In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)
Many of us have felt empty at some point in our lives. Emptiness is characterised by a sense of inner void, including the feeling of loneliness, sadness, depression, or disconnection (from people or the world). It can be experienced by people with or without mental health problems.
Meaning of “emptiness” includes:
• the state of containing nothing
• an empty area or space
• The quality of being valueless
Can you describe the feeling of emptiness?
A present study says even patients and clinicians find it difficult to generate verbal descriptions of emptiness.
(Klonsky ED. What is emptiness? Clarifying the 7th criterion for borderline personality disorder. J Pers Disord. 2008 Aug;22(4):418-26. doi: 10.1521/pedi.2008.22.4.418. PMID: 18684053).
Spiritual Emptiness
It might sound strange, but spiritual emptiness lives in the church pews and at the pulpit. Unfortunately, all Christians experience spiritual emptiness from time to time. The emptiness is the position of the Church at the moment. It is empty of God’s love, but we are pretending we are filled with His love. The emptiness is creating chaos and division in the Church. Let us bring the Spirit of God back into the Church and release the depression in our souls.
We cannot go to church with the feeling of emptiness in us. We cannot preach or teach the word of God on “emptiness”. We have to be fulfilled (see Mt. 6:11). Emptiness was one of the things found wrong with the earth before the creation of the universe. The earth was formless and void—the emptiness in us. Bring the Spirit of God back to His old place and resurrect the Church of old (see Rev. 22:1-5).
What is spiritual emptiness?
Can you describe the feeling of “spiritual emptiness”?
The Creation of God and His Emptiness
The Void Created at the Birth of Our Sin…
The emptiness in us is created by the absence of God’s Spirit within us. We fill this void in us regardless of how far we go in life. Most people turn to money, drugs, alcohol, pleasure, sex, false religion or doctrine. The void was created for us to forever seek the presence of God.
In Genesis 2 – God had now planted a garden in the east, in Eden. In the garden, He put the man He had formed from the dust of the ground. And in the garden were all kinds of trees, but God spoke to man about two specific trees in the middle of the garden—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In the garden are both trees, but the tree of life is not the same as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They are different from each other as one holds the knowledge of good and evil, and the other possesses life. Knowing good and evil does not bring life but disaster. It brings nothing but shame, as it spells disaster. The idea of knowing what is good and evil doesn’t spell the word evil out of your life. Truth is life (See John 14:6).
The Creation of Emptiness
When man sinned against God, he created an image for himself. We allowed the devil to have a part in us. As God says in Genesis 3:22, man has now become like one of us. We are now not Genesis 1:26-27—being created and made in the image and likeness of God. We corrupted our souls. We exchanged our gift of peace, tranquillity, and abundance for that of the devil.
The emptiness in us is not caused by the Word of God taken away from us. It is caused by the reflection of the law we refused to obey. So, as the Word of God is adhered to, the darkness is elevated from the earth. The earth is full of His glory, and the level of ignorance and desperation shows the emptiness in us.
We were taken away from God’s presence, and the LORD placed His Word—the living creatures and the flaming sword before us and His presence, with this we lacked. He placed them so man will associate with them before accessing His presence. He removed us from the garden, placing us outside His covenant which renders us empty of His love.
The word of God is now guarding the tree of life. God protected us from the hands of the enemy and did not place us in his path. He placed us in the path of righteousness to choose. The emptiness placed man in a tough position because we have to cross the Sea of Galilee (See Mk. 16:6-7) to reach His Son, who has been born to redeem us.
We are tilling the ground from which we were formed, and all that the ground produces from our toil are thorns and thistles.
Jesus is restoring us to the Garden of Eden, where we can access the tree of life. In Him is the river of life. He is the garments of skin God made to clothe Adam and his wife. He is the light on the path to the tree of life. He is our saviour.
If we are to get to the tree of life, we must go through the living creature and the flaming sword.
The word “emptiness” is a cliché. It does not come with wholeness but completion. You cannot be complete if you lack, and you cannot be whole if you fall short. It is all complicated, but the Lord has given us His love to complete and make us whole in His word. So, how can we claim to be complete when we are not filled with His love and cannot complete what He has tasked us to do?
Fulfilment…
So, emptiness is not about how you feel but about fulfilment. How can I be fulfilled if I lack in His word? How can I live to the fullest if His word is not in me? All these contribute to the emptiness in us. We live in Christ, but does He live in us to make us fulfilled? We can claim His love but is this love in us—that is fulfilment of God’s promise—us living in Him and Him in us?
The fulfilment of God’s word in us is the completion of who He is in us. So, you cannot be complete without God’s word in you. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, draw from the well that never runs dry (See John 4:4-26). The five husbands she had did not fulfil her but left her thirsty and empty. So, v.28 says she dropped her pot and went back to the town to bear witness to Jesus to the people. She emptied herself, and the Lord filled her up with living water.
Approach God’s throne in your emptiness and let Him fill you up with His love.
As you approach the throne room in heaven for God’s fulfilment, you must empty yourself of all the things you have picked up from this world to fulfil you. All the places you have visited, the journeys made, and every ungodly thing you have filled this emptiness with, must be emptied before approaching God’s throne for His glory.
We go to God with no knowledge of what is good and bad. We empty ourselves of the filth of this world, creating a need (emptiness)—a state of desperation where we need fulfilment because nowhere that we have been had cause a state of fulfilment. We have wandered about, created our own theology of what the word of God is without His intervention and still lack and feel empty.
Humility is the basic element of a Christian. To be spiritually poor, you must possess the spirit of humility and approach the throne of God in humility, brokenness, an empty state, which is without pride. Emptiness is what is required of us when we come to the throne of God to be filled with His Love. Glory be to God!
(See Isaiah 61:1; 66:2; 57:15; James 4:6)
This is how God wants us to worship Him, in spirit and in truth—humble in our spirit. It’s all about His worship! Come to God in humility—in emptiness for Him to fill you up.
Written by
Eunice Forson
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