An Act Of God That Is So Quiet It Is Imperceptible

By Richard Gazowsky

There is something that God does in my personal life that is so valuable to me that I cannot compare it to monetary wealth or even the close and intimate love I receive from my sweet incomparable soul mate and wife, Sandy. The valuable asset that I am referring to is the daily hearing of God’s voice and His instructions for the simple tasks He desires me to do each day. If I obey these instructions, it can only be compared to finding the pearl of great price. And obviously, if such a treasure were so valuable to me, like any wealthy person in the world today I would do everything in my power to protect my asset. It is in my desire to protect, that a great mystery was revealed to me about God Himself.

The mystery is, once God quits instructing you He is so quiet when He exits you cannot even perceive when He left. This basic truth I have recently discovered is so critical to understanding the nature of God, and also how pure His love is for His creation. I have also seen that this truth is very important to the understanding of scientific inquiry involving advanced physics (but I will deal further with that subject in my Monday Morning Blog).

We all know that if a person does not realize the value of something it is easy for them to succumb to the pattern of a wealthy son or daughter who squanders the wealth they inherited from their parents. But his moral defect is not limited to just young people.  Great kings can become harmful, like King Saul in ancient Israel who did not value the instructions of God he received from the prophet Samuel. Then, without perceiving that he was disobeying the instructions of the Lord, his pride caused him to recalculate God’s original instructions and add his own human wisdom.

Although I am sure King Saul was very self-congratulatory, his actions resulted in him being completely disobedient and losing his royal seat (and his children’s) on the throne of Israel. The aspect in this story that amazes me is that King Saul did not perceive that God had left him and hadn’t realized the incredible value he was losing by God no longer instructing him. This is the phenomenon of God’s quiet exit.

There is an ancient story in the Bible that even more clearly displays the phenomenon of God’s ability to make a quiet exit. The principle character in the story is Samson, who is comparable to the modern cartoon character of Superman ~ man of steel. Samson’s kryptonite was his disobedience to God’s instructions He had given him as a young man, one of which was to never cut his hair.

But then the seductress Delilah seduced Samson into revealing this final secret of obedience, and she lulled him to sleep in her lap while his enemies cut off his hair. When Delilah cried out “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”  Samson woke up and “shook himself” like he had done so many times before. But this time he “knew not” that the Lord’s power had left him. Take a moment here and analyze Samson’s situation with a spiritual microscope.

If you had lived all of your life, since your youth, with long hair and you woke up and shook yourself, the first thing you would notice is that you had short hair. Though Samson at once became aware of that fact, he did not perceive that a greater, more momentous, and earthshaking event had occurred ~ God’s power had exited his life. This is the amazing detail I am trying to get readers to perceive.

Something as earthshaking as the loss of God’s power should be as momentous as a nuclear explosion in our lives.  But instead it is completely unperceivable. In my own personal contemplation of this phenomenon I have realized that when God detects the smallest minute element of my personal intimate self-will, He simply and quietly disappears. No wonder when the Holy Spirit appeared upon Jesus He was in the likeness of a “dove” ~ one of the easiest animals on the earth to scare away.

The resulting conclusion I have come to in this matter of realizing the value of God’s daily instructions, I have placed new priorities in my life:

• When I am still lying in my bed in the process of just waking up, I attempt to tap in to the artesian well of the Holy Spirit that is bubbling up from my tummy. Usually it is in this fragile environment that I can hear clearly the instructions from the Holy Spirit for the day. It is like staying in a five-star hotel and going to the concierge desk, except your concierge is the Holy Spirit.

• When I am in the process of obeying my daily instructions from God, I must discern if any interruption or change in my schedule is God’s continued guidance, an attack of the enemy, or just the rain falling upon the just and the unjust (which is the consequences of actions brought about by higher authorities and powers).

• I don’t forget to thank Him. I have realized that the most sure way to keep this valuable connection opened in my life is to relish and, with childlike excitement, thank God continually for the bountiful blessings His daily instructions afford me.

So we have looked at the mystery of God’s exit. But hopefully it has revealed to you the treasure of His presents and daily instructions. Oh, how valuable is His daily word. I’m so excited I’m holding my breath until we can speak with each other again next week.

This is a weekly email written by Richard Gazowsky, Pastor of A Place To Meet Jesus church in San Francisco. If you would like to opt-out from this weekly email, simply click on the SafeUnsubscribe link below.