We, as Christian people, have relied more on feelings of the flesh than on the reading of the Spirit. We exclude God from our services because we didn't feel His presence. The Word says that "God will never leave us or forsake us" and that He will always be with us. Yet, because we didn't feel Him, we assumed He wasn't there. We've tried to walk our walk based on what we feel instead faith in what He said.
God is a spirit. Jesus said that those who worship Him, must worship in spirit and truth. Jesus also said that "Thy Word is truth." This is the most important thing in the life of a Christian. God contacts us by His Spirit and leads us by His Word. He doesn't move us by our flesh and our feelings because they're unreliable. That is the purpose of being born again by the Spirit of God.
Maybe the most often used word in the Christian vocabulary when it comes to our relationship with the Father is a word hardly used at all in His relationship with us. This word is "feelings" or "feel." This word has only contact with the soul or flesh of the person.
When I began this search in the Word, it was because I was allowing certain feelings to enter into my life. The more I began to notice these feelings, the less I began to notice the Word or the voice of the Spirit of God. As the feelings grew stronger, the voice of the Spirit grew weaker and more quiet. After a few weeks it seemed like the feelings were running my life and were becoming stronger by the day. It seemed like even though I knew what the Word of God said, I was helpless to obey it. I fully began to understand what Paul meant when he said we needed to "crucify the flesh." It had to be put to death and the only way to do so was to "by the Word" crucify it with Him as in Galatians 3:20.
Any other means of death would have been my own feeble attempts at stopping the feelings of the flesh and would have been to no avail. Feelings, as the Christian world has so fondly adapted to, have no place in our relationship with the Father. We aren't saved because we feel saved. We are saved by faith in what Jesus did on our behalf. We aren't righteous because we feel righteous, but "because He has made us to be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus." 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.
It has nothing to do with the feelings of the flesh, but the faith in the works of Jesus. If we accept our right standing with God by feelings, then we are "most of the time" not in right standing with Him at all. God isn't in our midst because of what we feel. He is there because He said that He would be, whether we feel Him or not.
The unrest, discontent, futility and pride, searching for new horizons and even the discontentment that cause us to find fault in our pastors, fellowship and worship and even in our brethren is brought about by feelings that know nothing about God.
Is it any wonder that Jesus said that if we love Him, then we must keep His commandments? Keeping His commandments is an act of faith, outside our feelings. It's obedience motivated by love for God is far greater than emotion and feeling of the flesh.
When feelings do come, they're not some emotion that we conjure up as an act of shouting, or dancing or something we hyped up until we felt something. But, they will be brought about from the inside (the Spirit) by the moving of our spirit towards Him in faith. By knowing He is in our midst and simply allowing God to minister and allowing our spirit to just accept His presence by faith. By simply letting ourselves meditate on this truth will cause the manifestation of His presence that will now affect the flesh. The action that we take toward God isn't only when we feel His presence, but at all times. Feelings have nothing at all to do with whether God is near or far, true or untrue, Love or no love.
If we respond to what God said in His Word by faith instead of feelings, then the Word works exactly the same way every time.
If the only way we can believe God is when we feel His presence, then we have a very large gap in our faith and our trust in His Word. All laws work on the very principle that they are laws. The way we feel about the law doesn't change it. Too many times we move as we "feel" the Lord is leading us. God doesn't lead by feelings. Jesus said in John 14 and John 16 that " the Holy Spirit would lead and guide us."
We too often base our destiny on the unstable hands of feelings and then we don't understand why things aren't right in our lives.
We leave an anointed service and are encouraged and on fire from God's presence. Then, two days later we're back in depression because the "feelings" have faded. If God can only lead us by feelings, then we're so open to deception that our lives would be disasters because we could only rely on our flesh and senses instead of God's Spirit. Satan rules the realm of the senses and the flesh. That's why we must be born again. He who isn't born again cannot see the kingdon of God.
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