When do you ask God for a sign?
Do you ever ask God for a sign? Does He give you one? If so, take a moment and ponder what the circumstances are that cause you to think you need a sign from God and then ask Him for it.
It might be because you’re trying to make an important decision and don’t know what to do. Maybe there are two or three good choices and you have no way of knowing what’s right or what’s best.
You might ask God for a sign because you’re afraid. Maybe something bad has happened, or you’ve tried everything and just gone round and round in circles trying to decide what to do.
And maybe you ask God for a sign but don’t feel like He gives you one. We’ll talk more about that in just a few minutes.
Maybe, you’ve never asked God for a sign because you always knew what to do or you were afraid He wouldn’t answer. Or maybe you were afraid He would give you a sign and you wouldn’t like what it was. And then every once in a while, there’s someone who believes it’s not right to ask God for a sign.
Is it okay to ask God for a sign?
Well, is it okay to ask God for a sign? Is it ever not right?
I’ve been thinking about what the Bible has to say about when to ask God for a sign and God giving signs.
And in most cases, I would say: Yes, it’s totally fine to ask God for a sign.
Think of Gideon who asked God twice to give him a sign that he was really the one God had chosen to defeat the Midianites.
Ask and you shall receive
Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount,
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7, 8 NIV
Now you may be thinking: Hey James, Jesus isn’t talking about asking for a sign here. This is just a very general and broad statement about asking God for what you need.
You’re absolutely right. But if you need direction and clarity from Him, you should certainly feel free to ask God for a sign to show you what to do, or not do, as the case may be.
There are times not to ask God for a sign
But there are times when it is not right to ask God for a sign and Jesus makes this clear to the religious leaders of his day when they asked him for a sign.
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:38-40 NIV
The irony here is that Jesus had already given sign after sign, but the Pharisees refused to see them as such. Jesus had healed people of all sorts of diseases and disabilities. If the Pharisees couldn’t see these healings were a sign from heaven that Jesus was the Messiah, they wouldn’t believe any other sign he gave.
And so it was. When Jesus rose from the grave, as he has foretold in his reference to Jonah being in the fish’s belly for three days, the Pharisees still didn’t believe.
What are your motives when you ask God for a sign?
So, when is it wrong to ask for a sign and when is it okay? It really boils down to your motives. What were the motives of the Pharisees? Think about it for just a minute.
If you are genuinely seeking God’s guidance and help, it’s totally right and fitting to ask God for a sign, for guidance, for reassurance, for direction on what to do.
But if your motives are self-focused on just getting something you want, without seeking God’s will, or you really don’t believe God will give you a sign and you’re just tempting Him, you probably wouldn’t notice the sign God sends you anymore than the Pharisees noticed how Jesus fulfilled the sign of the prophet Jonah through his resurrection.
Your motives make all the difference.
What does it mean to ask God for a sign?
But let’s stop here for just a minute and talk about what it even means to ask God for a sign.
In fact, the first question should be: What is a sign?
You know the answer. Think about what function a sign plays in a store, on the street corner, or on the highway.
A sign gives you information. In a store, it tells you what something is and how much it costs. On a street corner it tells you which street you’re on. On the highway, signs tell you how fast you can go and which exit you need to take to get where you’re going, among other things. Every day you probably see hundreds of signs telling you something.
What does it mean to ask God for a sign? It simply means to ask God for information: what is this situation I’m dealing with? What’s really going on here? Where am I? Is this where You want me to be or did I take a wrong turn? How do I get where I’m going? Where do You want me to go? Are You sure I’m the one You want to do that and not someone else?
All these questions are one form or another of asking God for a sign, for information. It’s really a form of prayer.
When not to ask God for a sign
So let’s ask the question: Is it ever not good to ask God for information? Well, there could be times when asking God for information is selfish and even harmful.
If you ask God for a sign, for information, that would help you or make you feel justified in doing something immoral or illegal or harmful, it would be wrong. If you just want God to justify something you did for selfish reasons, it would be wrong. If you ask God for a sign in a public way in a public place because you want others to see you turning to God, it’s time to remember what Jesus said about people praying on the street corners.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. Matthew 6:5 NIV
As I said earlier, it’s all about your motives.
Why couldn’t the Pharisees see the signs Jesus gave them?
I want to come back to the Pharisees and their inability to see the signs Jesus gave them right under their noses.
Why couldn’t they see all the healings and marvelous works Jesus did as the signs they were? It’s because they had an agenda of their own. They wanted to hold on to the power and influence they had, or thought they had, over the religious life of the people. They had expectations of how the Messiah would come and Jesus didn’t fit within their preconceptions of how that would happen.
And many of the Pharisees had become very legalistic. Everything had to fit into the little boxes they had constructed.
If you ever have a hard time seeing the signs God is giving you, it’s a good idea first to check your motives. Then ask yourself if you already have things already worked out in your own mind how things have to happen. Are you defending the power and influence, or the position, or the opinions you have and are not open to new possibilities?
They kept asking for signs but wouldn’t believe them
The odd thing is the Pharisees kept asking Jesus for a sign. For example, when Jesus whipped the money changers out of the Temple complex,
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. John 2:18-22 NIV
I think it’s interesting that each time the Jewish leaders asked Jesus for a sign he referred to his resurrection in one way or another. Talk about a sign from heaven! But they refused to see or even admit that it happened.
How did the people see the signs Jesus gave them?
So, if the Pharisees failed to see all the signs Jesus gave, how did people in general respond? Pretty much the opposite of how the Pharisees did.
Look at how the people responded after Jesus fed the crowd of 5,000.
After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” John 6:14 NIV
The regular, every-day person could see and accept all the signs Jesus gave because they didn’t have all that mental and spiritual baggage the Pharisees did.
When they saw the healings and miracles, they thought of them as signs, for example, when Lazarus was raised from the dead.
Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him.
So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!” John 12:17-19 NIV
Here again, the people could see these signs as proof Jesus was sent from God. The Pharisees, on the other hand, when they saw the very signs they had asked for, rejected them and were even more determined to get rid of Jesus.
The signs were there. Not everyone saw them.
Now you may be wondering: Hey James, I get it. The Pharisees didn’t have the best motives in asking for a sign, and the people were more open to seeing and accepting the signs Jesus gave. But why is that such a big deal? It’s kind of obvious. What’s your point?
I admit I’ve been a bit repetitive here. But the point I want to make is that the signs were there. Some people saw them and some didn’t. It wasn’t that Jesus wasn’t giving any signs. It was that some people’s eyes were closed and they could not see them.
This is an important lesson for you and me. Do we see all the signs God is giving you every single day? Sometimes you may ask for a sign. Other times God gives you a sign before you ask. The question is: Do you notice? Do you see them for what they are, signs from God? Or do you walk right past them?
People used to say: Stop and smell the roses. I say: Stop and see all the signs God is giving you, all the ways God is giving you information.
The best way to ask God for a sign
So let’s talk about the best way to ask God for a sign.
The prophet Micah puts it this way. He’s talking about anytime you come before God, but it applies perfectly to when you come before God asking for a sign.
With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:6-8 NIV
When you ask God for a sign is about having a humble heart, seeking justice, and loving mercy. It’s about having an earnest desire to do God’s will. It’s about asking God for guidance and wanting to do the right thing that will bless the most people, not just yourself.
Sometimes, it’s about the realization that you’ve tried everything possible to find an answer or solve the problem and you finally realize you have no idea of what to do next. You realize you’re completely dependent on God to show you the next step.
I ask God for a sign
I had an experience in high school, when I asked God for a sign, that strengthened my faith and still reminds me of God’s willingness to give us the reassurance we need in a way we can receive it.
I was on a bus coming home from a speech competition. My dad had loaned me his gold pocket watch which had been a high school graduation gift from his parents. The last thing he said was: Please take good care of it and don’t lose it.
So here I was sitting on the bus. I looked in my suit jacket pocket where I’d put the watch. It wasn’t there. I looked in all the pockets of my clothes and my book bag on the seat next to me at least 5 times. No watch.
Then I remembered. We had run from the restaurant to the bus because it was pouring rain. I had had the watch in the inside pocket of my suit jacket.
I couldn’t find the watch
I figured the watch must have jostled out of the pocket as I bolted for the bus to get out of the rain. I kept looking for the watch in the bus seat. I got down on my hands and knees and looked under all the seats of the bus. No watch.
My friends wondered what was going on and helped me look.
It suddenly hit me that I wasn’t going to find the watch. I looked several more times in all the pockets of my jacket, my shirt and pants, and the book bag. No watch.
I finally gave up, and started to pray. I admitted to God I had done everything I could, which had not gotten me anywhere, and that I needed His help. He was the only one who could help me.
The thought came to me that since God was everywhere, He knew where the watch was. It wasn’t lost to Him. I told myself: Well, since this is a pocket watch, it’s safe in God’s pocket. This was a funny thought but it was very comforting. And I felt a sense of peace, that everything would work out.
I decided to ask God for a sign
But during the next couple of hours on the bus ride home, I began to doubt how I could ever find the watch. So I prayed some more and I said: God, please give me a sign that everything will work out okay. And right at that moment the little overhead reading light flickered a couple of times. It had not flickered at all on the trip and mine was the only one that did.
That was pretty reassuring, but then I thought it was just a coincidence and I was full of doubt all over again. I asked God a second time for a sign. And my overhead light flickered again, and all the other lights did not.
That was it. I felt like God was talking to me and that was my sign that everything would be okay.
I got home and had to tell my dad I lost his watch. He was quiet and didn’t react at all, which amazed me. It made me feel even worse.
The next several days I kept praying with the idea of trusting God. I just knew God was going to solve the problem. I didn’t know how. I just felt sure He would.
I found the watch where I had looked a dozen times
Three or four days later I came home from school and accidentally dropped some change on the floor. I bent over to pick it up and there in one of the side pockets of my book bag, which I hadn’t put away yet, there was the watch. I swear I had looked in that pocket at least a dozen times.
What might have happened was that when I took off my suit jacket when I got on the bus and put it on top of my book bag, the watch slipped out and fell into the side pocket. But I never saw it there. So, I don’t really know what happened, except that God gave me a sign that everything would be okay and it was.
I wish you could have seen the look on my dad’s face when I ran into the living room to show him the watch. He was so grateful.
Is it okay to ask God for a sign? Absolutely. Is it important to take an honest look at your motives? Absolutely.
Ask God for a sign
God knows what you need. He knows the information you need. He knows how to give you that information in a way you can see it, receive it, and believe it.
God gives us signs all the time to reassure us of His love, to guide us, to protect us. The most obvious sign God has ever given us is Jesus himself. Jesus knew this about himself. He says,
For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. Luke 11:30 NIV
And I would add, to every generation since.
Ask God for a sign.
With a humble heart, ask God to show you what to do next. With a sincere desire to do His will, ask God for a sign that you’re doing the right thing, or if not, to show you what to do instead. The more you see the signs God is giving you, the more you’ll be able to see even more signs He gives you in the future.
Photo credit: Geoffery Moffett
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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Bible References
Matthew 7:7, 8 NIV
7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 12:38-40 NIV
38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 6:5 NIV
5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
John 2:18-22 NIV
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
John 6:14 NIV
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
John 12:17-19 NIV
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.
18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him.
19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
Micah 6:6-8 NIV
6 With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Luke 11:30 NIV
30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.
