Do you believe in "signs"?

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SavedByHim

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First a little background into why I’m asking the question:

Recently, my husband and I have been looking into moving into a different house. We’ve looked into it all from building or buying new construction, to buying older (or really old) homes. Everywhere we turned, we got a dead end in terms of finances, or location, etc. About a month ago, we came to the conclusion that we were just meant to stay put at our current home for a while despite the ever increasing “crowdedness” with our growing family. But, we were OK to just sit tight.

Well, this last weekend, we found out that my husband’s aunt and uncle will be moving out of state and want to sell their house fairly soon. Hubby and I were very excited as this was the house we had been looking for plus many more features, and they would be selling it a VERY good price to us. So, with all the trouble my husband and I had faced with whether or not we should move, I decided to once again bring the problem to God and told him, “Please show me which house we are supposed to live in in the form of a white dove.” This was on Sunday.

So, last night hubby is getting bills paid and he asks me to put them in the mailbox. As I pick them up, I glance down at the top envelope, and there, on the return address label, next to our current address is a white dove.

So, it got me thinking… does the Catholic church support existance of such “signs” and do all you out there believe in them? Do you follow or listen to them?
 
I was watching EWTN last night (Can’t recall what the show was) but the message was follow your heart not your head.

On another note, my wife and I were searching for a house in late 1999. We had to find one before tax season started or she would have a two hour commute. I prayed to God to help us find a house one morning. That afternoon, as I was walking back to work from lunch, there sat a newspaper at the steps of our work. I opened it just to glance through the classifieds and there it was. Exactly the house we had been looking for.

We closed in 30 days. Everything went smooth. The packing, the moving, and the unpacking. We are still very happy here.

He sent me a newspaper. Do you think he sent you that dove?
 
Oh my gosh! Yes, God does communicate by signs if that is the way he can get through to you. I do get signs often: a newspaper article, rainbows, a rose petal once, email, a scripture, dreams, and that very small still voice in my heart ( not my head).

Yes, I would pray and ask God if that is the sign you needed.
God Bless you!
 
God speaks to us in lots of ways. certainly He sends us ‘little signs’ to help us along our way.

it’s important (i can tell you, from having been protestant, and having met people who believe in some very strange things due to signs) to not just blindly follow ‘signs’, however. if a sign tells you to do something contrary to church teaching, or your conscience, or the wise counsel of a friend, or the Bible, then of course you would not obey the sign.

God is not the only spirit out there, and the enemy can use ‘coincidences’ and ‘signs’ to lead us astray, so use care in interpreting.

but don’t be afraid. trust God. if you’re seeking His will, and asking Him to direct you, then don’t trust the sign, don’t trust your understanding of the sign, trust Him. if you feel Him prompting you to do something, then pray about it, perhaps seek counsel if it seems a big step, or an odd idea, but then trust HIM and not the sign or yourself, and do, in faith, what He seems to be leading you to do.

even if the ‘sign’ was a coincidence, or sent from the enemy, if you’re trusting Him, He’s going to work it for your good.
 
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BigSnoMan:
He sent me a newspaper. Do you think he sent you that dove?
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I guess that’s what I’m trying to figure out. If He did, then I take it that we are not supposed to move. But, I must admit, that that is NOT the response I wanted. I wanted to go see the new house and see the dove there…

Ask and you shall receive huh? :o
 
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jeffreedy789:
if you’re seeking His will, and asking Him to direct you, then don’t trust the sign, don’t trust your understanding of the sign, trust Him. if you feel Him prompting you to do something, then pray about it, perhaps seek counsel if it seems a big step, or an odd idea, but then trust HIM and not the sign or yourself, and do, in faith, what He seems to be leading you to do.

even if the ‘sign’ was a coincidence, or sent from the enemy, if you’re trusting Him, He’s going to work it for your good.
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That’s makes alot of sense. I do feel a sort of “prompting” about the new house, and that’s why when I saw the dove next to our current address, I was saddened and surprised.

So, I guess I’m having trouble discerning whether that prompting is due to my earthly wants or if He is in fact trying to lead us there. I need to read more on discernment…

You all are so wise! 🙂
 
another thing i’ve realized is that although it SEEMS very important where we live, in the long run, from an eternal perspective, it’s not all that important.

should i move to california or argentina or mars? i think it’s as significant as ‘should i go to this table or that table when i eat lunch in my fav restaurant today?’

i think we sometimes attach great significance to small things, and small significance to the most important ones.

i’ll pray for you, though, as you make your decision. even if moving is only so important from an eternal perspective, it IS rated as one of the top 3 stressors a person can face in life.
 
“God speaks to us in lots of ways. certainly He sends us ‘little signs’ to help us along our way.”

I really don’t understand this. God supposedly sends us “little signs”, so God actually has the intention of telling us something.

Why not just tell us in a unambiguous way!

Looking for “signs” sounds slightly pagan to me. Like reading tea-leaves.

I don’t trust fuzzy feelings, intuition or signs.

What is the Catholic Church teaching about signs?
 
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jrabs:
Oh my gosh! Yes, God does communicate by signs if that is the way he can get through to you. I do get signs often: a newspaper article, rainbows, a rose petal once, email, a scripture, dreams, and that very small still voice in my heart ( not my head).

Yes, I would pray and ask God if that is the sign you needed.
God Bless you!
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Many people pray to St Therese and receive rose petals! I believe that God communicates in many ways especially when we are unsure of things.
Was it merely a coincidence or can God work through anything anyway?
I don’t believe that anything in life is a coincidence, since I came back to the church.
🙂 My grandmother who suffered for 11 years with alzheimers disease and had many grand children. Well the whole last week of her life most of us were around her praying the rosary for the entire week.
I was blessed enough to see my grandmothers last breath, following her death we all went to my Uncle’s home and every where was the scent of roses and not one to be found. My grandmothers name was Rose.:hmmm:
The funniest of all signs was at the end of the very very long procession was a beer truck, my grandmother was not really a drinker but once in a while would have this beer with a odd name and that was the name on the truck.:rotfl:
Following my mother’s death a lot of the members of my family have seen an eagle. On my weakest days somewhere I would see one, after a bad morning I was at my desk and one of the parents from school who had no idea had brought me in a patriotic stuffed eagle.😉

John_19_59 said:
“God speaks to us in lots of ways. certainly He sends us ‘little signs’ to help us along our way.”
Looking for “signs” sounds slightly pagan to me. Like reading tea-leaves.
I don’t trust fuzzy feelings, intuition or signs.!
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I do believe and do pray to the Holy Spirit for truth, I have never heard that it was pagan like reading tea leaves…:confused:
 
The movie “Signs” comes to mind with this post. That movie touched me deeply to know that every tiny little thing that happens is for a reason.
 
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John_19_59:
Looking for “signs” sounds slightly pagan to me. Like reading tea-leaves.
I don’t trust fuzzy feelings, intuition or signs.
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PS it was a good thing Noah did not think that since God did send the rainbow as a sign.
also and I am sure there are a whole lot of signs in the bible, but in Revelation where God speaks of the signs in the sky…

Sign, sign every where there’s signs blocking up the scenery… sorry I have now dated myself, and I love to sing…:rotfl: :rotfl::rotfl:
 
I believe that God can send signs to aid you. However, I think it is one of the many things that you need to be careful with. I’ve seen some very prayerful and devout Catholics start to be so into the signs that it became rather … superstitutious, I guess, would be the best word. They had gotten to the point where they would not do something without seeing a sign. That’s starting to run into superstitution and idolatry. Don’t choose to pray to St. Therese because you want to get a rose–that’s being fixated on the rose, and is wrong.

I think you also need to be careful about asking God to give a specific sign. You can be so focused on what you expect the sign to look like that you miss seeing an actual sign, and then you second guess youself, etc. It’s rather like prayer in general–you don’t ask for certian things to happen, you ask for the grace to be able to handle the situation. I don’t ask God for a specific sign anymore, I just say “God, I’m having a problem figuring out what I should do. Please guide me, but most of all, give me the grace to be able to deal with the results of the decision”. The “right” choice might just be the harder of the choices, but it was “right” because we needed to grow in the particular way the challanges would lead us.

And I also think it’s largely a personal issue as well. God talks to everyone in different ways. For the most part, I get nudges towards something, and my husband gets doors being closed. Sometimes signs happen when you don’t expect them–one day while we were still dating I was praying the rosary for us, wondering if my DH was the one, and the links in my rosary changed color. It’s not that I let that change my mind–my heart was already saying that he was the one for me, and this was just an extra confirmation. Sometimes people need a sign to pay attention to what God is saying–kinda like thwapping someone upside the head and saying “yo, idiot, listen up!” Physical signs are a remarkable, beautiful, wonderous gift that God has given us. Like His other gifts, we just need to use them wisely.
 
Almeria,
thank you for the thoughtful response. i’ve been praying alot on the issue, and have to come to the conclusion that you are right — one cannot solely base their decisions on particular signs.

aaahhh. so much to learn. so little time. 🙂
 
However, I think it is one of the many things that you need to be careful with. I’ve seen some very prayerful and devout Catholics start to be so into the signs that it became rather … superstitutious,

That is my feelings too. Romans used to divine the entrails of doves before making decisions.

If God wants to speak to you I don’t see why He would choose to do it with debatable “signs” when He is just as capable of speaking directly.

I think you also need to be careful about asking God to give a specific sign.

Why ask for a sign? Where does God say He would speak to us in signs and not in direct unmistakeable conversation?

Why would God go to the trouble of providing a sign (which might be easily missed or dismissed as coincidence), when He could be a little more direct?

Coincidences happen all the time and more than people imagine. (There’s a name for it which escapes me at the moment.)
 
while we were still dating I was praying the rosary for us, wondering if my DH was the one, and the links in my rosary changed color.
**
This was a big thing with people coming back from Medjorgorie once. Our Lady changed the colour of the links in their rosary beads.
I suspect not many, if any, knew what colour the links were before they went. When I first was told it (and shown), I tried to remember what colour mine was (which I had been using daily for years), I couldn’t say. How did these people know they had changed?
 
I totally agree that you should ask for God’s guidance and not ask for a specific sign. It is rather presumptuous to tell God how to communicate with us, I think. My brother and his wife put their house on the market in Texas two years ago. They moved back to Illinios so he could find work. For over a year the house did not sell. They really loved Texas and didn’t want to move. After over a year, my brother found the perfect job within driving distance of the home they already owned. God knew what he was doing and he had plans for them in Texas. We have to remember that these things happen on God’s timetable, not our own.
 
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Toni:
… I believe that God communicates in many ways especially when we are unsure of things…
I think God is ***always ***
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giving us signs and hints. The best name I’ve read for these is ‘signal graces’.

I think we need to just pay attention more to see them.

michel
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john 19_59 recently posted : ‘If God wants to speak to you I don’t see why He would choose to do it with debatable “signs” when He is just as capable of speaking directly.’

well, first i’d say that we aren’t, here, exploring WHY He does it, but rather whether or not He DOES. WHY, i think, is a whole other discussion, in which i’d be happy to participate. to address it briefly, i’d say that giving us signs is a way in which we have to have faith in Him to follow them, whereas just ‘telling us’ in a less ambiguous way requires little faith to follow it.

that is one reason. i’m sure there are more. the thing is, though, that He does. we see signs and hints all through scripture. we see it in the lives of the saints. i’ve seen it, more times than i can say, in my own life.

sure, it IS easy to slip into a paranoid superstitious attitude when you’re looking for a ‘sign around every corner.’ but that’s not necessary. when God gives us a little sign, or hint, or nudge, it’s not usually because we’ve been hunting in our tea leaves or reading our horoscopes.

however, i would say that there IS Biblical support for the idea of asking for a specific sign. i’m not saying you should or shouldn’t do this, and i’ve seen it work and not work. but Gideon asked for the fleece to be wet and then dry, the ground being the opposite, to see God’s will, and God obliged him.

sometimes He does, sometimes not so much. but signs, along with dreams, miracles, etc., are part of the language He uses to communicate His will, and His love, to us.
 
Do I believe in “SIGNS” Most definately!! Let me tell you about my sign. I had been divorced for almost 10 years, I prayed daily for GOD to change my ex. Finally in desperation one night I told GOD, “If you won’t change him, than send me a good man to love!” Sometimes you have to change your prayer! The very next day I crossed paths with a man I had gone to school with. It was the strangest thing I heard a voice, very clear in my head, telling me to speak to him. I did and to make a long story short we began dating. After a time he asked me to marry him. After my first marriage I was scared out of my mind and refused. Thank GOD, he was persistant. One Sunday after Mass he again asked when I would marry him. I flippantly replied, “I am waiting for a sign from GOD!”

The next morning he went to the store and returned with a set of wedding rings! “You said you wanted a sign and in less than 24 hours GOD gave you a sign! Call the priest!”

We ran ads in the paper, no one claimed the rings. I suggested we sell them as they are valued at several thousand dollars. Jimmy was dismayed! “That is the sign you more or less demanded from GOD! We are going to put it on your finger!” We did, four years ago! They have been the most wonderful four years of my life!

The lesson, "Never be flippant with GOD, and let him pick your spouse! You will never be sorry! GOD does give signs!

Child of Christ!👍 👍
 
I think signs from God are there, as the second poster said, if you follow your heart. I think God will send you signs, and bring a peace within you so that you know its a sign.

For example, our pastor used to be a geologist for some big mining company. He was on a flight back from Russia and the company was doing very well, the boss was going to promote him, etc. but he said he just didn’t feel happy (We’ve heard this story with many priests). So he was on the flight and staring out the window and he said, “God, if you want me to be a priest, let it be so” Just after he said that, the sun rose over the horizon and father said he was so inwardly peaceful and happy at that moment that he never sceond guessed his decision after that moment. Quit his job a week later, entered the seminary, and the rest is history.

I’ve had a couple signs but I’m cautious with them, and always ask God to guide me if they are indeed signs. One vivid one for me goes like so. I’m growing really sick of my hometown and I feel like I’m in a circular lifestyle going nowhere, so I’ve been contemplating moving (Need to anyways if I’m going to get into theology). Anyways, one place I was considering going, lets just say its Rome (its not, but I have my reasons for keeping the real place under secrecy for now). Anyways, I was waking up from a nap after having a particular bad week of “What the bloody heck do you want me to do Lord I have no idea what your will is for me” and I was getting pretty frustrated. So I wake up and out of no where I hear my little brother say “Lets go to Rome”. And I felt so inwardly peaceful and I was like Ahah ok, maybe its a sign. Thing is my brother denies every having said that.

I’m still cautious though, and I really need a spiritual director to run this by.
 
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