Imagine yourself on a beautiful clear day, out in a sailboat, gliding smoothly along on a quiet lake. If you look around once in awhile at the place where you started, you see the shoreline fading away into the distance.
Both the distant past and new horizons are opening up to us. It’s almost as if we`re making progress without the feeling or illusion of movement. We’re becoming spiritual without feeling spiritual.
The more spiritual we become the more God is dealing with the garbage inside. We’re crying out for God to change us. We can have our focus shifted to the problem and forget God is making us over into His own image. It’s really happening, but it is happening so quietly that we can’t understand it.
I believe the big changes that take place—once change starts to take place—begin so imperceptibly that you don’t understand what is happening to you. Have you ever stepped out of a car and walked away from it, when suddenly the brakes let go and it began to roll backwards, and you had to really run to get inside the car and stop it? Just about that time it probably hit an object. The car rolled away from you before you knew what was happening. It’s that imperceptible thing.
That’s the way people are when they are going downhill spiritually. They are like Samson who went to sleep in the lap of Delilah. Her soft lap, the fragrance of her perfume, and the humming of a tune until he was asleep, must have been the most intriguing creature comforts he had ever known in his life. But when he awoke his head was shorn like a lamb’s.
The Bible says Delilah called, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” He awoke and said, “I’ll shake myself as before and go out and take them on.” He knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him (Judges 16:20).
There is no feeling, no sound of trumpets, nor any explosion when a man walks away from God. You’re in the midst of judgment when you silently slip out of His favor and cross an unseen line.
The opposite is true also: an imperceptible change takes place when God is drawing you to Himself; you don’t feel any different spiritually. That’s where we are heading now. You still feel there are problems. You’re crying out to God for answers to the problems and seeking the Lord every day. Although you are quite dissatisfied with yourself, you are moving on, one step at a time.
It reminds us of Moses on the mountain. He prayed to God and had quite an experience; but when he came down from the mountain, he wasn’t really aware of what had happened to him. The Scripture says, “He knew not that the skin of his face shone as he talked with the Lord” (Exodus 34:29). He wasn’t aware of what had happened, but when he came down everyone else could see the change. This is taking place with us also. We’re moving in without realizing it. Even if we don’t feel like it, we are making progress.
One by one ye shall find that perfect will of God for your life. Ye shall seek for it and the Lord shall not leave thee desolate, but He shall guide you. And if for a little season your heart is filled with confusion, and you do not understand the assault of the enemy against you, and you do not know whether to turn to the right hand or to the left, yet if you shall hold your peace and rejoice in the Lord, surely it is a day that He will lead you.
Sometimes the Lord thy God will test thee, giving thee no word, and you will stand still and believe to see the salvation of the Lord. Be patient. Do not take the thing in your own hands. Do not go to war at your own devices, but rejoice and wait. And when you hear the trumpet sound, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then go out against the enemy because the Lord has delivered him into your hand. This is the way the Lord will bless. There is a need for you to press in as the Lord gives you the advantage, and He gives you the answer.