Why You Don’t Feel the Holy Spirit Even Though You Try

Why don't you feel the Holy Spirit? Did something go wrong? Is God mad at you? Was everything that you felt before just emotion? What about those Christians who are always having encounters with God, always talking about how they feel the Lord so close? Does God love them more than you? Are they somehow more important to God than you are? I wanna talk to you about why you sometimes don't feel the Holy Spirit, Even when you try. And it's important to acknowledge right off the bat that we live by faith, not by feelings. But we also must acknowledge that there are seasons when we can feel God close. We are hyper-aware of his presence. We can sense his guiding hand moving us forward, where we can clearly see what the Lord is doing. And then there are other seasons, maybe you're in one now, where you feel like God is at a distance. Like no matter how hard you pray, no matter how passionately you worship, no matter how diligently you study the word, it seems there's no connection. It seems like God stopped listening. And it's easy to fret at this point, to worry, to look back at yesterday and long for the time that you felt him so close. And often we associate that feeling of distance with negativity. But I wanna challenge you here because I believe you're gonna be inspired, uplifted, and I believe your eyes are going to be opened. In fact, I believe that as you learn this truth, you will have greater and more powerful and more intense encounters with the precious Holy Spirit than ever before. I believe you're coming into encounters as you hear this word. There are things that are going to click in the spirit where you say, that makes so much sense. Because when you feel distant from the Lord, There are actually things that he's doing in the background, in the realm of the Spirit, that you might not even be aware of. There are dynamics shifting in your favor. There are things happening that are actually positive. So there are reasons as to why you feel God is distant sometimes. But there are those seasons where you watch God touching other Christians with beautiful encounters in his presence. They're getting healed, they're getting delivered, they're talking about how close they feel to the Lord. And maybe you feel like quitting. because you've heard their stories or testimonies. So you've locked yourself in the room or you've gone away to pray, or if you've been diligent with the word and you're saying, well, nothing seems to be resulting, I'm not experiencing what others are. First of all, it's important that you not compare yourself to others because your encounter with God isn't always going to look like someone else's encounter with God. But at the same time, there's this longing that grows in our hearts and we become confused because we confuse fire for feelings. We say, oh, I was once on fire for God. My friend, fire for God is not a feeling. Fire for God is simple obedience to the Lord. Here's what the Bible says, Isaiah 45:15, verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. There's a purpose in God's hiding. Now, this isn't to say that God is not personal. This isn't to say that God is working to keep us disconnected, but this is to say that there is a certain mystery to the nature of God. I mean, anyone who believes in the sovereignty of God has to acknowledge that there's a mystery to God. We don't always understand his thinking. We don't always understand the purpose of him allowing certain things or not allowing others. We don't always understand the purpose of the trials that we face. We can't always see the hand of God working in each and every circumstance. This is where faith comes in, but we also must acknowledge— That's right. That there is a mystery to the nature of God. Jesus spoke in parables because there was truth concealed within those parables, revelation, knowledge concealed within those parables, and only those with eyes to see and ears to hear were able to receive it. God reveals and conceals according to his will. But in the case of the born-again believer, in your case, you can rest assured that when you sense this distance, When you feel like God is distancing himself, it's never about him hiding from you. It's something else happening. He's not abandoning you. So I wanna tell you why it is that you can't feel him sometimes. Number 1, he's teaching you to live by faith. In James 1, beginning at verse 2, we read, dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. It's difficult to see the Lord in the midst of the trials. Maybe you're experiencing the loss of a loved one. Maybe there's a disappointment with the goal that you had in mind. Perhaps there isn't much fruitfulness in the endeavor that you've taken on, maybe in a project, a business, a ministry, or something along those lines. Maybe there's something internally that you're believing God to do for you, a healing, an emotional healing, a physical healing. Maybe there's a certain sense of disconnect that you just haven't been able to overcome. And it's in these moments now that God is teaching you to live by faith. Seeking God is less about feeling and more about becoming. It's who God is shaping you to be during these difficult trials that is the important thing. You don't need feelings to confirm what you should already know by faith. You see, if you rely on feelings alone, then your commitment to God will be inconsistent because your feelings are so inconsistent. If you rely on feelings alone, you're not going to be praying every day, going to church when you should, or reading the Bible as you should, because you're not always going to feel like it. That's right. like doing those things. Sometimes you're physically tired. Sometimes you're emotionally drained. Sometimes you're mentally exhausted. You're not always going to feel as you should. Now, using an analogy, it's like when you go to the gym. If all you're ever doing is picking up weight that's easy for you, you're going to have the form of exercise. You're going to look like you're putting in work. You're going to look like you're making progress. But remember that busyness is not always equal to productivity. That's right. So only when you begin to lift the weight that's heavy, only when you begin to lift the weight that is a little bit of a struggle, keeping of course proper form, that is when you begin to see the growth. Because only where there is resistance can there ultimately be strength. If there is no resistance, you grow weak and soft and inactive and lazy. If there's no resistance to your faith, there's no strengthening of your faith. Amen. So in these trials, when God seems distant, there's this stretching beyond yourself that's taking place. No risk means no faith. If where you are doesn't require faith, you're not in the will of God. Let me say it again. If where you are doesn't require faith, you're not in the will of God. I'm not saying every season needs to be chaotic and you need to be reaching way beyond to some extreme extent. I'm simply saying that where you are right now, there has to be something for which you're relying upon God. If where you're going Going doesn't require faith. You're not moving in the direction of God's will. I'll never forget one time when the ministry first began to become fruitful. We were running our ministry events smoothly. We were seeing testimonies pour in. The finances were finally stable after years of struggle. Everything seemed to be firing on all cylinders. And there was this calm, this peace, this plateau, this season of rest. Nothing wrong with seasons of rest, but here's what began to happen. I began to grow complacent because struggle had been replaced by comfort. Uncertainty had been replaced by certainty. And now it was no longer a stretch to believe for the resources that we needed. Now we just started to sort of expect miracles. And I understand, don't hear what I'm not saying, because there's a nuance to this. To some degree, you should expect miracles. I talk about it all the time, the walk of faith. We should expect miracles, of course. But you see, it was almost mechanical at a certain point. And I had forgotten, or I had begun to forget the supernatural element. And it seemed like everything was just an operation. This was several years ago, like everything was just flowing according to an operation. And the Holy Spirit convicted me. He said, since when does it take no faith to operate a healing ministry? And I realized that the lack of resistance was producing and apathy. So when you feel him distant in those moments of trial, he's teaching you to live by faith. That's number one. Number 2, he's drawing you closer. When the Holy Spirit hides, he is not leaving you. He is leading you into deeper places. I'll never forget that first time after experiencing a personal revival, That I began to sense this distance. You see, I was saved, I experienced a season of great revival, and then all of a sudden I felt God distancing himself, or so I thought. Really what I was feeling was a lack of emotion. Really what I was feeling was a lack of that tangible manifestation of his power on my physical body. I did not feel the Lord emotionally or physically for a short period of time, and I just freaked out. I got worried. I began to ask the Lord, Lord, did I anger you? Lord, did I say something wrong? Lord, was all of that just emotion? Lord, did I miss something? Is it over now? Is it— have you removed your presence from me? Have I been passed over, overlooked? I was just panicking in my spirit. Well, not in my spirit, but internally. And so I began to learn that when he does this, he's not leaving you. Because he fully expects you to follow. He's taking you into deeper places. How do you expect to go to deeper places in faith if you're only wanting to operate in emotion and physical sense? How do you expect to go deeper in the Spirit if you're grounding yourself in the flesh? Acts 17:27 says, his purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps find him. Feel their way toward him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. So there is this seeking involved, though God is near. There is this pursuit, though God dwells in us. You see, when the Lord seemingly withdraws from us, he only does so in accordance to our feelings. The Lord only withdraws from our emotions, so to speak. The Lord never abandons us. He's never left you. He's never distanced you. How can the Lord get any closer than living within you? How can the one who is joined to you in spirit, who is one with you, with whom you have union, how can he ever leave you? The Lord doesn't leave you, he leads you. And when he leads you, sometimes he challenges you and allows you to go through moments where you're not relying on feelings. Now it's okay to feel the Lord. I love when I feel his presence. There's nothing wrong with that. I love when I sense the physical touch of his power, that anointing manifesting on my being when I'm praying for the sick or when I'm in my own personal prayer time. I love that physical manifestation. I love when I can feel it in my emotions. I love when I sense that like divine euphoria overflowing. That's beautiful. There's nothing wrong with that. Don't be— don't hear what I'm not saying. Don't let anyone criticize you for that. That's not immature. That's not a lack of faith. That's beautiful. However, you're not always going to have that. Because we need to learn to grow in all areas of our lives, not just in our encounters, but also in our faith. 1 Kings 19:11-12 say this, go out and stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper. And of course, we know that the Lord was in that still small voice. Now, of course, the Lord had moved through the wind before. I mean, think about Jonah. There was a whirlwind that came from the presence of the Lord that destroyed his means of disobedience. Of course, the Lord can shake the earth. Of course, the Lord manifests himself in fire, as we've seen in the Old Testament time and time again. Think of the pillar of fire. Think of the fire that fell in Acts chapter 2. So of course we know that the Lord manifests in fire. The Lord manifests in the wind, a spiritual wind, so to speak. But here in this instance, that's not the way that the Lord was doing it. The Lord didn't do it the way he had done it every other time or every time after. The Lord did it uniquely, differently. And when he's moving uniquely and drawing us to those deeper places, sometimes we're not going to see him in the same way that we did before. The whisper. Here's the thing, in order to hear a whisper, you have to be leaned in close. And so the Lord is bringing you in closer as you hear that whisper of the Spirit. So, so far we've seen that he's teaching you to live by faith when you feel he's distant, that he's drawing you closer when you feel he's distant. Now, this of course should be producing some level of relief in your life because We are so quick to condemn ourselves, especially if we come from backgrounds of legalism. Now, of course, if you're in sin or rebellion, that's a whole different story. But I'm talking to those believers who are pursuing God, yet not feeling Him. This is what's going on in the Spirit. Number 3, He's purifying you. The Holy Spirit is using this circumstance to purify you. Now, in those seasons, where you feel God is distant, you're being put through the fire. In those seasons where you're wondering where God's hand is, you can't see it moving, He's purging you of your impure motives, your fleshly flaws, and your wayward mindsets. Look at this in Hosea 10:12. Sow to yourselves in righteousness, Reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord. Watch this, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Seeking destroys the flesh. Seeking weakens the sin nature. Seeking God purifies motives. You see, when you're seeking the Lord, you have to move beyond the flesh. I learned this the difficult way. Many of you heard my story. Where I locked myself in my room and prayed for 4 hours. Now, when people hear that testimony, sometimes they hear it in the wrong way, or in the way I didn't intend for them to hear it. When they hear that testimony, sometimes what they hear is that I locked myself in my room for 4 hours, and because I prayed for 4 hours, because I was emotional, because I cried out with such angst, that God responded. No, that's not what happened. What happened was that it took 4 hours for me to move beyond emotion. It took 4 hours for me to finally give up and realize there's no way I'm gonna bring myself into an encounter with God outside His will. There's no way I can do this in my own strength, by my own intellect, in my own power, according to my own preference. This is only gonna come about as a result of the Holy Spirit's work. And I learned that in the seeking. You see, because when you're sensing that distance, it does something in you. It creates this pull on your life. And this is why I say that desperation has a place. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying here either, but the truth of the matter is you've probably heard it said that you need to live a lifestyle of desperation for God. And I understand what people mean when they say that. So usually when someone says that, they mean that you should live a life where you desire God and you prioritize Him above all else. I agree with that. However, that word desperate isn't exactly biblical, especially as it pertains to the Christian, because the Christian is not to live a lifestyle of desperation. They're to live a lifestyle of spiritual discipline. You see, if you're desperate, it means something's lacking. If you're desperate, it means something went wrong. If you're desperate, it means something is out of order. Why would I be desperate for what I already have? I have his presence. I don't need to be desperate for that. I can desire to acknowledge that. I can desire to experience that. I can desire to worship him in his presence. But to be desperate implies that I'm dying. And there's a difference between being spiritually hungry and being spiritually starved. And this is why we have to be careful with how we say these things. Now, having said that, I do believe that desperation should not be a lifestyle, but there are moments of desperation that God uses. Desperation has a place. If your whole life is nothing but desperation, something's out of order. But God will use trials. God will use unfavorable circumstances. God will use that sense of distance where you feel like He's not there. to get you moving in the right direction, because some of us become complacent. Some of us become spiritually lazy. And so He's gotta shake us up a little bit. So He'll shake our circumstances if it means it gets us to pursue Him. I mean, what would have happened were Joseph to become comfortable in the house of Potiphar? He would have never made it to the palace. So he had to be thrown in the prison, otherwise he would have never fulfilled his destiny. Now, if I were Joseph, I would have thought surely this is the fulfillment of the dream. Surely this is the blessing God has been telling me about my whole life. But no, Joseph didn't grow complacent there. Why? Because God moved him on to the next season. And this is that shaking. There's this shaking that the Lord allows to strip us from everything so that we get back down to the basics. And this is where he's purifying you. Because in this season, Either you're seeking him because you love him, or you're not seeking him at all. Either you're worshiping him because of who he is, or you're not worshiping him at all. Some people only worship him because he gives them things, because he blesses them, because he answers, they think, their prayers. Now, these seasons where he feels distant, he's purifying your motives because now you're doing it simply because you love him. Now you're seeking him for him and him alone, not using him as a means to an end, but now he becomes the goal itself. And in that, your character flaws are being fixed. In that, your motives are being purified. In that, your mindsets are being readjusted. So, so far we've seen, he's teaching you to live by faith. He's drawing you closer. He's purifying you. Now, these first 3 have to do with what the Lord is doing in you during these seasons where he feels distant. The next point I wanna raise has to do with what God wants to do through you when you feel he's at a distance. And I wanna share this with you in just a moment, but first, if you're enjoying this teaching and you think that other Christians need to hear this, like this is a message you think the church needs to hear, then I want you to leave a like, So that you can spread this word to more people. This is eye-opening for many, it's encouraging for many, so help open some spiritual eyes, help encourage the body of Christ. Simply leave a like on the video right now. And don't forget to subscribe so that you can continue to receive my teachings on the Holy Spirit. And also I show footage of the Holy Spirit's power in action. So if you love the Holy Spirit, you wanna draw closer to him, you wanna learn more about him, You wanna see his power at work, you found the right channel. Subscribe right now and click that notification bell when you do subscribe so that you don't miss any of the content. Okay, as I said, the first 3 things that I mentioned here have to do with what the Lord is doing in you in those seasons where you feel he's at a distance. Now I wanna show you what he's doing ultimately through you by use of these kinds of seasons. Number 4, He's testing you. Now, right off the bat, I can hear people saying, well, God knows everything, why would He need to test you? I'll show you in a moment here. So He's not hiding to abandon you. He's not withdrawing from your feelings, not from you, from the sense. He's not withdrawing the sense of His nearness from you just to make you feel abandoned, just to torture you. He's not doing that at all. He's doing it because he's testing you. Now watch this, 2 Chronicles 32:31. 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 to see what was really in his heart. Psalm 105:19 says, until the time came to fulfill his dreams, The Lord tested Joseph's character. Testing is less about God knowing something and seeing the results, and it's more about prep— it's preparing you for a certain use. It's preparation of the spirit for the next season. It's preparation for promotion. Now, the theological implications, I don't fully grasp as to why the Lord has to do this. We just see in his word that he does it. But the ultimate reality is that God wants to entrust you with something. He wants to lay at your feet greater levels of responsibility. This is not about you. This is about what God wants to do through you. This is not about your goals. It's about God's will. This is not about you being celebrated as favored. This is about God's glory. He's testing you. Please hear this now. If you hear anything I say today, hear this now. He is testing you because there are souls that hang in the balance and God is preparing you as a harvest worker. God wants to entrust you with greater responsibilities in ministry. How do you act When it seems as though God isn't looking, how do you respond? When you feel like God is at a distance and maybe you can get away with a little bit more, when you're not hyper-aware that his presence is right there beside you, and you feel as though now maybe there's more that you can compromise in, what do you do when you feel like God isn't looking? You see, because when you're hyper-aware of the fact that he's there and he's watching, It's very easy to keep your integrity, but what do you do in those seasons where God seems silent? Like, he seems like he's not paying attention. Yes, mentally, you know he's watching, but you get this sense that you're more free to do whatever you wanna do. That's the Lord testing you. How do you steward what he's given to you, even when it seems like God has left you alone? Answer these questions in your heart. This one's important too. How grateful are you for what you have, when it's not what you preferred? How well do you take care of what you have when it isn't quite yet what you want? God will test you in trying times to see if you're ready for the blessing. Now, when I say blessing, I'm not talking about something that you can just use for your own pleasure, benefit, and entertainment. No, when I talk about blessing, I'm talking about an increase in responsibility, I'm talking about an increase in heavenly duties. I'm talking about the Lord setting you at a post. You've been tested. Your character has been strengthened. The Lord sees when, when you felt like no one was looking, you kept your integrity. When you felt like I wasn't involved, you still lived right. When you didn't have everything that you wanted, you were still thankful. When you felt like you were abandoned, you still worshiped and you still trusted and you still had faith. Now I give to you greater responsibilities of ministry, of heavenly duties, that you might bless others near you. It's never about us. We need believers who are willing to go through the fire. You don't hear this kind of preaching all that often anymore. Everything today is about self-help, and the church is being taught how to build what the Lord told us to crucify. And in those seasons, surely there is a crucifixion, but out of it, out of this testing, Amen. comes greater responsibilities. Because if the blessing comes, if the responsibility is given to you before you've gone through the testing, then the weight of that responsibility will crush you. If your character is not strong enough to uphold the weight of the responsibility and the blessing, then what was meant to bless you will crush you. Amen. And God doesn't want that. So in those seasons, when you feel God is distant, remember, he's testing your faith. He's purifying you. That's important to remember. He's drawing you closer. That's key. And ultimately, he's testing you. Father, I pray you help your people to be aware of this truth. Help them to not live by feelings, but to walk by faith. And precious Jesus, I pray that at the end of the test, you would bless them with the divine encounter that they cannot deny. We thank you for when we feel your presence. We thank you for manifestations of your power. And we also thank you for seasons of trial. We thank you for purifying fire. We thank you when we feel you. We thank you when we don't. Amen. We thank you in the midst of encounters. We thank you in the midst of the wilderness, but through it all, you are God and you are with us. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. In fact, comment in the section, test me, Lord. That will be a public declaration. Now I wanna challenge you. If you have been blessed by this ministry, you've been receiving the teachings, you watch some of the content, it's blessing you, it's helping to change some of your mindsets, you're finding breakthrough through the Lord's ministry work, and I want to challenge you now to pay it forward. Our ministry is reaching the world through events, media, the Holy Spirit School, and various other ministry outreaches. In fact, we also do like philanthropy where we're giving to and things like this that we always— we can't always mention on the broadcast because there's so much to talk about. But the ministry is involved in so many things. Your support goes so far, and even ways you might not even know. But ultimately, realize that when you support this ministry, you're advancing the kingdom of God through the preaching of the gospel that results in salvation, through the praying for the sick which results in healing, through the praying for the bound which results in deliverance, and through the praying for the saints which results in encounters in the Holy Spirit's presence. that ultimately mark them and multiply the work that we're doing because now more workers are being sent out. We are in the battle for a soul of a generation. We believe it can be won. We are winning this battle. The light is advancing. The darkness is losing. Let's take this opportunity to win souls. So you believe in the work of this ministry? It's time to get involved. No more second-guessing. No more debating it. Maybe you've been saying, oh, I wanna do that eventually. But when this happens, or oh, I want to become a partner, but I'm going to wait for this all to be settled over here. No, I'm challenging you now. Step out by faith. Don't say God bless me and I'll give. Instead, give and watch God bless you. It's a step of faith. So you can become a monthly ministry supporter. And listen, people of God, monthly support is so key because it helps to bring stability to our ministry financial planning, to where we can see what we can count on consistently, and then we plan according to that partnership. So sign up to become a monthly partner right now by going to davidhernandezministries.com/partner. Now, if you're already a partner, but you wanna give a single gift, or you're not yet ready to sign up to become a monthly supporter, you can also give a single gift by going to davidhernandezministries.com/donate. Large or small, single or monthly, Everything counts. Don't count yourself out. Come on, get into this fight with us. We're pushing back on the kingdom of darkness. Let's win the world to Jesus.