What does the Bible really say about emotion? Are emotions something that is negative or positive? Does God want me to be happy? How can I control my emotions? What connection is there between feelings and fears?
Emotions can be our best friend or our worst enemy. In this teaching, I will give you some truths about feelings and emotions that can help you to manage them in a correct and good way, and how you can feel the way that God wants you to feel and how to enjoy life. See the whole seminar here!
Some people are only focused on what they will receive when they get to heaven one day, and that everything will be good then, and it will for sure be, but God wants us to have a joyful life here as well. If we don’t experience this life here and now, we can’t give life to others, either. God want us to share his love and Good News to others, but we are not able to do that in an effective way if we loose our joy.
In Hebrews12;2:(AMP), it says: ”He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame.” When I read this sentence before I thought it was only talking about heaven. I thought: Down here on earth I will only have sorrow and pain, and when I go to heaven one day I can be happy. This is a religious way of thinking which says that we will only achieve joy in heaven one day.
There are perhaps many Christians, who think that if I have negative emotions, I am in sin, and I am in unbelief and then God can’t help me. But to have negative feelings and emotions such as fear, timidity, depression, etc. is not a sin, but what they can lead you to that can be something bad. Let us look at the emotions that Jesus had, and how He handled them. Jesus is our great example and He has also given us His Spirit and power. If He could not be ruled by His feelings, then we don’t have too either. Let us look at a scripture from Hebrews.
Heb.4:15; (KJV) “For we have not An High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin”.
Newsletter from Tore and his family working in Northern Thailand among the Shan people from Myanmar
The rainy season is soon ending, and we are waiting for the winter to come out here in northern Thailand. That means: Clear weather and cool mornings. This is the best time of the year, but it’s still a bit hot and humid here now, so we’ll have to wait for a few more weeks.
We recently had a baptism, we have started up Sunday meetings again and at the end of August we saw a couple receive Jesus. The new Christians have also experienced some opposition because of their new faith. We have seen a total of seven people receive Jesus during July and August.
They will crucify you
One of those who became a Christian recently comes almost every Sunday. She lives near our weekend school. One Sunday she did not come, and Mawkkham went and visited her, while I taught English in the afternoon. After one hour, they returned together. Mawkkham told me: When it was a Buddhist holiday a couple of days ago, their boss had asked why they did not go to the Buddhist temple in the village. She said they had become Christians now, so they did not go to the temple. The boss had then said contemptuously: If you have become Christians, then they (i.e. us) will soon do with you as they did with Jesus, crucify you. Read more about this story….
I have good news for you! Even if you follow your feelings and has even become part of your character to do so, this is not who you really are from the creation and in your new creation; for what you do, does not tell who you really are.
As a Christian, you have been crucified with Christ already (Gal 2:20) and the old is gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is the truth about you from the moment you accepted Jesus. The Fruit of the Spirit is already in you.
This is now your true identity! The flesh is just a programmed character, but it is not the true you. For those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh (and the old nature) with its passion and desires (Gal 5:24).
Many people are not aware that what you think will lead you to what you feel, and then again what you do. It is important that we know how to handle the feelings right so they don’t lead us down the wrong path. And it all starts with our thoughts. If you know you have thoughts and feelings that can lead you away from God and fellowship with Him, it is important that you do something with them, so that you can control them, before they will control you. If I can control my thoughts, I will be able to control my emotions. If my thoughts are in line with God’s words, my feelings will follow.
Breakthrough! I got my breakthrough at a prayer center, but not in the way that I thought I would.
I remember I woke up one morning and I was very bad. I had breathing problems, headaches, stomach pain, etc. and I said to God: “God! You need to speak to me today! “I was desperate for something that could give me encouragement and hope. I had signed up for a service where someone would pray and prophesy over me, and I hoped that something would happen that day.
Our feelings can lead to a lot of bad things in our physical body as well, when they control us. The fact that we are not willing to forgive, for example, will cause you to feel anger, resentment, frustration and even depression. And when you have these emotions, they can lead to diseases in your body, like high blood pressure, autoimmune diseases (like allergies) and even cancer.Emotions have a lot to do with our health. Our negative emotions, which often come from fear, may release chemicals that make us depressed, and when we have a chemical imbalance in our body, it can make your immune system weak. Ask a doctor if not a prolonged fear and depression can have an impact on your immune system.
Today I will also share the first part of my testimony
If it feels good for you The world we live in today is largely governed by what they feel. You may have heard this expression: If it feels good to you. This is a wisdom guided by emotions, not God’s wisdom. And this statement is really a devilishly lie, and could not be further away from the truth. I think you are quite aware that there are many things you can feel to do, that are not good for you!
You may get the feeling to rob a bank, but that does not mean it is the right thing to do. You may feel to look at pornography on the Internet or going out to sleep with someone, but that doesn’t mean it will be good for you, your marriage, or your future spouse. Even if you feel inclined to eat a kilogram of chocolate because you are depressed, it does not mean it will be good for you. I think you get the idea.
Because so many in the world don’t have God’s Word, which is the truth, to build their life on, some will for example, as a married couple might wake up one morning and feel that they don’t love each other anymore, and they will be moved by their emotions to be separated or even divorced, because they did not feel love anymore. If you read the Bible, you will find out that love is more than just a feeling.
As a Christian it is very important that you are not led by your emotions. If you do so, you can easily get into a spiritual curse that Jesus has already set you free from. If a person is emotionally dominated, they will find themselves back in the same situation again and again.
I have a testimony on how God gave me a big answer to prayer, even though I was about to and felt like giving up several times. Have you ever felt that you could never overcome a situation, I will never come out of this situation or it will never change for me, or I have this weakness that I can never manage to overcome? These are feelings of powerlessness and despair, which also the spirit of fear is behind. Is this an emotion that God wants you to have? No! These feelings are actually the root of most of your negative emotion and fears. The fear that you will never succeed, and the feeling of failure, for example, has its root in that you feel it is hopeless to try, you’ve tried so many times that you feel totally powerless.
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