God works “in the gulf of our unknown being…behind our our consciousness.”

God is really only concerned about the part where His spirit is, in our soul. That’s where God “writes,” where He works. George MacDonald described this best: “Perhaps, indeed, the better the gift we pray for, the more time is necessary for its arrival. To give us the spiritual gift we desire, God may have to begin far back in our spirit, in regions unknown to us and do much work that we can be aware of only in the results … in the gulf of our unknown being God works behind our consciousness. With His holy influence, with His own presence (the one thing for which most earnestly we cry) He may be approaching our consciousness from behind, coming forward through regions of our darkness into our light, long before we begin to be aware that He is answering our request—has answered it, and is visiting his child.” (George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, 2nd series, “Man’s Difficulty Concerning Prayer”) (used in chapters 7 & 24 of Turning Aside to See)