For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
1Peter 2:19-20 (underlines mine)
There are two principles of interpreting signs from God:
1. Motivations
2. Origins
The motivation of your actions is either God's will or your will, good or evil.
The origin of "signs" is either God or the devil. Here is my proof:
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:30-31
But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Revelation 19:20
If your only motivation is God's will, then anything that goes against it is of the devil, including any so called "signs" that you should stop what you are doing.
If your only motivation is your will, then anything or any "sign" that is helping you is also from the devil.
If your only motivation is God's will, even the evil that tries to stop you is a "sign" that you are on the right track. And any obviously supernatural "coincidences," like answers to prayer, people simply being "in the right place at the right time," perfect circumstances involving perfect timing, and everything that clearly encourages you to keep doing God's will, all of these are "signs from God."
In other words, as Peter said in the verse at the very top of this blog, if you are doing good, or God's will, and you are suffering, the bad experience is commendable in this evil world, where there is an evil one. The suffering isn't a "sign" that God is against you, but that God is in fact for you. You are being attacked, directly or indirectly, by the devil, who by definition wants to stop everything good. He's "the evil one," so he's going to come against everything good every opportunity he gets.
So the way to interpret signs from God is by interpreting the motivation of your actions. Those motivations will determine the origins of any and every "sign" you experience in your life. Both God and Satan give "signs" to their followers, and to the followers of their enemies. In other words, God gives "signs" to His followers to keep doing what they are doing, as well as "signs" to Satan's followers to stop doing what they are doing. Satan gives false "signs" to his followers so they will keep disobeying God, and false signs to God's followers to stop them from obeying God.
You can't simply focus on whether things are "going your way," but rather whether thing are going "God's way." If that is your focus, you'll never be confused about any sign in your life.
Commit to God's will right now, and to only God's will. If you do this, expect two things:
1. God will confirm you with signs along the way, by His Spirit, by people in your life, and by circumstances in your life.
2. Satan will attack you to try to discourage you, by demonic spirits, by people in your life, by circumstances in your life.
Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Read the prayer below. If you agree, pray it with me.
"My father in heaven, I submit to your will alone, and I resist the devil's will absolutely. In Jesus name. Amen."
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