Part of the
Speak to these Dry Bones
series
Course 5 of 8
Part of the
Speak to these Dry Bones
series
Course 5 of 8
What does it mean when God appears absent? When protection seems withheld, when silence replaces answer, when the felt presence withdraws — is this abandonment or formation? This course makes the case that divine withdrawal is one of the most formative experiences available to people of faith.
Among the most destabilizing experiences available to a person of faith is the experience of divine absence — the sense that God has withdrawn, gone silent, withheld the protection and comfort that were previously known. This experience, more than almost any other, produces crisis: of faith, of identity, of trust.
And yet the biblical record treats divine withdrawal not as abandonment but as one of the primary instruments of formation. The wilderness is not where faith goes to die. It is where faith goes to become real. This course engages that tension directly: what does it mean for God to withdraw protection, and how does that withdrawal function as love?
All levels. Self-paced independent online learning — work through each week at the pace that honors your process. No cohort dates, no live sessions required. Enroll anytime.
Is God's silence the absence of love — or its most demanding expression? This course doesn't resolve the tension. It gives you the theological, psychological, and spiritual tools to live honestly inside it.
Every major figure in the biblical narrative passes through a period of divine hiddenness — a season in which the felt presence of God recedes and the individual is left with nothing but trust. These are not failures of faith. They are the conditions under which faith becomes something other than feeling. This course teaches that divine withdrawal is not a punishment to endure but a formation to traverse — and that what is formed in the wilderness cannot be formed anywhere else.
Understand the experience of divine absence — its psychological, spiritual, and neurological dimensions, and why it is universal among people of deep faith.
Recognize withdrawal as consequence — biblical patterns where God's withdrawal functions as relational truth-telling, not abandonment or punishment.
Understand formation through absence — how spiritual and psychological depth is forged precisely in the spaces where divine comfort is withheld.
Identify the danger of manufactured presence — when people of faith produce artificial spiritual experiences to avoid the discomfort of genuine absence.
Practice waiting without demanding — the spiritual discipline of sitting with absence without collapsing into it, lamenting without despairing.
Experience the depth of restored relationship — how traversing divine withdrawal fully produces a quality of relationship unavailable through constant felt presence.
Dr. Quinones brings over 20 years of clinical experience spanning jail cells, rehab centers, and private practice. A forensic psychologist and certified human behavior consultant, she is the author of 30+ published works integrating trauma science with biblical truth. She holds dual state licensure and has spent her career sitting with the most broken relationships — and watching them heal.
A week-by-week journey from the crisis of divine absence to the formation that only the wilderness can produce.
What divine absence feels like psychologically and spiritually — the silence, the hiddenness, and why this experience is not a sign of spiritual failure but is universal among people of genuine faith. The difference between feeling God's absence and God actually being absent.
Biblical patterns where God withdraws as a response to persistent rebellion — not as abandonment, but as a form of relational truth-telling. How withdrawal functions as consequence rather than rejection, and what this means for how we understand divine faithfulness.
How spiritual and psychological formation happens precisely in the spaces where divine comfort is withheld. The necessity of the wilderness — why what is formed there cannot be formed anywhere else, and how absence becomes the condition of depth rather than the evidence of abandonment.
When people of faith produce artificial spiritual experiences to avoid the discomfort of genuine absence — and why this forecloses real formation. Recognizing the patterns of spiritual bypassing that use worship, busyness, and religious activity to avoid the confrontation with divine silence.
The spiritual practice of sitting with absence without collapsing into it — how to wait without demanding, lament without despair, and trust without certainty. Practical frameworks for honest prayer, honest doubt, and honest relationship with a God who sometimes goes silent.
How the experience of divine withdrawal, fully traversed, produces a depth of relationship unavailable through constant felt presence. The return — and what is different about the relationship that forms on the other side of the wilderness. Integration and personal framework for ongoing formation.
This course is Course 5 of 8 in the "Speak to these Dry Bones" series — a complete clinical and theological framework covering triggers, truth, boundaries, distance, divine absence, time, grace, and trust.
It is where what is real is forged. Divine absence is not abandonment — it is formation that cannot happen any other way.
Enroll for $399This course is designed for individuals seeking structured, Christ-centered healing at their own pace — no therapist required.
Recommended as a between-session resource to deepen your therapeutic work. Pairs seamlessly with individual counseling.
Part of a progressive 8-course series ideal for structured, long-term healing — whether self-directed or therapist-guided.
⚠ This course is educational in nature and is not a substitute for licensed therapy or counseling. If you are in crisis, please contact your therapist or call 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).