Billboards, Wonders, and Signs, oh my!

A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign!
But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
 Matthew 12:39

“I wish God would just send me a billboard.” That has to be one of the phrases I hear the most every year. People who want to do God’s will struggle to know what step to take next. “If God would just give me a sign as clear as the STOP sign at the end of the street . . .”

I get it. Too often, I get stuck, paralyzed because I don’t want to move outside of God’s will. Then I begin to realize that unless I’m in a season of “being still,” doing nothing isn’t God’s will either.

Romans 8:28 took some of the pressure off. That’s why it’s become my favorite verse. “All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” It reminds me that my job is to love God, and His job is to work everything together for good—even the things I get wrong.

Lately, I’ve been contemplating why we read about God speaking out loud to so many of his servants, yet so few hear the audible voice of God today. So, I started looking at all the times people heard God’s voice.

• “Don’t eat from the tree . . .”
• “You’re going to have to work the land, have labor pains, and crawl on the ground.”
• “Build a boat; a flood is coming.”
• “Move. I’ll tell you where when you get there.”
• “I’m giving you a son in your old age.”
• “Sacrifice your son.”
• “Tell Pharoah . . .”
• “Lead an army. 300 guys against 30,000.”
• “Go preach to a godless city.”
• “You’ll be the mother of the Son of God.”

It looks to me like God only spoke plainly when people were going to have to do something big that had never been done before. Difficult things. Unpopular things. Things that made life unpleasant. Things that took an enormous amount of faith.

Do You Really Want to Hear the Voice of God?

It made me wonder—Do I really WANT to hear the audible voice of God? I’m not sure I want that kind of responsibility.

After all, God had pretty high expectations for a bunch of people who never heard his voice.

Joseph interpreted dreams. Abraham’s servant had to find the right wife for Isaac. David led the chosen people. Esther became a queen. Nehemiah built a wall. Priscilla planted churches. Timothy preached to his elders. Each of these and more followed God’s will, but we have no record of them hearing the audible voice of the Almighty. I’m guessing they developed passion for causes people didn’t understand or felt nudges that wouldn’t leave. They probably just knew things they couldn’t explain, had ideas no one around them understood, and demonstrated wisdom beyond their culture.  

I think that might be as much as I can handle.

However, every person we consider great in the Kingdom of God had one thing in common: they fully trusted the Creator of the Universe and followed the commands of God passed down to them by the followers who came before them.

I’m convinced God won’t give us additional instructions until we’re doing our best to carry out the ones He instructed the pillars of our faith to write down for us thousands of years ago. If we can’t seem to worship Him alone or keep His Sabbath holy, why should we expect he will give us our next steps?

The Pharisees asked for signs and wonders, but they ignored the message of the prophets who clearly described a Messiah—a description so detailed the chances of any one person fitting all the criteria are astronomical. Mathematician Peter Stoner said If Jesus had fulfilled eight of the prophecies, the odds would be 1 in 10¹⁷, and if He fulfilled forty-eight, the chances would be 1 in 10¹⁵⁷. Jesus fulfilled more than 300, but the church leaders wanted more, and Jesus called them wicked and adulterous.

No More Billboards

We need to stop waiting for billboards and start carrying out scripture.

• “Seek first His Kingdom” Matthew 6:33
• “Go make disciples.” Matthew 28:19
• “Live by faith.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
• “You will do even greater things.” John 14:12
• “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.” Matthew 25:40

If we look at our lives closely, we’ll see plenty of wonders—times we barely avoided an accident, days when we felt unexplainable joy, seasons when we had enough even though the finances weren’t there, difficult days that didn’t go our way, yet a peace that passes understanding undergirded us.

I wish the path God wanted me to travel was more clear; however, I think Thomas Merton summed up our desire quite nicely.

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