before others. He may influence the recruiter by introducing a thought or idea that happens to align perfectly with your expertise. In doing so, he or she observes your qualifications and you are shortlisted as a candidate of their own free will – instead of the recruiter shortlisting applicants and stopping before they even get to your resume.
#3 God speaks to our spirit
God created us and He created a means to communicate to us within our spirit. In my experience, I believe that the closer your relationship with God, the more He will allow you to experience this sort of direction from Him. I do, in my heart, believe it is one of the rewards for those who place their trust in Him.
My testimony is that I can recall a time in my life when I was lukewarm about the idea of God and I had one foot in the world and one foot in my faith. In hindsight, I recognize the ways in which God spoke to my spirit then and the profound difference in which He speaks to my spirit now. Today, when I do my very best to place my complete trust and devotion to Him, I believe God speaks to my spirit on a frequent basis, even daily!
I have so many stories to share about God speaking to my spirit. Here is one. One day I was in Fort Bragg, CA, walking down the path along the beach. The path is about 100 yards from the edge of the coast, which is quite rugged, so it is difficult to see the actual coastline from the path. God knows my heart, and he knows how much I love the ocean. As I was walking, I noticed a very small hill in the distance. It was much farther than I had planned to walk that day and I wondered why it was the only hill on this flat landscape. I would soon hear a whisper in my spirit ‘Come’. I have noticed this feeling before and I knew it was God touching my spirit. Still, I wrestled with the idea of walking that far. Again, and over the next 10 minutes or so, I would hear ‘Come’ as I continued to walk to this hill. When I reached the base of the hill, I looked up towards the top and I heard Him again, ‘Come’ and started walking up the hill. Mind you, because of the topography, I had no idea of the importance of this hill, but I was familiar with how God would speak to my heart, so, I was walking up the hill out of obedience and curiosity at the same time. When I arrived at the top of the hill, all at once I saw a vista of mind-blowing beauty that was not visible from the vantage point of the path. I was overwhelmed, and even emotional, because I saw that moment as an act of pure love from God. He wanted me to see the wonder of His creation and He knew the view would fill my heart with joy and awe – he knew that if He did not call me to that hill, I would have never experienced it of my own will. I wept tears of joy, recognizing what happened, and I sat on that hill, eyes closed, in prayer and silence, giving all of myself to God in those moments as the wind washed over me and the sound of the waves was all around. I absolutely could have ignored the call on my spirit (and I confess, I have sometimes done so in other circumstances), but if I hadn’t, I would not have experienced that amazing gift and story I can share with you today.
Wrap Up
Today, we discussed 3 ways that God will reveal signs of Himself and His influence in our lives. We learned that God can and will heal the heart and mind. We need only ask Him for healing, with a posture of yielding to His will and timing. We discussed the idea that God will touch the hearts and minds of others. God will orchestrate His influence with others in our world in various ways, always maintaining our free will. Lastly, we discussed the fact that God will speak to our spirit. God will use His ‘direct line’ to us to speak directly to our hearts. He will convey ideas, provide instructions, and even just convey His love to us in a way that He knows is best for each and every one of us.
When we turn to God and expect His response, we can trust in knowing He will provide guidance. That guidance may be yes, no, or to do nothing at all, however, He knows how He will reveal this information. When you pray, know and decide in your heart that God will provide signs of response in His timing.
Are you interested in discovering more about the guidance offered in this message? Learn more in the companion article Going Deeper with the Word: Look for Signs
