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I’d like to talk about one of the many benefits of walking with God, receiving signs from God.
Over the course of my messages I have mentioned many ways in which God can lead and guide us and even give us a sign when we are trying to make a decision.
In this message, I want to touch on the fact that sometimes God just wants you to be aware of his presence, to know that he is near.
Even if we are in a close and intimate walk with God, we are only human. We can become flustered from events that are occurring in our day and we can even find ourselves overwhelmed with joy. In both cases, our loving God can show up in ways you least expect.
Imagine, that as we go through our day from the moment we wake up until the moment we are sleeping again, God is with us. God is watching over us. God is in the room with us always aware of every single moment in our day. How does this make you feel? Does it make you feel comforted? Protected? Covered? If you answered yes to any of these you are most certainly right!
I think it can really help us walk through life if we can find a way to keep in the front of our minds that God is with us at every moment. When we have turned into him and made a conscious decision to lean into him we can have such a fulfilling and rewarding experience. While God loves all of us equally – beyond anything we can conceive or understand, I believe we can experience that love more fully when we are intentional in our lives to stay close to God through prayer and our actions.
God is in the room with us always aware of every single moment in our day. How does this make you feel?
I’d like to share a couple of my own personal experiences to give you a glimpse into just a couple of ways I am certain that God gave me a sign. These experiences reflect me when I had a state of mind that was stressed and a state of mind that was in pure joy. Both times, I believe that God gave me a sign that he was near. Both times, I understand that skeptics could say (and have said) that I was just in the right place at the right time. That it was just 1 in a billion possibilities that could have occurred in that moment and it so happened. That there was no divine intervention whatsoever, but folks, I believe differently.
The first story I will share of God giving me a sign was in response to one of stress.
I don’t recall the destination I needed to reach but it was very early in the morning, while it was still completely dark and I needed to be at a certain place by a certain time. In the process of getting ready I was running a bit late and so I felt a need to be hurried. I recall rushing in a frantic pace throughout the house and doing my best to get out the door as quickly as possible. That morning, as I recall I had my morning prayer time and may have mentioned something about his blessing over the course of the day.
I jumped in my car and popped up the designation on Google maps to see the drive time and the drive time must have been either the exact time I was to arrive or possibly it was actually after the time I was to arrive. Whatever it was, it was so important that I wanted to get there moments before, so I hurriedly turned on the car and proceeded to pull out of my parking space quickly. Not necessarily speeding or pedal to the medal, but it would have been clear from observing me that I was in a clear rush.
Over many moments I transitioned from frustrated and flustered to calm as I slowly began to realize that God has a way of getting our attention.
As I drove down the street – committed to making up time however I could, a large male Mule deer completed its stroll into my lane very casually. It was revealed in my headlights taking up the entire lane close enough that I had to firmly step on the brakes to stop the car. I was not going terribly fast but it was abrupt enough that I felt my body lunge forward a bit.
So, this deer was looking towards me. Right at where my face was. The deer did not budge one bit from this large car coming to an abrupt stop no more than 20 feet away. Not only did the deer not budge one bit but it remained perfectly still. It remained what seemed like a very long time for an animal to be looking at me from the road. Over many moments I transitioned from frustrated and flustered to calm as I slowly began to realize that God has a way of getting our attention.
While he certainly does not have to – he loves us so very much and there are times he may intervene instead of simply allowing consequences of actions that were lacking in good judgment.
In the moments of growing calm, I became shrouded in awe at the beauty of this creature, the details of its ginormous antlers and the fact that in this moment it was completely focused on me.
In the moments, it occurred to me that this deer was between me and my rushing to my destination. This deer was ensuring that I stopped. This deer, I believe, was God’s way of reminding me that he is with me and that I forgot for a moment that I can trust him in ALL things. That I need not rely on my own understanding that I have to drive as quickly as possible through the neighborhood and the freeways to get to my destination. That instead, I can ask God to intervene in my circumstances however he sees fit. That, instead of my focusing on the possible consequences of my spending prayer time in the morning and then underestimating the time of my getting out the door on time, I need not worry and just ask God to bless the meeting, bless the outcome of my being on time or a few minutes late.
After about 1-2 minutes the deer turned away from looking at me and continued to stroll across the street – calmly and intentionally to unblock my path.
My friends, I believe it was not a random coincidence, I believe God decided to intervene and give me 1-2 minutes to reset, pause and remember him. So, I prayed and thanked God in my car for the reminder and prayed about the outcomes for my destination and I proceeded to drive in a normal fashion, not rushed – trusting God. Remembering to trust God in all things – especially when things are not going the way we would like.
The stars were just – mind blowing.
The second story is one where I believe God gave me a sign when I was actually full of joy. I was with my son at an overnight Boy Scout camp. Our tents were thankfully right across the path from restrooms and in the middle of the night I was returning from a visit to the restroom when I noticed something off to my right.
I noticed how a large open field appeared under the light of night. The moon was not out, that was not the light – but there were so many stars out, it seemed as though the stars were so bright that there was a hint of illumination on the gravel below my feet and on the wave of grass over the field.
There was a single tree off to the left side of the field about 100 yards from me and a blanket of forest off to the right side of the field. It was dark enough that you could only see the outline of the tree and the tips of the forest trees.
The field went on so far – as far as the eye could see. It looks like a sea of mustard yellow under the stars. The stars were just – mind blowing. You could make out the faint colors of the Milky Way and I felt in awe of God’s creation.
Let’s not forget the sounds! An chorus of critters – I heard frogs and crickets and a bunch of other things. They were all doing their thing – making a non-stop song in the night from 360 degrees. Can you picture it in your mind?
As I gazed into the sea of the field, I started to smile as my heart was filled with joy over what I was seeing. Even in the dark of night, there were signs of his creation all around me. I became so overwhelmed by the beauty of the sights and sounds – I was smiling until my cheeks hurt. Literally it was just so amazing to think of what I was beholding, I could not hold back smiling.
In the overwhelm, all I could think to do is thank God for all of his creation, letting him know how beautiful it was around me of all the sights and sounds. Praising him over and over again. Thanks and praise, thanks and praise. Then I would be silent and take in the stars over the clear sky – then I would smile, then back to thanks and praise.
This went on for about 20 minutes or so.. Then I started talking to God, closing my eyes in prayer as I stood. I reflected on how I felt he was saying ‘hello’ to me in a difficult time, how he made his presence known in one of the most stressful periods of my career. I will share the ‘God saying hello’ story another time in another message.
“I wonder how you will say hello out here..”
So, in awe of this beauty, this amazing beauty, smiling wide, gazing at the star-lit gravel, I asked him how he would say hello to me way out here, in the middle of nowhere. I asked, then I became a bit nervous if I am being totally honest, because I know he could do anything and so my mind started racing on all the ways God might say hello in this darkness.
As I was thinking about this, smiling from ear to ear I started to raise my head and open my eyes. What I saw I will never forget until the day I die and my heart is so full that I can share this experience with you.
At the very -moment- I opened my eyes there was a shooting star in front of me. A single bright shooting star. My friend, from the exact point I was looking at it was not off to the left or right. It was not up or down. It was not in my peripheral vision where I had to turn my head to see it. No, it was 100% in the middle of the view of my opening eyes. There were no other shooting stars in the moments and minutes afterwards – just the one.
At that moment, my heart became so full. I became so excited by what I just saw mere moments after I prayed those words “I wonder how you will say hello out here”. I cannot describe in words how full I felt. How cool it was. How privileged I felt. How in my face it was! How so precisely timed and placed it was. On and on and on. I was in awe and I just praised him and praised him and that experience multiplied my joy. Eventually, I made my way back to the tent, filled with awe and wonder.
The skeptics will say it was just one of those 1 in a billion possibilities of the right place at the precise moment in time of my prayer and opening my eyes. They will say there are 1 million shooting stars every 24 hours and I was just in the right place to see one. They will say the fact I did not see one at all in the 30 minutes of gazing at the sky was just part of the coincidence.
I believe that the almighty God, knowing that I would be undergoing this experience, directed one of those meteor fragments to fall into the earth at the precise place and moment of time that I would see it – high above the earth, to say ‘hello’. I believe that he allowed me to experience that so that I could tell this story 1000 times before I return home to him and touch the hearts of someone that isn’t sure if God hears them.
What do you think about these two experiences? Was it God or just coincidence? Gratefully I have had many signs from God. Some subtle and some profound. I will share more of these from time to time in my messages as I reflect on my walk with God.
I hope these two stories give you a glimpse of what it is like to notice God and to experience signs from God, not just when you need help – but when he wants to lovingly and divinely tap you on the shoulder as my deer in the road story or when he just wants to love on you and blow your mind as in my shooting star story. As you walk with God and lean into him, keep your heart focused on him and he will most certainly bless you with his signs.
