**Our Responses Are Our *****Real ***Problems
God never intended for us to live dismal lives filled with disappointment, hopelessness, and depression; being tormented daily by negative thoughts and feelings.
Jesus said, “I have come so they may have life. I want them to have it in the fullest possible way.” (John 10:10 NIRV)
So, why do we have so many problems?
Some of our problems may be unavoidable, but many of them we bring upon ourselves because we do not recognize and respond appropriately to God’s signals.
But in every case, our problems are not the real problems. Our responses to our problems are what really bring trouble upon us.
Jesus wasn’t lying. He came to give us lives that are amazing and wonderful beyond anything we could experience without Him, and we *will *experience meaningful and fulfilling lives when we learn to respond appropriately to God’s signals in life.
How Do God’s Signals Come to Us?
God’s signals come to us in a variety of ways. Once we learn to recognize His signals, we will realize that God is reaching out to us continually. He desires to have continual communication with us and become our personal guide in life. As we respond to the signals that we recognize, God will enable us to receive more. Our receptivity to God’s signals can increase as we respond appropriately until we have unbroken, continual communication with Almighty God.
God’s signals can be internal or external to us.
Prolonged Negative Feelings
Our internal thoughts and feelings are often signals. Prolonged negative feelings like disillusionment, despair, fear, bitterness, envy, and anger are *always *signals that we are not seeing things from God’s point of view. When we accurately discern and correct the causes of these negative feelings, then those feelings will be replaced by more positive feelings.
In these situations, those persistent, negative feelings act as God’s signals to let us know that there are underlying issues that need to be dealt with and resolved.
For example, the man in Psalm 73 was tormented by feelings of envy towards people who seemed better off than he was, *until *he sought God for wisdom and enlightenment. When God opened his eyes to see things from God’s point of view, he was no longer tormented by these negative feelings. In fact, he was thankful that he was *not *one of these people that he had previously envied!
“I tried to understand all this. But it was too hard for me to see until I went to the Temple of God. Then I understood what will happen to them.”—Psalm 73:16-18 (ICB)
Health Problems
Health problems are also usually signals of underlying issues that need to be addressed and resolved.
For example, God told the Israelites that if they diligently obeyed His commands, they would experience none of the diseases that were so common to other people. (See Exodus 15:26 and Deuteronomy 7:15.) So, when diseases arise in our lives today, they can often be traced back to specific violations of God’s instructions. Once we accurately trace these health problems back to the specific violation, we can use God’s instructions in the Bible to resolve these issues. Often the health problems will clear up with no other intervention needed.
There was such an understanding in Jesus’ day that health problems could be traced back to particular violations of God’s instructions that when they came across the man who had been born blind, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” (John 9:2 NLT).
Henry W. Wright, Art Mathias, and Peter Horrobin, among others, have produced extensive, detailed teachings in these areas. They have experienced remarkable success tracing health problems back to specific violations of God’s instructions in the Bible.
In one example from Art Mathias, when a mother repented of fears that she’d had when she was pregnant with her child, the grown child, who was several miles away at the time, was finally healed of asthma!
Circumstances
Externally, God often uses our circumstances as signals to us. Problems like inability to get out of debt, disintegrating family relationships, inability to keep a job, conflicts with coworkers, clashes with authorities, inability to make ends meet financially, and even minor irritations can all be signals from God. When we learn to be alert to these signals and respond appropriately, these problems often clear up with no other intervention needed.
“When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”—Proverbs 16:7 (AMP)
Interactions with People
Everyday interactions with people are often divine appointments in which God gives signals to us. It is up to us to be alert to recognize these signals and respond to them appropriately.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10, two men passed by the man who had been beaten, robbed, and left half dead by the side of the road. They did not recognize or respond to God’s signals in this encounter. The Samaritan, on the other hand, responded appropriately to God’s signals in this encounter, and was used by Jesus as an example of how we should all respond to people in need.
Parents, teachers, and authority figures are also used by God to guide us, even in some cases when we do not agree with them.
“Reproofs of instruction are the way of life”—Proverbs 6:23 (NKJV)
Surprisingly, even our enemies can also be used by God as signals to prompt us to respond in ways that please God, rather than responding in kind to negative confrontations. In fact, God’s signals often come to us in the forms of interruptions at inconvenient moments, sometimes with bad attitudes, acting inappropriately. How will we respond to these signals? If we respond by being offended, then we still have a lot to learn!
“And blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through Me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth.”— Matthew 11:6 (AMPC)
“I have told you all these things, so that you should not be offended (taken unawares and falter, or be caused to stumble and fall away). [I told you to keep you from being scandalized and repelled.]”—John 16:1 (AMPC)
God’s Written and Spoken Messages
But the main way that God uses to send signals to us is through His written and spoken messages. The Bible is our owner’s manual for life. In the Bible, God not only tells us about these signals in life, but He tells us how to interpret them, and how we should best respond if we want to experience the amazing, meaningful, fulfilling lives that Jesus came to give us.
The Bible is different from every other book because it is* alive!* As you dig into the Bible and find relevant solutions for your daily life, you will experience real encounters with the living God as He speaks to you directly about your life and the situations that you are in right now.
“For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective].”—Hebrews 4:12 (AMP)
God is alive, and He wants to be more involved in your life, working with you as you respond to His signals, to give you the amazing life filled with meaning and purpose that you were born to experience. God will speak to you through His written words in the Bible; and as we see in the Bible, He also speaks to people through dreams, impressions, visions, encounters with spiritual beings, audible voices, and he can do the same for you!
God is not boring, and He is not limited. He can be very creative in the signals He chooses to send our way.
God’s Signals to Jonah, Peter, and Balaam
When Jonah did not respond to the signal of his prolonged feeling of anger, God begin sending Him signals through the circumstances around him. First, God used an ordinary plant, then a worm, and then a wind. When Jonah did not respond appropriately to any of these signals, God spoke directly to Him with a voice.
“This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”
The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”
Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city.** And the Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there,** and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head, shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.
But God also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away. And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.
Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”
Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”—Jonah 4:1-11 (NLT)
With Peter, God used a rooster as a signal. Jesus even told Peter ahead of time what that signal would indicate. When the rooster crowed, Peter remembered that Jesus told him that it would be a signal that Peter had betrayed Him. When the significance of this signal sunk in, Peter “went out and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75).
With Balaam, God used the actions of a donkey as a signal in Numbers chapter 22. God even gave the donkey the ability to speak to Balaam! When Balaam did not respond appropriately to this signal, God opened Balaam’s eyes into the spiritual realm so that Balaam could see that there was a powerful angel blocking his way with a drawn sword!
We do not know if Jonah responded to God’s signals. There is no record to tell us what happened after God spoke to him.
Peter did respond and got his life back on track, fulfilling his purpose in life and avoiding the same fate as Judas, who also betrayed Jesus, but never got his life back on track, and ended up killing himself.
Balaam was given many signals from God, but in spite of all of God’s signals, Balaam did not respond to make the needed corrections in his life, and he ended up dying prematurely. He was not killed by the sword of the angel, but he was killed later by the swords of the Israelites as they fought with their enemies. (See Joshua 13:22.)
Just as the Good Samaritan is given as an example of how we should respond to God’s signals, Balaam is referred to in the New Testament as an example of what NOT to do. (See 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 1:11; and Revelation 2:14.)