I had just lifted up my head after making a request to God during a church service when the pastor walked up and I was completely blown away by what he said. I’ll tell you what in a second. But first …
Sometimes we ask God for something just as some kind of formality or as something that ought to be done. Most times we aren’t expecting him to answer – especially not right away. Maybe because he hasn’t done so in the way we expected in the past or we’ve just had too many disappointments that we don’t want to keep our hopes up.
The good news is, hope in God never fails. So don’t be scared to keep your hopes up.
Sometimes when God says something to us or we have an idea on something we’d like to take on, maybe a new project or a big move or make a detour. Whatever it is, we want confirmation from God that we are on the right track. We want to be sure we really heard him and that we are taking the right step. Not making a mistake or doing something that he wouldn’t have us do.
Thing is, you are not the first to ask God to confirm his word. Several people in the Bible did too.
Gideon in the book of Judges is probably the most prominent example (Judges 6:36-40). God was asking Gideon to take on a really big task! It was scary and he wanted – needed, to make sure God was with him as he’d said. So he asked God to confirm his word through some signs. God was merciful enough to answer Gideon and confirm his word.
Abraham’s servant made a short prayer asking for a sign that’ll help him confirm who was supposed to be Isaac’s wife (Gen 24:12-21).
Moses was given several signs by God to confirm that the intimidating mission he was being sent on was going to succeed.
Just like these people, we want such confirmations too so we can take on whatever task, role, project, etc with certainty that we’ve got the backing of God.
God knows our hearts, he understands that sometimes we need him to confirm his word to us and he does just that.
Well then so how does he do it?
Before we get to some ways through which God confirms his word, I’d like to point out something important. It’s common for Christians to have someone they look up to maybe a mentor in the faith or a pastor or church leader, which isn’t something bad actually. Unfortunately sometimes these people we look up to could become idols in our hearts and unknowingly to us their word becomes more important than God’s word. So God might say something to you and because they don’t necessarily agree with that word you ignore it as not being from God. Truth is, God communicates to every single one of us directly, so train your spiritual ears to listen to what he says to you and be confident in that.
With that clarification, below are some ways through which God will confirm his word to you;
- Through other people: God will confirm something he’s already said to you through someone else. In the beginning of this article, I mentioned the pastor saying something that left me stunned. Well that’s because I was about to take on a big step in my life and I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing. So I’d just made a prayer seconds before the pastor walked up… and I’d told God ‘please don’t let me walk out of this church today without a confirmation that I’m doing the right thing’ and right then! I mean immediately after I lifted up my head, literally like a few seconds after, the pastor said ‘someone in here has been wondering if they’re making a mistake, God wants you to know, you are not making a mistake’ I almost didn’t believe that word was for me because of how quickly God answered! God will confirm his word to you through another person. I know the next line I’m about to write might be shocking to you, but God can use ANYONE! Even an unbeliever to confirm something he’s said to you. Yes even that coworker that you can’t stand, or even that boss that makes your life miserable. If God can speak through the mouth of a donkey, he can use any human to do his will.
- Through an Extraordinary Sign. Just like in the case of Gideon, or the way he performed signs to Moses in the burning bush. Sometimes God will use a sign that defies nature or the norm to confirm what he’s already spoken to you. I’ve heard testimonies where there’ll be a sudden outpouring of rain or a fire or maybe even a change in a law. I’ve seen several cases where a law in the land where I currently live has been changed in favor of people right when they needed it.
- Through Multiple Repetitions. God will say the same thing to you in many different ways just to get the message across. He might reveal it to you first, if you didn’t pay attention, let’s say you go to church and the message being preached is basically saying the same thing to you, you walk into the street and a random billboard has the same or similar words on it, you speak to a friend and the same thing comes up, you have a dream, another person has a similar dream etc. An example is in the case of Mary the mother of Jesus. After the angel appeared to her and gave her the message from God, he appeared to Joseph too. So if Mary had been having doubts, Joseph was a confirmation of God’s word. He also gave her a sign about her cousin who had been barren for years getting pregnant. So all those events would have cemented Mary’s confidence of the word she got from God.
So if you are having doubts about something you think God told you or a direction you feel he’s leading you in, ask him for a confirmation. He’s willing to give you one.
Thank you very much.