Spiritual Emotions

Every day we express emotions in different ways. Some in a positive way (Love / praise / laughter / Joy / bold / comforting /etc..) and some in negative way (anger / fear / bitter / lustful / greed / cry / insult /etc..). Oxford definition of Emotion is - “a strong feeling deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with other”.

As believers of Christ, we are always put to test by satan to see how we respond to this every day life emotions. We are put to test by Satan to see how our negative emotions take shape in world and he uses our response (mostly we respond out of our flesh / worldly way) to accuse us day and night.

'Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 'Revelation 12:10

Most of the emotions that Satan deploys ,have an impact in our mind, it’s not physical. Say if some one beats you and you get hurt physically, the pain may heal after sometime but the trauma of some one who beat you down with words and the insults lingers around for a very long time, even after the physical wound is healed. The angry words thats spoken against us turn into bitterness and it leads to rivalry. That’s the goal of Satan ; to fall off from God’s plan and to fall into sin. He will also give a thought to you saying “Hey you say you are a child of God, do you see it's working ? See what you have done ? what's the use of following God ? you are worse than the common man” and take us away from the faith in Jesus.

We will learn something of how Paul dealt with emotions and how it can be applied to our lives. Paul spent a great deal of time at Corinth. Corinth was a City of Sin, currently like “Las Vegas”. As he was advancing the gospel, there were a group of people who accused him as false teacher and said his actions were fully demonic work etc..

Just put yourself in Pauls shoes for a moment, he is a scholar in Jewish laws and he knows greek culture well, he is one of the sharpest and wisest person of that time, he was lead by holy spirit in all the work he did. Someone accusing him false teacher and in addition to this he has suffered a great deal for the gospel by spending a lot of time in prison and many times he was left hungry, mob would beat him and hurl him and he was thrown in the road side many times. How would your emotional feeling be when you are treated like that ,when you know you are well qualified and what you’r doing is correct ? If that happened to me, I would give up quickly.

But in Contrary Paul, defends his ministry against the accusation in 2 Corinth 10.

'For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ' 2 Corinthians 10:3

Note the word he says - “we do not wage war” - “war” needs to be noted and understood

What does war mean ? - Oxford definition of war - “it’s a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country”, It’s a strong word, we don’t use war in our every day terms when we describe any situation unless its very intense..

The answer to this question in 2 Corinth 10:3 can be found where Paul explains on this to Ephesus Church in Ephesians 6

'Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 'Ephesians 6:14-17

Paul lists the spiritual weapons he used as he described in Ephesians 6

the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. He relied on these weapons and took faith in God instead of human self (cardinal) methods. But truly, these weapons are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.

The Corinthian Christians tended to rely on and admire carnal weapons for the Christian battle:

• Instead of the belt of truth, they fought with manipulation

• Instead of the breastplate of righteousness, they fought with the image of success

• Instead of the shoes of the gospel, they fought with smooth words

• Instead of the shield of faith, they fought with the perception of power

• Instead of the helmet of salvation, they fought with lording over authority (Pagan God vs Jesus)

• Instead of the sword of the Spirit, they fought with human schemes and programs

Paul details out how he fought the war

'The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. '2 Corinthians 10:4-6

He fought the war

• “demolish arguments” with the “Belt of truth” - with the word of God guiding him every argument that they came and put forth

• “every pretensions” with the “breastplate of righteousness” - God continuing to guide him to obey as per God’s will instead of his own so the righteousness of God manifesting and defeating the wrong motives that were planed against them

Actions for us follow

We may encounter situations in life where we are struggling with a emotional state that may lead to anxiety and we deal the situation in our own

• The carnal, human way is to overpower, dominate, manipulate, and out-manoeuvre the situation

• The spiritual, Jesus way is to humble yourself, die to yourself, and let God show His resurrection power through you.

1. Surrender your emotions to God thru prayer - If you are walking with God and have the assurance as “Child of God”, express the human emotions to God thru prayer, express like how a child would tell to his / her father. When you do that you say to Jesus, I die my emotions to you for you to manifest and have you lead the emotional battle for me

2. God will do the following

   1. Shield - He will give you the faith, that God is in control of the situation

   2. Helmet - He will guide you on all these tough times, you will not feel you are walking alone, he will protect you with “breastplate of righteousness” by not committing the common cardinal expressions of negative emotions that we may exhibit, instead he will express the righteous act in that situation

   3. Sword - He will give you the word to comfort you in the situation “belt of Truth”, God’s peace will come with you in midst of all the turbulence. You may walk in “gospel of peace”

3. We have to bring every emotional battle we go thru every day to God. It’s a not a one time activity.

4. As humans we are not helpless victims or recipients of our thoughts. We can choose to stop our thoughts and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Thoughts of lust, thoughts of anger, thoughts of fear, thoughts of greed, bitter thoughts, evil thoughts – they are part of every thought that may be and must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 'And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. '2 Corinthians 10:6

5. Many times the world would say you are looser for these actions where you stay clam and speak no unwanted words. Remember God is fighting the battle for you. God will give you the spirit to fight back on what he feels is Good. 'It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. ' Galatians 4:18

6. Praise God for the troubles of Satan and thank God for the battles you are going thru, it makes satan feel weak and loose the battle he is fighting ' “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. ' Matthew 5:11-12

7. Learn from Jesus, he was not angered by any of the of the accusations they made on him “By Beelzebul, the prince of Demons he is driving out demons”, but he was angered when they turned his house for buying and selling 'Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’ ” ' Matthew 21:12-13 Same way God will give the spirit of anger to fight back if it impacts his Glory.

Don’t be deceived. Satan tries to tempt us to show our human emotions in every day life, instead bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.