I asked the Lord into my heart several years ago and now I’m trying to live right. My whole church can feel the spirit of God, but I can’t. Now I feel like an outsider in this church and I’m thinking about leaving. What am I doing wrong?
I can sense the frustration and desperation that you are experiencing in your words. I have met people who have had the same problems you are facing now so I trust that I can help you by giving you God’s remedy through the scriptures. I am encouraged that you are honestly asking, “What am I doing wrong?” We will look at TWO things that you are doing wrong, and we pray you will allow the Word of God to correct them and bring you to “do what is right.”
1) You say that you “asked the Lord into your heart several years ago.” If you read through the whole New Testament, you won’t find one example of a sinner “asking Jesus into their heart.” It is simply NOT THERE! Why? Because a sinner is NOT saved by PRAYING; a sinner is saved by BELIEVING. When believers were presenting the gospel to lost sinners, they never said a word about PRAYER; they encouraged them to BELIEVE THE GOSPEL. I will now give you 3 examples. In the most well-known verse in the Bible Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). In Acts 10:43 Peter said, “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM will receive remission of sins.” The apostle Paul declared, “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and BY HIM EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39). Is this not clear? We do not receive eternal life and the forgiveness of sins by “praying a prayer” but by “believing in Jesus Christ.” I have personally met hundreds of men in jails and prisons who had “prayed the so-called sinner’s prayer” and yet they had no assurance of salvation, nor did they have a change in their life. They were deceived into thinking this formula prayer would save them and give them a new life. Like you, they were “trying to live right” yet they had to learn that “you can’t LIVE RIGHT until you have LIFE through FAITH IN CHRIST.” I pray you will take to heart the scriptures above and “quit trusting in a prayer” and “trust in Christ.” Once you do trust in Christ you can have the absolute assurance of having eternal life. The apostle John wrote, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you have life in His name” (John 20:31).
2) You say that you “can’t feel the Spirit of God.” Again, you can read through the whole New Testament, and you won’t find one example of someone “feeling the Spirit of God.” We just saw that one is saved by simple FAITH in Jesus Christ. Faith is “NOT feelings”; faith is “taking God at His Word.” Romans 10:17 tells us, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” The same Bible that teaches us we are “saved by faith” teaches us that we know we “have the Spirit of God by faith.” In Ephesians 1:13 we read, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were SEALED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT of promise.” Are not these words clear? As soon as a sinner hears the gospel and believes it, he/she is “sealed with the Holy Spirit.” Are we told to “feel the Holy Spirit” when this happens? No, God’s Word simply tells us it is true; the Holy Spirit comes to live inside the believer the very moment he/she believes on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus promised believers that this would happen in John 14:16-17, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth…for He dwells with you and WILL BE IN YOU.” The apostle Paul said every believer is indwelt by the Spirit, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” (Romans 8:9). So, every believer is given the assurance of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling them based on the Word of God alone (and NOT on feelings).
I don’t know what “church” you are going to, but if they are teaching you that you must “feel the Spirit of God” in order to know you have the Spirit, I would encourage you to leave, not because you feel like an outsider, but because they are teaching false doctrine. They are basing th)ir belief that they have the Spirit of God on their feelings/emotions and not on the Word of God. (DO) (518.5)