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WHY DON'T I ALWAYS "FEEL"
THE HOLY SPIRIT ?
Dear brother bob,
I am confused about God taking his
Holy Spirit away. I can not feel HIM at certain times, especially if I have gone
astray. This is very scary. Yet I am assured that He never leaves us or forsakes
us.
After I take my eyes off him and am in
pain and regret, it takes a while to feel HIS love for me again. Yet I do know
He is there, but I feel like he is further away... separated by my wall of sin.
Praying for forgiveness and repenting does not instantly put me back in his
loving arms. This is so confusing...please explain.
Thanks. God bless you... F -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear F,
Thanks for your question.. This is a really good one,
because it cuts right to the heart of being a christian in everyday life, in all
circumstances...
In the New Testament
scheme of things, after Christ breathed on His disciples and said "Receive ye the Holy Ghost"(John 20: 21-23), the Holy
Spirit was given to live inside us. Before this time, "the
Spirit was not yet given"up to this point..and it was not given" because Jesus was not yet
glorified"(John 7:38-39). Up until then, the Holy Spirit only rested upon
people, for various types of spiritual service to God.
In Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit
"rested upon" people, and then they prophesied or did other supernatural things,
like Samson"s great strength. And they were able to do the will of God with
supernatural power as long as the Spirit rested upon them.
In those times, a person's salvation was
marked by God changing their name, the name being significant of a person's
character, Gen 32:28 as an example. But their ability
to do great things for God was connected to the Holy Spirit resting on them..and
if they were disobedient to God or sinned, God took away the Holy Spirit from
them.
This removal of the Spirit, for
example, caused Samson to be just an ordinary man again,
unable to do the powerful things that God was able to accomplish through him.
Actually, it does not say that Samson all of a sudden became unsaved because of
this, because he again seeks God's gift and help and God gives it to him
again... showing that he still enjoyed God's favor and usefullness. Only his
supernatural abilities were removed.
In some ways, there is a certain
consistency between this and the new testament way of doing things.... if we are
not experiencing the filling of the Holy Spirit, we are not able to do great
things in the power of God either. But there the similarity ends, because the
Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us, and takes up permanent residence in our
hearts. He says He will
never leave us or forsake us, (Heb 13:5) so He will not take His Spirit
away from us, but we are just unable to enjoy the Spirit's blessings because of
the convicting work of the Spirit as the result of our sin. As Paul
says... I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but
Christ lives in me:
and the life which I
now live in the flesh
I live by the faith
of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me.
(Gal 2:20) Paul treats
the indwelling of Christ as a present fact, and does not leave the door open to
this being a temporary condition. Of course, committing a sin will temporarily
disturb our Fellowship with God, we feel guilty, we feel that God no longer
hears us, we feel we are worthless and get depressed and agitated....as it
says... But your iniquities
have separated between you and your God,
and your sins have
hid his face from you,
such that he will not hear.
(Isa 59:2) But still, the promise of God remains
the same..WE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.. And this is the
record, that God has given to us eternal life,
and this life is in
his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life.
These things have I written unto you that believe on
the name of the Son of God;
that ye may know that
ye have eternal life,
and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of
God.
(1 John 5:11-13) Eternal life is a possession, and
eternal life goes on forever, by the very definition of "eternal"...So how can
you have eternal life one day, and lose it the next day, and then get it back
that day after that ?? This would be temporary life dependent on our
fallen nature to maintain. This is not Biblical, and no where can you
find verses in the New Testament to support this. Of course there are
people who "appear" to be saved, and then in times of difficulty may fall
away or turn their backs on God and His salvation. But it is doubtful
if these were ever really saved, as Jesus describes in the Parable of the Sower
and the Soils. But this is another whole study.
If you have commited some sin, and the
Holy Spirit is convicting you of it and you fell awful and like God has drawn
away from you, the remedy is to confess that sin to God, agree with Him that it
is a sin, and determine to turn away from that sin and replace that activity
with a Godly one. Confession
and turning away from sin (repentance) allow God to heal and forgive the
breakdown of fellowship, and to restore your inner peace and healty relationship
with Him... If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (KJV)
But our relationship of sonship with God
always stays the same once we have received Christ and the Holy Spirit lives
within us. . He no longer needs to hide His face from us, because He could not
look upon sin...but now it is gone and forgotten, and we are clean again. This is a "new thing", a new dispensation of grace, if you
will, a different way that God is dealing with us than He did with Old Testament
saints.
The problem of "feeling saved or feeling
lost" is one of focussing on the wrong thing...instead of focussing on the
immutable promises of God for the security of our salvation, we are tempted to
focus on "feelings" which are fleeting and can be affected by all sorts of
things, including past memories, medical problems, all kinds of things that have
nothing to do with salvation. Our salvation is based on God's grace nd our
accepting of that grace by FAITH, not by feelings. The "feelings" of peace that
the Holy Spirit gives us when He comes to live inside us are
the RESULTS of our salvation, not a substitute for faith.
Here is a simple priority of
truths from the scripture:
SALVATION IS A MATTER
OF
Fact
first.............then faith...........then feelings
last.
I have seen this series likened to a
little train where the facts are the engine, the faith is the coal car, and the
feelings are the caboose. The feelings do not empower the Christian life, any
more than the caboose powers the train..the caboose's movement is a result of
the power of the engine and being fed by the input of faith. The power of the
Engine is God's divine power and also His Word and promises contained therein.
This power is activated by placing your faith in these promises, because this is
the way God has decreed it ...
Without faith it is
impossible to please God...Heb
11:6
The facts are that Jesus Died and rose
again so that we may be eternal sons and daughters of God. We place our faith or
trust in these facts. His resurrection allowed God to place His Holy
Spirit within us, not just "upon us" as was the case in most of the old
testament saints.
We may not always be
aware of HIs presence. Paul says
And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts,
to the which also ye are
called in one body;
and be ye
thankful.
Col 3:15 (KJV)
When we receive Christ,
he gives us an inner peace which acts as a seal of ownership that we belong to
God. We treasure this "feeling" of peace in our daily lives, and miss it when it
isnt there...but please dont mistake the feeling of tranquility with the fact of
our salvation...
And in addition,
tranquility does not mean "hyper-activated euphoria" either..it means a
calm inner resting in God, and the absence of guilt, conviction of sin, and a
blessed hope about the future in Glory with Jesus. All the negative things can
be "prayed away", confessed, or otherwise dealt with by faith between you and
God ..and what is left is PEACE...tranquility and inner rest, which then yields
the feeling of well being that we treasure.
If it takes a while to
re-experience God's peace after having sinned, the fault lies with us rather
than with God. Our minds tend to get "programmed" into habits..and then when we
confess these things and turn away from them, there can be a little hole...a
vacuum, where the sin was, that needs to be replaced by something
positive. Perhaps the sin satisfied some need in our life; and now its absence
makes us miss it on some level. As it says in Ephesians...
And be not
drunk with wine, wherein is excess;
but
be filled with the Spirit;
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the
Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
(Eph 5:18-20)
So i would recommend that you take a
pro-active approach to being filled with the Spirit, if it seems that you are
not automatically feeling God's presence again after a time of sin or
worldliness. Find a Psalm which deliberately praises and glorifies God, and fill
your mind with it and pray it to God all day or for many days...or listen to
some songs in which God is lavishly praised in beautiful music, and just let
yourself be carried away..
Forget everything that is outside of
your prayer chamber, just get close to God and let Him get close to you.
Submit to Him in all humility, and let His light fill your soul. This is then
becoming "filled with the Spirit"...completely under His control....being
captivated by His Person.
Then, you will be ready to share your
faith with someone while in the fullness of the Spirit. Alternatively, go
and do some volunteer work in an orphanage or prison or women's shelter,
or nursing home, etc. I am sure God will lead you into something practical to do
to let the person of Christ flow through you to others, and show them His
love and concern. You will be surprised how the Love of Christ will shine
through you, and you will get many opportunities to share Him with those He
brings to you.
I hope this helps out some. This is an
immense topic and of great importance to all of us. If you have further
questions, please let me know.
In Christ.......brother
bob......<><
IXTHEUS CHRISTIAN GROWTH
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