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Have you ever looked back at a big decision you made and realized that God was reminding you all along that he was in it with you?

Today I want to talk about what it means when we say that God’s giving us confirmation. This could happen through a verse of scripture, a timely conversation, an unexpected form of provision, or a detail in a situation that comes together just when you’ve been needing reassurance that he’s leading you.

He knows exactly how to reassure you that he’s right there with you, guiding you the whole way. He loves to meet you through those small, specific touches that let you recognize him in the places where you need to know he sees you.

However, it’s not always clear what God is confirming when you receive one of those touches. You might wonder whether he’s showing you something, and whether your own hopes are getting mixed into what you think he might be saying.

And then if the direction you take ends up changing later, you might start to feel even more insecure about whether or not you’re hearing God.

When I Wasn’t Sure What God Was Confirming

I’ll tell you about a decision I kept questioning as I waited to see how God would work things out.

I was deciding whether to let my daughter get a second dog. We had just moved after going through a divorce, and my middle-school daughter was going to school for the first time.

She’d been homeschooled her whole life and I knew animals were therapeutic for her. She had a dog, but she wanted another, more playful one. She thought a second dog would keep her dog company when she was at school.

I said we could do it on a trial basis and return the dog to the shelter if there were problems. A lot of shelter dogs don’t come housebroken, so you have to work with them a little sometimes.

I wasn’t sure if the accidents we were having were preventable, and I asked God for patience and a resolution. I kept working with my daughter and the dogs, and praying and waiting to see what would happen.

The Solution I Didn’t Expect

Finally we started thinking about putting a dog door in her bedroom.

I didn’t like the idea because it would cost money and I doubted the landlord would let me. But eventually I realized it would be worth the money and I thought I might as well ask the landlord anyway.

To my surprise, they said it would be okay. And the new dog door solved all our housebreaking problems.

I felt God had answered all those prayers I’d prayed for months when I wasn’t sure whether or not to keep the dog. I could see that his wisdom was right there with me as I was weighing the pros and cons.

I never actually took the dog door as a sign that God wanted us to keep the dog, though. I just stopped worrying about whether it was the right thing because I was tired of wondering about it, and the scales had tipped in a favorable direction.

What Was God Actually Confirming?

I could have told myself that God providing the dog door was his confirmation that we should keep the dog. But instead, I went deeper and asked myself what exactly his provision might be confirming.

Was he giving his stamp of approval on the decision to keep the dog? Or was he confirming that he saw my love and concern for my daughter through all the rough times of cleaning up messes?

Or maybe he was teaching me not to be so tight with money and reach out for solutions sooner?

Sometimes getting confirmation from God doesn’t give us the reassurance we think it should. Because recognizing that God has responded to you and understanding what he’s saying through that response aren’t actually the same thing.

And when you end up afraid you might be missing something God still wants to show you, you may start questioning your relationship with him instead of enjoying it.

Confirmation Isn’t a Shortcut to Discernment

God doesn’t have a golden pathway in his mind that magically guides us into every right decision we need to make. His golden path directs us through a relationship with him that helps us bring every decision into his light.

So getting confirmation isn’t meant to replace the discernment process by giving us a shortcut to instantly know what God wants.

In my experience, it’s more there to reassure you that God has the wisdom you need and wants you to feel secure that you’re not making this decision alone.

But the thing that makes confirmation confusing is that a lot of the time it seems to come out of nowhere.

Maybe a scripture stands out to you but you’re not sure why, or someone says something that just seems to fit exactly what you were thinking. Maybe something that you needed is suddenly provided, or something that happens catches your attention.

But then there’s no explanation that comes along with this touch from God to tell you what it means.

Let the Confirmation Start a Conversation

When one of these touches comes while you’re making a certain decision, the confirmation may have a real meaning for you. The question is what God is confirming through it.

He may be confirming that he understands a concern you’ve been thinking about. He may be giving you general wisdom, or confirming a decision you’ve made.

That’s why you may not always know whether a touch from him is confirming one of your decisions. The best thing to do is to let it pull you into a deeper conversation with God about what he’s showing you.

Here are two separate questions you can ask him whenever you feel like he’s speaking to you about something:

“What are you saying to me right now?”

“Is there some part of my life or decision-making that you’re confirming to me?”

What If You’re Mistaking What You Want for God’s Voice?

What you’re experiencing as you’re making a big decision might not be uncertainty about his confirmation. Underneath that insecurity is often the fear that you’re mistaking what you want for what God’s saying.

That’s why it’s a good idea to think through what the confirmation means before deciding what it means for the direction you’re considering.

One way to do this is to try out the decision and live as if you’ve already decided on a certain direction. Then, keep moving in that direction for a while and pay attention to what God seems to be saying as you go along.

Notice the little ways things seem to come together in your favor, and notice where you might be getting tripped up. Instead of taking them as signs of his opinion, use them as invitations to go deeper in your journal.

1. Receive the Touch Before Making Up Your Mind About What It Means

During the “as if I’ve decided” period, you may notice God moving in your heart through a Bible verse, a timely conversation, an unexpected solution, or a detail that falls into place just where you’ve been needing specific reassurance.

Write down what happened, what you had been asking God about, or what got your attention. Let that touch from him spark a conversation with him in your journal about what matters most to you.

2. Ask Him What This Is Actually Confirming Right Now

A touch may confirm that God sees what you’re dealing with, or remind you of a biblical truth that you needed to hear.

Maybe it draws you deeper, solves a particular concern, or gives you insight for a direction you want to take.

Its meaning might become more clear if you ask him, “What are you saying to me right now?” and “What part of this decision are you actually confirming?”

3. Let Time Be Part of the Confirmation Process

If no confirming details start to fall into place, tell God plainly what reassurance you feel you still need. You can do this by writing a simple letter to him about it in your prayer journal.

If he’s silent, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s another puzzle piece you haven’t found yet. You can keep living as if you’ve already decided what to do, and let the conversation with him continue as life unfolds.

If you need to, look back at what’s already in your journal and use the Ask, Write, Test process to keep listening.

As you keep going along in a particular direction, notice how the conversation develops over time. As you recognize God speaking in those areas where you need to know he sees you, you’ll sense what needs more discussion.

4. Finally, Go From “As If” to “As Is”

Before deciding on a final decision, notice any remaining red flags or roadblocks and test them with the discernment process.

Once you’ve lived with the decision for a while and nothing new has given you a reason to reconsider it, you can move forward with the understanding you have.

The “as if I’ve decided” period will become “as is.”

You Don’t Need Confirmation to Justify Your Decision

Now you have a way to handle those moments when you wonder if you’re missing what God’s trying to say to you.

You won’t need to ask God for confirmation in order to justify decisions that you haven’t totally thought through. You won’t need to ignore God’s touches because you’re not sure how to interpret them.

You won’t need to let a lack of confirmation make you insecure about a decision you’ve just made.

And instead, you can let these touches draw you to ask God what he’s doing in your prayer journal.

As you go through each decision-making process, you’ll notice how God shows up in it and feel content with the direction you choose.

What the Dog Door Confirmed for Me

Think about my dog door story.

I brought my problem with housebreaking this dog to God because I needed wisdom for my everyday life. God knew how much I loved my daughter, what the dog meant to her, and how difficult the decision about whether to keep this dog had become for all of us.

He gave me courage and insight to address the problem in front of me.

His answer helped me feel settled enough to live with the decision, knowing that if I changed my mind I wasn’t necessarily going outside of his will for us.

The dog door confirmation simply showed that he cared about my daughter, cared about me, and was involved in the choice we had made.

God knows every path we will take, and he supports us as we learn from the choices we make, discover where they lead, and even change our minds.

His confirmation is how he shows us that he’s engaging with us as we consult him for our decisions.

Changing Your Mind Opens a Fresh Branch of the Conversation

When we change our mind, it just opens up a fresh branch of the conversation, while previous branches tell us where God showed up in that part of the story.

Romans 8:29 gives us the destination of the golden path we’re walking with him: God the Father is forming us into the image of his Son. Ephesians 4:13 describes that work as growing into maturity in Christ, and Philippians 1:6 promises that he will carry it to completion.

We can imagine the real golden pathway not as a magical road, but as sort of like a tree of experiences through which he does these things in us.

Each branch gives us another spot where we get to know God more deeply, discover what he’s put in us, receive his wisdom, and become more mature.

Every new thing that comes up becomes the next topic in our prayer conversation.

What Is God Actually Confirming?

As you’re making a decision and it feels like God’s bringing something to your attention, ask, “What is it about my situation that you’re actually confirming?”

When you notice a red flag or a roadblock, bring it through your discernment process.

Remember that God sees the whole tree of your life decisions: the branches you’ll explore, the paths that will teach you something, the places where you’ll grow wiser, and the mature person you’re becoming.

When a touch from God catches your attention, receive it as part of the conversation. Ask him what he’s showing you through it, and keep moving forward with him as the conversation unfolds.

You can use the Ask, Write, Test process in the Hearing God Starter Kit to bring these things into your conversation with God. If you don’t have that yet, you can grab it for free at Sophiculture.com/guide.

Let’s Pray This

“Lord, you know the decisions in front of me and you know all my desires. Your word has lit the way to the point where I stand now.

I can’t see what is coming down the road, so I trust you to keep guiding me as I move forward. When I feel insecure about following your will this week, remind me that you support me instead of condemning me.

Thank you for taking such good care of me. Amen.”

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Next Steps:

Get our free “Hearing God Starter Kit” and learn the journaling process at:

Sophiculture.com/guide

Get personalized support to build a thriving friendship with Jesus at:

Sophiculture.com/illumination