Spiritual Detox #5: “I Don’t Feel God, So He’s Not Listening” — The Danger of Goosebump-Based Faith

by | Jan 5, 2026 | Practical Life

Estimated reading time: 14-16 minutes

Series: Myths and Truths of Christian Life (Episode 5 of 7)

Keywords: feeling god’s presence, faith vs feelings, god is silent, dark night of the soul, omnipresence of god, psalm 13, hearing god’s voice, spiritual maturity.

Introduction: The Tyranny of the “Gospel Goosebump”

You go to the Sunday night service. The worship is incredible, the lights dim, the band plays that minor chord that touches the soul. You close your eyes, lift your hands, cry profusely, and feel a warmth in your chest. You leave floating: “Wow, God was there! I felt a powerful anointing!”

Then comes rainy Tuesday morning. You are tired, stressed with traffic, fought with someone at work, and have a headache. You try to pray in your room, but it feels like you are talking to the wall. No tears. No warmth. No goosebumps. Just silence, boredom, and the sound of the fan.

Immediately, the “Myth of Feeling” attacks your mind with accusing questions:

  • “What did I do wrong?”
  • “Did the Holy Spirit leave?”
  • “Is God mad at me?”
  • “My prayer didn’t go past the ceiling.”

Many Christians live like spiritual adrenaline junkies. They measure God’s closeness by the intensity of the emotion they feel on their skin.

  • If they feel shivers, God is near.
  • If they feel nothing, God is far (or dead).

This is not biblical faith; this is emotional dependence. And it is a dangerous trap that prevents you from maturing. Today, in Spiritual Detox #5, we will destroy this tyranny of feeling. We will learn the vital difference between the Fact of God’s presence and the Sensation of God’s presence. If you want to stop fluctuating your faith with every mood swing, this text is your emancipation letter.

1. The Great Mistake: Confusing “Omnipresence” with “Manifestation”

To start the healing, we need a quick theology lesson (I promise it will be simple and liberating). The Bible clearly distinguishes two forms of God’s presence. Suffering arises when we mix the two.

A. Omnipresence (The Unchanging Fact)

God is Infinite. He is not a physical body that needs to move from Point A to Point B. He is everywhere, sustaining the existence of the atoms of reality. The Psalmist understood this:

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” (Psalm 139:7-8)

Omnipresence is an attribute of God’s nature, not a reward for your good behavior. Even if you are sinning, rebellious, sleeping, or bored, God is there. He was with Jonah inside the fish (at the bottom of the sea, running away) just as much as He was with Moses on Mount Sinai. Fact: You are never alone. Never. Period. This is independent of your goosebumps.

B. Manifest Presence (The Sensory Experience)

This is when God, in His sovereignty, decides to make His presence perceptible to our limited human senses. It can be a shiver, a sudden peace that floods the room, a vision, or that “weight” of glory in the service. This is a gift. It is a “caress” from God. But it is not the constant rule.

The Fatal Error: Thinking that God is only present (Type A) when He is manifest (Type B). This is like saying the Sun only exists on cloudless summer days. On a cloudy and rainy day, you don’t see the Sun, you don’t feel its heat on your skin, and the day is gray. But is the Sun still there? Yes. If the Sun disappeared just because it’s cloudy, the Earth would freeze and we would die in minutes. God sustains your life and hears your prayer even on the “cloudy days” of the soul, when you feel nothing. The heat may be gone, but the gravity of Grace continues to hold you.

2. The Desert School: Why Is God Silent?

If God loves us so much, why does He hide His face? Why doesn’t He give us goosebumps 24 hours a day to make us feel always safe and loved?

The answer might hurt, but it is necessary: Because God wants to raise Adult Sons, not Eternal Babies.

Imagine a mother teaching a baby to walk.

  • Phase 1: She holds both his hands. The baby feels the firm touch. He feels safe. He laughs.
  • Phase 2: For the baby to learn to walk alone and strengthen his legs, the mother needs, at some point, to let go of the hands.
  • She steps back two meters. Is she still in the room? Yes. Is she watching with love? Yes. Will she run if he falls on his head? Yes.
  • But the baby doesn’t feel the touch anymore. He panics for a second. But then, he takes a step. And another.

If God made you feel spiritual ecstasy every time you prayed, you wouldn’t love God; you would love the dopamine (the pleasure hormone). You would be a sensation junkie, not a worshiper of the Creator. God removes the “sensation” periodically to test your heart: Do you love the Giver or just the gifts? Do you love God or do you love the “high” He gives you?

The great Christian mystic St. John of the Cross called this “The Dark Night of the Soul.” It is a period of spiritual dryness allowed by God to purify our faith, taking the training wheels off the bike so that we learn to pedal by conviction.

3. David’s Example: Faith in the Midst of Drought

Do you think you are the only one who feels ignored by God? Open your Bible to Psalm 13. David, the man after God’s own heart, begins the psalm with brutal honesty:

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?” (Psalm 13:1-2)

Look at that. David didn’t feel God. He felt abandonment. He felt God had turned His back. But don’t stop reading. See how the Psalm ends, just four verses later:

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” (v. 5-6)

What changed between verse 1 and 6? Did David’s situation change? No. Did God appear in a cloud of fire? No. What changed was David’s focus. He stopped looking at his unstable feeling (“I feel forgotten”) and looked at God’s unchanging character (“You are merciful”). This is Faith: It is saying “I feel alone and sad, BUT Your Word says You are with me. And Your Word is truer than my feeling. So, I will sing even without the desire.”

4. The Danger of “Goosebump Theology”

Basing your Christian life on feelings is building a house on quicksand. Why? Because feelings are liars, unstable, and influenceable.

  • Biology: You might feel God is far away just because you slept poorly, have PMS, lack vitamin D, or ate something bad.
  • Manipulation: You can feel a strong “presence” at a secular rock concert or in a Disney movie just because the music uses harmonic progressions made to move emotions. Goosebumps are not synonymous with the Holy Spirit; they are a physiological response.
  • Deceit: The Bible says the heart is “deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9).

If you wait to “feel like” praying, you will never pray consistently. If you wait to “feel love” to forgive your enemy, you will never forgive. If you wait to “feel God” to obey, you will live in disobedience on bad days.

The mature Christian obeys because they decided, not because they felt. Love (Agape) in the Bible is not a warm fuzzy feeling; it is an action of sacrifice. Jesus didn’t “feel like” going to the cross (on the contrary, He sweated blood in anguish), but He went out of conviction and obedience. The greatest proof of love is not crying at the service, it is obedience on a dry Monday.

5. How to Pray When the Sky Seems Like Bronze?

Okay, I understand the theory. But practically, how to maintain a devotional life when it seems like I’m talking to myself and boredom takes over?

1. Pray Truth, Not Emotion

Don’t try to manufacture feelings. Don’t try to squeeze yourself, force it, or scream to see if you “feel” something. God is not deaf, and He is not impressed by theater. Come to God and be radically honest: “Father, today my heart is dry. I feel nothing. I feel boredom. But I am here. I am here because You are worthy, not because I am excited. Receive my dry prayer as an offering of faithfulness.” God values this honest prayer a thousand times more than the “fake” prayer full of empty hallelujahs.

2. Use the “Crutch” of the Word

When you have no words or feelings, use the words of those who did. Open the Psalms. Read out loud. “Lord, as Psalm 23 says, You are my shepherd. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death (and I feel like I’m in it right now), I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” God’s Word has its own power (Hebrews 4:12), independent of your emotion. Let the Bible carry your prayer when your emotions fail.

3. Praise on Principle, Not Passion

The Bible speaks of “sacrifice of praise” (Hebreus 13:15). Why is it called “sacrifice”? Because it hurts. Because it costs. Praising when everything is going well, money is in the bank, and health is great is easy; even an atheist does that. But praising when God is silent, when pain tightens, and the sky seems like bronze… that is what confuses hell. That is pure worship. Sing a song that affirms God’s sovereignty, even with an empty chest.

6. The Final Test: Thomas vs. Jesus

Remember the Apostle Thomas. He doubted the resurrection. He said: “Unless I see the nail marks… I will not believe” (John 20:25). He imposed a sensory condition: “I need to see and touch to believe.” Jesus, in His infinite mercy, appears to him, lets him touch, but says the phrase that defines our era and our life:

“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

Jesus was talking about you. You, who wake up early, take the crowded bus, face a difficult boss, come home tired, and even without seeing angels, without hearing audible voices, and without feeling goosebumps, open the Bible and say “I believe in You, Lord.” You are the blessed one. Your “dry” and persevering faith is precious to God. It proves you are not a spiritual gold-digger looking for miracles, but a faithful friend looking for a relationship.

Conclusion: Silence is Not Absence

The teacher always stays silent during the test. Not because he left the room, not because he doesn’t care, but because he wants to see if the student learned the lesson and knows how to apply the knowledge without immediate help.

If you are going through a time of silence, do not despair. God has not abandoned you. He is just promoting you to the next level. He is teaching you to ride without training wheels.

Prayer without goosebumps, made out of pure faith and obedience, is the most beautiful music that reaches God’s Throne. Keep praying. Keep reading. Keep going. One day, the cloud will pass, and you will see that He was by your side the whole time, holding your hand in the dark.

Hearing Him Org — Learn to hear the whisper, not just the thunder.

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