Why Do I Feel Emotionally Detached From God? Understanding Spiritual Disconnection as a Christian • In Milky Way

Feeling emotionally detached from God is existential loneliness. It is like when Adam and Eve knew they were naked; it is a need to be in God’s atmosphere and to have His covering as we stand before the infinite universe. In front of vastness, uncertainty, and unpredictability, only He can be our security because only He is eternally bigger than all these and all else.

When we don’t feel emotionally intimate with God, what is it that governs our emotional state, making it a controlled environment, picking and choosing the perfect internal weather for each moment? If God is not doing this for us, then whoever is or whatever is is second best, or third best, or last.

Our emotions may not be the core of our being, because that’s our spirit, but they are an essential part. If how we experience them is not wholesome or fruitful, even in feeling low, this takes away the enjoyment of being alive. Indeed, this causes mental health issues because our thoughts are the words of our emotions. We feel good, we think good. We feel bad, we think bad.

Most importantly, when we are feeling low, our thoughts should not dig holes for us to go deeper into our low. They should be wholesome and fruitful in that they don’t worsen us, but they are with us where we are.

What Does It Mean to Feel Emotionally Detached From God?

Our souls, made up of our emotions and thoughts, need to be in constant communion with our spirit, because it is our spirit that can be in constant union with the Spirit of God. This is the complete spiritual equation.

“But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” – ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So, if this equation, beginning from the core of our being to the surface of our being, is missing a key component, how can we get to the correct result? We will have the wrong result because the equation is incomplete.

Emotion rampage—being taken over by negative emotions—is so easy to give in to. Not being consumed by negative emotion is as hard as not being surrounded by sunlight in the daytime. One thing we need to never forget is that our body is a machine that can be overridden and troubleshooted.

A fish can’t swim if it’s not in water, and our bodies can’t help us in emotional rampage if we don’t supply it enough oxygen when it needs it most.

When we realise that shallow breaths or hyperventilation are integral environmental conditions for negative emotion overwhelm to take over our bodies and lives, first and foremost, we must eradicate the environment that makes emotional rampage possible with the oil to our machine, and for the body that is oxygen through breath.

We need to troubleshoot that internal rampage by taking in enough oxygen through our breathing, like a downpour of rain to a wildfire. This isn’t some scientific, new age spirituality mumbo jumbo, it’s the reality that is the body not being alive without breath, and so breath being the ultimate source for our bodies. This is wisdom, it is knowledge, and it is understanding.

Because it is in these emotional rampages that spiritual dark forces have a window for their whispers to crawl into our souls. And when this happens enough, those whispers become convictions and strongholds too big to destroy. And in this state, the God who’s the only One who can destroy such strongholds is the One the strongholds are against.

Why Do Christians Sometimes Feel Distant From God?

So, we’re stuck in this state of strongholds being against the Lord and the Lord being the only One who can break them, but we don’t want Him to help because of our convictions against Him (that established the strongholds). This emotional turmoil is lived in and feels like a distance from God because that’s exactly what it is.

But really, these aren’t “our” convictions against God, or “our” strongholds against God, because God has only one enemy. The devil and spiritual dark forces behind him take their foolish case against God, and unbeknownst to us, when we are vulnerable, convince us that their case is our personal case against God.

Jesus has made us children of God, like He is the Son of God (God born of God), and the devil endeavours to make us enemies of God, like he is the enemy of God.

After regulating the machine we live in, that is our body, with the breath that gives it life, we must remember that just as Christ the God over all has accomplished making us His children, it is the devil’s only mission to make us God’s enemies. And in remembering how spiritual dark forces want us to feel and think, the way we were in emotional rampage, we pray. We pray for the Lord to help us be well within ourselves.

“… Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” – ‭‭James‬ ‭4‬:‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” – ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4‬:‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Emotional Detachment From God Is Not Always Spiritual Rebellion

Emotional detachment from God can be like if a child has been taken advantage of. Many of us Christians are not yet spiritually mature. We are like spiritual babies or spiritual toddlers. Spiritual dark forces take advantage of this reality because it is their last opportunity to disconnect us from God, for all eternity.

It tries when we’re physically children, and it tries when we’re spiritually children too, because that’s our most vulnerable. How can a physical child know about God unless they are taught? And how can a child in the spirit grow in the knowledge of God but from God Himself?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” – ‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“…bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;” – ‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” – ‭‭Hosea‬ ‭6‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,” – ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Signs You May Be Emotionally Disconnected From God

• Sinning without remorse or apologising
• No peace or joy
• Not wanting to pray, or you pray but don’t feel like you’re talking to Someone
• Not wanting to read the Word, or you read it without feeling spiritually engaged (not understanding)
• You don’t want to seek God, or you feel distant while you seek Him (reading the Word, praising, worshipping)

Can Emotional Exhaustion Affect Your Relationship With God?

Emotional exhaustion is the very symptom that reveals being emotionally detached from God. If we are not living by the Holy Spirit, then we are living by our own souls. If we are not strengthened by the Spirit, we grow weary, exhausted, and we surely will emotionally burn out soon enough because we cannot spiritually give ourselves life.

We cannot read the Bible without the Holy Spirit; it is a spiritual book needing spiritual understanding to receive its spiritual (eternal) life. As human spirits, to not be weak in our internal spiritual reality, we need a constant connection to the Spirit that is the source of life of our human spirit to pass this life to our souls.

As we have become God’s temple, He is our Sustainer of life in this body. If we are without strength, life, and zeal for what’s good within our bodies, then how can He reveal His glory, His life, and His light through us? If we are not producing the Spirit’s fruit from within us, then we are not being cultivated by Him.

We need to ensure that what speaks to us, what is shaping us, and what is leading us is God’s Spirit, and the evidence of this will be His fruit. In patience and humility, meditating on the Word daily and nightly, praying without ceasing, and being grateful unto His name, we will be drawing near to Him, and He will draw near to us.

The Lord says to us in James‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬, ‬‬“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

The Difference Between Spiritual Dryness and Emotional Disconnection

Spiritual dryness means there is no spiritual growth or forward movement, whereas emotional disconnection means the reality of knowing God has no impact on our emotional entity within.

When we are not able to regulate our emotions spiritually through the Word of God in our hearts, it makes us hearers only and not doers of the Word. And it speaks to our lack of self-control, which is a manifestation of the fruit and presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst. These are signs of needing the inner work of the Spirit.

Spiritual dryness is a prerequisite of emotional disconnection because to be emotionally disconnected one is spiritually stagnant. Our spiritual reality is the place of our core within our bodies; whatever is true and whole must come from this place, otherwise we are only dealing with shallow parts of our being, which leave us emotionally unfulfilled and spiritually numb.

Why Emotional Suppression Can Make You Feel Distant From God

Our emotions are an integral part that the Holy Spirit needs to heal for us to grow and have a bright future with hope. If we suppress our emotions, we are not acknowledging them, and if we’re not acknowledging them, we cannot have them addressed through the inner work of the Spirit.

“for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” – ‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

When emotional pain is not healed, we filter our lives through it, and this internal pain contradicts the truth of the Word when it tells us of peace and joy, and thus, we feel distant from God. We feel distant from God because what He says is not our reality, forgetting that He gave us a Helper and He gives us wisdom freely when we ask, for such reasons as pertain to healing.

God’s Presence Is Not Measured Only by Emotion

God’s presence is revealed through our personal development through spiritual growth. And this spiritual growth should eventually become spiritual maturity, which leads to emotional resilience and emotional maturity, which establishes mental strength. This process isn’t rainbows and cupcakes; it is God wringing out all darkness and pain from within us. It is like gold being purified in fire.

Like vomit, pain should come out rather than stay in because when it’s out, we’re all the better for it. The more it hurts, the more we can never afford to live with it. It is God who works in us; let Him, so that we can return the works to Him in healing, peace, joy, generosity, kindness, humility, etc., and be all the more internally rich for it.

An invaluable richness, and a richness that will manifest physically if we so put in the effort for it to be so through His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and through His Spirit, who helps us create wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18).

How to Reconnect With God Emotionally and Spiritually

• Confess your sins (wrongs) and repent (turning away from them) after asking for forgiveness and praying for help to leave those sins behind
• Dedicate time to spend time with God in His Word and in prayer (you talking to God about anything and everything), and gratitude
• Keep what you’ve read in His Word in your heart and mind throughout your moments daily and nightly: this is biblical meditation
• Pray and ask for wisdom from God
• As the Holy Spirit does inner work within you, do not quench or grieve Him with sin and not being a doer of the Word, and whenever you do, apologise to Him immediately.
• Always be sensitive to the Holy Spirit (considering His feelings, considering His holiness, considering His presence as you live)

May your mind be renewed, your faith be strengthened, and your peace be anchored in Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

If you’re looking for a more in-depth, guided approach to spiritual maturity:

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