Not always. Hezekiah asked for a sign when he was sick and got one. The apostles asked Jesus the signs of His coming and He told them.
Hi thanks for the reply.
True, but not to take that away but for one thing I think there is a different use for the word sign alone than if we see "sign and wonder" together.. Which was used for an upcoming event future prophecy . Where the sign as that seen (the temporal) pointed as a shadow to the faith principle, the eternal, the wonder as that not seen.
What I am trying to work on is the idea of sign
and gift working together called signs gifts. This today I believe is used for a person to supposedly outwardly prove they have the Holy Spirit. This would include be slain in the spirit, falling back, as well as tongues or being bitten by a poisonous snake etc.
To me it is sort of like self-fulfilled prophecy. A person does the work of being patient and praying and it verifies you have the Holy Spirit. It I believe takes away the faith principle. Just as in the beginning in the garden , the cause of the fall.
2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight
The scripture do not inform us to seek after a sign gift. The gifts it does speak of are not outward. They would be more of a changed heart as the Spirit of Christ through His word witnesses to ours. Going beyond that shows men are not trusting God who has no form, I believe.
Even Jesus while in the temporal flesh as a demonstration of the unseen work of the lamb of God slain from the foundation of the word (the six days he did work ) Which by today for two thousand years we know him by no more forever more.
He resisted men walking by sight .When approached to be worshiped in respect to his temporal outward appearance he would say : “only God is good”, showing us we must continue to walk by faith seeing God is not a man as us and neither is there any visible person called a daysman that they could measure their faith by. Measuring faith by that seen apposes everything God is made up from. His Spirit, not seen.
Signs are for those who do not have faith and this is to include when the apostles who walked by sight as below. There we can see the sign was against those who believed not .It is not reckoned as a blessing but a warning to walk by faith, mixing faith in what they did hear or see.
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side:
and be “not faithless”, but “believing”.And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God.Jesus saith unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: “
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed”.And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: Joh 20:27
That was a sign for the rebellious Christian.It brought no spiritual blessing.
Signs especially involving tongues which is twofold , It fulfilled the prophecy ( Isaiah 28) and at the same time in the twinkling of the eye as it confirmed unbelief to those who would not hearken unto the authority of God’s word , God used it as prophecy, the unseen working of God’s will in the many nations that did hear the gospel in their own tongue and believed to the salvation of their soul. The sign or the prophecy was not reckoned to Peter or any man. Prophecy was the gift as the unseen working of God.
I am not saying he did not use signs ever and God did not give signs
when he was still adding to scripture. In that way we know with absolute certainty from whom they did come. The last sign and wonder in respect to Jonah coming from God was fulfilled when Christ said it is finished. Signs manifest His glory they are not designed that we glory in them as outward evidence we have the Holy Spirit.
This is seeing the father of lies is in one way able to duplicate many signs as he did in Egypt and offer his lying signs and wonders in a hope of drawing men away from God .Which today the god of this world is still able to bring lying signs and wonders to deceive the nations of the world that God is still brining new revelations. Even though we now have the perfect or whole will of God.
Where if I believe if men would trust that God is no longer bringing new revelations seeing we have his whole will with no laws missing and he added a warning to us not add or subtract from it that because he is not adding false prophets like Mohamed would be easier to weed out. And the idea of tongues which a was a revelation from God who interpreted the gospel into each language
Ultimately we walk by faith the unseen not by that seen. it’s the evil generation of man, the generation of Adam that does walk by sight after signs. The generation of Christ needs none. We have his whole council written in his book of the law sealed up till the end of time.
Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: Mat 12:38
The idea of seeking after a sign as a gift that proves a person has the Spirit of Christ ,the Holy anodizing Spirit of God is not a biblical idea.
