But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.” Psalms 73:28
Once you’ve experienced being near to God, it is unbearable to be far off. Of course, we know that God is always near to us— for he will never leave or forsake us— but there are times that we “feel” far from him.
In those moments or seasons, we must pull on truth rather than feelings. The truth is in God’s promise that he will never leave us even when feelings want to dictate a different narrative. This is faith! Faith is not about feelings or emotions— it is about truth and posturing yourself in that truth.
It requires greater faith to believe when the feelings of God’s presence is absent.
It’s easy to believe when you are having encounters with his love and experiencing Holy Spirit goosebumps. But believing when your soul feels nothing except absence requires strengthening your faith.
There are just times that we feel nothing. Although that can be true in marriage it surely doesn’t mean that you don’t love each other or that you’ve left one another. Those times are when we posture our relationship in the covenant promise that we made to one another to remain true in good times and bad, sickness and health.
If it works in earthly relationships then we need to do the same in our relationship with God. We are in covenant with him and him with us. And promises were made— such as “I will never leave or forsake you.” So we posture our lives in the truth of that covenant promise when our souls seemingly stray from the emotional connection that happened in first love.
Many years ago I spent a few years traveling and walking closely with Patricia King. She told me a story of a time when she went through an entire year of not hearing God’s voice or feeling his touch. She had his Word but wasn’t hearing him personally. She said that it was painful and disorienting but it was such a fruitful year because she learned to access faith apart from feelings and truth apart from hearing.
It produced in her a constant posture of unshakable faith that did not require her soul to respond but her spirit to lead.
I, personally, have been in one of those hard seasons. For those of us who are “feelers;” wired to hear and see visions, and words and to prophesy— it can be brutal. But, just like with Patricia, it is an opportunity to strengthen your spirit and surrender your need to have your soul involved. God gave us a soul so its involvement in the things of the Spirit is not bad (though many seem to believe or think it has to be separated), but when our souls are dry, seemingly numb, weary, or broken— God’s truth and his covenant promises remain the same!
This is your time to polish that shield of faith that you hold in your hands and strengthen your arms to hold it up.
Your soul may be downcast but your shield needs to be raised up high! Don’t let the fiery darts of the enemy harm your soul or compromise your truth.
Put your shield of faith up even when your feelings fail and have fallen to the ground!
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Inscribe Ministries
Featured Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
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