 what should you do if you feel like God is a million miles away? What do you do when you don't sense His presence, even when you worship, even when you pray, even when you read the Word? Many believers face this situation and they condemn themselves. They become filled with fear. They ask questions like, God, did you abandon me? God, did I anger you? God, did I do something wrong? And then they begin to compare their story or their experience with the stories and experiences of other believers. And they tell themselves things like, well that person experiences God's presence in this way, or they said they experienced the touch of the Holy Spirit's power in that way. What's wrong with me? Am I not as spiritual? Am I not as favored? Am I not as close to God? Do I lack faith? I want to help bring this into perspective. What do you do when you can't feel God? What do you do when you don't sense the presence of the Lord, even in prayer, even in times where you are focused on Him and you are placing your faith in Him or you're crying out for an encounter? Why does it seem sometimes like you can't feel the presence of God? Let's first put feelings into perspective. Now feelings can be a part of an encounter with God, but feelings alone do not indicate that you are in fact having a real encounter with God. Neither does it mean, and please hear this, it doesn't mean that you are not encountering God or that you're not close to God just because you don't feel Him. So I want you by faith to write this in the comment section right now. A simple statement, even if you don't feel it, you're going to say it by faith. You're going to write it by faith. Type in the comment section, He is with me. And again, that's a declaration of faith, even if you don't feel it. Here's what the scripture says in 1 John chapter 3. I'm going to read verses 18 and onward. Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Watch this now, verse 20. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and He knows everything. Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence, and we will receive from Him whatever we ask because we obey Him and do the things that please Him. Now here the scripture is talking about the fact that God is greater than our feelings, or at least it mentions that reality. And oftentimes we imagine that because we don't feel God, or because maybe we feel condemned, or because maybe we approach with a bit of a guilty conscience, that God has denied access. That's not what's happening. Now this of course is not a license to sin, but this doesn't mean that God has denied access to His presence. In fact, He lives within you. Every believer has the Holy Spirit. But rather what begins to happen is that as you allow the feelings of guilt and shame to overcome you, as you allow the feelings of distance from God to affect the way that you think, then it begins to affect your boldness in how you approach Him. In other words, your feelings don't prevent you from being in the presence of God. Your feelings, though, can prevent you from having confidence that you are in the presence of God. So it's not necessarily that our feelings create the reality. Our feelings cause us to think that something is real or not real. Your feelings cannot prevent you from having an audience with God, but your feelings can prevent you from believing in the fact that God actually hears you. And that of course disrupts your prayer life. It disrupts your devotion to the Word. Why? Because you're not aware of that presence. You feel like you're working for that connection, or you might feel like you have to perform in order to get God's attention. This is where I think it's helpful to understand the various different expressions of the presence of God. I'll give you these three, and then I want to get into the details as to why sometimes it feels like God is distant from you, or why you can't feel His presence. First, there is the omnipresence of God. Psalm 139 verses 7 and 8 say this, Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. Here the Scripture is talking about the omnipresence of God, or the everywhereness of God. This is God everywhere and aware of all things at all times. Then there's the indwelling presence of God found in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 19. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own? Here the Scripture is describing the very unique way that the believer experiences the presence of God. So if you're a born-again believer, there's a heightened influence of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. The non-believer does not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them in the same way that the believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Granted, the Holy Spirit is everywhere at all times, but again, this is a heightened form of influence reserved only for God's children. So God is everywhere at all times in some sense, and then God is also within you in a sense that he is not with the non-believer or everywhere else. There's a very unique grace that we've been given, so he dwells in us with a heightened level of influence. Now third, there is the manifested presence of God, and an example of this we see in Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Verse 2, suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. So here we see a manifestation of the Holy Spirit's presence. Now let me ask you this, do you think that the Holy Spirit wasn't omnipresent at this time? Should we imagine that the Holy Spirit arrived onto the scene in Acts chapter 2? Or was it that there was an increase in the intensity of the manifestation of His presence? You see, the Holy Spirit is everywhere at all times, but He isn't always manifesting His presence in a way that's immediately apparent or felt by us, and by the way, a manifestation isn't necessarily always physical in nature. There are manifestations of His power, such as we see in Acts 2, and such as you may experience in times of worship and prayer, you may at times feel like a heat come on you. Some people report in our meetings like heat or like electricity or like a weight coming on to the room. That's a physical manifestation of His presence, but there are also emotional manifestations of His presence, where you often sometimes may feel like weeping or you're overcome with joy or you sense great peace. So there you're experiencing a mental slash emotional manifestation of His presence, even though it's not a physical manifestation. Really, a manifestation of God's presence is anything about His presence or power that becomes apparent to us. So when you feel peace, that's a manifestation of His presence. When you sense electricity on your body, maybe while you're being healed or delivered, that's a manifestation of His presence. One is a mental slash emotional manifestation. The other is a physical manifestation. So when I talk about feeling God, you have to remember that feeling God has only to do with the manifestation of His presence and not necessarily the reality of His presence. What do I mean by that? I mean that every believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Every believer has the fullness of God's presence and power dwelling in them. That does not come and go. When you make mistakes, God will correct you. God will convict you. The Holy Spirit will grieve, but that doesn't mean that He will abandon you. What does He do? He abides to help you get things right. Now, you may not always feel God, but we don't go by feelings. We go by faith. You may not always believe God is close or sense God near to you, but that doesn't mean that He went anywhere. It just means that His presence isn't manifesting in your emotions or in your physical being or even in your mind. So we have to live by what the word says. And if the word declares that He'll never leave us nor forsake us, if the word declares that the Holy Spirit doesn't abandon us, if the word declares that the Holy Spirit dwells within us, then we have to believe the word even when our feelings don't align with what the word teaches. So questions like, God, did you abandon me? God, did I do something wrong? God, are you distancing yourself from me? Did you reject me? Are you now punishing me by taking away your presence? That's really an Old Testament concept. And it does not apply to the New Testament Spirit-filled believer, at least a genuine Spirit-filled believer. So never mind with this fretting and this fear and this anxiousness. We need to come to the place where we have the bold confidence, despite what we feel, that God is with us. That's why I had you comment. He is with me. So there's the omnipresence of God. That's the everywhereness of God. There's the indwelling presence of God. That's the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He lives within you. And then there's the manifest presence of God. This is where there's that tangible touch of His power, whether in your physical being, whether in your emotions or in your mind. Now, I want to make sure I clarify this because I don't want us to get caught up with necessarily everything that claims to be God or everyone who claims to be moving in God's power. So we have to understand that just because you are emotional doesn't mean it's God's presence. Just because you feel sensations doesn't mean it's God's presence. Granted, God's presence can produce certain sensations or certain emotions or certain senses of peace and so forth. But that doesn't mean that those experiences themselves validate whatever it is that we're receiving from. Ultimately, we have to always go back to the Word and ground our lives and our mindsets on Christ and our discernment on Christ and the Word. So to recap, Omni, that's His everywhereness, indwelling, that's Him dwelling in you, and the manifest. That's when you sense Him in the physical being, in the mind, or in the emotions. Now, why is it then that we don't always feel the manifested presence of God? Well, aside from the fact that feelings aren't God's priority for you, we can look at a few things that could possibly hinder the sense of His presence in that way. Now notice here, I'm talking about the sense of His presence, where you sense that closeness. Here we see in Psalm 32 verses 1 through 5 that wickedness can cause this effect. All what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight, yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty. When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me, my strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sin to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord and you forgave me, all my guilt is gone. So here the Psalmist is writing of this sense of guilt, this weightiness, this evaporation of strength that was sensed when they were living in wickedness or unconfessed sin. You know, it's very difficult to sense the presence of God in terms of His manifested presence when you're living in this way. Now, granted, God can and will reveal Himself to anyone at any time under any condition. Think about how Saul turned to Paul when he encountered God. He was literally on a road of rebellion when he encountered the presence of the living God and he was transformed even though he was walking in rebellion. So God can do whatever he wants in his mercy and in his sovereignty. But when you walk in wickedness, it's very difficult to place your attention on the presence of God because you're so distracted by the guilty conscience. You're so distracted by shame. You're so caught up in the emotions of that heaviness that wait on you. Again, God can manifest anytime, any place. His tangible presence and power and glory can be revealed to anyone under any circumstances as God wills and this is up to the Lord to do so. But it's also true that when you walk in sin, you may have trouble focusing on those encounters with God. And by the way, just because you don't feel God, that doesn't mean you are definitely living in sin. I'm just bringing to you one possibility that can hinder you from appreciating and experiencing the manifested presence of God in your life. So it doesn't mean that God can't manifest his presence to people in wickedness. He does it all the time. And it doesn't mean that if you don't feel God that you're definitely living in wickedness. This just means that it's possible that if you are in sin, this could be disrupting the sense of God's presence. It's very difficult to feel close to God when you're caught up in feeling guilty. It's very difficult to feel the acceptance of God when you're caught up in the feelings of shame. It's very difficult to believe or feel that sonship when you are caught up in rebellion. And so this is where we have to be very careful. This is a very balanced approach that we have to take just because you don't feel God doesn't mean you're living in sin. And just because you're living in sin doesn't mean that God can't buy his own sovereignty cause you to feel his presence. This just means that wickedness is a possible preventer of the sense of God's presence in your life. And in moments where you are walking this way, you need to repent. You need to get that right. Because you get so caught up in your emotions and so entangled within yourself that you have trouble sensing the presence of God. So that's number one wickedness. Do like a self evaluation. Really examine your life, your mind, not in a legalistic fear based way. Just a very honest way. Examine your life, examine your thoughts, examine your actions and say okay Lord is there anything in me that's rebelling? Is there anything in me that that's committed to wickedness? And if so I want you to reveal that to me so that I can repent and rejoice again. I can feel that joy again. I can have that heaviness lifted off of me. Number two, it's difficult to sense the presence of God in seasons of waiting. So number one is wickedness. Number two is waiting. This is when you're waiting for a miracle. You're waiting for a breakthrough. You're waiting for the promises of God to reveal themselves or to manifest in your life. And it's in the season of waiting really that doubt can grow because many Christians get stuck there. They go waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. Nothing seems to be happening. Nothing seems to be going the way that they want it to go. And they get frustrated. And in that tension of frustration it's very difficult to appreciate the presence of God. I want to say that again. I want you to really hear that and get that in your spirit. Within moments of the tension of frustration it's very difficult to appreciate the presence of God. Psalm 37.7 says rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. In other words it's frustrating when you're waiting on God. Nothing's happening. And it's especially frustrating when you're waiting on God. Nothing's happening. And the wicked seem to be prospering. You're saying Lord I'm here living right. I'm doing the right thing. I'm walking according to your word. I'm doing the best that I can. I'm trying to live a submitted life to you. And everything seems to be falling apart. Yet the wicked seem to be just carrying out their rebellion without a care in the world. And you seem to be blessing them. That's frustrating. And we have to be honest about that. Psalm 27.14 Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. Isaiah 40.31 But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. In these seasons it seems like nothing is going right. And so because of the circumstances that you're facing, because you are waiting, because everything seems to be on hold, you get wrapped up in the feelings of waiting. You get wrapped up in the feelings of frustration, in the feelings of impatience. And that prevents you from fully appreciating and acknowledging and being aware of the presence of God in your life in such a way where you're going to be able to receive of that presence in a way that causes a manifestation. And so when we're so distracted by what we're waiting for, when we're distracted by our frustration, when we're distracted by our own feelings of impatience that rush for no reason, I should say, that rushing for no reason, that really can prevent you from fully appreciating the presence of God at work in your life and thus it takes away from the sense of that manifested presence and power. So number one is wickedness. If you're in sin, this of course will make it difficult to feel the presence of God. Number two, when you're waiting for a miracle, for a breakthrough, for a promise of God, that can create a sense of impatience or a sense of frustration. And in that impatience and frustration it can be difficult to feel the presence of God. Number three, in seasons of wandering, this is like a state of confusion. For example, you may say, I don't know what God has for me. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I don't know what the next step is. It's difficult to take a step of faith when you don't know what direction you're headed. It's difficult to take a step of faith when you don't know what direction you're headed. And this is really where confusion sets in, because when we are confused, and I want you to receive this with grace here, when we are confused, typically it's because somewhere deep down we're believing a lie. Now you may throw up your hands and say, wait a minute, no, that cannot be. And I'm not just talking about deceptions of the enemy. I'm not just talking about blatant lies that contradict the scripture. I'm talking about those subtle variations of those lies that we embrace without even realizing it, or even just things that are not factual that we embrace. For example, I was counseling someone who was in a relationship they should not have been in, and they were telling me how confused they were about it. And so we began to dissect their problem, and this was a young man who was dating a non-believer, and he had told himself from the very beginning that it was God's will for him to date this girl, because he could win her over to salvation. And you may hear stories of people who've done this, but don't mistake God's mercy for God's approval. It worked out when it shouldn't have because of God's grace and mercy, not because that's what God wants us to do. So he's dating this girl, he's telling me about anything. Look it, I'm just so confused because part of me believes that I'm supposed to stay in this relationship so I can win her over to the Lord. And the other part of me believes this is wrong and that I shouldn't be in this relationship. Well, there's confusion. The confusion arises when you believe a lie. Why? Because the lie is contradicting something you know is true, and then you may even lie to yourself about what you believe is true. And so there's this weighing of the lie and the truth, and both of them look good, both of them sound good. And unless we're willing to release that which is untrue, we're never going to be able to focus on that which is true. And this doesn't apply to just dating and ungodly relationships and so forth. This applies to a variety of other things in our lives where we believe something that maybe wasn't from God. Where maybe you received the prophetic word and it didn't come to pass and now you're confused and you're holding onto that word while also holding onto something maybe that God told you himself. And instead of just saying well maybe the prophet missed it, we hold on to both. Here's what the prophet said, here's what I believe God told me, and then we go back and forth. Well I don't know, I believe on one hand this and I believe on the other hand that. Well now there's confusion and now there's this turmoil and now it's difficult in that season of wandering to fill the presence of God. Why? Because we're so overwhelmed by that confusion. We're so overcome by that indecision and we don't have a clear direction forward. John 832. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. When you finally identify the lie or the inaccurate information that you've allowed yourself to believe. When you finally put a focus on that, expose it and then eliminate it, suddenly there's this burden that's lifted from off of your shoulders and you're no longer confused but now you have clarity. And this is why believers often can't fill the presence of God because they're so wrapped up in this confusion and they become real tense, they become real worried, they don't know what step to take, they're going well I don't know, I don't want to go that direction because of this and I don't want to go that direction because of that and I feel like I've been pulled in all sorts of different directions. I think this is God, this is God, and all of those things contradict one another. Well, you got to identify which one of those are untrue and you do so by the Word of God, the wisdom he gave you and the leading of the Holy Spirit. And so, you have to be willing to confront that. That's why I say if we're confused, we're believing a lie. So, in that wandering, in that confusion, we become so wrapped up in that confusion that we're not focused on the presence of God or we don't believe the presence of God can even manifest because we don't know the steps forward and we're so preoccupied with that. Lord, I don't know where to go, I don't know what to do, I don't know what you're saying rather than just giving it to Jesus, finding the truth and moving forward and then being released from that inability to sense the presence of God. That'll really rob you of peace, by the way, those seasons of wandering and confusion. You have to at some point say, okay, something I believe here is off and I have to correct that. So, number one, we'll recap the points and maybe even just summarize some of the information from each of these points. Number one is wickedness, this is sin. I want to clarify again, just because you don't feel God doesn't mean you're in sin and just because you're in sin doesn't mean that God can't buy his sovereign will cause you to sense his presence. Again, look at Saul to Paul. But this does mean that when you are living in wickedness in those seasons, it can make it difficult for you to fully appreciate the manifestation of God's presence and power and therefore, it's difficult to have those encounters where you sense him. But again, God can do what he wants to do. Number two, seasons of waiting. When you're waiting on a miracle, waiting on a breakthrough, waiting on a promise you believe is from God, you're so wrapped up in that impatience and frustration that it makes it difficult to feel the presence of God. Number three is wandering. This is confusion. You're believing many different things, all of them contradicting. You're not willing to let go of any one of them and so you stay stuck in wandering and it makes it difficult because you're so tensed up by that confusion. It's very difficult to sense the presence of God around you or even acknowledge that presence or appreciate that presence. Number four, and this is probably the most common when I would say. Number four is weariness. This is where you're just spiritually dry, spiritually tired. Why? Because you haven't been giving yourself over not just to the devotion to the word or to prayer but also to the truth. Look at First Kings chapter 19. Look at what happened to the prophet here. First Kings 19. Let's start at verse four. Then he went on alone into the wilderness traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. Think about that. I've had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died. Then he laid down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, get up and eat. He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and laid down again. Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, get up and eat some more or the journey ahead will be too much for you. Verse eight. So he got up and ate and drank and the food gave him enough strength to travel 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Sinai in the mountain, or excuse me, the mountain of God. Now here it's interesting because the prophet Elijah just confronted false prophets. He called down fire from heaven. He experienced an amazing manifestation of God's power. But even he was susceptible to weariness. Even he was susceptible to this emotional state of defeat. Where now he's got this heaviness on him. He's praying that the Lord would take his life. He doesn't think anything good is going to happen. He thinks he's all alone. Nobody's with him. Nobody else loves God. It's just me all by my lonesome right. He gets into this woe is me mentality. He hangs his head in defeat. And look at what the Lord gives to him. Look at what the scripture says happens in verse five. Then he laid down and slept under the broom tree. And then an angel told him get up and eat something. So here we see that yes he probably was a man of prayer. Yes he probably was a man of studying the words of God. Or what God had communicated to him. Meditating on what the Lord would speak to him. Of course. But it's interesting because it was as simple as a nap and some food. Many believers because of fear-based legalism and man-made superstition. They work themselves into this state of fatigue. This constant this constant constantly being drained. Where you're giving of yourself instead of out of the spirit. You're giving out of obligation instead of because you believe it's an opportunity. You're giving out of law instead of out of love. And you give and you give and you give and you work and you work and you work and you overwork you never rest. And you don't rest because you feel guilty. You don't take time off because you think you don't deserve it. When this is really a biblical principle which is rest. But in that weariness it's very difficult to sense the presence of God. Pray yes. Read the word yes. Worship yes. Do all of those things that are considered the basics of Christianity. But also you want to hear something. And this isn't going to sound so spiritual but it is. It's a biblical spiritual principle that many believers are missing. Relax. Rest. Why are you so tense? Why are you so wrapped up in your emotions? Why are you so worked up over so many different things? Let the tension of the world and the tension of the flesh lose its grip on your life. Practice the principle of rest. Make sure you're sleeping. That's the temple of the Holy Spirit. Make sure you're eating. Make sure you're resting not just your physical body but also your mind. Make sure you're also resting your emotions. Don't give your emotions to everything. There are some people who they give their emotions to anything and everything. Anything that comes up they're fully invested emotionally. And by the end of the week they're drained of all the emotions that they could possibly give and they're burned out. And now there's no emotions or mental energy left over to focus on and appreciate and receive from the presence of God and then they wonder why God feels distant. But what have you been spending your emotions on? What have you been spending your mental energy on? What have you been giving? I just heard this right now. You may need to cut off some people who are just there to drain you. There are people like that who all they do is take take take take take and out of guilt and a sense of obligation we continue to give give give give when you're not going to be able to do that for everyone. And you have to allow for rest this principle of rest to be implemented in your everyday life. Otherwise as I said there will be no mental energy or emotional energy left over to focus that on the presence of God and possibly have an encounter in his presence. Now we can't decide when we have encounters with God. We can't force an encounter to happen but we can make ourselves available to the awareness of his presence that he might do as he ought to do. So when you're in these seasons of weariness you've got to learn to rest, to allow yourself to get sleep, to allow yourself to mentally and emotionally rest so that you have enough left over to give to the Lord. A lot of people talk about tithing their finances or tithing their time. Think about the fact that you need to give also the best to God of your emotions and of your mental energy. How can we do that when we've wasted it on so many things that maybe don't even matter by the end of the week? So to recap one more time wickedness can be a factor in why you're not feeling the presence of God even when you pray. Maybe you're waiting for something, you're in that in-between period and you're frustrated and impatient and that of course can be why maybe you don't feel the presence of God. Maybe you're wandering, you're confused or you're fearful because you don't know what direction to go. Getting wrapped up in that confusion can make it difficult to feel the presence of God. And finally, weariness, expending your emotional and mental energy and all these other things, maybe why you can't sense the presence of God. And again, when I talk about the manifestation of his presence, I'm not just talking about physical manifestations, I'm talking about those inner manifestations of his presence like peace and joy and the sense of love and clarity. All of these things are ours. There are inheritance in him because the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And we should be living in that kind of encounter with God. So Father, I pray you help your people do it. Help us to stay focused on you, attentive to your voice, aware of your presence. And Father, I pray that even now, as your people begin to release those things to you, that you would cause your power to move upon them. Let them sense your presence, let them come into that encounter with you, I pray. Just lift your hands receive that now. Father, I thank you. Touch their lives and let them never be the same again. In Jesus' mighty name we pray and I want you to write it because you believe it right. Amen. If you enjoyed that message, please leave a like. It helps others to be able to hear it as well. And also make sure we stay connected. Subscribe to my channel so you can continue to receive my teachings on prayer and the presence of God and the Holy Spirit and Spiritual Warfare and do click that notification bell when you subscribe. Now I want to invite you to be a part of what God is doing through this ministry through giving. I want to challenge you to become a monthly ministry supporter. We so appreciate gifts of all kinds. We so appreciate those single donations that people send into our ministry. I don't want you to hear what I'm not saying. We are so appreciative of those. However, what really really helps us to plan for the future and to structure the ministry are those monthly gifts that people sign up for. 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