Looking for signs God is working in your life can feel impossible when everything looks the same. Your circumstances haven’t changed. Your prayers seem unanswered. The breakthrough you’ve been desperately waiting for hasn’t come. And from where you’re standing, it feels like God has checked out or forgotten about you entirely.
But here’s the truth: there are signs God is working all around you, even when you can’t see the bigger picture.
Just because you can’t perceive what He’s doing doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Often, God’s most significant work happens beneath the surface—in your heart, in your character, in circumstances you’re not even aware of yet—long before you see any visible evidence.
I want to show you the clearest signs God is working so you can recognize His activity in your life and hold onto hope when everything feels stagnant or hopeless.
Why It’s Hard to See Signs God is Working
Before we dive into the signs, let’s talk about why God’s work is often invisible to us in the moment.
God works in ways we don’t naturally recognize:
God’s Timeline is Different Than Yours
You’re measuring progress in days and weeks. God is working on eternal timelines. What feels like delay to you might be perfect timing in His plan. What looks like nothing happening might be everything falling into place behind the scenes.
The signs God is working aren’t always immediate or obvious because His timeline doesn’t match your expectations.
God Works Beneath the Surface First
Most of God’s transformative work happens internally before it ever shows up externally. He’s changing your heart, renewing your mind, building your character, strengthening your faith—and none of that is immediately visible. You won’t see the signs God is working until later when you look back and realize how different you’ve become.
God’s Methods Don’t Match Your Expectations
You’re looking for dramatic intervention. God might be working through ordinary circumstances, quiet promptings, or slow gradual change. You’re expecting a miracle. He might be orchestrating a process.
When your expectations don’t match God’s methods, you’ll miss the signs God is working even when they’re happening right in front of you.
Sign #1: You’re Going Through Something That’s Refining You
One of the clearest signs God is working—even when you absolutely can’t see it—is that you’re in a season of difficulty that’s refining you.
Here’s the hard truth: God often does His deepest work through your hardest seasons.
When you’re in the fire—dealing with suffering, loss, disappointment, or prolonged waiting—it doesn’t feel like God is doing anything good. It feels like He’s absent or punishing you or allowing unnecessary pain.
But refining fire is still God at work. Pruning is still God at work. The wilderness is still God at work.
Look for these signs of refining:
- You’re learning patience you didn’t have before
- Your faith is being tested and you’re choosing to trust anyway
- You’re discovering weaknesses or character flaws that need addressing
- You’re being forced to rely on God instead of your own strength
- You’re developing compassion for others who are suffering
James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
If you’re in a hard season, that itself is evidence that God is working—even if you can’t see the purpose yet.
Sign #2: Your Desires Are Shifting
Another sign God is working when you can’t see it is that your desires, priorities, or perspectives are slowly changing.
You might not notice it day-to-day, but when you compare where you are now to where you were six months or a year ago, something has shifted internally.
This looks like:
- Things that used to consume you don’t matter as much anymore
- You’re developing hunger for prayer, Scripture, or worship that wasn’t there before
- Your definition of success or happiness is changing
- You’re caring more about people and less about stuff
- Sin that used to have a strong pull on you is losing its appeal
- You’re more concerned with God’s approval than people’s opinions
Philippians 2:13 says, “It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” When your desires start aligning more with God’s heart, that’s Him working in you—even if nothing in your external circumstances has changed yet.
This internal shift is often the first evidence that God is preparing you for something bigger that you can’t see coming.
Sign #3: Doors Are Closing (And You Don’t Know Why)
When doors slam shut—opportunities fall through, relationships end, plans collapse—it feels like nothing is going right. It feels like God isn’t helping you or is actively blocking you.
But closed doors are often signs God is working to redirect you toward something better, something different, something you wouldn’t have chosen for yourself.
Closed doors mean:
- God is protecting you from something that looked good but wasn’t good for you
- He’s redirecting your path toward something you can’t see yet
- He’s removing options so you’ll finally pursue the one thing He’s been calling you toward
- He’s making space for something new that couldn’t fit while you were holding onto the old
Proverbs 16:9 says, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Sometimes God establishes your steps by blocking the paths you wanted to take.
If doors are closing and you don’t understand why, that’s often God working behind the scenes to set you up for something you couldn’t plan for yourself.
Sometimes the reason you can’t see God working is because prayer itself has become exhausting and discouraging. When you’ve been bringing the same requests to God for months with no visible change, it’s easy to give up on looking for His activity altogether. That’s the exact battle I address in “When Prayer Feels Pointless” – how to keep engaging with God when nothing seems to be happening.
Sign #4: You’re Facing Spiritual Opposition
Here’s a sign God is working that most people completely miss: increased spiritual warfare and opposition.
When the enemy attacks harder, when you’re suddenly struggling with temptation, doubt, fear, or discouragement more than usual, it’s often because God is doing something significant in your life and the enemy wants to stop it.
The devil doesn’t waste energy attacking people who aren’t a threat. If you’re under heavy spiritual attack, it’s often because you’re on the verge of breakthrough and the enemy is trying to get you to quit before you get there.
Signs of spiritual opposition:
- Prayer suddenly feels impossible when it used to feel natural
- You’re bombarded with thoughts of doubt, fear, or condemnation
- Everything seems to be going wrong at once
- Conflict and division are popping up in your relationships
- You feel unusually discouraged, hopeless, or defeated
Ephesians 6:12 reminds us, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
If you’re experiencing intense spiritual opposition, don’t interpret that as God being absent. Interpret it as evidence that God is working and the enemy is trying to derail it.
Sign #5: God is Bringing the Right People Into Your Life
Sometimes you can’t see God working in your circumstances, but you can see Him working through the people He strategically brings into your life.
Pay attention to:
- People who show up at exactly the right time with exactly what you need
- Conversations that shift your perspective or give you clarity
- Mentors, friends, or even strangers who speak truth into your life
- People who challenge you, sharpen you, or push you toward growth
- Divine appointments that seem too perfectly timed to be coincidence
God doesn’t always work through dramatic miracles. Sometimes He works through a friend who texts you exactly when you needed encouragement, a stranger who says something that answers a question you’ve been wrestling with, or a mentor who appears just when you need guidance.
Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” When God is positioning the right people in your life at the right time, that’s Him working—even if nothing else seems to be happening.
Sign #6: You’re Developing Perseverance and Endurance
If you’re still here—still showing up, still praying, still believing—even though you can’t see God working, that perseverance itself is evidence that He’s at work in you.
You wouldn’t still be standing if God wasn’t holding you up. You wouldn’t still have faith if He wasn’t sustaining it. The fact that you haven’t given up yet, even when you’ve had every reason to quit, is proof that God is working beneath the surface to keep your faith alive.
Romans 5:3-4 says, “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
The spiritual endurance you’re building right now—the ability to keep trusting when you can’t see, to keep praying when it feels pointless, to keep believing when nothing makes sense—that’s God at work. He’s building something in you that can only be built through waiting, through suffering, through persevering when you don’t feel like it.
If you’re still here, still holding on, still trying—that’s a sign God is working in you even when you can’t see Him working around you.
Sign #7: You’re Starting to See Small Answers or Provision
Sometimes when you can’t see God working on the big thing you’ve been praying for, He’s working in small ways you almost miss.
Pay attention to:
- Little provisions that show up right when you need them
- Small answers to prayers you’d almost forgotten you prayed
- Unexpected help or resources that appear at just the right moment
- Coincidences that are too specific to be random
- Moments of peace or clarity in the middle of chaos
God often works in the mundane and the everyday before He works in the dramatic and miraculous. If you’re only looking for the big breakthrough, you’ll miss all the small evidences that He’s already moving.
Matthew 6:26 reminds us that God feeds the birds and clothes the flowers—He’s actively providing in small, consistent ways all the time. When you start noticing those small provisions, you realize God has been working all along.
Keep a list. Write down the small things—the unexpected check in the mail, the conversation that encouraged you, the opportunity that showed up out of nowhere. When you can’t see the big picture, the small evidences remind you that God is still at work.
Sign #8: You’re Being Stretched Beyond Your Comfort Zone
When God is working, He rarely lets you stay comfortable.
If you’re being pushed, stretched, or called to do things that scare you, that’s often a sign God is preparing you for something bigger.
This looks like:
- Opportunities that feel too big for your current capacity
- Promptings to step out in faith before you feel ready
- Situations that require you to trust God in ways you never have before
- Challenges that expose your limitations and force you to depend on Him
2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God often works by putting you in situations where you can’t succeed on your own strength so you’ll experience His power working through you.
If life feels overwhelming, if you’re facing things you don’t feel equipped for, if you’re being stretched beyond what’s comfortable—that’s not God abandoning you. That’s God working to expand your capacity, deepen your trust, and position you for what’s next.
Sign #9: You Have Unexplainable Peace in the Chaos
One of the most supernatural signs God is working is peace that doesn’t make sense given your circumstances.
When everything is falling apart and you should be panicking, but you have this deep, quiet peace that you can’t explain—that’s God. When you’re facing impossible situations but you’re not drowning in anxiety—that’s God. When you should be terrified but instead you feel strangely calm—that’s the peace of God that transcends understanding.
Philippians 4:7 describes it: “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
If you have peace you can’t explain, that’s evidence that God is holding you, sustaining you, and working on your behalf even when you can’t see what He’s doing.
How to Recognize When God is Working Even When You Can’t See It
Now that you know the signs, here’s how to actively watch for God’s work when everything feels stagnant:
1. Look back, not just forward
Journal about where you were a year ago compared to now. Often you can’t see progress in the moment, but looking back reveals how much God has been doing.
2. Ask God to open your eyes
Pray specifically: “God, help me see where You’re working. I don’t want to miss it.” Sometimes you just need spiritual eyes to recognize what’s already happening.
3. Talk to people who know you well
Sometimes others can see God’s work in your life before you can. Ask a trusted friend or mentor, “Do you see any ways I’ve changed or grown lately?”
4. Keep a “God is working” journal
Write down small evidences, answered prayers, divine appointments, moments of provision. When you can’t see God working, go back and read what He’s already done.
6. Stop demanding He work the way you expect
Your expectations might be blinding you to how God is actually moving. Release your agenda and ask Him to show you His.
If you want a structured way to process this and recognize God’s activity in your life, my “When God Feels Distant” workbook includes reflection exercises specifically designed to help you identify where God is working even when you can’t see it clearly. It walks you through recognizing internal transformation, spotting divine patterns, and maintaining hope when breakthrough feels far away.
When You Still Can’t See God Working: Trust His Character
Here’s what to do when you’ve looked for all the signs and you still can’t see evidence that God is working:
Trust His character, not your perception.
God is always working. Always. Even when you see absolutely nothing happening.
Romans 8:28 promises, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Not some things. Not most things. All things. God is working in everything—the good, the bad, the confusing, the painful, the stagnant.
John 5:17 records Jesus saying, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” God doesn’t take breaks. He doesn’t check out. He doesn’t stop working just because you can’t see what He’s doing.
When you can’t see God working:
- He’s still faithful
- He’s still good
- He’s still in control
- He’s still working all things together for your good and His glory
Your inability to see His work doesn’t change the reality that He’s working. Your lack of understanding doesn’t limit His activity. Your impatience doesn’t slow His perfect timing.
The Bigger Picture You Can’t See Yet
Here’s the final truth I need you to hold onto: you’re living in the middle of a story you can’t see the end of yet.
When you’re in chapter 7, chapter 7 doesn’t make sense. The conflict is unresolved. The pieces don’t fit together. Nothing seems to be working out. But you’re not reading the whole book yet—you’re living it one page at a time.
God sees the whole story. He sees how chapter 7’s pain sets up chapter 12’s breakthrough. He sees how the closed door in chapter 4 protects you from disaster in chapter 9. He sees how the refining in this season produces the strength you’ll need for what’s coming in the next season.
You can’t see it yet. But God can. And He’s been writing your story long enough to know what He’s doing.
Trust the Author even when you can’t see the plot.
Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God is working on a level you can’t comprehend yet, in ways you won’t understand until you’re looking back on it, for purposes that are bigger than what you can see right now.
Hold On: The Work Will Become Visible
The work God is doing beneath the surface will eventually break through to the surface.
The internal transformation will show up in external fruit. The closed doors will make sense when the right door opens. The refining will produce the character you need for what’s next. The waiting will end with breakthrough you couldn’t have orchestrated yourself.
You will look back and see it clearly. You’ll see how God was working the entire time, even when you couldn’t see it. You’ll recognize His hand in the details you thought were random. You’ll understand why the timing had to be exactly what it was.
But right now, while you’re still in the waiting, while you still can’t see what God is doing, you have to choose to trust that He’s working anyway.
Keep showing up. Keep watching for the signs. Keep trusting His character when you can’t see His hand.
God is working. Even when you can’t see it. Even when it doesn’t feel like it. Even when every visible sign suggests nothing is happening.
He’s working. And one day soon, you’ll see it too.