It says: “they sought Him among their friends”. The first place they looked, when they found the loss of the presence of God, when they felt the loss of Jesus, was: they turned to their friends.
They took to their family their acquaintances; their small group; and then finally: they had to return to where they lost the presence of God. They had to return to where they lost the peace.
They went back to Jerusalem, seeking Jesus. Jerusalem means ‘City of Peace’; so they had to go back to the place where they lost their peace.
Their focus was on finding Jesus, and reconnecting with Him again.
If you have felt the presence of God lift off you, you can always sense it in different ways. It's not that He's left you, or abandoned you; but you can feel when the Holy Spirit is no longer flowing around your life:
1) You become anxious, and lose your peace.
Colossians 3:15 – “let the peace of God rule in your heart”.
The moment you lose your peace, is the warning signal of the Holy Spirit: something is wrong in my life.
It may be: the way I'm thinking; reacting; an attitude I have, or a value I have. Stop - something's not right.
Enquire of the Holy Spirit: what is going on.
2) You start to become irritable; you lose your love for people.
Someone who's irritable, they're manifesting an attitude of: lack of peace in their heart; and lack of concern for people.
They're wrapped up in themselves. There's a lack of love; because love is not irritable
Corinthians 13: “Love is patient, bears long”; so when you start to find people and they've lost their peace, and they're becoming irritable, the Holy Spirit's flow has lifted off them, and God is trying to get their attention.
3) Confusion & turmoil; and you start to look for someone to blame.
God is not the author of confusion; He is the author of peace.
The kingdom of heaven is always associated with peace; or rest in our heart. Not eating or drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
When you start losing your peace; become anxious and uptight; start losing your capacity to love people; become irritable; confused; looking for someone to blame - the spirit of God has lifted.
You need to see the warning signs; and go back to Jerusalem, back to Jesus, and find: Where did I lose you? Where did I miss You? What in believing needs to change? What in my response needs to change? What is it You are trying to tell me?
Or very simply: what am I feeling? How did I get to be feeling that way? What is going on in my belief system, and my heart?
This is something you practice - you put into practice.
It's called: taking every thought captive, and bringing it into obedience.
It's just stopping to evaluate what's going on momentarily, and re-centre your heart just as quickly as that, in looking towards the Lord.
In Elijah's day when the axe head was lost (2 Kings 6:1-7), and the man come up and said: “I've lost my axe head” - I've lost my cup, I've lost my anointing, I've lost my flow; He said: where did you lose it? Go back there.
He took him right back to where he lost the axe; and then He cut down a tree (which speaks of the cross), threw it in; and the miracle was: the cutting edge was restored (the iron floated).
Inevitably, when you've lost that flow of God in your life, you've got to go back: when did I lose it? Where did I lose it? What was the issue? Now God, what do I need to do to deal with this?