Supernatural Revelation of the Will of God

Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!
—Proverbs 4:5

Today we will look at three more biblical principles about signs and discovering God’s will for your life.

In the Bible, supernatural signs are always given as a confirmation, not a contradiction of God’s will. Once a woman called me and said, “My husband wants to leave our family and marry somebody else. Would you please see if you can talk him out of his decision?” So I called the husband and he agreed to meet with me. He said basically, “I know God doesn’t want me to be unhappy the rest of my life. So I am going to leave her and marry this other person who makes me happy. And even though this may not be God’s perfect will, it’s His permissive will.” When he finished, I said, “Have you ever asked yourself, what does God think about my decision?” Usually at this point in the conversation the other person bows his head in shame. He said, “You know, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to that. In fact, the other day I was driving around town, praying for God to give me direction about my marriage. I was approaching a stoplight. So I said, ‘God, if You want me to go through with this divorce, let the light stay green. But if You turn it red, then I’ll know I’m supposed to stop and return to my family.’ And guess what, Pastor? It stayed green. So I know I’m in God’s will.” Folks, God is not going to say one thing in His Word and then tell you to do something different. God never contradicts His Word. Don’t ask God for a sign that would lead you to do something in opposition to His will.

Fifth, in the New Testament, supernatural signs dealt with the proclamation of the gospel, not personal decisions. Sometimes Christians use the phrases open door and closed door regarding personal decisions: “God opened this door in this area of my life. But He closed this door.” But in the New Testament, those phrases only refer to the spreading of the gospel, not to making personal decisions. All the supernatural signs in the New Testament had to do with God’s priorities, not man’s priorities. In the New Testament, signs were not given for personal decisions like who to marry or where to live or what job to seek. They had to do with the proclamation of the gospel.

Finally, common sense usually trumps supernatural signs when seeking God’s will. Proverbs 4:5 says, “Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!” We have this idea that God’s will must be the most ludicrous choice we could possibly make—that only if it doesn’t make sense could it be God’s will. Now, it is true that sometimes God asks us to do something that doesn’t make sense. Think about Abraham, when God said, “I want you to uproot yourself and your family and move to a place I will show you.” It didn’t make sense, but Abraham did it anyway because God had clearly spoken to him in supernatural revelation. By the way, if God ever speaks to you that way, as long as His message doesn’t contradict His Word, you better obey whether it makes sense or not. But absent any special revelation from God, asking God for a natural sign is sometimes better than asking God for a supernatural sign.

Does God ever speak through supernatural revelation? He has in the past. He might in your life as well. But the thought I want to leave you with today is this: God does have a good plan for your life, and He will give you the guidance you need. He will tell you what you need to do each step of the way.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Putting Out the Fleece without Getting Fleeced”” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2008.
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.