Holy Spirit and Tingling Sensation: Is It Wrong to Feel the Burn?

[Christgirl67]

Usually when I am in church, I kind of feel like electric currents are going through my body.I can especially feel it once I start speaking in tongues.

 

[*LILAC]

I have felt both tingles and heat. Also crying. I'm not a crier! lol When the warm comes in, I just want to stay there and not move but at the same time I'm being given instruction and encouraged to keep moving on. It's like a really warm hug that I don't want to let go of.

 

[Bill 1234]

I used to sing in a choir. I would get these sensations when we would sing at Christmas and Easter it is a awesome experience. I just recently started experiencing it again when listening to Christian music on the radio. Most recently the News Boys the greatness of our God, not today, and wonder and some others. I would equate it to singing with angels. It happens at church sometimes too. I am going to say it's God letting me know he hears me singing to him. As for the talk about chasing the feeling well if I could make that feeling happen all the time when ever I wanted it I would! But I would probably have to die before that would happen and be really close to God. These glimpses of God are just right to keep me chasing after him! When it happens I know that song has a strong anointing on it. Its like literally being carried on the wings of eagles. The other thing I have experienced is tears at church when I am singing and that is the holy spirit communing with your spirit when your in a place with a thousand people singing to God and tears come out of no place you know God is there and things happen. One more song God is on the move! And he is!

 

[Sanoy]

I used to sing in a choir. I would get these sensations when we would sing at Christmas and Easter it is a awesome experience. I just recently started experiencing it again when listening to Christian music on the radio. Most recently the News Boys the greatness of our God, not today, and wonder and some others. I would equate it to singing with angels. It happens at church sometimes too. I am going to say it's God letting me know he hears me singing to him. As for the talk about chasing the feeling well if I could make that feeling happen all the time when ever I wanted it I would! But I would probably have to die before that would happen and be really close to God. These glimpses of God are just right to keep me chasing after him! When it happens I know that song has a strong anointing on it. Its like literally being carried on the wings of eagles. The other thing I have experienced is tears at church when I am singing and that is the holy spirit communing with your spirit when your in a place with a thousand people singing to God and tears come out of no place you know God is there and things happen. One more song God is on the move! And he is!

That is exactly how it started with me. Singing in worship. There is a point where you are singing and you are mentally in-tune with what you are saying, then your heart gets in-tune and starts crying out the words from the inside like a silent oscillating vibration or wind moving through your body. The singing helps your heart learn, but if you can remember that impulse, that direct cry to God you can cry without words from the passion in your heart. There is also an experience where I believe God is responding to that cry. It's like two vibrations, you have yours and God has his and when He is near it causes yours to harmonize and go way up. That wind comes with invisible tongues of fire that you feel wafting all over you and through you. I am not the kind of person that can say I am filled with the Holy Spirit despite the ostensible imagery. All I can say is that is what happens. Keep teaching your heart to cry to God and worship in voice and spirit.

 

[EronT]

Has anyone ever experienced after conversion, prayer time or spirit baptism a sensation of tingling in fingers or hands? Have you ever felt burning in palms or conscious of something like electric currents in your body?

It just happened for me just a one and half hour ago. It is so gentle and no pain. It felt like It is so gentle electricity shock on my left thigh. It is such a great experience. God touched me at that hour. Glory to El-Shaddie, Almighty God. Halleluyah!!!

 

[PLeeD]

Here because there is almost nowhere else people have talked about this. More to come, but for me it most often happens during praise and worship. His presence is most consistent during those times. It happens whether it's in church with hundreds of others, or alone with only an acoustic guitar and Him.

 

[Gods Soldier]

I had this happen a couple times now, comes sporadically when I am in the word or watching sermons... I got afraid and left the room, next time I want to ride it out.. it is an exhilarating feeling and a tingle that goes through my whole body... I have a feeling it is the spirit in me. I too searched and it led me here..

 

[PLeeD]

Yes, exactly. We are supposed to be able to discern whether something like this is from good or evil. When it happens in the context of God being praised or Jesus' name being lifted up, then I know He is the source of it.

Some other thoughts without getting into much more of my own experience...

One, I avoid using the word "feeling" to describe it, because as seen in previous posts on this thread people will argue against "going by your feelings". I agree with that to an extent, and certainly agree if by "feelings" someone means "emotions". But some people will twist that word "feelings" into an inaccurate accusation.

So, instead, I describe it as a "sensation". That is accurate. It's a tangible experience that's as real as touching these keys with my fingertips as I type. It's certainly as real as the feeling of the sun's warmth on your skin. You do "feel" it, but it's not an emotion. And though this sensation may sometimes accompany periods of intense emotion, for me many times there is no emotion at all leading up to it... that is until His presence falls on me. Then there are tears for no reason but joy.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Dopamine rush. The brain releases and flood the body with dopamine under certain circumstances, for example when we are being deeply moved by something (for example, by music). The rush of dopamine throughout the body produces a general sense of euphoria, tingling sensations, and warmth.

It's important to not confuse a physiological response with the work of the Holy Spirit. That is a dangerous path toward false spirituality and despair. I've been there before, and it's a very bad place to be.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[PLeeD]

Noted. Sorry you had that experience and feel that way. I think you are wrong to make a blanket judgement about every other Christian in history based on your own personal bad experience.

Besides, even if this particular sensation coincides with some release of chemicals in the body, there is no reason to expect it isn't God working through the natural systems that He designed and created.

Regardless, I'm certainly not talking about just any "tingle", attributing every little thing to the Holy Spirit. It's a very specific thing that I've rarely perceived outside of being very deep in worship and prayer. And those times outside of worship it was often in circumstances that were far less than emotional, and unlikely to induce any sort of "rush".

What gets me about the naysayers is the total denial of any potential for a supernatural experience while in the presence of the Holy Spirit. It's taught that we would die if we ever saw the glory of God directly. Moses was in the presence of God Himself, survived, and had to wear a veil afterward because his face glowed.

Why is it so hard to allow that when we truly are in the presence of His Spirit that there might sometimes be a physical manifestation of His power?

 

[ViaCrucis]

Noted. Sorry you had that experience and feel that way. I think you are wrong.

Besides, even if this particular sensation coincides with some release of chemicals in the body, there is no reason to expect it isn't God working through the natural systems that He designed and created.

1) Is the Holy Spirit working even without "tinglies"? Or is such physiological sensation necessary as part of the Spirit's work and presence?

2) Is it possible to have the dopamine high without it being in any way connected to the Spirit?

If our answer to both of these questions is yes, then we have to conclude that physiological sensation should not be our litmus test concerning the work of the Spirit and is, at best, purely incidental.

There's nothing wrong with getting a dopamine high by being deeply moved by something beautiful and awe-inspiring. It's a perfectly normal and natural human response to powerful emotion. I am often overwhelmed with emotion when I receive the Holy Eucharist, or when I hear a beautiful hymn, or contemplate the majesty of God, and many other things--both explicitly religious and not.

The danger is in conflating these things together.

The danger is in thinking that the dopamine IS the Holy Spirit. And forming a thought process by which when such an experience does not happen then that must imply the lack of the Spirit's work and presence; or conversely by imagining that every time we have such an experience that it is the Spirit's work and presence.

These things lead to despair and pride because our attention is being taken away from God's word and promises which are ours, freely, in Christ by the Gospel and instead we are looking toward ourselves, toward experiences. It leads us away from the Gospel, it leads us away from where the Spirit actually is working and present and toward our own vanities and false spiritualities. This can only result in despair or pride; despair because it leads to emptiness, false expectations, and broken human promises; and pride because we begin to imagine ourselves spiritual when we are not, we judge ourselves and our place with God based upon sensation and enthusiasm, rather than on the solid and unmovable foundation of Jesus Christ.

This isn't simply something I'm saying based on a "bad experience". It's borne out of a deep concern about the spiritual well-being of the Body of Christ.

It is critical that we deny ourselves and put our gaze firmly upon Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith. It is here and here alone that there is peace with God, forgiveness of sins, and true life. Grace, not glory, will sustain us.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[PLeeD]

The answers to your first two questions are obviously yes, but the conclusion in your third paragraph is horribly flawed. I don't consider my perceptions to be any sort of litmus test at all. It's simply the physical manifestation of the greatest power, the power that formed the universe from nothing. In that sense, I completely agree with you that it is "incidental", to use your term.

To reiterate, I agree with you completely that it would be dangerous to go off half cocked and base some important decision on the presence or lack of a tingle. That's crazy. But that's your idea, not mine.

Consider your warnings acknowledged and heeded. They are important. But let's return to the question at hand.

You are Catholic, so I assume you believe that there have been real examples of stigmata? You believe that some Christians in history have been afflicted with sympathetic wounds of Christ on the cross? Yet you can't allow (not even believe, just allow for the possibility) that some other Christians have experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in the most innocuous possible way?

EDIT: In skimming past your avatar, and seeing capitalized word "Catholic", along with your talk of the eucharist, I assumed you were in communion with Rome. My apologies. I'll let my question stand, expecting you to ignore the point about stigmata.

 

[savannahsmiles]

The answers to your first two questions are obviously yes, but the conclusion in your third paragraph is horribly flawed. I don't consider my perceptions to be any sort of litmus test at all. It's simply the physical manifestation of the greatest power, the power that formed the universe from nothing. In that sense, I completely agree with you that it is "incidental", to use your term.

To reiterate, I agree with you completely that it would be dangerous to go off half cocked and base some important decision on the presence or lack of a tingle. That's crazy. But that's your idea, not mine.

Consider your warnings acknowledged and heeded. They are important. But let's return to the question at hand.

You are Catholic, so I assume you believe that there have been real examples of stigmata? You believe that some Christians in history have been afflicted with sympathetic wounds of Christ on the cross? Yet you can't allow (not even believe, just allow for the possibility) that some other Christians have experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in the most innocuous possible way?

EDIT: In skimming past your avatar, and seeing capitalized word "Catholic", along with your talk of the eucharist, I assumed you were in communion with Rome. My apologies. I'll let my question stand, expecting you to ignore the point about stigmata.

I get righteously annoyed at some of the "brethren" because if they haven't experienced it, well then it couldn't be a possibility. Fought this all my life, and usually with those that LACK fruit, but can throw scripture at people like they were hurling a bowling ball trying to knock down pins for points. Why? I have no understanding of these in the Body at all.

"remember your baptism" are seriously KIDDING me that is what I see on that member's profile. How about REMEMBERING the Lamb of God and the sacrifice made to PAY the debt you owed. Baptism is important, repenting is crucial, but hopefully after that event,you have a witness a DAILY testimony of taking up your cross and following Him and some kind of fruit. But forgive me I am not a liturgical type-I find that junk useless. I am one of those blood bought, scripture TAUGHT, hard core zealots that wanna see you walking by faith and evidence that convicts ya as a believer. Proving that it is more than lip service and following incantations, rituals, and having to observe the sabbath on a certain day or you flunk out of holiness. I find those to be the most prickly souls. Communion for me is constant fellowship with the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, not some event done in a pew with a cracker and juice. Not discounting communion, not my point. My point is when rote activities replace or overshadow relationship with Father God, or NOT grasping that fellowship is so personal and unique that it has to follow certain steps is upsetting. This thread started with a question, does the Holy Spirit manifest His presence through something resembling of an electrically charged type experience-tingling, to which I say YES, Hallelujah, you BET. For those that have never experienced that. Sorry you missed out, but don't be envious or go off on a rant that it is something NOT of God-WRONG-missed the mark completely IMHO. Yes MY REDEEMER shows up and SHOWS off in that exciting and humbling manner. Can I say just because an angel hasn't brought a personal message doesn't negate that they are messengers from the MOST High ministering to the saints all the time. Funny how those that come as a child-SEE GOD, know His voice, KNOW Him as a Heavenly Father in a profoundly intimate way. They ooze a radiance. I don't argue-learned it was pointless, I can only TESTIFY, and I could care LESS if someone wants to throw scripture like a weapon-what does that do exactly? They are missing out, and that is their CHOICE. Taste and see the LORD is good!!

 

[savannahsmiles]

1) Is the Holy Spirit working even without "tinglies"? Or is such physiological sensation necessary as part of the Spirit's work and presence?

2) Is it possible to have the dopamine high without it being in any way connected to the Spirit?

If our answer to both of these questions is yes, then we have to conclude that physiological sensation should not be our litmus test concerning the work of the Spirit and is, at best, purely incidental.

There's nothing wrong with getting a dopamine high by being deeply moved by something beautiful and awe-inspiring. It's a perfectly normal and natural human response to powerful emotion. I am often overwhelmed with emotion when I receive the Holy Eucharist, or when I hear a beautiful hymn, or contemplate the majesty of God, and many other things--both explicitly religious and not.

The danger is in conflating these things together.

The danger is in thinking that the dopamine IS the Holy Spirit. And forming a thought process by which when such an experience does not happen then that must imply the lack of the Spirit's work and presence; or conversely by imagining that every time we have such an experience that it is the Spirit's work and presence.

These things lead to despair and pride because our attention is being taken away from God's word and promises which are ours, freely, in Christ by the Gospel and instead we are looking toward ourselves, toward experiences. It leads us away from the Gospel, it leads us away from where the Spirit actually is working and present and toward our own vanities and false spiritualities. This can only result in despair or pride; despair because it leads to emptiness, false expectations, and broken human promises; and pride because we begin to imagine ourselves spiritual when we are not, we judge ourselves and our place with God based upon sensation and enthusiasm, rather than on the solid and unmovable foundation of Jesus Christ.

This isn't simply something I'm saying based on a "bad experience". It's borne out of a deep concern about the spiritual well-being of the Body of Christ.

It is critical that we deny ourselves and put our gaze firmly upon Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith. It is here and here alone that there is peace with God, forgiveness of sins, and true life. Grace, not glory, will sustain us.

-CryptoLutheran

Win many souls or build the Kingdom with your methods?

 

[savannahsmiles]

Noted. Sorry you had that experience and feel that way. I think you are wrong to make a blanket judgement about every other Christian in history based on your own personal bad experience.

Besides, even if this particular sensation coincides with some release of chemicals in the body, there is no reason to expect it isn't God working through the natural systems that He designed and created.

Regardless, I'm certainly not talking about just any "tingle", attributing every little thing to the Holy Spirit. It's a very specific thing that I've rarely perceived outside of being very deep in worship and prayer. And those times outside of worship it was often in circumstances that were far less than emotional, and unlikely to induce any sort of "rush".

What gets me about the naysayers is the total denial of any potential for a supernatural experience while in the presence of the Holy Spirit. It's taught that we would die if we ever saw the glory of God directly. Moses was in the presence of God Himself, survived, and had to wear a veil afterward because his face glowed.

Why is it so hard to allow that when we truly are in the presence of His Spirit that there might sometimes be a physical manifestation of His power?

If it can't be dissected and proven like some scientific study then those types REFUSE to believe it. As if God needs to have a human's permission on anything. He is the potter, we are the clay. I really wonder if they read the whole book, because most of scripture has to be taken by faith because of the miracles that occurred. If someone walked on water today, it would be the undoing of their beings.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Win many souls or build the Kingdom with your methods?

I don't believe in "winning souls", I believe in preaching the Gospel. It is God who works through the preaching of the Gospel to bring people to Himself. As it is written, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17). It is the Spirit Himself who, through the Means of Grace which God has given, appropriates faith to sinners, converts them, and brings them to Himself. The Church is to be the faithful organ of God which faithfully preaches the Gospel and administers the Sacraments.

And this is how it's been since the beginning.

Also, the kingdom of God established in and through Jesus Christ by His life, death, resurrection, and ascension is present here. For Christ, ascending and seated at the right hand of the Father has been given all power and authority. And He exercises His power and authority through His Church, so that by the preaching of the Gospel the world encounters Jesus Christ through His Mystical Body, the Church.

The kingdom is now, through the grace and mercy of God for the whole world, and also yet to come when the Lord returns in glory as judge of the living and the dead, and His kingdom shall never end. For when He comes He comes in glory, the dead are raised, all stand before Him in judgment, and then God shall make all things new, world without end.

"I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver-of-Life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son], who with the Father and Son is worshiped and glorified." It is He who brings faith home to faithless sinners, appropriating to us the all-sufficient and completed work of Jesus Christ, by which we have been so freely justified, and sanctifies us. For as it is written, we are God's children for it is by the Holy Spirit that we are heirs with Christ, having received sonship and adoption, and can call Christ's Father our Father, as it is written, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son by which we cry out "Abba! Father!". And so it is the Spirit who bears witness with our spirit that we are God's children. And we are heirs of eternal life in Christ, "for if the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead dwells also in us then He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies." (Romans 8:11).

I believe in the Holy Spirit, and it is the Spirit who works God's wonders through His Church--the preaching of the Holy Gospel, the administration of the Sacraments, that here through these precious means of God's grace we poor beggars might receive the infinite and boundless riches of God's mercy which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is the Spirit who "wins souls" and "builds up the kingdom" of God. And He has been doing this since the beginning, through His holy Church, Christ's own Body, knit and held together in faith, joined to Christ, under the gracious fatherhood of God. We are here, servants of Christ.

So as far as how God's own "methods" have worked so far, pretty good. For beginning in Jerusalem the word has gone out, into Judea and Samaria, and unto the nations. To Romans, Greeks, Scythians, Barbarians, Persians. To Armenia and Gaul, from Hispania to India. From Africa to Asia, from Europe to the Americas. The precious and holy Gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached, proclaimed, and has echoed out from the doors of the church and into the streets and the ghettos, and the grace of God has redeemed men and women from all tribes and tongues.

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands," - Revelation 7:9

-CryptoLutheran

 

[LoricaLady]

There is a very well medically documented case of a miraculous healing with a woman called Doris Winder. Her doctor testifies to the truth of it. She had been pretty much bed fast for years She was in such intense pain that doctors severed some nerves on one side of her body to give her some relief. Along with her husband she had already made plans for her assumed to be soon upcoming funeral.

Then she was taken to see a faith healer. At one point she was instantly healed all over her body. The severed nerves grew back. One skeptical doctor saw her spine straighten in front of his eyes and became a believer on the spot. Now afterwards this woman was surprised to find sensations like tingling and heat in her hands at times. While she was first listening to the faith healer speak - with great skepticism - she also felt an intense burning in her legs. With the severed nerves that should have been impossible.

 

[LoricaLady]

And P.S., as for the faith healer, Kathryn Kuhlman, there are doctors who have written about and spoken about the healings they saw in her ministry. Here is one informal story from a pastor who saw her at work when he was a teenager. The story is pretty funny lots of times as he had no clue what to expect. You only need to watch the first half to hear the basic story.

 

[Assured]

Has anyone ever experienced after conversion, prayer time or spirit baptism a sensation of tingling in fingers or hands? Have you ever felt burning in palms or conscious of something like electric currents in your body?

First time I have searched the net for an explanation or someone who also had a similar experience. I am very happy to find other's who shared here and I registered!

42 yrs ago, I found myself close to a nervous breakdown after being abandoned at 18 years old. My parents did not believe and I was never taught about God. I was returned to the U.S. after living in N.Z. for 6 years. My family said goodbye and left me at my grandmother's in Oregon. I didn't know anyone. I was very distraught and fell face down onto the bed in a small downstairs bedroom. I began to sob my heart out with such hopelessness and stress and knew that I wasn't equipped to survive this on my own. I had a thought to ask God for help and say that I was sorry for my past sinful behaviour! In that instance of deep crying I heard a soft male voice behind me in the room say "Do not worry...I will take care of you." I was surprised and tried to look behind me, (my door was closed I knew that) but, I could not move! And also in that instant, I felt an explosion of love as electricity like sensation coursed through every part of my body which finally ended through my fingers and toes. It was almost too intense and lasted long enough for me to say Okay! That is from God and thank you! I stopped crying and sat up, looked behind me, sheepishly, no one there of course. Long story short...I was a believer and had to take baby steps in my walk, but, I have been always assured from that moment. So amazing. I kept experience to myself except now sharing to friends, family, and bible study members. No one has doubted me, but, neither have I found anyone with similar experience. And never felt anything like it before or after! Holy Spirit has guided me and given me strength in all my days.

Has anyone ever experienced after conversion, prayer time or spirit baptism a sensation of tingling in fingers or hands? Have you ever felt burning in palms or conscious of something like electric currents in your body?

Has anyone ever experienced after conversion, prayer time or spirit baptism a sensation of tingling in fingers or hands? Have you ever felt burning in palms or conscious of something like electric currents in your body?

 

[Sanoy]

@ViaCrucis is doing what he should be doing, and doing it in the way he should be doing it. The concern is, and should be appreciated. There is a thing called ASMR, to which this category is very similar to. An entertainment industry has formed around ASMR, some of it wicked. His questions are good questions.