"If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling!" (Job 23:3, NIV).
"Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, ..." (Isa. 45:15, NIV).
"Let all the world be silent--the Lord is present" (Hab. 2:20, CEV).
"Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go..." (Gen. 28:15, NKJV).
"...And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him" (Deut. 4:29, CEV). "He is there, and He is not silent." --Francis A. Schaeffer, apologist
"I believe in God, and if I woke up in hell, I'd still believe in God." --Robert Louis Stevenson
"What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence of God nor his manifest presence, but rather the presence of a hidden God." --Blaise Pascal, the renowned French scientist, philosopher "You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you." --Augustine, Confessions
This is a hypothetical premise since it only appears this way, but in reality, it's quite another circumstance. Sometimes God seems MIA (missing in action)! Or we may ponder where God is when it hurts. The psalmist can relate: "Why are you far away, Lord? Why do you hide yourself when I am in trouble?" (Psalm 10:1, CEV). Given: upon salvation, which is not to be forfeited, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit with the specific gifts and the inception of the fruit of the Spirit.
NB: gifts are given and may become manifest without spiritual maturity, but fruits are grown and relative to maturity. All things being equal, the Spirit-filled believer never loses the indwelling presence of the Spirit, but the Bible does admonish us from quenching (putting out its fire and effect) and grieving (making sad by consistent sin).
However, the believer needs to constantly seek the filling (the exhortation in Eph. 5:18 means to "keep on being filled"). There is also something else to reckon with: the anointing for ministry. God specially anoints believers to do a certain task or assignment (1 John 2:20). We are to be constantly filled and refilled with the Spirit--it's not a one-time event. We are always filled to enable us to do His will and to preach the Word (cf. Col. 1:29; Heb. 13:21), or do what we are gifted for and called to fulfill.
The Spirit never leaves us, in fact, if one wonders that, it only shows that he does possess the Spirit and is a Christian. We shouldn't ask, "Where's God?" but "Where isn't God?" And more appropriately, "Where's the church?" But God can feel distant and disengaged: God asked Adam the convicting question: "Where are you?" His shame was his fault. God didn't move, Adam did! We need to take a spiritual inventory and get a checkup at church to measure ourselves and participate and belong to the body of Christ in an active manner. Jesus said explicitly in Heb. 13:5 that He will never leave us nor forsake us! And again in the Great Commission: "And lo I am with you always!" (Cf. Matt. 28:20).
But the problem arises when we go by feeling, instead of by faith. The just shall walk by faith and not by sight--empirically (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 1:17; Hab. 2:4). And in the final analysis, it's a good sign to ask this question, because it shows that the person is thinking and wondering about spiritual matters (an unbeliever couldn't ask this): Note, that the Christian life is not about walking about on some perpetual religious high or on "cloud nine."
NB: 2 Chron.32:31 that says; "...God left [Hezekiah] and discover[ed] what was in his heart." But the Spirit wasn't yet given--our case is different ever since that gifting at Pentecost! God may want to know if we are just going by feelings that shift like a weathervane. The correct order is that we know the truth, believe it in our heart, obey it, and the feelings will follow naturally. We all have to grow in this respect and some say the formula is this: fact, faith, feeling. Or you could say: know right, think right, act right, feel right! Sometimes the believer needs to learn to wait on the Lord and seek His face, and he will then find out that God was there all the time. Our faith must be "tested by fire" (cf. 1 Pet. 1:7).
The next time you wonder where God is, He didn't go anywhere, you did; however, the problem is in being restored to fellowship by confessing known sins and in getting back into doing the will of God, for which you will be filled and anointed according to your calling. The most frequent culprit is our own sins which grieve the Holy Spirit and then we lose our joy which is a fruit of the Spirit and being filled (cf. Gal. 5:22). Sin hides God's face from us (cf. Isaiah 59:2). Sometimes, though, someone else may quench the Spirit, and He doesn't feel welcome in our midst. "Therefore, come out for among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them ... and I will welcome you" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:17). Come out from among them and be ye separate, which means sanctified or holy!
Note that David felt discouraged too: "...but David strengthened himself in the LORD his God" (cf. 1 Sam. 30:6). Is it any wonder that Jonathan Edwards said that seeking God is the main business of the Christian life? And that R. C. Sproul said that the search for God begins at salvation? Let's all aspire to what Psalm 73:28, NIV, says: "But as for me, how good it is to be near God!" In the final analysis, it's stated categorically that Christianity is not about believing there's a God, but believing in the God who is there! NB: SAMSON "WIST NOT THAT THE SPIRIT HAD LEFT HIM!" Soli Deo Gloria!
"Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, ..." (Isa. 45:15, NIV).
"Let all the world be silent--the Lord is present" (Hab. 2:20, CEV).
"Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go..." (Gen. 28:15, NKJV).
"...And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him" (Deut. 4:29, CEV). "He is there, and He is not silent." --Francis A. Schaeffer, apologist
"I believe in God, and if I woke up in hell, I'd still believe in God." --Robert Louis Stevenson
"What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence of God nor his manifest presence, but rather the presence of a hidden God." --Blaise Pascal, the renowned French scientist, philosopher "You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you." --Augustine, Confessions
This is a hypothetical premise since it only appears this way, but in reality, it's quite another circumstance. Sometimes God seems MIA (missing in action)! Or we may ponder where God is when it hurts. The psalmist can relate: "Why are you far away, Lord? Why do you hide yourself when I am in trouble?" (Psalm 10:1, CEV). Given: upon salvation, which is not to be forfeited, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit with the specific gifts and the inception of the fruit of the Spirit.
NB: gifts are given and may become manifest without spiritual maturity, but fruits are grown and relative to maturity. All things being equal, the Spirit-filled believer never loses the indwelling presence of the Spirit, but the Bible does admonish us from quenching (putting out its fire and effect) and grieving (making sad by consistent sin).
However, the believer needs to constantly seek the filling (the exhortation in Eph. 5:18 means to "keep on being filled"). There is also something else to reckon with: the anointing for ministry. God specially anoints believers to do a certain task or assignment (1 John 2:20). We are to be constantly filled and refilled with the Spirit--it's not a one-time event. We are always filled to enable us to do His will and to preach the Word (cf. Col. 1:29; Heb. 13:21), or do what we are gifted for and called to fulfill.
The Spirit never leaves us, in fact, if one wonders that, it only shows that he does possess the Spirit and is a Christian. We shouldn't ask, "Where's God?" but "Where isn't God?" And more appropriately, "Where's the church?" But God can feel distant and disengaged: God asked Adam the convicting question: "Where are you?" His shame was his fault. God didn't move, Adam did! We need to take a spiritual inventory and get a checkup at church to measure ourselves and participate and belong to the body of Christ in an active manner. Jesus said explicitly in Heb. 13:5 that He will never leave us nor forsake us! And again in the Great Commission: "And lo I am with you always!" (Cf. Matt. 28:20).
But the problem arises when we go by feeling, instead of by faith. The just shall walk by faith and not by sight--empirically (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 1:17; Hab. 2:4). And in the final analysis, it's a good sign to ask this question, because it shows that the person is thinking and wondering about spiritual matters (an unbeliever couldn't ask this): Note, that the Christian life is not about walking about on some perpetual religious high or on "cloud nine."
NB: 2 Chron.32:31 that says; "...God left [Hezekiah] and discover[ed] what was in his heart." But the Spirit wasn't yet given--our case is different ever since that gifting at Pentecost! God may want to know if we are just going by feelings that shift like a weathervane. The correct order is that we know the truth, believe it in our heart, obey it, and the feelings will follow naturally. We all have to grow in this respect and some say the formula is this: fact, faith, feeling. Or you could say: know right, think right, act right, feel right! Sometimes the believer needs to learn to wait on the Lord and seek His face, and he will then find out that God was there all the time. Our faith must be "tested by fire" (cf. 1 Pet. 1:7).
The next time you wonder where God is, He didn't go anywhere, you did; however, the problem is in being restored to fellowship by confessing known sins and in getting back into doing the will of God, for which you will be filled and anointed according to your calling. The most frequent culprit is our own sins which grieve the Holy Spirit and then we lose our joy which is a fruit of the Spirit and being filled (cf. Gal. 5:22). Sin hides God's face from us (cf. Isaiah 59:2). Sometimes, though, someone else may quench the Spirit, and He doesn't feel welcome in our midst. "Therefore, come out for among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them ... and I will welcome you" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:17). Come out from among them and be ye separate, which means sanctified or holy!
Note that David felt discouraged too: "...but David strengthened himself in the LORD his God" (cf. 1 Sam. 30:6). Is it any wonder that Jonathan Edwards said that seeking God is the main business of the Christian life? And that R. C. Sproul said that the search for God begins at salvation? Let's all aspire to what Psalm 73:28, NIV, says: "But as for me, how good it is to be near God!" In the final analysis, it's stated categorically that Christianity is not about believing there's a God, but believing in the God who is there! NB: SAMSON "WIST NOT THAT THE SPIRIT HAD LEFT HIM!" Soli Deo Gloria!
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