Believers are subject to many changes in all aspects of spiritual life. This is also true in respect to a lively or lifeless spiritual frame. By nature, man is entirely dead and estranged from divine life. He has a heart of stone, and at the very best has a stony heart which is not capable of bearing fruit. Some harden their heart and render it more insensitive than was previously the case. By continually heaping sin upon sin and going contrary to their conscience, they sear, so to speak, their conscience with a hot iron, and cause their heart, now having become fully calloused, to be immovable.1
In regeneration God removes that heart of stone and grants a heart of flesh in its stead, making it both tender and sensitive. As spiritual life, however, can at times be feeble, likewise there can be but a small measure of spiritual sensitivity in the beginning of spiritual life. One will then not be troubled about many of his secret faults, and there will be but little grief about the absence of great spiritual blessings. Thus, when comparing an immature Christian with a mature Christian, one would think that the immature Christian is in a lifeless condition, whereas comparatively speaking they (when considering their level of maturity) are more lively than mature Christians at certain occasions. For those who have made some progress in spiritual life do backslide in regard to their liveliness, and at times become subject to deadness. Even the most eminent Christian sometimes experiences this for a brief season. It can be that at the outset of his prayer he is in an entirely dead frame—insensitive and without inner motions. As he perseveres, however, he regains his prior liveliness. It can also be, after beginning in a lively manner, that toward the middle or the end he is overcome by such a pervasive deadness that he must desist. This can also take place in regard to the Lord’s Supper and other circumstances. Occasionally deadness will prevail for a long time, however, and become the habitual disposition of the soul. It is this disposition that we wish to discuss here. Five matters will be discussed: 1) the fact that believers do come into such a condition of deadness; 2) its causes; 3) its nature and consequences; 4) a word of encouragement for those who are in such a condition; and 5) some guidance relative to this issue.
Believers Do Experience Deadness
That believers do come into such a condition is evident:
(1) From specific passages in which this condition is identified by various terms, such as:
(i) hardening: “O Lord, why hast Thou … hardened our heart from Thy fear?” (Isa 63:17); “Have ye your heart yet hardened?” (Mark 8:17);
(ii) slumber: “I sleep, but my heart waketh” (Song 5:2); “They all slumbered and slept” (Matt 25:5);
(iii) heartlessness: “… therefore my heart faileth me” (Ps 40:12); “Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart” (Hos 7:11);
(iv) barrenness: “My heart is smitten, and withered like grass” (Ps 102:4);
(v) deadness: “I am as a man that hath no strength: free among the dead” (Ps 88:4-6).
(2) From the prayer of saints for liveliness: “Quicken Thou me according to Thy word” (Ps 119:25).
(3) From warnings relative to this: “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13).
(4) From exhortations: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph 5:14).
Add to this the experiences of so many of the godly concerning whom you have either read or heard. From all of this you can perceive that no one should consider it strange when he also comes into this condition. So many of God’s children have experienced this, as it is God’s way to lead His children by way of deadness to a lively condition.
Its Causes
There are various causes for this. First, deadness sometimes issues forth from the indwelling corruption of the residual old nature. There is much of the stony heart that still resides in the regenerate, and the old nature is averse to spiritual life and its activity. The regenerated man subdues this and proceeds with his activity. However, at times a man’s dead nature will again assert itself, and bring spiritual life into bondage. It will pervade all the faculties of the soul and overwhelm the soul with its deadly stench. And thus both life and liveliness rapidly lose ground and are weakened as far as their disposition is concerned. Wherever spiritual life declines, deadness will increase.
Secondly, when we do not rightly value spiritual life—however feeble it may be—nor cherish it, but yield to lusts; when we do not give proper attention to lesser sins; when we fall from the one sin into the other; and when we frequently commit the same sin so that we become accustomed to it, our conscience will then become more insensitive, and that insensitivity will expand more and more. Furthermore, if more blatant sins are committed by which the conscience is ravaged, deep wounds will be inflicted upon the soul which will cause her to be mortally ill—particularly when the Lord withholds His gracious influences because of these sins. All of this cannot but engender deadness, which frequently is not noticed until we have come so far that we have lost our strength to recover and we become sensible of our insensitivity.
Thirdly, unbelief concerning our spiritual state causes despondency, despondency listlessness, and listlessness discouragement. By these steps we arrive at deadness. We often actively stimulate unbelief and oppose faith. We advance every argument to come to the conclusion that we are without grace, acting as if we had then gained a victory. We then neglect to receive Christ in all simplicity and to entrust our soul and salvation to Him. Since faith is the means whereby one lives spiritually, one shall most certainly be overcome with deadness if faith, instead of being exercised, is suppressed.
Fourthly, erroneous ideas concerning spiritual life are very conducive to bring about deadness. Some are not aware of the fact that spiritual life consists in the enjoyment of union with God through Christ, and that it manifests itself in the conscious yearning of the heart after God, in being united with His will, and in conducting ourselves as being in the presence of God. Instead, such only take notice of the emotions and the sensible motions within, and the clear revelations of God to the soul. They consider only this to be the manifestation of life. If they do not perceive this—which will very frequently be the case—they then imagine themselves to be dead (or at the very best suffer from deadness), whereas it is possible that neither of the two is the case. However, the cherishing of such thoughts will indeed cause them to come into a state of deadness.
Fifthly, deadness is frequently caused by neglecting to acquaint ourselves with God and continually staying near to Him as being the only delight of our soul—by the neglect of or a casual observance of our scheduled devotional times, doing so more to satisfy the conscience, than to exercise fellowship with God and to strive for increase in spiritual life. Also a spiritless ministry contributes to this in no small measure. Such a ministry leads us astray more than leading us further; it leads to the espousal of error. It can also be due to a lack of direction from and having no fellowship with, the godly. When glowing coals are joined together, they will show forth a lively glow. Upon being separated from each other, however, they will be extinguished and will find themselves in the midst of ashes. This is also true here. Someone who has a melancholy and despondent disposition will also be very vulnerable to spiritual deadness. This will also occur when we are too busy and have too many temporal concerns in either our family or vocation. This will be true when we are overwhelmed by an enduring cross; when we cleave too much to the creature, the godly, ministers, and the goods of this world; or when we are too prosperous in this world.
Sixthly, it pleases the Lord, who is sovereign and holy in all His ways, sometimes to withdraw the normal influences of His Holy Spirit whereby we are made lively. He never engenders hardness of heart, as this would be contrary to His holiness, and He never removes the propensity of spiritual life. He does withhold His operations, however, leaving a person, so to speak, to fend for himself, although He secretly preserves and sustains spiritual life. Furthermore, He gives the enemies within and without free reign to assault spiritual life. He then brings a person in such circumstances that his life is besieged round about, loses its vigor, and the residual hardness of the heart gains the upper hand.