John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
Psalm 23:3 (KJV) says, "He restores my soul." Psalm 23:3 (Amplified) says it this way, "He refreshes and restores my life (my self), He leads me in paths of righteousness, uprightness and right standing with Him-not for my earning it, but for His Name's sake." Many haven't paid much attention to our soul, not realizing that our souls have driven us for most of our lives. Our troubles as Christians, isn't because Jesus wasn't enough to deliver us, but we've never continued to allow His Word to restore our soul.
It doesn't matter how much you think you're allowing God to change you, you must still submit to the change or stay the same in your soul. Many don't realize there's a difference between our soul and our spirit, thinking they're the same thing. Our soul is our emotions, our thinking and our feelings. These things make us who we are. We are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body. Everyone on this planet is and has, all these same qualities.
Our soul directed our lives, before we were born-again. Before being born-again, we were separated from God because of Adam's transgressions and we were no longer led by our spirit, but by our soulish drive and emotions. Whether or not we knew it, before being born-again, Satan was in the control seat and was the driving force in our lives, directing our emotions into chaos and rebellion against God.
Man's unchecked emotions have been the driving force causing divorce, wars, greed and all the other ungodly things at work in today's world. The Church in Corinth had all the Gifts of the Spirit working in it, but it didn't check their emotions or soulish parts. Paul wrote to them in 1Corinthians 3:1-3 (Amplified) saying, "However, Brethren, I could not talk to you as to Spiritual men, but as to non-Spiritual (men of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates), as to mere infants in the new Life in Christ, unable to talk yet. I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you were not yet strong enough to be ready for it, but even yet you are not strong enough to be ready for it. For you are still unSpiritual, having the nature of the flesh (under the control of ordinary impulses). For as long as there are envying and jealousy and wrong doings and factions among you, are you not unSpiritual and of the flesh (behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere unchanged men."
The Church in Corinth was walking in Spiritual Gifts, but they were still controlled by their natural emotions, which were left unchecked by self-control. They still operated in the soulish realm of Christianity. This is happening in today's Church too. There have been many splits happening in churches throughout the world today, because a Word is given that offends man's carnal nature. In defense of our emotions and pride, we fail to accept the Truth, even when it seems to be correct.
Paul tells us that, "It's futile and only brings division, when we teach the things of the Word, to mere men." Teachers are forced to either give "infant" teachings, so we don't offend emotions or risk being rejected by teaching mature things in the Truth. 2Peter 1:5-10 (Amplified) says, "For this reason, adding your diligence to the Divine Promises, employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue, excellence, resolution, Christian energy, and in exercising virtue, develop knowledge, intelligence and in exercising knowledge, develop self-control and in exercising self-control develop steadfastness, patience, endurance, and in exercising steadfastness, develop Godliness, piety, and in exercising Godliness develop brotherly affection, and in exercising brotherly affection develop Christian Love. For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful unto the full personal knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). For whoever lacks these qualities is blind (Spiritually shortsighted, seeing only what is near to him), and has become oblivious to the fact that he was cleansed from his old sins. Because of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure (to ratify, to strengthen, to make steadfast your calling and election); for if you do this, you will never stumble or fall."
We've somehow concluded that, "God will simply change the way I feel." This would be marvelous, but it's not true. We're responsible for controlling our own emotions and feelings, according to the Truth of God's Word. Unchecked emotions have destroyed homes, families and even nations for centuries and will do the same even in Christian lives. We don't study God's Word, because we have to, but because it's the only thing that will change the way we conduct our lives.
Paul writes in Romans 8:12-14 (Amplified), "So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh, we are not obligated to our carnal nature, to live a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates of the flesh. For if you live according to the dictates of the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the Power of the Holy Spirit you are habitually putting to death (making extinct, deadening), the evil deeds prompted by the body, you shall really and genuinely live forever For all that are led by the Spirit of God as sons of God."
Paul fought this very same battle for his emotions or soulish impulses, in his own life. His emotions and bodily teachings tried drawing him back into the customs of the Law. Paul was raised in the Law and loved it, according to Romans 7:20 (Amplified), where Paul brings his emotions and soul into this fight, saying, "Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it (it is not myself that acts), but the sin principle which dwells withing me, fixed and operating in my soul."
Every person who has been born-again in Christ Jesus, fights the same battle. If we don't renew our minds, our soul and our way of thinking, then our soul will continue ruling over our new creation spirit man. Our body didn't get saved, when we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but our spirits. Your body has been trained by your soul and emotions, to live like the world lives. Before being saved, your soul was leading you, in the same way the world leads. Even though you're born of the Spirit of God and belong to Him, you soul and body are still habitually trying to live in the same way they did, before you were saved.
Paul struggled with this very thing, even though he knew and was shown the covenant and family of God and he knew it was no longer by Law but by Grace. Paul's flesh was still drawn to the rituals, traditions and ceremonies that ministered to his soul and emotions. Paul knew better in his spirit, but his soul or emotions missed the old ways and habits of the Law. Paul wrote and taught about renewing our minds and emotions, not as someone who was exempt from the pull of the carnal mind and emotions, but as someone who fought the Good fight of faith to hold to the Truth.
We have all been imprinted by the world and its way of doing things, according to Romans 8:7 (Amplified), where Paul writes, "That is because the mind of the flesh, with its carnal thoughts and purposes, is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot." Our flesh doesn't and cannot submit itself to God. We must take authority over our soulish part of us and bring our thoughts (soul) into subjection to God's Word.
Your mind will not give up the things the world has trained it with, unless you become responsible to endeavor and renew it by the Word of God. The same tempter and deceiver who was there before your being saved, it still there. The same jealousy and anger and way of doing, we had been trained and programmed in all natural lives before being saved, are still there. This the natural man that Paul writes about.
We didn't forget the profanity we used before being saved, we just brought that part of our soul into subjection to our new spirit. The same thing will bring your emotions under the control of your spirit, through the Holy Spirit. We've simply continued with the things we used to know and walk in. We say, "I can't help the way I feel." Through God's Word and His Holy Spirit, we can help the way we feel. Then we will rule them, instead of letting our emotions rule us.
This is the stronghold the enemy has held over the Church for two-thousand years. It has broken down revivals that God meant to go on, it has discouraged great men and women of God in Revelation Knowledge and it has caused us to be content with where we are, instead of going on into God's Promised Rest.
We are made in the Image and Likeness of our Heavenly Father. He has emotions, just like we do. We find that God has compassion, generosity, joy, Grace and all the same things He has Blessed us with. We also find that He controls His emotions, by His Own Word. Jesus was and in the Perfect will and the Image of the Father. Jesus dealt with all of the same things we deal with, and more, but He was without sin. It wasn't easy for Jesus. He just made it look easy, because He didn't allow His Own emotions to cloud His Spirit.
We know that we have to control our emotions and find that we can control them, when we want to. You know better than to jump up in the face of a police officer and cursing at him/her, when you're pulled over. You might want to do this, but you control your emotions instead and don't do so. You know better than to tell your boss what you think of him/her, but you don't do this because you know what will happen. We control our emotions, when we think it will benefit us and we allow them to control us, when we don't really care who is being hurt as a result of them.
Lust doesn't always include just sex and sexual things. Lust is an emotion that is deep-seated in our soul and emotions, which can drive us towards drugs, suicide, anger, or murder, if it reaches a point of supremacy in our lives.
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