Do you need the knowledge of how to ask God for a sign? That is an interesting question that many people will like to get an answer to.
One of the major activities we carry out on earth, on a daily basis, is that of making decisions. We do it several times daily, touching different areas of our lives and that of others that are close to us.
Many times, our well-thought-out plans do not hit the target, even after much effort that we made to reach such decisions.
This is one of the reasons why we need God’s help when we want to make decisions over issues that are affecting our lives. Divine intervention can make a lot of difference in our planning and decision-making.
How great would it be if we know how to know the mind of God, or how to ask God for a sign so that we can know the exact thing that He wants us to do or not to do?
How To Ask God For A Sign (The Meaning)
The topic of how to ask God for a sign is a controversial one, both in Christendom and outside it.
While many people see it as a necessity, especially when we have been boxed into a corner by the issues of this life and we have no other places to turn to, if we know how to ask God for a sign, we can easily get a clear direction from Him that will lead us into perfect victory.
Some argue that it is a sin to ask God for a sign, it is an indication of faithlessness, and should not be encouraged.
The question is, what does it mean to ask God for a sign?
It is giving God a condition, or a way we want Him to provide for our needs, or making God do something for us based on our terms.
For example, a man looking for a marriage partner, who wants to be sure that the lady he kept having a feeling for is his wife or not, can tell God to give him a sign.
The man can simply pray to God that He should make the lady appears the next day with a particular color of a dress.
Or that the lady should enter the same bus that he would board to work the next day.
That kind of request might sound ridiculous, but some people believe that is how to ask God for a sign, and they are ready to wait patiently to see what their request will bring.
Sometimes they do get results that tell them that God had spoken, or revealed what they asked for, and sometimes too they got disappointed because they could not get what they were expecting.
Where do people who believe in this kind of seeking God’s help get this idea from? The answer is in the Bible, some people have used it successfully, at least we can see two good examples in the Old Testament.
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The Old Testament Examples
The Servant of Abraham. Genesis 24:1-67.
Abraham sent his most trusted servant to help look for a wife for his son in the land of his nativity.
He did not want Isaac to get married to a heathen lady.
The servant got to the land of Syria, where his master Abraham was born. He did not know anyone, or where to turn to, but he prayed a prayer to God that the first lady that will come to the well beside which he was standing, and give him water, and also give his camels water, should be the wife for his master’s son.
God honored the prayer, for before he stopped praying, Rebecca one of Abraham’s nieces came along and did the exact thing that the servant asked for.
It was a shock for him, and he marveled at how God responded so quickly to his request.
Gideon The Man of Valor Judges 6:1-35.
Gideon was chosen by God to lead the army of Israel to rebel against the Midianites who mightily oppressed them for 7 years.
An angel visited him and tried to convince him that he had what it takes to carry out the task.
Gideon could not be convinced even though he knew that it was an angel of God that was talking to him. Instead, he decided to ask God for a sign before he could believe that God wanted to use him.
He put a fleece of wool on the ground, and pray that by the next morning the fleece will be wet, while the surroundings remain dry.
When he got there the next day, he met the fleece wet and the surrounding ground dry.
He went further to ask God for another sign. He asked that the fleece be dry, why the surroundings remain wet. The next day he met the fleece wet and the surrounding dry.
God even went further to give him the third sign, by making him go to the camp of the Midianites soldiers in the night where he overheard a soldier telling his partner about a dream he had which his partner translated to mean Gideon had victory in the battle.
After this third sign, Gideon was finally convinced that God had ordained him to lead the army for the battle.
These are good stories that win the argument for how to ask God for a sign.
Looking at these stories, can we conclude that it is a good thing to ask God for a sign, more so when these two people did it and got answers from God?
The following points will answer the all-important question:
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Does God Want Us To Ask Him For Signs?
The Old Testament Era
In the Old Testament, people had very limited access to the presence of God.
The only people that had the privilege of going near His altar were the high priests, and they only did this once a year.
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit did not exist at all. The spirit of God only came upon some individuals that God used for special assignments like kings, judges, prophets, etc.
This made it very difficult for people to have deep knowledge of God, hence God sometimes allowed them to enjoy some special visitations which He never repeated elsewhere.
That explained the reason why the two cases about how to ask God for a sign mentioned above happened in the Old Testament.
That was the reason why God supported asking for a sign. It was a temporary solution that was used because the dispensation of the Holy Spirit was not yet.
The New Testament Era
Unlike in the Old Testament, asking God for a sign was not a common practice in New Testament.
Satan used it when he tempted Jesus after his 40-day fast. After the second temptation, when he asked Jesus to jump down from the pinnacle of the Temple, Jesus told him, “thou shall not tempt the Lord your God.”
Although that was a case of temptation from the devil, it is also an example of asking God for a sign because the devil wanted Jesus to prove his identity by making him do what he wishes.
Everyone interested in how to ask God for a sign is looking for how to tempt God!
The disciples of Jesus also used it after Jesus resurrected and went to heaven.
They needed to choose a successor to replace Judas Iscariot, who left them after betraying Jesus to be killed.
The Bible says they cast a lot to choose between two people which of them should occupy the office of Judas that was vacant. They wanted God to show them His mind concerning the situation.
They prayed, and the lot fell on Matthias, whom they appointed as one of the twelve disciples Acts 1:26.
The question is, did God choose Matthias? The answer is a simple no because, after the day he was appointed, nothing was said anymore about him.
While we kept hearing about other disciples, his name was never mentioned again.
Understandably, God may not condemn their action at that moment in time, when they had to rely on casting a lot to get leading from God, because they have not received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost came upon them in the Upper room and changed their lives completely Acts 2:1.
They never needed to resort to using a lot before knowing the mind of God anymore. The Holy Spirit was living in them, and God was speaking directly to their hearts.
That was why Peter was able to know that Ananias and Sapphira his wife, lied to the church when they sold their land, kept part of the money, and brought the remaining to the church as the full proceeds from the sale Acts 5:1-11.
Jesus Condemned It
Jesus while he was on earth, condemned asking God for signs. He said, this sinful generation is asking for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except that of the prophet Jonah Matthew 12:39.
He went further to tell them that just as Jonah spent 3 days in the belly of a fish, so shall the son of man (talking about himself) spend three days in the belly of the earth.
Jesus was telling the people that they don’t need to keep looking for how to ask God for a sign, because God had already given them one, and that is; his death and resurrection.
If he dies, spends three days in the grave, and resurrects from the dead, then they have the ultimate proof that everything revealed about God is true.
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How To Ask God For A Sign The Right Way
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise made in Genesis 3:15. He is the only solution to the problem of Adamic nature, which had condemned us into a life of sin and permanent separation from God.
Before Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he was communicating with God freely, he never needed to ask God for any sign before he believed in what He said.
That was not necessary because his nature agreed with God in all things. It is when there is a lack of trust between two people that they start to ask for proof of integrity.
Sin had moved man far from God so much that he does not trust God anymore, and has to start looking for how to ask God for a sign before believing in His words.
What a pity!
The death and resurrection of Jesus have provided a better solution to the “gambling” methods wrongly believed to mean asking God for a sign.
It has delivered us from tempting God from time to time in the name of getting a sign from Him.
The Death and resurrection of Jesus had made the coming of the Holy Spirit to earth possible.
Now the Holy Spirit can live inside man, and tell them when necessary whatever God wants to reveal to them, without using a lot, or any event that Satan can manipulate.
If you have been looking for how to ask God for a sign, stop looking and focus on Christ, the author and the finisher of your faith.
Surrender your life to Him by confessing your sin, and asking for mercy. Let him save your soul, and you too will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit – the seal of God upon every person that belongs to Him.
We should know that God has principles and that He will never bend His rules to make us have our ways, rather we are supposed to obey Him and do His will.
How to ask God for a sign is not an option for anyone who wants to please God, for the Bible says, the just shall live by faith Habakkuk 2:4.
If you have genuine faith in God, you will not look for a sign before you believe His words concerning you.
Jesus condemned Thomas Didymus, his disciples who told others that unless he put his fingers in the holes in Jesus’s hands and side, he will not believe that he was resurrected John 20:24-31.
Because of this, Jesus reappeared to the disciples when Thomas was in their midst and told him to come and put his finger in the holes in his hands and side, and stop being unbelief.
Jesus then made a statement that will crown the answer for those who are looking for how to ask God for a sign, and those who are wondering whether it is biblical or not.
He said blessed are those who do not see, yet they believe John 20:29.
Do you think a child of God should ask God for a sign? Have you any experience concerning this? Please give your comment below.