 If you've ever been in a season where you felt like God was distant from you, then you're going to want to stick around for this edition of Spirit Church. I'm going to be teaching on when God feels distant, and the three things that He's doing in your life when you feel that way. Stephen Mockezuma is here with me as usual. He'll be leading you in some worship right now. If you've ever felt, like I said, as if God is distant from you, then I really believe that this program is going to help to give you breakthrough. One of the ways we're going to do that is we're going to look at what the scripture teaches about the presence of God. And I really do believe that as you come to understand the three different expressions of God's presence, that this will give you breakthrough in your thinking, in your emotions, in the way you live your Christianity. When it comes to the seasons where you feel like God is a million miles away, we've all been there. You're praying, and it seems like no one is responding. You're worshiping, and the sense of His Majesty is eluding you in some way. And there seems to be this disconnect. You feel like you're missing something. You feel like you're doing something wrong. And maybe you even looked up to the Lord and said, Lord, are you angry with me? God, where did I go wrong? God, did I miss something in your will? And if we're not careful, what can actually happen is we can allow fear to begin to overtake our thinking to where we're wondering if we've missed the absolute centered, perfect will of God. And I want you today to find freedom from that sort of thinking. I want you today to rest in the peace in knowing that when He promised, I will never leave you no forsake you, that He meant it, and to this very day He keeps it. So let's now go, we're going to look at what King David wrote about the presence of God. And what not a lot of people recognize about King David, or I should say what not a lot of people talk about, is the fact that He was very close to the Holy Spirit. You can really tell from His writing that He shared something very special with the Lord. In fact, I believe, I mean there's times in Scripture where King David references something such as, the Lord said to my Lord and He begins to make mentions of the Trinity and mentions of God talking to God and the angel of the Lord. So I really do believe that King David had much more revelation than even He wrote about in the book of Psalms. But one of the Psalms that stood out to me specifically for this lesson was Psalm chapter 139. And we're going to be reading this out of the New Living Translation. Psalm 139, we're going to begin at verse 7. This is what the Bible says. I can never escape from your spirit. I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night. But even in darkness, I cannot hide from you. To you, the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. So here we see what is called the omnipresence of God. And that is a theological term simply to mean the everywhere presence of God. I mean, when you read this scripture, even when he talks about making his bed in the grave or a sheol or some translations say Hades, there seems to be this impression that God is even present in hell. And some theologians actually have said that one of the most frightening things about hell is the fact that God is present there to enact justice. But whatever you believe about hell, the truth is that there's not really anywhere that you can go to escape from the omnipresence of God. So whether or not God is conscious in hell or not, the truth is that he is to some degree aware of what's going on in hell, even if it's just in a very shallow sense. But the scripture tells us that there's no where you can go to escape the presence of God. And then when I read that, it seems to contradict with some other things that we read. Let's look for a second here at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 19. So we're going to get to that contradiction in just a moment. But first I want to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 19, where the scripture says, Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So we see here now there's the omnipresence of God, which is the everywhere presence of God. There's the indwelling presence of God, which is the Holy Spirit in us. In fact, the scripture even says in Romans chapter 8 verse 11, that the same spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. So there is this very literal indwelling, even though it may not be physical, it is still literally, spiritually, an indwelling presence that rests inside of you. So we see the everywhere presence of God, we see the indwelling presence of God. So why then does the scripture make reference to things such as when Cain committed the first murder ever recorded in history and he commits this murder, and then we see that Cain went away from the presence of the Lord. Another thing I read that seemed to contradict what the Bible said here was in Psalm chapter 51. And so we're going to go back now again to King David. Now what actually struck me about this is that King David knows about the omnipresence of God. In fact, he's the one who wrote that scripture we just read. So he's talking here about the omnipresence of God. He's saying, I can never escape from the presence of God. He's aware of this, he knows this, yet he writes in Psalm chapter 51 verse 11. He says, oh, start at verse 10. He says, created me a clean heart, oh God, renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. And I thought, okay, so here's a guy. Now, whether or not you believe he's writing this because he believes maybe what his emotions are telling him or maybe he's contradicting himself, that doesn't necessarily mean that the scripture contradicts. It means it's recording a man who's having an inner conflict with what he believes. But the scripture tells us right here that King David recognizes two things. Number one, that he can be banished from God's presence. And number two, that the Holy Spirit is within him. So even in the King James version, he's basically saying, don't cast me away and don't take it from within. King David was aware of the manifestations of God's presence. Then there's the third manifestation, which is the tangible presence or the word. And we read in John chapter one, verse one, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. John chapter one, verse 14 says, and then the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory full of grace and truth. So just as God exists in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so his presence is expressed in three ways. God the Father expressed in the omnipresence, God the Holy Spirit expressed in the indwelling presence, and God the Son expressed in the manifested presence. You notice every time God wants to interact with men, in this realm, it's the Son who tangibly manifests by the power of the Holy Spirit. So it seems to me that there's this middle ground connection between God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son. God the Son is most highly involved now with what is going on in the church. When people are healed, I often hear, well, I felt a heat come over my body. I believe that's the tangible presence of the Son of the living God touching that body and causing them to be whole. Because even in the Old Testament, Jesus was the manifestation of God. Jesus was the one who was God revealed in the flesh. He's the flesh dwelling among us and the Holy Spirit is who reveals it. Just as Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit takes what is incomprehensible of God and causes it to become something with which we can connect. So the omnipresence, indwelling presence, and manifest presence, the omnipresence is always with you. The indwelling presence is always with you. But the manifest presence, which is the tangible sense of the nearness of God, is what causes most confusion in believers. Because they can walk into a worship service, they can lift their hands, and maybe they are feeling something of emotional euphoria. But the fact remains that there are times when the manifested presence of God becomes tangible and we can feel him, whether that's in our emotion, in our awareness, in our mind, and when God does withdrawal, or I should say seemingly withdrawal, He does so only in relation to the manifested presence. Whether that manifestation is reaching us mentally, emotionally, physically, when He does seemingly withdrawal, He's not taking His Holy Spirit from you. He's not becoming unaware of your existence. You're still in the omnipresence of God. All He is removing is the manifested presence of God, that sense of nearness. And this is why you've heard the cliche, we need to live off of our faith and not our feelings. Because the Word of God doesn't change, but our feelings in every season do. So let's take a look now at what is God doing? So why does He do this? So now that we understand that God is always with us, but there are times, in fact, where He does withdraw the sense of His presence from us. King David felt it here, we read in something, he sensed the distance between him and God. And that distance is only metaphoric in the sense that God is always with us. But again, this only relates to our feelings, or our sense of Him. So when you sense this, it's not that God is distancing Himself, it's that you're losing a sense, or you're becoming unaware of His nearness. So what is He doing? Well, let's go to 2 Chronicles, chapter 32. And we're going to read a short story here on Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles, chapter 32. And this is going to begin at verse number 24. And this is what the Bible says again, I'm reading out of the New Living Translation for those of you who've been asking. Some of the references you hear from memory are usually King James, but this is the New Living Translation that you see on the screen all the time. So this is what the Scripture says, about that time Hezekiah became deathly ill. He prayed to the Lord who healed him and gave him a miraculous sign, verse 25. But Hezekiah did not respond appropriately to the kindness shown to him, and he became proud. Then Hezekiah humbled himself and repented of his pride, as did the people of Jerusalem. So the Lord's anger did not fall on them during Hezekiah's lifetime. Verse 27, Hezekiah was very wealthy and highly honored. He built special treasury buildings for his silver, gold, precious stones and spices, and for his shields and other valuable items. Verse 28, He also constructed many storehouses for his grain, new wine and olive oil. So he's very rich. Now, this is what the Scripture says. Let's go down to verse 30. He blocked up the upper spring of Gihann and brought the water down through a tunnel of the west side of the city of David, and he succeeded at everything that he did. However, when ambassadors arrived from Babylon to ask about the remarkable events that had taken place in the land, God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and see what was really in his heart. Now, whatever you may believe about predestination and the foreknowledge of God and God's knowledge of what goes on in our minds and what we're going to do, the fact remains that in some way, when God does seemingly withdraw, He's doing it to test and observe how you're going to act. So I'll give you an example. There was a season in my life, and I've shared this story with you before, and I feel very vulnerable sharing it because it just kind of reveals, you know, I'm not really 100% spiritual all the time. But, you know, I was praying, and I was just very frustrated with the way things are going with the ministry. You know, finances weren't coming in that season, and it seemed that every year we saw this proportional dip, no matter how well we did financially, every year during this one season, we just took a hit. And I couldn't figure out what it was, and I would get frustrated. I would look at the numbers. I would look at the preaching dates. I would look at everything we're doing. I said, Lord, we're doing everything the same but it doesn't make sense why there's that dip right there. And you hear this all the time about how God is never early. God is never late. And I said, Lord, I wouldn't mind if every so often you were early or, you know, show up and at least let me know what's going to happen. But I believe that's a part of the walk of faith. So anyway, I'm frustrated. I'm dealing with all these things. I'm going through all this internal struggle. And I don't know about you, but sometimes I've tried to guilt God into a response. Lord, can't you hear me? God, don't you love me? God, haven't I've done what you wanted me to do? And what we're actually doing there is we're trying to get God to respond to an emotional plea when he only hears the word of faith, when he only hears what is communication of the Spirit. So I'm saying, Lord, help me. Lord God, you have to come through. And then I spoke something very foolish and I don't recommend you do this. I said, Lord, if you don't come through, I have to quit the ministry. I was basically threatening him, which was very irreverent. I know we'll get comments there, but oh well. And I said, Lord, I can't do it. And I was just frustrated. I was tired. And you know what the Lord told me? The Lord said, then quit. And some people say, no, the Holy Spirit would never say that to you. He's so gentle. He's so kind. Yes, he is. But there are times when the Holy Spirit speaks very harshly and he deals very harshly. Just ask Ananias and Sapphira. He deals very harshly with people sometimes for the sake of their own good. Even his judgment is tied to his mercy. That's another lesson. But I was so frustrated that I just said it. And you know, to be honest with you, I never saw any immediate repercussions of that. Until about a year later, the same thing happened. We're doing everything right. We saw an explosive growth. It was another great year of expansion and open doors and favor. And then all of a sudden, that right at the same part of the year, we just take a dip again financially. And I said, I did all the same thing. It was just like the repeating of a script, like watching a movie. It was just played again and again. That year, exactly the same thing happened. And the Holy Spirit, what he spoke to me in that moment, shook me. When I said exactly what I said again a year before, the Holy Spirit told me, you just bought yourself another year. And what he was telling me was that because I did not pass the test, I had to go through it again. Well, another year went by. And around the same time, we saw that dip. And this time, I responded differently. So the result was different. I'm not kidding. I mean, I've always heard those stories if we had someone mailed us a check randomly. I'm thinking, who's writing these random checks? How did they get your address? How often does this actually happen? Do you have any proof? Do you have the stub? That's how my mind thinks. And so I never, I always heard those stories, but I always took it with the grain of salt saying, okay, well, maybe it does happen. But I just don't know anybody who just writes a random check and sends it to an address, especially when the person doesn't know they're going to receive it. But I'm not kidding you. Within 10 minutes of me saying, Lord, I trust you here. 10 minutes, I get a call. And it was a very wealthy businessman. And he said, what do you think I'm going to tell you right now? That's exact. I said, hello. He says, hello, this is so-and-so. What do you think I'm going to tell you right now? I said, you're going to tell me that you're going to write me a check for. And I said the amount. And he said, that's exactly right. I'm sending it right now. He overnighted it. We got it two days later. And it was enough to not only cover what we needed to do for that season, that actually, the amount, I'm not kidding, was enough to cover two years of that project when I was looking for just another month. The Lord tested me by withdrawing what seemed to be his favor, by withdrawing what seemed to be his resource. And you know why he does that? It's so that when the breakthrough comes, when the blessing comes, when the door opens, there's no doubt in anyone's mind who it was that opened the door. So God will withdraw himself. Number one, he's testing you. Number two, Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Now this one is a little bit more of a simple thought. But the truth is that if it doesn't require risk, it doesn't require faith. And he's teaching us. Number two, he's teaching you to trust. So number one, he's testing you. Number two, he's teaching you to trust. So when we go through those seasons where we want to know what the next step is, and someone asked me just the other day, I was driving with them and they said, you know, when did you see all this in the ministry? Did God ever show this to you? And if I'm being honest, I can honestly tell you, with God as my witness, I can tell you that when I was 11 years old, everything you're seeing in the ministry now, the Lord showed it to me in a vision. It was about two, three hour prayer session. I was just communing with the Lord. And he showed me every step. I'm telling you, the Lord told me when I was 11 the very order of TV networks we would go on one after the other. And then he told me what the next steps would be for offices and the next steps for studios and the next step for hires. I have it written down still in my 11 year old writing of what the steps were. Now that doesn't mean it didn't require faith to get there. Now God doesn't do that for everyone. Me, I needed it. I'm like a Thomas. That's what God had to do for me. But the truth is that even though I've had this very general idea of where the Lord is going, I've never known how we were going to get from one step to the next. I've saw the steps, but I didn't see how I would take those steps. And the truth is that if it doesn't require faith, it doesn't require God. And only what is empowered by the Holy Spirit can impact eternity. Only what God appoints, only where God leads you is your place where you're going to make an impact for eternity. So I had this issue with wanting to know every little detail about what comes next. And sometimes the Lord would not show that to me. In that way, he withdrew. And maybe you're in the season right now. You can't find chapter and verse, which college you're supposed to go to. You can't find chapter and verse, what career you're supposed to take, or what church you're supposed to go to, or who you're supposed to trust, or with whom you're supposed to transact business. I mean all of these things, they're confusing. They're frustrating. You're saying, Lord, I feel like you can't hear me. And you're speaking it out, and you're praying, and you're fasting, and you're reading, and you're saying, God, will you show me? And maybe, just maybe, God is waiting for you to take that next step before he reveals. You see, we say, God, show me, and I'll believe. But God says, believe, and I'll show you. We say, God, bless me, and I'll give of my blessing. God says, no, give of what you have, and then I'll bless you. So we think in a reverse order, we want the convenience first, the assurance first. The assurance we have is what the Word of God says, and in who he is. But as far as what's coming in this life, not everything is guaranteed. And so, he's teaching us trust. So number one, he withdraws because he's testing you. Number two, again, I want to emphasize, he seemingly withdraws because he's teaching you trust. And number three, finally, and this is Acts chapter 17. Let's go to verse 27. Acts chapter 17, verse 27. This is what the Bible says. And this is the scripture telling us of God's nature and of God's desire to reveal himself to us. Acts chapter 17, verse 27. His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps fill their way toward him. And find him, though he is not far from any one of us. Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 13 tells us that if we seek him, he says, if you seek me with all your heart, you'll find me. You know, I've heard people tell me before in frustration, I sought God and he didn't reveal himself to me. But just by them saying that God did not reveal himself, I know they didn't truly seek him. The Bible says, let God be true and every man a liar. In other words, if man ever says anything that contradicts with the word of God says, that man, that woman is a liar. And so when somebody tells me I sought God with all my heart, I gave it everything I had. I prayed, I worshiped, and I did my best to seek him. And they don't experience him. It's because they didn't give all their hearts to seek him. Why? Because the Bible guarantees the word of God guarantees. God promises that if you will seek him truly with all that you have, with everything in your being, with all your desire and passion and effort, and you go to the Holy Spirit and you ask him for that help to seek him, that if you will do that, the Bible says he will make good on his promise. It's a law of the Spirit. If you seek him with all your heart, you will find him. So to say, I sought him with all my heart and didn't find him is to call God a liar. If you say, I sought him with all my heart and didn't find him, it's because you didn't really seek him with all your heart. I know this is not necessarily something popular to say, not very nice to say, but it's true because the Bible has this guarantee. So seeking is less about God coming nearer and more about you becoming more aware. You see, when the manifestation of the Holy Spirit's presence comes around you in worship service or in prayer, it's not that God is coming nearer. It's that you're becoming more aware. You're beginning to sense his presence. If you know me, I've said it on the program before, my idea of camping is getting a nice cabin and then visiting the nature and then going back in for the night. I'm not really one to like to sleep in tents or anything like that. But one summer I did, I went camping with some friends and it wasn't very comfortable, but I really do enjoy nature and all of the different things that are on display when you go out there. And I remember I climbed up to this hill and I'm just looking at the stars and I said, man, this is just so nice. I wish these stars were out every night like this. And then I realized, well, they are. It's just where I am, Southern California, because of maybe light pollution or general pollution or the time of day, or all of that contributes to causing me to not see those stars. Even in the day when the sun comes out and all I can see is blue skies and clouds, those stars still remain. And the Lord said, my presence is like the stars. They're always there. You just have to be in the right place at the right time and looking through the right lens to see it. And the right place in the right time is the place of reverence. And that lens is worship. When you worship the Lord, the focus shifts from you to him. And the eyes of your heart begin to behold the majesty of the countenance of Christ as the Holy Spirit reveals him. And this is the beauty of it all, really, because number three, when he seemingly withdraws, he's drawing you closer. Remember in Isaiah chapter six, where King Uzziah had died and Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up, seated upon a throne. And the train of his rope fills the temple with glory. Here's this great, spectacular, glorious display of all that God is revealing to Isaiah. And the first thing he does is looks at himself. And he says, woe is me for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the glory of the Lord. So he's looking at this display that is God and immediately he looks at himself and says, well, I'm undone. Isn't that so like what we do during these seasons where God is actually drawing us nearer? Maybe you sense your imperfections good because God is drawing you closer. And the closer you get to the light, the more things become exposed. You know the cliche, God doesn't expose to shame. He exposes to save. And so I think that cliche holds true in this case. So he is drawing you closer. And it's less about you and more about him. When your eyes, the eyes of your heart begin to focus less on your circumstance. And more on him, everything begins to change. This is good because God will disrupt us when we're comfortable. Hasakai was blessed. Sometimes when we don't want to have faith or we don't want to take a risk, we want everything comfortable. But the scripture teaches us that God will disrupt when you're comfortable. And this is what he does because sometimes he needs to do something to get your attention. You may be going through your life and things are going well, you're blessed, or maybe you feel like things are falling apart. But either way, when God seemingly withdraws, remember that number one, he only does so in relations to your emotions and your sense. And when he does do that, he's doing it for one of three things. He's testing you, he's teaching you trust, or he's drawing you closer. Well, I want to pray with you now. Maybe you're in that season. And one of those points spoke to your heart and you know that that is what God is doing in your life. I want to pray with you right now. Let's believe that God would process you and that you would exercise patience to allow God to do whatever he's doing in this situation. Let's believe right now. And let's believe for breakthrough and then as always, I want to pray for your healing. I want to pray for spiritual deliverance. I want to pray that God would anoint you. Let's just ask the Holy Spirit to move. So right where you're watching, I want you to just lift your hands, close your eyes, don't even think about it. Maybe you're watching this in public. Who cares? Let them think you're crazy. Lift your hands, close your eyes. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for that one watching right now, Lord. Whatever this person is going through, they're not watching this video by accident. They're not hearing this message by chance. But Lord, I believe that you've anointed this word for such a time as this for this individual. So I pray now, Lord, for patience, for courage, and for discernment during this season. I pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit's presence and power would now begin to manifest among that one watching right now. I pray, Lord, for your healing power. There's somebody you're believing for healing for a blood disorder. I literally just felt like a jolt out of my hand and I heard blood disorder and God's making you whole. There was somebody watching actually a couple of weeks ago. I called out crooked legs and their legs straightened as they were watching this program. I believe God is healing you. You're filling his power on you, feeling like heat. Some people feel heat. Some people feel like electricity. Whatever it is, even if you don't feel anything, know that God is healing. I thank you, Lord, for what you're doing in Jesus' name. Lord, I pray you anoint, impart, and empower your people today in Jesus' name. Amen. I pray that message bless you. I want to take this moment now to welcome the new members of Spirit Church this week. Actually, several of you joined this week and we haven't looked at the numbers, but this one is a huge jump. So here are the names. Thank you so much. We love you. We're praying for you. We're glad you joined. I hope you got that email because in that email, if you'll look at it, you have that number and you can call for prayer, text for prayer. And if you want to join Spirit Church, then go to the link. If you're watching this on the ministry app, you're going to have to go and manually type in the link below. If you're watching this anywhere else, you can go ahead and click on the link that just appeared just above and that'll take you right to the registration form and you can join the Spirit family. As usual, I do now need to present the needs of the ministry. Many of you know worldwide television, international events, global discipleship, and that's three of the nine ministry outreaches that we're doing. If you ever want to see what this ministry is doing, I mean, Encounter TV, Encounter Services, and Spirit Church are at the forefront and that's what you usually see. But if you really want to see, then go ahead and click on the link here. And that link right there is going to take you to a place where you can see all of the ministry operations. There's nine distinct ministries that are coming out of this organization and they all have a very specific purpose and we do those to the best of our ability because of your support. And really when it comes down to it, we're thankful for your support because we can win more souls with what you give. That's ultimately what this comes down to. It's four souls. That is why we give and that is why we do what we do. So go ahead, so on the ministry, those of you who consider this your church, there's also that special link for you for tithes and offering. And I just want to thank you for watching. Thank you for supporting. We love you. We're praying for you. That is it for this edition of Spirit Church. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.