I have felt to share, that for us to see our journey of genuine transformation to been emotionally healthy and spiritually connected it begins with a commitment to allowing yourself to feel. God The Father who made you in His image and likeness wants you to understand that it is an essential part of our humanity and unique person-hood as men and women made in His image. The enemy will do all he can to attack and distort our emotions with his lies. Scripture reveals God as an emotional being who feels - a Person. Having been created in His image, we too have the gift of experiencing emotions. Search the Bible for yourself to see how God ‘feels’ and expresses His emotions. You are a human being made in God’s likeness. Part of that likeness is to feel. At the very least, the call of discipleship includes experiencing our feelings, reflecting on our feelings, and then thoughtfully responding to our feelings under the Lordship of Jesus. Guess what! You Feel — Even If You Are Unaware of It The problem, however, is that we can’t reflect and respond thoughtfully to our feelings if we don’t know what they are. So much of our true selves is buried alive — sadness, rage, anger, tenderness, joy, happiness, fear, depression becomes the result of misunderstood, neglected or mishandled emotions. Yet God designed our bodies to respond physiologically to those in the world around us. God speaks to us through a knot in the stomach, muscle tension, trembling and shaking, the release of adrenaline into our bloodstream, headaches, and a suddenly elevated heart rate. God may be screaming at us through our physical body while we look for (and prefer) a more “spiritual” signal. Like, just before I spoke on Sunday I knew God was present and He had a message to share with us, my leg was shaking and I had a knot in my stomach – so guess what? I was listening up and respond to He was saying to me. The reality is that often our bodies know our feelings before our minds. So many of us have tried to play down our emotions because of our past experiences, or examples we have had. We become very good at explaining away or flobbing off our current response to our feelings and emotions. The problem for many of us comes when we have a “difficult” feeling such as anger or sadness. Unconsciously, we have a “rule” against those feelings. We feel defective because we ought not to be feeling the “wrong” things. We then lie to ourselves, sometimes convincing ourselves that we aren’t feeling anything because we don’t think we should be feeling it. We shut down our humanity. So it was with me. I never really explored what I was feeling. I was not prepared to be honest about my emotions with God or myself. As a result I often said one thing with my words, but my tone of voice, facial expressions, and body posture said another. The problem is that when we neglect our most intense emotions, we are false to ourselves and we close off an open door through which to know God. As I shared on Sunday “we become really good mask wearers” I remember the awkwardness when I began to be honest about my feelings. But praise God that He has set me free to be me, and He has helped me to recognise how He has created me to experience Him and the world around me through a developing a healthy use of His given emotions. It means I can experience Him as my Father in an authentic and intimate way because it is now based on more than a theological and knowledge based understanding of Him. Now it is an experiential relationship. Now I can ‘cry out’ “ABBA Father!” "…I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness…” Jeremiah 31:3 (NLT) To have the right emotions, we need to understand that there are laws governing our relationship with God and with our neighbours. By following God's revealed way of living, we can demonstrate an emotional intelligence that heightens being alive and allows us to connect with God and others more effectively and fully and deeply. “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right.” James 2:8 (NLT) Father God wants to bring healing to your soul today through His precious Son. Will you let Him? Will you respond to Him as some did on Sunday. Don't empower the liar by believing his lies Embrace the Absolute manifestation and presence of God who is here to defend you, comfort you and help you in every situation. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear..." 1 John 4:18 From your brother and fellow Heir of the Father together in and with God's precious Son Jesus Christ - JD
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AuthorPastor JD Drower Archives
May 2017
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