Struggling To Feel God

Sometimes I don't feel close to God or feel his presence like others do. Me getting closer to him will help but what can I do to get closer to him? Anyone and everyone who has the love of the Lord in their heart, they long and thirst for the Lord Jesus. But you see, we need to be a little bit careful here.

When I say how can I get closer to the Lord? You see, without maybe noticing, I'm saying I want to get closer. I want to love you. I want to do things for you.

It's all about me now. The Lord says without me, you cannot do anything. John 15 5. Without me, I Jesus Christ, you cannot do anything.

So when you come and say I you want to get close to me, I'll say you cannot do anything without me. So how can I get closer to you Lord? All you need to do is just love me like a little child loving the parents. Every time you come to the Lord Jesus, you must come as a little baby, a little child.

You know why? Because if I go to the Lord and I say Lord, I preached for you and I made sure that the whole world heard your voice and heard your name. The Lord will say I don't know you. I will say Lord, I build churches for you and I did this for you and I did that for you.

The Lord will say I do not know you. Read in Matthew 25 when those five ignorant virgins came too late, the door was shut. They knocked at the door.

What did they say to the Lord Jesus? We preached in your name. We did wonders in your name. It was all about them.

We did it for you. We preached for you. We brought people to you.

The Lord does not recognize people that say we've done this for you. The Lord will only recognize those who say I am blind. I want to see you.

I am dead. Please raise me from the dead. I am, I am hungry.

Please feed me. I am homeless. Please found me.

I am lost. When you read in the gospel of according to Saint Luke chapter 15, the prodigal son, we may have heard this We may have read this But maybe we may have not paid attention to what the father said about his son who just came back to him again What did the father say? He said my son was dead. The father said the moment my son walked away from me, that very moment he died.

Now the question is can a dead person think? No. Can a dead person do? No. Can a dead person change things? No.

Can a dead person say I am sorry, forgive me? No. Can a dead person come back to his father? No. A dead person is dead.

Who protected him in that far-off country? The father. The Son and the Holy Spirit. God.

Who touched his heart? God. Who made him realize his mistake? God. Who Revived his conscience once again? God.

Who made him repent? God. Who made him turn around and come back to God? God. God.

I didn't come to church. The Lord brought me. And since the Lord brought me, guess what? What does that tell me? He loves me.

Would you want to see someone you don't love? Of course not. You would die for the moment for your eyes to fall on the person you adore, isn't it? You cannot wait to see the person you love the most. Since we are in the church, since we are listening to the word of the Lord, it is the Lord who made this possible.

You and all of us better believe in this because this is the truth. It wasn't me who came. The Lord touched my heart and said come.

It wasn't my friend, my brother, my mother, my sister, my husband, my wife that told me let's go to the church and listen to the preaching. It was the Lord working through every single one. It's the Lord.

Without the Lord, nothing good happens. When mom or dad walk into that baby's room and then he go and the baby goes and then mommy or daddy walk away from that room and walk outside. World War three erupts.

The baby is gone haywire. Starts crying, there is no tomorrow. All hell breaks loose.

Why? Because daddy walked away from me and left me behind. Daddy runs back to that crying little angel. The moment daddy grabs that baby, it is heaven.

In a blink of an eye, it's heaven. No more cries, no more tears. A smile cannot fit on that beautiful angel's face.

Daddy takes the baby. The baby never questions dad, where are we going? How long are we going for? Who are we meeting along the way? Never questions daddy. The same baby grows older, becomes a teenager.

16, 18, 19, past the teenage life, 20, 21, in their 20s. The same baby who became an adult and it's the same father. And it's the same mother.

The parent will come to that very baby who is now an adult. Son, daughter, let's go. Sorry dad, where are we going? How long are we going to be away? Who are we meeting? Sorry dad, I don't have the time for you.

We start questioning. The father says, how come you didn't question me when you were a baby? I'm the same dad. I'm the same mother.

I never changed. You changed, my child. God says, come to me as a baby.

I never change. But when you grow older, you change and then suddenly you don't have the time for me. I don't have the time to go to the church father.

I'm too busy. Trust me father, if I had the time you would have seen me in the front row every Sunday. You don't have the time? You want to get closer to the Lord Jesus, my beloved? Approach him as a baby and as a baby, we are hopeless.

We are useless. We are reliant 100% on our parents. I don't have a say.

I don't have a talk. All I care about is I'm with dad. I'm with mom.

Who cares even if dad takes me to hell? So be it because it matters not the place. What matters, I am with dad. Can we be Christians in this way? Like babies.

When you come to the Lord, be a baby. Total reliance on heavenly father. But when you face the world, be the wisest, the sharpest, the most prudent person they could ever come across.

Don't ever be ignorant as a baby when you face the world. But when you face the Lord, say Lord, with all my PhDs, with all my ranks, with all the big position that I hold and the big throne that I sit on, I am the Pope. Jesus.

I am the Patriarch. Jesus. I am the Archbishop.

I am the Bishop. I am the Priest. But when I stand and face the world, I speak but no one can answer me back.

Because it is not you talking, it is your father of art in heaven that talks through you. Be wise. Be a baby.

Be a baby, you'll get the attention of the Lord Jesus. And it's good to thirst and and long for the Lord Jesus. It's very good.

It's a very good sign, by the way, even though it's painful, even though it's it's difficult. Trust me. I've been there, done it so many times.

Trust me. It's a killer. The first time when the Lord Jesus comes, it's heaven.

You feel him, you see him, you know him, 1 million percent. And then he disappears. He doesn't.

He makes you feel that he's gone, but he's always with you. But he makes you feel that he is no longer there. So you go crazy looking for him everywhere, searching for him everywhere.

You go crazy. You know why? Because the Lord does that sometimes, deliberately, out of love. Because he doesn't want you to get too comfortable with him.

Because the moment we get comfortable with our loved ones, life becomes routine. And routine kills love. You know, when you get too used to your dad, at the beginning, dad, dad, I love you, man.

I love you. I love you, daddy. You get used to him after 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, every single day in your face.

So after 20 years, oh, dad is coming up, I'd better run away. I'm used to him. I want something new.

To have the relationship always rekindled, renewed, there has to be sometimes a bit of a separation, a bit of a distance, so that you long again. And you don't get too used to the Lord Jesus where he becomes your cousin all of a sudden. I get scared sometimes when people say, I asked the Lord and he came, and I spoke to the Lord and he came, and I called the Lord and he came straight away, every time, all the time.

That's a dangerous statement to see, to really, you know, say, I don't think so. This monk went to Mount Athos. You've heard of Mount Athos, yes? Beautiful Greece.

So he didn't even live in the monasteries. There are so many monasteries there. He went in that island, in the wilderness, and it's a very rugged, tough, tough life to live in that island.

In winter, it snows, it's freezing temperatures, and there are some wild animals as well that live in that island. It's definitely not for everybody. So anyway, was a calling from the Lord, chose him, come, you'll be a monk here.

He said, I lived in the wilderness on my own, 10 or 15 days, not sure, 10 or 15 days begging the Lord for one appearance, for one sign, for one thing. He said, I was by myself, a monk, alone in that island, in the wilderness, without a whisper from the Lord Jesus. After 10 or 15 days, he sent me a monk and joined me.

I looked at him, I said, I'm asking to see you, Lord. You sent me one of your children. But anyway, thank you, Lord Jesus.

You're very kind. And I don't know how many other years went by. Throughout his life on that holy land, he saw the Lord Jesus twice.

He said, he appeared the first time, not even a minute. He said to me, a few words, disappeared. And then years later, he appeared the second time, for a few seconds, without saying a word, and disappeared.