This is an article that I wrote a few years ago, but I have amended it with an updated testimony at the end. This article will serve as such a good reminder for all of us about faith and how God is always working on our behalf beyond what we can see. I pray that this blesses you.
In seasons of pain, loss, or waiting it is easy to get stuck in only what is seen with our eyes. After all, isn’t there a saying, “Seeing is believing?” In my life and in the lives of most believers— what we see is rarely a true gauge for what God is doing or what we are believing for.
God is always working in the place of “beyond what we can see.” It is like a stage manager who, behind the veil (or curtain), is setting everything in place for what is soon to be revealed. Yet, the intended audience only gets to view it when it is completed. Often, we wait in faith for the veil or curtain to open, hoping that what is revealed will exceed our expectations. And with God, it always is beyond what we can ask or imagine.
The problematic issue for most believers is found in the waiting. This is where our faith and trust are put to the test. Will we believe even when we do not see? But— if we see— it is no longer faith, it is fulfillment.
Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see” Hebrews 11:1
Many years ago, when my husband and I were trying to adopt our oldest daughter (she was a baby at the time), everywhere we turned became a dead-end or an obstacle that was too big for us to cross over. Though we knew that we had clearly heard God’s voice say to us, “This is your daughter”, we felt like the Israelites before the Red Sea with the Egyptian army coming up behind us.
Though we were obeying and following every step he put before us, it turned into months of what appeared to be dead-ends and impossible circumstances. It was so bad that even some of the strongest believers around us began to doubt that we had heard God correctly. Almost all who looked on with their natural eyes at the impossibilities before us began to counsel us to admit that we had made a mistake and to move on.
We even had the judge on her case say to me, “You don’t have a prayer!”
But…that is exactly what we had!
After nearly a year of believing and fighting against impossible odds in the natural, we miraculously received the news that she was being given to us! We were given a date that she would enter our home and become our daughter. We were ecstatic, and God had done the impossible, just as he had spoken to us.
We set up her nursery and hung her photos around our home. Our family and friends showered us with little pink dresses and all the things that she would need. It was such a joyous and beautiful time for us and for all who were a part of our lives.
Then, two weeks before she was to come home with us, a new and unexpected circumstance arose. Due to this, her social worker informed us that she no longer could be placed with us and that this would be the final answer— she was being given to another couple.
No words can describe our grief. We had gone through years of infertility and now had fallen in love with a baby girl that we believed God had said was our daughter— but we were told that our chance to adopt her was gone, and she was being placed with another family right away.
In the following weeks, we wept and grieved deeply. We wondered if we had ever truly heard God’s voice. We had been so sure. Our hope was shaken, and our hearts were broken.
But what we did not see was that God was doing something behind the scenes (or beyond the seen) that was beyond anything that we could ask or imagine.
Though it would take an entire book to tell you of all the intricate details that God was doing in the unseen realm, two months after we had received the call saying that we lost her, our phone rang again and it was the human resources supervisor over her placement asking us if we wanted to pick up her the next day. She was being given to us! We didn’t know what was happening or how it happened, but we said, “YES!”
What we thought was dead was being resurrected without our knowledge and beyond what we could see.
The next day, she was in our arms— as our daughter. We kissed every one of her fingers and toes and stared at her for hours and hours. She even took her first step that day, right into my arms.
Though we could not see God working, He was! He was working in the place “beyond the seen.”
Many of you may find yourselves in a similar place. Maybe what is “seen” contradicts what you thought you heard. The current losses or circumstances may appear to outweigh any possible victory. But, in your place of waiting, wondering, and wrestling, remember that God never stops working.
Be still and know…” Psalm 46:10 Hear Him as He speaks over you, “Beloved, I am not finished yet. I am still working behind the curtain of what you can see.”
No matter what you are facing or what your eyes see, He never stops working on your behalf. His promise in Jeremiah 29:11 is still true!
For I know the plans I have for you” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
You may have woken up this morning feeling deep sorrow, but the Lord’s declaration is that He will give you a future and a hope. You may not see any hope with your eyes but He is working behind the scenes— beyond what you can see. He makes paths in the wilderness and refreshing pools in desert wastelands for those who wait upon Him and put their trust in Him.
Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners who still have hope! I promise this very day that I will repay two blessings for each of your troubles.” Zechariah 9:12
This past August, our youngest daughter and son-in-law had a similar miracle happen in their lives. After over a decade of infertility and a number of adoption disappointments, suddenly and unexpectedly, they were handed a newborn baby girl. The details of God’s work behind what they could see were as miraculous as ours were.
God repaid us two blessings just as he promised thirty years ago— first a daughter and then a granddaughter.
Keep holding onto the faith that what he spoke and promised to you— HE WILL FULFILL!
Kathi’s new book SEVEN LETTERS, has just been released. Within the pages of this book is the counsel of the Lord for His Church— yesterday, today, and forever.
Purchase here.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Inscribe Ministries
Featured Image by Rainer Maiores from Pixabay
