Frankie Mazzapica - When God Feels Distant
Thank you for tuning in. The title of today’s message is «When God Feels Distant.» I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels like God is as close as this jacket is on my back. Have you ever been driving on the road, and you’re like, «God feels so close right now; all I want to do is worship»? Then there are other times when you wonder, «Does God even remember that I’m here?» When you pray, it just feels hard; it feels difficult. I just want to let you know that means you’re normal, okay? That’s what that means. But what I’ve heard sometimes is when people say God has felt distant, they’ll use a Christianese term like «desert.» «I’ve been in the desert with God for years,» and I’m like, «Years? You don’t have to have that; that’s not necessary. You can have a bad day and still feel close to the Lord.» That is critical because if you’re feeling close to God, you can get through anything.
See, when I was growing up, there was this phrase that the preachers used to say. They used to say, «I’d rather go through the valley with God than be on the mountaintop without Him.» You can get through anything, but when He feels far, that’s hard. I want to talk about closing that gap, that anytime that happens, you can close the gap. So I’ve got two major points: first, sin is often the barrier, and second, I want to talk about this incense aroma that comes in the presence of God when you praise Him.
Let’s dive into the first one. As a scriptural foundation, it’s in Isaiah 59:2. I’m going to quote it, and then we’ll put it on the screen. Are you with me? Say yes! How many of you had coffee this morning? You’re more anointed than the people who did not have coffee this morning! This is how I know it is the drink from Heaven: there are zero calories in coffee! Find me another drink that you can say that about—water? Guess what’s in coffee!
Okay, Isaiah 59:2. We’re talking about unconfessed sin. It says this: «Because of your sin—watch this, this is powerful—God has cut you off; He has turned away from you; He is no longer listening to you.» It’s a very short verse. We’re going to read it slowly. Some of you are really fast readers; don’t read it fast, we’re going to read it slowly. But I want everyone to raise your voice and let’s read it together. Isaiah 59:2, let’s read it out loud. It says, «It’s your sins.» There are these unconfessed sins.
Now, there are five primary unconfessed sins that happen the most. The first one is sexual promiscuity. You can put that one up there, sexual promiscuity. I’m not going to go into detail because you know what that means. Let me just say this: you will not get away with it; you will not get away with it. I had a friend of mine say one time, «Hey, my buddy, he’s in the ministry; in his private life, I know what he’s doing.» I said, «Watch how God deals with this; just watch.» He lost his platform very, very quickly. If you have a platform, you lose it. When I talk about a platform, I’m not talking about this; I’m talking about influence. I’m also including this, but you lose your platform. God had influence for you; He had a platform for you, but you’re not getting it.
Sexual promiscuity also goes into the next one, where there’s addictive behavior, where there’s this private sin that’s addictive. When it’s addictive and you know it’s wrong, you beg God for the grace to get over it because you can’t do it yourself. During addiction, this is one of the prime moments where God says, «I’m going to show you what you cannot overcome without Me.» During the process, sometimes He’ll deliver you in a moment, and sometimes it’s a process where you keep saying, «Lord, I just tripped up again; I need Your help.» It’s addictive behavior.
The second one is curses. Sometimes we curse people without even knowing we’re cursing them. Let me put it this way: when you insult someone, that is a form of a curse because you are convincing them to see themselves the way you do and not the way God does. It is a curse. You say, «Well, I’m just mad.» You better go back and say, «I’m sorry.» You better go to the Lord and say, «Retract that.» Insults are not funny. I remember my mother in the Lord; her name is Jeie Mayo. She used to look at me and say, «If you have to be sarcastic to be funny, don’t be funny. It’s not a game.» Even if you say this behind someone’s back, your words have a spirit.
Let me go on to the next point. Man, you’re doing good! The next one is spiritual indifference. Now, this is like a cancer where people just become indifferent. They’re not passionate; they’re not cold. If this is you, I want you to know that you’re feeling this not because you’re sinful, but because you’re human; however, it is sinful to stay that way. You have to slap yourself; you have to say, «Dear God, Holy Spirit, I need You.» Holy Spirit, sometimes when I’m praying and I want to be done praying, but I know that I’ve prayed too short and need to pray longer, I go, «Holy Spirit, help me right now; help me! I know I’m not supposed to be done yet, but I want to be done yet.» You call on the Holy Spirit for things like that.
The very last point that I want to talk about is unforgiveness. Listen to this: unforgiveness is one of the meanest things that you can do to yourself. If you don’t choose to forgive someone, usually you can forgive everyone except for that one person. It says this in Matthew 6:15: «If you don’t forgive other people, God will not forgive you.» Let me say it this way: if you don’t forgive that one person, God will not forgive you. There are certain curses that Satan tries to draw you into. I want you to take a picture of this because I don’t have time to go through the list. Get out your cameras, if you would, and let’s put up that list of curses. This is how people curse themselves.
Go ahead and pull out that list. In the second service, can you guys read that well? You can read it well? I’m going to go through it really, really fast. Praying to the dead or statues—this is how this is done. Occult practices, religious figurines, things that you think have power, necklaces, things in your house, whatever it is—ankle bracelets, Scientology, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, tarot cards, Ouija boards, secret societies such as Freemasonry, fortune tellers, astrology, horoscopes, black magic, spirit guides, pentagrams, zodiac signs, the all-seeing eye, the Illuminati, symbol stones and charms linked to spirituality, skulls, grim reapers, witchcraft, séances, clairvoyance, New Age, voodoo, hypnotism, demonic movies. I’m going to tell you, some people who like horror—you’ve got to pray about that; it goes in your head and never comes out. Manifestation based on meditation—when people say, «I manifested this; I manifested that,» that’s demonic.
Let me just say this: if you’re looking at that list and you see one thing and you go, «I do that; I’m a part of that; I have that,» but you think, «You’re exaggerating"—that’s the devil talking to you, and you are the kind of person who, if you see one thing on that list that you don’t agree with, you don’t read the scriptures very carefully. You have an opinion, but you don’t have any knowledge about it. These are unconfessed sins. God will not open up doors for you. God will take away things that He planned on giving you.
Let me show you an example. I want you to play this video. Go ahead and play this video real quick.
«Good morning, Celebration Church! I want to say hello to my friends Pastor Frankie and Pastor Ally from Oaks Church in McKinney, Texas, to you in the Woodlands. God bless you; we love you! I just want to share a quick story that ties into Pastor Frankie’s message this morning. My wife and I went to India a number of years ago on a missions trip, and while we were there on the last day, I was walking through a shop and found myself in an idol section, where there were literally hundreds or even thousands of idols from floor to ceiling. I was walking around scoffing at these idols, thinking, 'Man, this is so stupid; people worship these dumb little things.' I turned around, and the shopkeeper was there speaking to me, but I didn’t understand what he was saying. He had this bowl with him, making this ringing sound, and he was taking it up and down in front of me like this, right in the center of my body. I’m like, 'I don’t know what you’re doing; I don’t know what you’re saying.' He says to me, 'I just aligned your chakras, ' and I said, 'No, no, no; I don’t want that.' I kind of freaked out and left the room. I was taking Authority in Jesus' name, claiming authority over that, and I didn’t tell anybody what had happened; I just tried to move on.
By the time I got home from India, I was sick as a dog. I literally had seven different symptoms. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, was totally lethargic, sweating profusely, nauseous; I couldn’t make a decision, couldn’t think clearly. It was three weeks of being sick. I went to doctor after doctor, spent hundreds of dollars on blood work and thousands of dollars on doctors, and finally, after three weeks, I called my missionary friend in India and explained what was going on. What he said to me was, 'Joel, that’s a spiritual attack; that’s what we deal with every single day in India. That’s what it feels like to live here and try to do ministry here. You brought something home; what did you bring home? You gave something an entrance into your life.' I said, 'Well, all I can think of is this bowl my wife bought; they said it was a musical instrument.' He said, 'That’s not just an instrument, Joel; that’s an M bowl.' I described it to him, and he said, 'That’s not just an instrument, Joel; that’s part of their worship. It’s what they believed was the sound of God. Hindus have over 300 million gods that they worship, and this was part of their worship; it was a worship instrument to call the gods and initiate a worship ceremony.' He said, 'Joel, that’s it; let’s pray.' He instructed me to throw it away.
So we prayed, took authority, and I put it in a trash bag and stuck it in my garage. I was too lazy to go to the trash, so I drove somewhere and came back. I was praying with another pastor friend about what I was dealing with. When I got home, I got out of my car and looked at the trash bag in my garage. I was physically paralyzed for almost three minutes; I couldn’t get out of the car. I couldn’t move; I was frozen. I sat there talking to myself, going, 'Joel, this is so stupid; get out of the car! ' When I finally did get out of the car, I grabbed that trash bag, took it to the dumpster, dumped it, went to grab my journal, and sat on my back porch by the pool and started praying in my prayer journal and writing. About ten minutes in, I suddenly got this authority in my prayer; I felt something come over me, and I took authority and cast that demonic spirit out of my life and closed that spiritual door that had been opened. Instantly, I felt it break; I got up, and I felt good! I felt like getting something to eat, and I just went and ate. The Lord broke that, but it was a genuine spiritual attack that I couldn’t explain for three weeks of my life. When I got the revelation that I wasn’t dealing with something natural; I was dealing with something spiritual; I took authority over it and dealt with it in my life and closed that door—that’s when I got the victory.
So, God bless you; we love you; can’t wait to meet you all in person one day. God bless; we’ll see you soon!»
I want to say to Pastor Joel, if you’re watching this, I just want to say thank you for that. I prepared this message on Tuesday, and last night I was driving in the truck, and I thought, you know, it would be really helpful. He made that this morning. There are things that will be barriers between you and God. If you have a sin in your life that you know is a sin, you don’t need a preacher to tell you. In Hebrews 10:16, it says this—that He has placed His laws in your mind and His writing in your heart. If you wanted to write that down, it’s in Hebrews 10:16. In other words, you know! You know when you’re doing something wrong, and if you say, «I don’t care; I’m going to live this way,» that’s called spiritual indifference. When you look back on your life and think, «Oh my goodness, I was cold; I was indifferent,» the Lord knows. When you get cold and distant, and it feels like God’s a million miles away, always remember: sin is the greatest barrier between you and God.
I want to talk about, number two, how your prayers are an offering to Him. See, when you want to be close to Him, you will get close to Him lightning fast. Can you snap your fingers? Does anyone here know how to snap their fingers? Oh, all right, everybody on three: one, two, three—do it! Three times faster than that! When you begin to praise Him— I tell you what, I was watching a preacher the other day, and I was really resonating with how he was praising God. He said, «God, I want to say thank You that when I got out of bed this morning, my feet touched carpet. I want to thank You that this morning I walked over to my refrigerator, and there was food in it. I want to thank You that I had clothes to pick out.» I don’t know if you’ve ever been on a missions trip and walked in and saw they had three shirts. This morning, you looked around in your drawer and thumbed through your closet, thinking, «What should I wear?» What should I wear? «Lord, thank You for the clothes; thank You for my health; thank You that I’m not in the hospital; thank You.»
I’m telling you, here’s the thing: this is how you praise God—you put the words «thank You» before every sentence. That’s it! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! I’m telling you, people that feel distant from God go too long without praising Him. Here’s another way to lead in. If you begin your sentence with «I love You because…» «I love You because You forgive me; I love You because You’re merciful to me; I love You because You keep opening up doors for me; I love You because…» And I’ll tell you what I’ve noticed is sometimes people make these strong commitments to the Lord, but they’re like sparklers. Have you ever seen a Christian that’s like a sparkler? You talk to them, and they’re on fire, and then all of a sudden, you look around, and go, «Where did they go?» Are you with me? Yes!
There are Christians that are sparklers. You see them on Sunday, or they come up to you during the week and talk about something passionate, and then you’re like, «Okay, this person is on fire for God; I want to be close to them.» I meet them in the lobby all the time, and then sure enough, as time goes on, you see their passion go out, and you go, «Where did they go?» Are you with me? Say yes! I get it, the world is rough! But then all of a sudden, you meet people that are candles—all right? Now, they’re not as exciting as a sparkler, come on, they are good words, aren’t they? Usually, they’re quiet, right? Usually, they’re not talking about how awesome they are; they’re just consistent. They’re just there—they’re candles.
Let me ask you a question, everybody looking at me: What if everyone in the Kingdom did what you do? If everyone listened to the same music that you listen to—what if everyone’s personal life outside of Sunday was just like yours? What if everyone came to church as often as you do? What would the Kingdom of God look like if God duplicated you?
I remember as a teenager, I was sitting next to John growing up. If you don’t know John Langston, stand up; some of you are going to get to know him. Wave around; this is my buddy John. Why am I saying that? I was 17 years old, and I was in a church service, and I felt terrible because outside of the church, I just had a really bad mouth. But in the church, ever since I was a little boy, I couldn’t wait to get to church on Sunday. One day I came into church when I was a little boy, had my hands up, and my shoulders got tired, so I put them down. I thought to myself, «My body will not tell me when to put my arms down ever again!» I was this big—hands go back up! That’s why when I come into the church, within ten seconds, my hands are up. I’m a church rat!
I know it sounds fun; if you’re an athlete, they call you a gym rat because they can’t ever get you out of the gym. So I know that sounded really funny. I don’t see myself as a rat, but I’m standing there, and I got this filthy mouth. The preacher looks at me, and I had something on, like this except it was a different pattern, and he points at me—it was to the left. John, I don’t know if you remember this, but he points at me and says, «I’m going to give you a tongue of fire. Listen to this, and I’m going to make you an example of righteousness in an unrighteous generation.» At that moment, I just started crying because I was everything except that—unconfessed sin. The Lord was looking at me and saying, «I can’t duplicate you.»
I want you to know, and I’m going to say the same thing to you: when you feel distant from God, do an inventory. Is there anything that you’ve grieved the Holy Spirit on? In Ephesians 4:30 it says, «Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.» If I hurt you in any way, wait just a second. If I hurt you, and then back up and start saying, «I thank You for… I thank You for… I thank You for… I love You for… I love You for…» And I’m going to tell you—and I promise you—I want you to wave at me if you already know that worship closes the gap. Wave at me like this! Worship closes the gap!
Let’s stand up and give Him our worship! Come on, put your hands together for His praise! We love You, Jesus! Come on, let’s give Him our best! We love You, Jesus! We love You, Jesus!
I’d like for all of our prayer partners to come down if they would. All the prayer partners. I’ve thought about this so many times, where I’m just in a rough patch, and I’ve said to the Lord, «I can hardly pray right now; would You make my name cross somebody’s mind and have them pray for me? I’m too weak to pray; I’m too discouraged to pray.» Just make my name cross their mind.
Some of you in this room—you just say, «I just need somebody to pray for me.» And if that’s you, you know it’s you. You don’t want to come out of your seat; you don’t want to make a big statement in front of people. I want to tell you: the Bible says that if you’re ashamed of God in front of people, the Lord will be ashamed of you when you stand before Him. So I want to invite you to come out of your seat and take the hand of a prayer partner and just say, «I need you to pray with me. I need you to pray with me.»
And if you’re in this room and you’re just saying, «I know my heart; if my heart were to stop beating in the next five minutes, I’m not ready to see God,» there’s no one in this room more important than you. You’ve got to come down here as quickly as you can. Let’s sing this worship song before anyone goes. After you sing one or two times through, there’s open dismissal. You can leave whenever you’re ready.
But let me pray a blessing into your life: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May His face shine down upon you and be gracious to you. May His countenance be lifted up on you and bring you peace. In Jesus' name, amen.