Watch for Signs of God

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Transcript:

Hello, welcome to Walking in Step with God. I am Steve McDonald. Today we explore the topic “Watch for Signs of God” as we continue our series ‘Experience God’ Please be sure to check out our other messages in the series as we explore all of the ways that we can experience God in our lives day to day.

One of the things I share with you in nearly all of our messages is learning to place your trust in God. Trusting God is a fundamental part of our walk with Him. I admit it can be difficult to do, especially for those who are new to the idea of faith. We live in a world where trust is earned and is largely established by evidence. When trusting others in our lives, we look for signs of fulfilled commitments. We look for evidence of follow-through. Over time, we trust those who reveal to us that they can be trusted. How do we approach this concept of trust in our faith? When we pray and place our trust in God, how does He respond to our prayers?

Today we are going to explore ways that we can watch for signs of God in our lives. Let’s discuss ways that we can observe our environment and the circumstances we bring to God for signs of His influence and movement.  While signs should not be a prerequisite of our faith, I believe God allows us to experience signs as an act of love for the faithful. In other words, the stronger our faith and belief, the more likely we are to witness and experience signs from God.

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Welcome back. Let’s continue in our discussion of watching for signs from God as He touches our lives.

Touching the Hearts and Minds of Others

The first example I would like to provide has to do with how God may interact with and influence others. God has given us free will, but He will at times intervene in a situation in such a way that will give someone an opportunity to change the posture of their heart. 

Is there someone in your life that you are praying for? It may be a prayer to rescue someone from a life of sin, pain, and destruction. It may be a prayer to ask that someone who is suffering from difficult circumstances be provided peace, tranquility, and direction.

In both of these prayers, God will not alter the will of the individuals involved, but He may reveal things to each individual in such a way that the heart and mind of the individual have a broader awareness and understanding of their circumstances. This broader awareness and understanding may lead to different attitudes and perspectives. The one leading a life of sin may gain awareness that causes them to reconsider their sinful actions. The one leading a life of suffering may gain awareness that causes them to have more peace and calmness about their situation. In both cases, God has introduced opportunities of influence while keeping our free will intact.

Providing Wisdom and Guidance

A second way we can experience signs from God is by receiving guidance and wisdom. When we pray to God, trusting in Him for guidance, He will provide us with direction that is best for us. Sometimes in life, we are faced with situations or decisions that we need help and guidance as to how we should proceed.

We can go to God in these times, asking Him to provide us with wisdom that only He can provide to us. I admit that early in my walk with God, I didn’t think it was necessary to pray to God when facing a decision or when I was dealing with a challenging situation. I was naive in thinking that I could figure everything out. 

I have learned over time that making difficult decisions without asking for God’s direction and wisdom may lead to outcomes that are not only unexpected but undesirable. God does want us to use our knowledge to make decisions, but there are times that we simply don’t know what we don’t know. It is in these times that I believe God is happy to help us with the unseen and unknown factors when making a decision to guide us in a direction that He knows is best for us.

Providing Everything We Need

So far, we have discussed the idea that we can watch for signs of God through wisdom and His influencing the hearts and minds of others.

In reality, there are a multitude of ways that we can see signs of God as He provides.

We can witness signs of God’s healing as we go before Him asking for healing from sickness or disease.

We can witness signs of God when He restores things we have lost. 

We can witness signs from God in the form of protection as we ask Him to protect us and keep us safe in travel.

We can witness signs from God when He helps us to have rest. 

We can witness signs from God when we ask for strength against temptation and He gives us the strength in real time to resist.

When we are in pain or sorrow, we can witness God’s peace and love come over us when we ask Him to come near to us.

These are just a handful of many examples of how we can experience God and witness His desire to show up for us day to day.

How have you experienced God? We would love to hear from you. Let us know in the comments.

Wrap Up

In today’s message, we discussed numerous ways of witnessing signs from God across many aspects of our lives day to day. We explored the idea that God will influence the hearts and minds of others by influencing circumstances and environments while ensuring we always have free will to choose. We discussed that God can and will provide us with wisdom and guidance when we ask. God does want us to use judgment and common sense but He also is happy to provide us with information that He knows will lead us to what He knows is best for us. Lastly, we highlighted numerous other ways that God will show signs of His presence. We can experience peace that only He can provide when we are experiencing pain or sorrow. We can witness His protection to keep us safe and out of harm’s way. We can even witness God providing complete restoration in our lives for things we have lost. All in all, there are an abundance of ways that God reveals Himself to us. Ask God to reveal Himself to you in your circumstances today!

Are you interested in discovering more about the guidance offered in this message? Learn more in the companion article Going Deeper with the Word: Watch for Signs of God