Faith and Signs

by Autumn Dickson

Ezra Booth was a Methodist preacher who joined the church after witnessing Joseph Smith heal Alice Johnson’s arm. He later left the church and published material that was particularly antagonistic. Despite witnessing a miracle, Ezra didn’t hold on to his faith.

We see this time and time and time again throughout the scriptures. Signs are insufficient conversion tools. I’ve spoken about signs before, but I want to talk about it on a more individual level today. Let’s cover the basics and then bring it into our personal lives. Here is some of what the Lord has to say about seeking signs.

Doctrine and Covenants 63:7, 9

7 And he that seeketh signs shall see signs, but not unto salvation.

9 But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe.

Let’s break these down just a bit.

Verse 7. He that looks for signs will receive them, but it won’t bring salvation. In my mind, the Lord is saying, “The signs are already there, and I’ll send you signs, but it won’t do you any good because you don’t believe.” The same people will look at the complexity of the earth and see completely different origins. There are signs, but they’re not going to change you or bring you the full extent of happiness if you don’t believe there is a Creator behind it.

Verse 9. You don’t receive faith from signs. You see the signs when you have faith. Faith is a conscious choice that you make of your own accord, and then you start to see. Here is a quote from one of my all-time favorite BYU speeches given by Lawrence E. Corbridge.

“I don’t know if pigs will ever sprout wings and fly, but if they do, flying pigs will never be nearly as amazing as the ordinary pig in the first place.”

If you have faith, the pig is the miracle. Everything the Lord has already given us is a miracle and a “sign.”

Faith comes first.

Now, many of us have already made the conscious choice to believe in the restored gospel. We go to church every week and we attend the temple and pray and follow the commandments. We profess that we believe, so what do these verses mean for us? Let’s look at a few different ways that they could apply to someone who already believes in God.

Revelation

Interestingly enough, there’s another verse from this week that can get tied into the message I’m trying to cover today.

A revelation was given on the banks of the Missouri river. The Lord said a few things in this revelation, but one of the things that He taught these elders was that they could choose to travel how they wanted.

Doctrine and Covenants 62:8 These things remain with you to do according to judgment and the directions of the Spirit.

Revelation can feel tricky, but it’s an enormously powerful tool that is life-changing. I had the fortunate experience of being raised in a home where I was taught to seek revelation, but unfortunately, I occasionally took it to the extreme. I had such a hard time moving forward unless the Lord had told me to do so. I did seek signs for everything, and you can imagine that might cause problems.

Sometimes I would “find” signs that I believed He had sent when it was actually in my own mind. I had a hard time accepting the idea that He was choosing to be silent so that I could make decisions for myself. Other times, I would come to the conclusion that He was mad at me or that I wasn’t being good enough to receive revelation. Other times, I would just panic and stay confused rather than making a decision that sounded good to me.

I often found signs, but they were not unto salvation.

The Lord wants you to make decisions because you’re training to be like Him. He’s not trying to keep you from making mistakes; He is trying to help you gain the wisdom you’ll need to do what He does. There is no other way to do that except for making your own decisions sometimes.

Sometimes we’re worried about jumping in. We’re either scared that we’ll make a mistake, take a route He doesn’t want us to follow, or we’ll somehow shoot ourselves in the foot. In reality, the Lord wants us to have faith. He wants us to trust Him to speak as necessary, course-correct when it matters, and rescue us when we paint ourselves into a corner.

As we move forward with faith in His ability to save, the signs follow! If we take the time to look back prayerfully, we’ll find that He was leading us along the whole time.

Maybe we’re not asking for signs before we’re willing to believe in God, but I do believe that sometimes we ask for signs before we’re willing to believe in Him enough that we can move forward with rejoicing. If we choose to have faith, the signs will follow after.

Feeling love or forgiveness

Here is another potential example of seeking signs because we don’t quite believe in the Savior enough.

I know far too many people who don’t quite feel the love of their Savior. Logically, they can kinda get behind it because it comes along with having a testimony of the restoration. Unfortunately, despite this general testimony of the gospel, it’s still hard for them to dive in and bask in that love and acceptance towards their own person.

This extends to other feelings such as forgiveness. When we’ve made a mistake or when we’re falling prey to a particular flaw, it can be difficult to accept that the Lord has moved on. We want a sign that we really are forgiven. We want some indisputable evidence that we’re okay, and He’s not mad anymore.

Interestingly enough, even when He does give little signs of His forgiveness, we often don’t accept the signs and we cling to those mistakes and flaws.

Trusting that the Savior loves you and forgives you is a conscious act of faith, and the faith comes first! When you have truly chosen that faith, then you have finally reached the point where you’re able to accept the signs.

This circumstance doesn’t translate perfectly, but I want to utilize it anyway because I feel like it makes it more concrete.

Conner and I have been married for eight years. That’s not long, relatively speaking, but I have learned a few lessons along the way. One of those lessons is to trust Conner and his love for me. When we argue, I have learned to find peace in the fact that I know things are going to be just fine. Arguing doesn’t mean we’re going to get divorced. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be stuck in an unhappy marriage forever. Conner has showed up for me time and time again, and it has taught me that we’re going to come back from whatever we’ve fallen into. I don’t spiral anymore when things aren’t perfect in our marriage.

Conner’s love for me was there anyway. There are plenty of ways that he shows up for me and gives me signs of his love. However, I don’t find peace and “salvation” in that love if I don’t have faith and consequently find all the signs of his love.

Like I said, it doesn’t translate perfectly, but you get the idea. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you even more than Conner loves me. The love is there. All the signs are there, but you can’t see them (or in the very least, you can’t trust them) without faith. Faith has to come first. You have to choose to look at your situation and believe that He loves you. You have to believe that He loves you enough to send challenges but also a Savior to pull you through it. As you choose to look at each situation as a manifestation of His love, I promise that the signs follow. You’ll see them everywhere once you start to choose faith in His love and willingness to forgive.

I testify of a Savior who loves. I testify that He is constantly showing His love. I testify that He is constantly reaching out with that love, but you have to turn on your end of the receiver. Believe and the signs will follow. That extends towards revelation as well. As you trust in Him, you’ll be able to move forward and make decisions. As you keep moving forward, you’ll be able to look back and see the signs that He’s been guiding you all along.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.

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