Signs
We are not talking about billboards here unless, of course, God uses a billboard to give you a “sign”--you know, a visible message from our invisible God. You might have seen a movie in the past where a young lady believes in signs and gets involved with a young man who doesn’t believe in signs. Their romance fizzles, but then he starts seeing signs, including a billboard, which leads him back to the young lady. Ah! Signs! Believers and non-believers alike are fascinated with the supernatural.
As I started preparing for this little scribble in the sand, I found myself a little daunted. You see, signs can be a little tricky. When non-believers dabble with signs or the supernatural, they go down a path that we call the “occult.” Galatians 5:19-20 clearly warns Christians not to dabble with sorcery, and Matthew 24:24 warns us that false prophets will come along who can demonstrate supernatural and “deceiving” power.
Does God, though, communicate with His people through signs and wonders? The Bible is filled with stories of God, revealing His divine or supernatural powers to humans, starting all the way back in Genesis 9:13, “I set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for the sign between me and the earth” (NKJ). Don’t you just love a rainbow? Is it not still a personal communication to us from God, Himself?
I surveyed our choir one night, asking them if they believe that God speaks to us through signs. One hundred percent voted “yes.” With eyes closed and raised hands, two choir members also indicated that they might have been deceived—things didn’t work out according to their signs or their interpretations of their signs.
My friend Amy is among that group of people. She believes in signs, no question. Several years ago, her husband left her for another woman. She got down on her knees and stayed there for two years. I knew she was given several signs that he would return, but when I talked to her this summer, she chuckled and confessed that, in total, she had received seventeen signs. You see, she had written them all down and had just recently run across this list as she was cleaning out her closet. (Do you think this was a sign from God that I was to include her story in this article?) Well, I don’t have space to list every one of her signs. One of them, though, was a song she heard on the radio called, “You Are on the Verge of a Miracle.” She was so sure that God was trying to tell her that her husband was coming home that she actually called the radio station to get the identity of the artist (Rich Mullins) and bought the CD so she could play it a zillion times. Did he come home? No.
Ah! Signs! I still love them, and I still look for them. I guess that they are a “faith thing.” Of course, I had to ask Amy what in the world had happened to her during those rough waters of her life. Had she gone just plumb crazy? “Oh no,” she replied. “God was sending me signs all right--He was telling me that He was with me. One of those signs still has a secret meaning just for me, and something very extraordinary will happen. I am sure of it! When it happens, I will let you know. Maybe you can write about it in one of your columns.”
Ah! Signs! They are, after all, a faith thing!
“My sheep recognize my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
(John 10:27, The Living Bible)
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