The dark night of the soul. This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the sobriquet, "The Weeping Prophet." It was the malady that so afflicted Martin Luther that his melancholy threatened to destroy him. This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him.
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1 (KJV) Throughout scripture, one truth keeps rising to the surface: God is not only calling His people to believe, but to live ready. Ready for His coming, ready for His presence, ready for His voice, and ready for the life He has placed before us. The Christian life is not passive waiting; it is active surrender. There is a life that carries the awareness of eternity into every decision.
There are Religious Spirits still alive and well in the Church that are doing everything possible to shut down our relationship with the Third Person of the Trinity. And for those who feel a longing in their spirit for deeper fellowship with the Lord, it is only through the Holy Spirit that relationship with Christ can happen. And this isn't about seeking gifts or manifestations. The Holy Spirit is a Person. Not an "it," a manifestation, a gift giver, or a power source. He is fully God – equal with the Father and the Son. And the Holy Spirit longs for fellowship with us in the same measure.