Believing is Seeing

We often pray for second best when we pray for signs and fail to live by the inward guidance of His Spirit. I think we somehow ignore the fact that God leads from within and may or may not grant to us the signs which we speak. Matthew and Luke record some strong words from the lips of Savior that address this issue, but are in many ways misunderstood and wrongly applied to our prayer life.

Matt 12:38-41 (ESV)
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." 39 But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Luke 11:14-16, 29 (ESV)
14 Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. 15 But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons," 16 while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.

29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, "This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

Before diving into the text, we must be reminded that a request for a sign is not necessarily wrong in itself. God gave Abraham a sign to confirm his faith in Genesis 15. God also gave Gideon a sign to confirm his call to deliver Israel in Judges 6:36-40. So if asking for a sign is not a sin, why did Jesus speak as He did as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew an Luke? I think that if we read His statements within the context of the entire chapters in which they are foun we will come to understand that Jesus was unwilling to give a sign to those who would not believe even if He did. The phrase “An evil and adulterous generation…” is to applied to the Jews who in this very chapter accredited Jesus’ miracle of casting out demons to the work of Satan. God often referred to the Jews as adulterous for not being obedient to His laws and forsaking their relationship. We also may understand His words within the truth that a miracle may not convince the one who rejects the Word of God. Pause for a moment and read the story Jesus tells about a certain rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Pay close attention to verse 31.

Other factors that may be applied to the words of Jesus are, the reality of false miracles and the truth that those who sought a sign were most likely seeking another means by which to accuse Jesus. This was the common practice of the Pharisees and Saducees of Jesus day.

So if the request for a sign is not sinful nor adulterous why would I suggest we go about this another way? I have discovered that a better way of having Christ convince the non-believer and lead the Christian, is from within his spirit. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock”. Many use this saying of Jesus in a wonderful but misinformed manner. They do so by not recognizing that Jesus was not speaking to non-believers, trying to call them to salvation. However the context of the statement is Jesus speaking to believers in the church of Laodicea who have become blind to their spiritual poverty due to their material prosperity. Context is Rev. 3:14-22 andd through the context we learn that Jesus speaks to His people from within. It has been my experience that this is a more sure way to follow our Lord. Speaking of the Holy Spirit guiding us from within, Thomas Kelly writes, “Protestants emphasis, beginning so nobly in the early Luther, has grown externally rationalistic, humanistic, and service-minded.” (A Testament of Devotion 1941)p33.

Therefore based upon the above understanding of Scripture, may the secret places of your heart cease to be our noisy workshop, and may you continuously renew your intimacy with God so that you walk by His inward guidance without the need for outward signs.

Believing is seeing,

Paul