This next manifestation that is possible to receive from God through the Holy Spirit may be the one that may considered to be the most unpleasant. To have God manifest His love, joy, and peace to you through the Holy Spirit are very nice and pleasant manifestations to receive from the Lord.
However, when God decides to manifest His sadness or pain to you, this can be very uncomfortable.
Some of you have already had these sadness manifestations from the Holy Spirit. This is where God will manifest His sadness, not your sadness, on a particular issue that you may be dealing with.
Again, the way that you know that it is His sadness and not your own natural sadness, is that His sadness is much deeper and much more intense than your own natural sadness.
After you receive a few of these sadness manifestations, you can usually become quite adept in discerning when these manifestations are coming in from the Lord or when they are just coming in from your own natural emotions.
However, this next manifestation – groaning in the Spirit – is not as easy to handle. In this manifestation, you are not only feeling God’s sadness on a particular situation, but you are also feeling His pain. This pain is so intense, that you can actually feel a groaning within the actual manifestation itself.
This manifestation is definitely not for everyone. When this manifestation comes in on you with any kind of intensity, it will flatten you. What happens is that when your human body comes into physical contact with God’s manifestation of pain, it seems to overwhelm the circuits in your body.
Your energy levels will immediately decrease and your ability to focus and concentrate will be impaired. If you are lying down when it occurs, you will not want to get off the couch. You will just want to lie there until the manifestation subsides.
When God does allow you to experience His pain on something, He will respect your limits and He will pull the manifestation off you if you ask Him to do so. When you ask Him to pull it off you, it will disappear in 5-15 seconds.
It can come off you that fast. So if anyone of you receives this manifestation anytime in the near future, remember, God will pull it off you the second you ask Him too. You do not have to worry about God overwhelming you past your own personal limits.
Scripture Verses
1. This first Scripture verse, where God is showing you that He can manifest some of His emotions to you through the Holy Spirit, is the one I stated in the last article on “Laughing in the Spirit.” For the purposes of this article, I will go ahead and restate this verse for you.
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him … and We will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:21)
Again, I believe the words “manifest Myself” to him is literal interpretation, and shows that God can manifest Himself and some of His emotions to us through the Holy Spirit if He should choose to do so.
2. This next verse shows us that Jesus Himself had this groaning in His Spirit when He came upon the death of Lazarus. As you already know, Jesus ended up raising this man literally from the dead once he arrived on the scene. Here is the verse:
Then when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at his feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the Spirit and was troubled … Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lie against it … now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out …” (John 11:32-44)
Lazarus had been dead for 4 days by the time Jesus arrived on the scene. If you will notice when He first arrives on the scene, Lazarus’ sister Mary is weeping along with the other Jewish people who were with her.
They were all crying and weeping over the death of this man. When Jesus sees all of these people crying over this man, He then starts to get the groaning in His Spirit. He obviously was feeling their pain to the same degree they were and it was causing Him to groan with this severe and intense pain.
It also says that Jesus “groaned in Himself” a second time when He actually entered the tomb that Lazarus had been buried in. I believe what was happening was that both Jesus and the Holy Spirit were feeling and experiencing severe and intense pain over the death of this particular man.
When Jesus saw Lazarus’ sister and friends crying and weeping over his death, I believe God the Father allowed Jesus to raise this man from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit just due to the fact that Jesus was feeling such intense sorrow and sadness for the grieving they were all going through.
This dramatic story right here shows us that God can and does actually feel our pain, sadness, and sorrow when we are faced with a real sad or traumatic situation. Many of the times when we are crying, God is crying right along side of us.
However, most of the time we cannot see or feel God crying with us on a sad situation unless He decides to manifest His sadness and pain to us through the Holy Spirit.
In my opinion, when God does decide to manifest His sadness and pain to you on a particular situation where you can actually feel what He is feeling – this is an incredible privilege, blessing, and honor – because God is sharing with you His feelings on the matter, even if it is feelings of sadness, sorrow, and pain.
Analogy
If God’s pain is so intense and so uncomfortable to handle for any length of time, then why would any of us want to experience this particular unpleasant manifestation?
The answer is an analogy that I feel that the Lord gave to me to be able to understand all of this. The analogy is the “husband-wife” or “lover” analogy.
When two people are truly in love with one another, they are willing to share the good times with the bad times. When your lover is crying over a sad situation, you are feeling your lover’s pain because of the close, love-bond that exists between the two of you.
You are so in tune with your lover’s feelings and emotions, that sometimes you may be able to feel their pain to the same depth and degree they are.
Imagine your father has just died and you are really grieving over his death. Then all of sudden your lover or spouse says to you they will see you later after all of your grieving is over because they cannot deal with the pain that you are going through. How would that make you feel?
When true love is entered into between two people, you have to be willing to stand by your partner during the sad times, and be willing to feel and share some of their pain during their times of sadness.
The same analogy also applies to our personal relationship with God. Remember, the number one thing that God wants from each one of us is that we establish a loving, intimate, personal relationship with Him.
And in this personal relationship with God is our desire to want to share our thoughts, our feelings and our emotions with Him, just like two people will want to do in a normal human love relationship.
And then God wants to be able to share some of His thoughts, some of His feelings, and some of His emotions with us just like we will want to do with Him. And sometimes when God decides to share a feeling or emotion with us, He will literally manifest that feeling or emotion right up to us through the Holy Spirit.
You will thus be receiving an actual manifestation from God Himself. You will literally be feeling His actual emotion on something. He is sharing that emotion with you when He does this. He is allowing you to feel what He is feeling for that short period of time.
Do you see what an incredible privilege and blessing this is – to be able to feel, through an actual manifestation, what God is actually feeling about something? This is true sharing. This is what true love is all about.
Conclusion
I know some of the above may sound too deep or too heavy to get into for some of you, but it really isn’t. Some of you have had the basic love stirrings from God through the Holy Spirit. This is just the next step up the ladder. You are simply allowing God to manifest His other emotions to you in addition to the love that you have already felt through the normal stirrings.
For those of you who would like to try and venture into a little deeper water with the Lord on this, simply go to Him in prayer, and ask Him, if it be His will to do so at your present level of spiritual development with Him, to release some of these other emotional manifestations up to you through the Holy Spirit.
Tell Him that He has a green light to manifest any of His other emotions anytime that He will want to do so with you.
For those of you who are willing to give it a try, I guarantee that you will get to know God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit much better than you already do now. When you start feeling what
They are feeling, and you allow God to start to share His feelings and emotions with you within this manifestation realm, it will simply draw you that much closer to God in your own personal relationship with Him. It will help increase the love that you already have for Him because you will really see how much God really does love and care for all of the people who are in this world.
It’s one thing to know that God does love and care for all of us because the Bible tells us so. However, it’s another thing to be able to actually feel God’s love for us through some of these manifestations that He is capable of giving to us through the Holy Spirit.
One time I felt like the Lord gave me a powerful word about 12 years ago. He said to me: “Do you know how dry your walk would be with Me if from time to time I did not manifest Myself to you?”
I then received an immediate analogy of the lovers again. Imagine a love relationship with no physical intimacy, no touching, no hugging, no hand holding. The love relationship would dry up without the physical touch. It’s the same way in our personal relationship with God. God does want to “touch us” from time to time with these manifestations. They will help keep us from drying up in our walk with Him.
However, we always have to keep all of this in proper balance. Some people would go overboard with these manifestations. The only thing they would seek after would be these manifestations because of the intensity of them and because they make you feel so good when you do receive them.
I believe God will hold these manifestations back from these types of people because He will lose them due to them getting too flaky and too out of balance with all of it.
Remember, it’s the Word and Spirit working together that will cause true spiritual growth to occur in a born-again believer. If you have all Word, but no Holy Spirit, you will dry up. If you have all Holy Spirit, but no Word, you will blow up. However, if you have both the Word and the Holy Spirit – you will grow up.
The two will go perfectly hand-in-hand with one another when you stay in proper balance within these two realms.
It is God Himself that causes us to hunger and thirst for Him. It is His mercy upon our lives that enables us to desire spiritual things beyond the usual church setting. He can do anything not against our will to ensure His perfect will is accomplished by Christ’s finished work… Your articles are encouraging!!!
It seems that you have some insight on the subject of groaning in the spirit: I used to pray in the Spirit fluently, but within the last several years, I haven’t been able to do so: my prayer language has changed, and I can’t figure out why, now when I pray I feel this intense pain right in the center of my gut, that at times it can cause me to bend over, it can last for minutes and sometimes it can feel like hours, to the degree that I wish it would stop, it’s not, bad just intense.I asked the Lord for interpretation but he doesn’t give it:when I’m done or when he is done I sometimes feels exhausted but satisfied, and go away feeling refreshed until the next time, I don’t quite understand.
Pls pray with me, I’ve been trusting God for the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in my life. Beyond all doubts I’ve got the convinction that I’ve got Him (Holy Spirit) inside of me. Whenever I ask specifically for His help and guidance, I recieve in clear tone. Whenever I ask Him to speak to me concerning any issue, He does, even concerning understanding sciptures during my Bible study, He does give me understanding each time I ask Him. But am yet to speak in tongues and this is giving me a serious concern. I’ve read several articles which says that speaking in tongues is an evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Pls pray with me that God blesses me with this confirmation. Blessings.
Speaking in the spirit, is an act of faith through prey, asking the holy spirit to flow… U begin to give your lips sound, that forms words your physical flesh will not comprehend, so right now! Pray & begin to speak in new tongues! Out of the mouth of babes, the lord” has perfected praise.
Just because you don’t speak in tongues does not mean you don’t have the Holy Spirit. Read verse 11 again. The Holy Spirit gives as He wills. There are 9 gifts. Perhaps the Holy Spirit has give you something different. But don’t get discouraged, because it can happen when you least expect it. That’s what happened to me.
1 Corinthians 12:7–11 (ESV): To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
hands were laid on me for the baptism in the holyGhost i did nt pray in tongues but something strange happened, my mouth started vibrating and this would intensify during my prayer and worship, and i was afraid it was a contrary spirit but becoming aware of the holySpirit through teachings asked the Holy Spirit to Help me, while sleeping he would almost mechanically cry out jesus is lord jesus is lord, but last december i prayed until i was no longer aware of my physical body and i discovered i was groaning in my spirit, sort of like vomiting my hrt with no words, but i still desire to pray in tongues……
WOW! Good Information, Thank You. I have had deep sadness and never knew why. I didn’t know nor have I ever heard deep sadness could come from the Lord.
As an intercessor I experience groaning in the spirit often when I pray. The Holy Spirit literally speaks (different from speaking in tongues) and sometimes groan and I feel like I’m travailing or giving birth to something.
I was listening to SonLife Broadcast this morning and the panel was speaking against this, calling it demonic and unscriptural. It does happen and it is a manifestation of God, and it’s real.
I experience it, too.
I have experienced it as well and you can feel the hurt and pain! It was so intense I was just sobbing and couldn’t stop.
Your reply meant everything to me I’ve been searching God after a church service today I was praying for the people that were at the altar and i could already tell tha His spirit was wanting me to travail, its like I push down like I’m delivering a child. I groan loudly at times. Then someone asked if i wanted to go to the alter snd pray. people come up to me praying because they thought I had demons in me I was so confused I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. I havee been crying all afternoon i have been so distraught.
I’ve been saved for years and I was a back slider for the same amount of time. This past 12 months has truly been great and a blessing to me as well. Since coming back to the Lord i have accepted my calling and the Lord has healed me from major sickness, I’ve recently started groaning in the spirit during prayer which feels like i was give birth out of my mouth and shortly after that God baptist me (indulging) with the Holy Spirit and a week later I was able to speak in tongues.
Interesting thoughts, thank you. I do have to add that in John 11 during the event of Lazarus, Jesus did not weep because everyone was in pain and weeping because of the death of Lazarus. Jesus wept because of the amount of disbelief, and lack of faith, among those who saw Him perform miracles. Example: When Mary came to met Jesus weeping for the loss of Lazarus, she tell Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” In other words, you could have healed him if you were here, but because you weren’t here, he’s dead….
This is Mary, the one who anointed Jesus’s feet….
He wasn’t groaning because of their pain, Jesus groaning was caused by the pain cause by the lack of faith.
There is so much more to add in regards to this chapter but it’d be for another time. GBY
The Word of God ALIVE, indeed and you see in each chapter of IT what you need to see at the moment you need to see it. I thank God for what you have seen in this chapter. I see that Jesus is crying for His own death. He was groaning because of His Own Pain. He even ask His Father it was possible to avoid the pain of His crucifixion. Jesus was weeping because of His Own Pain. God bless you.
I may not know where to start, but your article has helped me a lot, I am not sure if I should say I also experience the groaning, but it becomes so intense that I can not pray in front of people, n if I do I also don’t understand myself but its either it lives me free or in deep pain. I still have questions conserning this??? lastly I love Jesus Christ so much and am grateful. what a friend we have in Jesus.
I fully agree with you that the reason Jesus started crying at the scene was because these were people He loved very much and it hurt Him to see them in such pain. It doesn’t make sense that Jesus was weeping for Lazarus himself. He knew perfectly well that Lazarus was alive and well in God’s presence (remember the story about the Lazarus the beggar who died on the doorstep of the rich man?). Mary’s statement to Jesus was full of faith. She knew He could have prevented Lazarus from dying. And remember the rest of her statement, “yet I know God will give You whatever You ask”. So she knew if He asked His Father to bring Lazarus back, God would grant this request. So I’m in agreement with your conclusion that Jesus identifies with us and feels our pain acutely. He is not separated from us to not feel with and for us. Haven’t you ever experienced His laugh of joy at something that makes you joyous and full of wonder? I think He enjoys watching us discover things and learn about the things He’s made.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and thoughts. Your article really helped me to understand what I am experiencing. Just recently, on October 5, when I was with members of spiritual movement, we were praising, singing, praying, and I had a tears and then loud harsh sound came out. The leader of meeting was confused and ask me if I need a prayer. I said Yes, please pray for my husband. The moment she laid hand on me I had the same extremely loud sound came out and tears. Right now I and my husband are going through hard time, but for months through Word of God I got a peace in me. I do not feel heavy, depressed any longer even our situation is not changed yet. That’s surprised me why I am still groaning. The same happened with me a few times before and no one was able to explain in the way you did. I still need Holy Spirit give me knowledge and understanding.
Thank you
Thank you very much for this article may our precious Lord bless you richly and to those who commented thank you too brethren for you have made me realize that i am not an alien. As for the author i thank you because i now know for sure that its not demonic like other people thinks.
I have been experiencing these heavy groaning from my spirit for over a year now, my stomach tightens, moves up and down, my knees cant carry me, i get drunk by the holy spirit that i cant even stand straight, i cry the cry that i cant stop even if i try or laugh even if i don’t want to.
Some Pastors and Priest rebuke me says its demonic some says i need deliverance but none of them has succeeded i have moved from one church to the other. Until i cried to my Lord & said if this is your doing Lord i need to see your face. Twice i prayed this prayer weeping like a baby and the first time i was woken up at 2:00am & saw stars all over my room, the glory that was there was too much. The second time i was woken up and i looked outside the sliding door of my bedroom and saw Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary and they were about seven of them in a row. I knew then that whats happening to me was something huge the Greater one who lives within me has been taken over by my God Almighty since he is the only one with super natural power like that. I have a lot to share brethren but time is not on my side so lets join hands & intercede for one another may God bless you all.
@SEDULO KGAKGE, Thanks you for sharing that, God will do great works in his body through you. Please set yourself more for God to accomplish his plan. Please Make sure you understand what God is showing you. God manifestation have a great meaning and purpose to accomplish the will of God. God blessing
I am blessed just reading this. And I totally agree with you. It helpes me realise there’s difference between praying in the spirit and making groanings in the spirit. Thanks. God bless your knowledge.
Wow. Thank you so much. I had this happen to me a couple days ago. Even reading this made me so emotional and just made me think back and realize that “Wow, God! You answered me, it is You! That was You!”
Emmanuel, when you pray with your own language you only have limited vocabulary but when your spirit prays to God you have unlimited words that you don’t even understand. When you received Him you become the child of God (John 1:12) You call Him “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). If you are contented in praying with your own words then continue this…if you want to pray more but you cannot say more …Then let your spirit pray in tongues..your role is to say it..don’t even think what to say..the Spirit Himself will help us to pray.(Romans 8:26)
The post on this subject matter’s have been very inspirational, yet I still do not fully understand these experience, I have had them sense the later part of last year, and I can honestly say it has serve me we’ll, for lack of a better word. This is the first time I have ever share my experience publicly, this is something that you just can’t speak out audibly to some people who have no spiritual concept of this type of manifestation, that truly exist, you can move from natural prayers into tongues, and tongues into this mystery place of agonizing pain that grips your whole entire; being, at times I can’t even pray in my natural or even in tongues, the Spirit of God literally takes over my conversation, and I’ll find myself, groaning in the Spirit; it is truly a phenomenon, it for me st times it can be so intense that I can feel my stomach tying in knots, to the point where I scream, as Christ did in a loud voice where he was hanging on the cross, and cried out saying Eli, Eli, Sabathna “Why has thou forsaken me”. At times it what appears for minutes can feel like hours, it can be so intense that I have literally feel like my vain my neck is going to pop. And yes not many of times, but a few times, I have asked the Spirit of God to stop, because I could not take it anymore, I believe God manifest himself to us for a number of reasons, usually I believe that he does it to bring change in the Spirit of what we cannot accomplish in the natural. “Jacob wrestle with the angel, all night long, until the break of day, and the angel said let me go, and he said not until you bless me” Paul said that “I travail in spirit until Christ be formed in me again”. Even Elijah who wept, and kneel down in a certain position, and prayed earnestly, these types of prayers of pain was all for a different reason, but one thing in common is that it all constitute pain, my desire is for me to understand these groanings, he gives us interpretation of tongues, but I do not know if he gives us interpretation of groanings in which the bible says that it can’t be utter; sometimes I don’t feel anything, except the warmth of his love but more so I can see the results, I become more sensitive, and more passionate toward people, especially the unsaved and hurting, nothing I’m my natural may change, but I’m more discerning. Note that these groanings may be for you, to battle or address a sin that you may be struggling to overcome, it could be for a love one, or somebody who may need intercession, they may be in danger or facing death, it could be that you’re fighting against demonic influence that is trying to occupy an area in your life or your love one:or just God is trying to birth something in you that he wants to be manifested, maybe a business or a ministry, a financial breakthrough or even for a healing that you may or may not be aware of We have no ideal what God does in us until he does it.
That was so beautifully said Nathan. This is my same story too that I have never told anyone as they would think I’m crazy. I wept reading your story. God is manifesting his Spirit upon his saints every day. I pray my heart will be open for him and ready to do his will. Thank you for sharing.
In Christ.
Sister Hales.
I am so relieved to see these comments about groaning. I was/am praying in the spirit and all of a sudden a low noise came out and my stomach felt like I was doing crunches. I was blowing air out and just making low sad ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu sounds. My stomach is tight and I was out of breath. It’s been going on for a while. I wasn’t sure what was going on. Bless you saints 🙂 I think I will start a prayer journal and record events in my life. Bless you all!
Sister Daisy-April 23, 2018 at 11:21
Praise God! I have Groaning in the spirit for years now,never understood it but i
have a better understanding praise God for this web site.
@Nathan,
I have experienced the same things but with birthing pains that are spiritual but feel like real birth pains. It usually brings forth a breakthrough or saving a soul from the fire. But I have it often and sometimes it becomes a spiritual miscarriage. God has explained that its because some souls are being taken by the enemy.
Good article. May God grant good understanding to everyone that will come in touch with this piece of information. I want to contribute on the difference between God expressing his sadness over our feelings and emotions and causing the Holy Spirit to be sad over our disobedience to His divine commandments as recorded in Ephesians 4:30. We should all, please take note.
@Samuel, oh Samuel you have bought up an awesome point here! I will say that I do know the difference between the two. When I have done something wrong the Holyspirit let’s me know and I cant shake it, He makes sure that i know the difference. I have an icky feeling and my thoughts are constantly on that thing and the feeling doesnt gonawaybuntilni acknowledge and repent to God and the person or persons that I have wronged. Also my peace is greatly disturbed and i cannot pray and if i try to pray without dealing with it i can literally hear the Holyspirit saying uh uh! No no, you know what you need to do. I’m miserable until I fix it, every single time. I’m an intercessor so I cant afford to have my prayers blocked!!! I don’t see how even a baby christian wouldnt know this because it feels aweful!!! How could anyone not know unless their super dull.
Anyway, thanks for bringing this up, God bless you.
Please pray with me .I have this pain on my throat of sorrow and moarning but i dont know why.It is paining so much i cant cry i have failed .I have asked God to show me mercy and take it way but its still there.What should i do
Hope you are feeling better all of us that follow Christ will go through difficulties or trials.
Mightily blessed reading this….it awaken something inside of me that has been sleeping. What pure joy n honour for God to release His pain, burden n agenda through me via groaning. its another level of intimacy with the Holy Spirit of God. Thank u
Had the groaning once when I was praying in the tongues, but I never knew what was going on.
Thanks!!!!!
I too recently experienced this groaning as I was weeping and speaking in tongues, something in my spirit begin to stir strong that I bent over not in pain but I felt something stirring inside very very strong and it caused me to groan.
I could only say what led up to this experience was intercessory prayer, I was worshiping the Lord and when a certain song came on it touched me so deeply.. I just surrendered to Him and I began crying and praying in tongues over many people that are not saved that I know. All of a sudden this stirring took place in my spirit, it came in waves and I begun to groan when I would feel my spirit stir.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, Oh God, thou will not despise. Psalm 51:17
A scriptural second thought on what I just said. I hope this helps someone,
God Bless!
…the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Paul Said!
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
This is exactly it! Travail and groaning in the spirit. When a woman is giving birth she enters into groaning and travail. Something is being accomplished in the spirit realm when you allow the Holy Spirit to travail through you.
At one of the churches I attended we always let people come to the front for prayer and healing. A few times God has allowed me to feel thier pain or maybe Gods pain for them through me. But I knew exactly what to pray about after an awesome loud groan came from deep within me. This usually happens to me after laying hands on the people needing prayer. Thanx for letting me know I’m not the only one “Holy Ghost groaning”. And if your afraid of ghosts you can say spirit instead. A little humor there. Be blessed. See you there or in the air.
I experienced this a few weeks ago. I am new to all of this but learning very quickly. I was praying in spirit and began to cry, it was the most deepest sadness I have ever experienced. I can compare it to loosing one of my children but maybe deeper. It was more than I could bare. A week prior to this experience I prayed to God, letting him know it was difficult for me to love when I have never seen him, held him etc. I prayed that I want to feel like others who have a true love for God, I wanted it more than anything. Back to the weeping, once I got myself together I asked God what was that? God what was I feeling? 1st I heard look up info on weeping of the Holy spirit, which is how I found this page. Once I read about it I heard God say “this is how much I love you”. I cried off and on for a couple of days, the most amazing blessing! Now I know what it feels like to love God!! Thank you for this information! May God bless you
Wow that’s amazing Shepard! I went to a church service at faith family church in Victoria,texas back in late 1991 it was a sunday or Wednesday night I don’t remember exactly. A guy I guess he was an old guy who preached a message at that church service. After he was finished preaching his message he started praising the Lord n next thing I know I am on my knees n started crying n weeping uncontrollably n I started to groan a lot within my stomach n within my very being. I was full of fear a little bit because shortly before that or earlier that yr I started seeing dark images n hearing voices a little bit. Maybe God was setting me free from my fears. I was born n raised Catholic n then on June 1990 I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord n Saviour while watching the 700 club.
Im so pleased to find this site. Recently I prayed and asked if the lord would cause me to be an intersecor. To know his heart and pray. Not long afterwards I found that reading the news or listening to the news caused me deep distress. This distress wouldn’t leave me so when i prayed I prayed in tongues with groanings. I was afraid in case it was a spirit of anxiety causing this distress but now see that it was the Lord sharing His heart
Thanks so much for your articles. I too have been experiencing tightening and hardness in my stomach, it moves up in me which makes me think I need to be delivered. Recently when being prayed for I felt it subside. The prayer was then “Lord fill her with your joy” I then began to laugh holy laughter. Praise God this helped me know God more. I have a groan deep inside which I will travail in prayer now that I have read these articles. The tightening is very uncomfortable during personal ministry.
I would be glad to know if anyone else is crying, I mean sobbing in preyer, this has reacently started to happen to me, I can hardly think of Jesus Christ with out my eyes filling, then when I prey I sob and am very exsorsted, the trouble is, I am getting to the point when I have things I need to do with my day. I think best prey when I have done my job list, also my eyes are so sore…. I told a friend I said it feels like I am being cryed really strange, I would love to know more about it, I am an empath and pick up on so much this makes this world very hard to live in……
Sounds like God I’m experiencing something similar in praying for another ask God to pray through you 🙂
Hmm
I kind of have a different take on the groanings. When we are spent and have no words that articulate our pain, or someone else’s pain, I believe Gods spirit intercedes for us in a groaning of sorts that is not an intelligible language. A number of years ago a stranger came to our Tuesday evening bible study. I learned after our study he was needing prayer. His name was Albert. Well he came to me and I took his hands in mine. He began to sob, life seemed to be crushing in on him. I grieved for him and began to feel a powerful manifestation of the Spirit to intercede in prayer for Albert. My words were not sufficient. I remembered praying in a nearly inaudible groan or tounge. We were both completely exhausted after this brief but powerful interaction. I saw Albert one other time after our first meeting. He was appreciative for the prayers and was doing better. Any way, those are my thoughts
YiC
Tom
Romans 8:26 actually found expression in my spiritual walk with God. Whenever I pray I actually groan like literally groan uncontrollably by the holyspirit. The first time it happened I was so overwhelmed and scared that the Holy Spirit had to tell not to worry and reminded me of Romans 8:26……It was so loud….I couldnt control it…It happens almost all the time now in my prayers, that I have to separate myself from family when I pray, some may not understand. This feeling is best known to myself and any other person who has experienced it. God really loves us, we should finish well most importantly!.,God bless y’all!
I just experienced this goaning l know GOD is expressing something to me. HE wants me to feel what HE is feeling and share HIS emotions l gladly except
I first felt this holy spirit of God speaking through me last year at church service. I was praising and word shipping the Lord like I usually do going into prayer. My body would get all hot and my hands would become clammy and I would feel a cool breeze come up against my back. I would begin to see a extremely bright light and hands and music all around me. Then all of a sudden I would feel this intense pain in my side and back. The next thing I know I begin to wail and groan in the spirit and don’t stop until the Lord decided to let me go, and then I would be passed out on the floor. While I’m down there I can see and hear my Lord talking to me. I can see myself floating and flying as the Lord begin to let me feel his pain as well as the people in the room. When I come through I’m extremely dizzy and have no idea how I ended up on the floor. When it first came over me I didn’t understand what was going on with me. Then I remembered that I had asked God to use me anyway that he wanted to use me. That night he gave me the evidence if speaking in tongue and wailing in the holy spirit. Thank you my Abba father for my relationship with you.
I believe this came upon me one night when I was driving and praying at the same time. I was terrified but God immedietly revealed to me that it was groaning in the spirit. It was so intense. Its only came once. I struggle to stay in my walk with Christ. My anger over powers me. But I continue to to pray that it be lifted in the sweet name of Jesus
I just experienced this manifestation, the groaning and then the laughter right after. I did not understand its meaning. I recall asking the Holy Spirit for interpretation while it was going on. After all was over, I experienced calmness in my room and all I could here was that it’s a manifestation. Your write up actually helped me grasp the meaning of the Holy Spirit’s groaning and laughter. His love for us is renewed every morning. Let love lead! May we all continually avail ourselves to be the living gospel.
So good to read this. I had been asking the Lord to give me groanings for a while so I could be more effective in my intercessions. Then He gave a dream where, long story short, I laid my hands over a book that contained the sins and pain of people, and when I did that, I started groaning and travailing. In the dream I said in my mind “Yes Lord, I want this”. And immediately got up at 3am ish. I was wide awake and started praying confirming to Him that I really wanted it. Now that I read your blog, I understood He was really asking me first if I really wanted it. 3 weeks passed since the dream and the experience. I finished a 3 day full fast and an anointed preacher was preaching at the church I attend to. At the end he started ministering and I started crying like a normal person and then it started to happen. I felt electric current going up and down my body and started travailing and making those agonizing sounds. I just couldn’t stop. I could hear the outside world but the sounds I was uttering were really loud. My fists closed from the electricity (it felt as if I was grabbing an electric cable). Someone started praying over my ear and sat me down (unfortunately) because when they did that, the experience started rapidly decreasing. After that I received some prophesy from the preacher, which had been confirmed by the Lord months before. Well, that’s my testimony for the glory of our Saviour. Thank you so much because it helped me understand what happened.
@Jonathan Abatte,
Whenever anyone encounters this in a church its usually because their is a wolf in sheeps clothing.The intercessory prayer must finish its course someone disrupting it means its the enemy trying to stop it. I know from experience. The weeping and loud noises must finish its course through, which will defeat the enemy that is present before you.
Thankyou for this information for the longest I have been experiencing these things and initially I was afraid because I couldn’t control my body and also I struggle with anxiety at that time last year I was overwhelmed by everything and every time I went into this experience I thought it was an anxiety attack but one Sunday someone prophesied over me and spoke the word travail and I later went home and seemed more information about this word and I fully didn’t understand I was led to the story of Hannah by my pastor and I understood a little but recently my pastor passed and I started to have all these emotions I couldn’t explain then that first Sunday we had without him physically being there we joined together in prayer my church and I started to travail and this time it was for a long time I had to dismiss myself from the sanctuary because it was so heavy
I never knew anything about a groaning spirit until i went through this myself. It was during a late night when i was down on my knees repenting to god for all what i have done and hurt him. During this time i felt my body changing, and i started groaning and travailing. It was something i have not experienced before. It was like my body had a mind of its own and i remember my cry was very loud that i would cause the neighbors to rush in. I also was not able to see anything with my eyes as i was blinded for 2-3 Minutes with a bright light and i saw two hands. My wife had to pick me up from the ground and rest me on bed while i was still groaning so heavily that i had placed a pillow over my face to make sure i did not wake people up. The pain in my heart which i felt was intense that i could not bare it up, i had to tell the holy spirit to stop. And within 5 seconds it all settled down..
This was truly a life changing experience which i encountered with Jesus my saviour.
Praise God,as I was reading your blog about laughing in the holy spirit yesterday night,i immediately bursted out laughing without stopping and and from there started speaking and praying in tongue and also laughing. It seems as I was speaking in different languages, from one language to another. After a while I started singing in tongue and it was so melodious. It was as if I was singing different different songs all in tongues. My voice voice was so fine and melodious that I couldn’t believe It was my voice. It came to a stage that I even cried and latter laughed. It was an amazing experience last night.
My heart continues to stir/groan/ache/pain many times a day. It feels like physical pain but I know there is something more to it then that and I really have no idea why. I know that it’s not because I’m sad about anything, nor is it because I have some kind of emotion, but it continues to stay that way for a very long time. Especially if I am reading the bible, or maintaining a spiritually focused state (being in communion with God/The Holy Spirit). I have yet to fully understand what this was all about and it only relieves when I am able to fully express what I say. It’s like a full bottling up of emotions in a way, yet I can fully control it. I am still looking for answers and have read some years ago on a forum with something very similar to my experience. It really does feel like a heartache, to the extent that I even wondered if I had a physical problem. I am fairly young (32) and am in good health and have had check ups so I’m sure its not that. If anyone has any advice/information please let me know. Thank you brothers and sisters in Christ!
This started for me about 18 years ago, I didn’t know what it was, I would just feel like a pain in my heart and would have to cry like a baby, scream, and groan to get the energy and pain out. I would feel much better after it was over. It continued for about 5 years then stopped. My family thought I was losing it I think..I have been trying to get closer to Jesus in the last few months and I asked the to Holy Spirit to come to me. Well the pain and crying started again and it feels stronger this time. I looked up “crying in the Holy Spirit” and then it started to make sense to me. It seems to happen the more I read and hear about Jesus. It comes upon me almost every day now. I am SO happy to read this article as there doesn’t seem to be much out there about this phenomenon. Thank you!!
Thank you for the article. It is very enlightening. But, my question is, after God has expressed His sadness about an issue, what next?. Does His sadness resolve the issue?
I used to think it was the good heart of flesh that God gave me . It’s definitely not from me, sometimes I feel overwhelming love, 1 perfect definition of all that God is. But I have felt overwhelming pain for others in the deepest darkest grips of sin, I thought the pain was my own, after reading this I believe it was this manifestation, I have learned to take alot of pain, this communion brings ur spirit to it’s knees..Thank God 4 u, great article
I too never knew anything about a groaning spirit until i went through this myself. During leisure times when I was down on my knees or laying on my bed thinking about Messaiahs sacrifice on my behalf and the atonement he made with God the Father for my sake. During these times I’m feeling my body shaking, and I started groaning and travailing. It was something I have not experienced before. It was like my body had a mind of its own and I was overwhelmed by everything and every time I went through this experience I thought it was an anxiety attack sometimes I used to forget the things happened at that time. Once my parents called up for an ambulance too saying that I was suffering with some chronic mental disorder. Miraculously God saved me from them, hospitals and doctors hands. Nowadays I’m experiencing it regularly.., thankyou for taking initiative on this topic and guiding people like me in your website…
What is the sound of the Holy Spirit’s groaning because i heard the sound coming out of my mouth in bed when i am sleeping and i heard it once when I was in silence in prayer.
That truly blessed me because due to research early I kept getting messages saying the groaning comes from your shame of disappointing God. But I would still groan everytime I hear something tangible about God or humanity and I had no shame. So again thanks God used you to put a true word to the groaning I have. Thanks. May God continue to use you.
I had experience Groaning in The Spirit for several years and didn’t know what it was. I’d have queasy feelings in my belly and felt as if something was making me really sad. I was driving my car the first time, I started to cry so intensely, having to call on the name of Jesus. The pain was deep, I knew it wasn’t my pain. After 10 minutes, I began to beg the Lord, Lord please, help me! It lifted within a minute, didn’t know what to think or what had happen or what to do. The next day, a young man, husband, a father of three children died, immediately I knew the groaning was for his family. This happened several times before people died. My pastor (at the time),was informed about the weeping and said it was of the devil and not to bring it in the church. Ive learned to pray in the Spirit when these assignments come upon me. Praise God! Thank you Michael(May you Rest In Peace).Now I understand… GOD BLESS!
@Angela, Praise God for your obedience. It sounds like you need to find a spirit filled church where you can flow freely in the Holy Spirit..
@Shepard, You were travailing in the spirit for those souls, its all normal in God. Sometimes spiritual warfare begins in a church when imposters are in it. It may not make sense in the natural realm but its all spiritual in the Holy Spirit.
Don’t be afraid to let God use you for his purposes.
I’m praying for understanding and came upon this article. I often feel embarrassed because when he touches me a shout bursts from my body and tears flow. The exhaustion usually lasts 24+ hours for me. We (God and I) talk so much during that time. Sometimes I can feel so alone.
I know I shouldn’t be embarrassed but it can scare people who are next to me. I can’t tell you how this article has helped me see Him, and this gift, in a new light. I’m not sure when the embarrassment will subside, but I’m honored that he chose me. I don’t deserve what he gives me, but I want to walk in all truth and faith.
Wow Im so blessed by this article and I read everyones comments (all 64!). I dont think Ive travailed but I get this deeeeep yearning for the Lord where I just weep and weep. I sometimes have to step away from family because tears just start to flow. When this yearning comes on I have to worship…like I have a strong desire to worship!! I can even see myself worshipping in my mind. Just 2 days ago I had to run to my bathroom (live with extended family) get on my kness and worship quietly with tears just streaming. Then after a few minutes I felt a release. Its been like this for about 1 year. It comes in waves this intense desire yearning for the Lord. If this yearning lasts anymore than 3 days its almost unbearable yearning like depressed homesick. Like I just want to die to be with Jesus. I dont share it because I sound crazy. What is this? Lovesick or obbessed. He is my all consuming desire. It lasts on average 1-2 days. I can feel when it comes on again because i feel a deeep yearning rising up & my eyes well up with tears.
Any thoughts??