Recognizing Signs from Heaven

In Matthew 24:24(NLT), Jesus Christ warned, “For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.” In this verse, our Lord and Savior was speaking to his followers. He was warning them first about dishonest folks who would claim to be Christ, and secondly, he was warning them about others who cleverly spoke lies that sounded enough like the Gospel that believers would buy in. This warning is extremely relevant today, perhaps even more so than it was thousands of years ago. Power and bottom-line profits are the driving motivation of many Christian leaders, and for some of those in which it isn’t, a pious or religious arrogance rules. As believers whose greatest desire is to please God and know His truth through the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be careful. Whenever there is as much chaos and confusion as there is today, we must seek God’s peace and recognize the signs from heaven that many have overlooked.

The bombardment of information and negativity in our time is unprecedented and there are a multitude of methods of which to spread it. Romans 12:2 commands us not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. God is speaking to us not about an external transformation, but an internal one. The most profound, powerful, and transformative action of Christ takes place within our own body temples. Colossians 3:3 tells us that our lives are hidden with Christ in God. When we start looking on the outside for action, we may end up tapping into the wrong source.

Jesus Christ told us in John 16:13(NLT), “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” The Spirit did not come in vain. He came with power—all power! And he came to dwell inside the believer. Jesus Christ stated his mission very plainly in John 16:13. It is to guide us to God’s truth. We are not the leaders. We are the followers. Who should we be following? We should be following the Holy Spirit.

Many have become disillusioned, confused, and misled because they have not done this. They were not taught that we are indeed a spiritual people with a spiritual Father who leads us spiritually through His Spirit. They were not instructed to listen for God’s voice and to learn the way He speaks specifically and directly to them. The first way that God speaks to us is through His Word, and He will never, ever lead us outside of it. Psalm 119:105 tells us that God’s Word is a lamp that guides our feet. Our responsibility as believers is to make reading and studying God’s Word a habit pattern in our lives. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher, Comforter, and Guide. He helps us to understand God’s Word as we read it. He is the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit will only tell us what he has heard from Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God.

But we must also know that our God has no equal. He lives inside us through His Spirit, and we live inside of Him through Jesus Christ. It is a narrow mind indeed that seeks to limit the way God communicates with His people. Everything in the entire universe belongs to Him, and He uses everything in the entire universe to affirm His truth. If an eminent danger awaits a person in an elevator, they will not see a warning about an elevator in God’s Word, because elevators did not exist in the natural realm when God inspired Holy men to write it. However, this person could very definitely receive a warning by the Spirit through a dream or vision. But there are other ways that God warns us of danger, and we often overlook them because we have tried to limit our unlimited God.

We live in a society where spiritualism and religiosity are rampant, and many people have complicated the simplest aspects of the relationship God desires with us. When we let Him lead, our life with Heavenly Father through Christ isn’t complicated at all. He leads and guides us through Christ and through His Holy Spirit, and He wants us to seek His guidance and wisdom in even the smallest decisions and choices that we make in life. He tells us in Proverbs 3:5-7(NLT), “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil.”

One of the greatest ways to follow God’s leadership is to avoid making decisions without His input. Seeking God on this level is how we establish our understanding of some of the ways in which He speaks through our everyday environments. When things are chaotic in our lives, and His peace is not easily felt, many of us ignore what is happening and chalk it up to ‘that’s just the way life is.’ 1Corinthians 14:33(NLT) tells us, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.” Our lives are supposed to make sense. We must understand that chaos and confusion are tools of darkness, and the enemy uses them to bombard us. When we’re disoriented, and not in a peaceful state, we make poor choices and judgments, and we often lose our secure footing in the Will of God when this happens. 

Chaos and confusion in our personal lives should be a wake-up call that we’re veering off the path. It’s a sign that we’re getting dangerously close to making a wrong choice or poor decision, and we need to take corrective steps to get back on God’s path of peace. Heavenly Father doesn’t cause chaotic relationships, situations, or problems of any kind. He continually warns us to pause, take a step back, and recognize the warning signs of chaos and confusion. We need to press into God in a greater way. We should ask Him what we need to abandon and release, and allow Him to guide and instruct us accordingly. Then we can continue our journey forward and upward in Christ and get back on the path to God’s peace.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Recognizing Signs from Heaven”, written for Christian Encouragement and Inspiration© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.