The Soul, part 3

February 28th

Part 4 of Spirit, Soul and Body.

THE SOUL

OUR EMOTIONS:

Our spirit, mind and body influence our emotions. Both God and the devil desire to control them. Also circumstances influence them a lot.

Emotions are created by God. Some preachers make jokes about them and that makes me sad. Jesus showed emotions. It is written that He cried and became angry. He was full of sorrow. It is not written that He laughed, but the Bible is full of scriptures about Joy. In Heb.1:9 it is written that Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness. In the Proverbs 17:22 it says: “A merry heart does good, like medicine. But a broken spirit dries the bones.” The medical science proves that laughter releases good hormones. We say that a good laughter gives a long life.

When we are saved or healed, we are filled with joy and gratitude. We might cry, dance or laugh and sometimes we shout with joy.

We live in a world full of stress and unrest and everybody is longing for PEACE. Many are seeking other religions and they are meditating. We can meditate on the Word of God and have communion with Jesus. He says: “My peace I give to you.” (John14:27) The Bible is full of promises and He will be with us under any circumstances. We have therefore no reason to worry.

The word love is both used and misused by Christians as well as Non-Christians. The devil is perverting love and makes the whole world believe that all forms of sex and lust are love. Many are therefore disappointed and they feel empty. They cry out a need for real love. God is Love and in Rom.8:35 it says that nothing can separate us from the Love of Christ. That is an unconditional love. Pure love gives us security and creates a lot of good feelings in us.

Many children have never experienced real love and they feel rejected, inferior, maybe in the way, not wanted, as a failure etc. They can carry these emotions for the rest of their lives if they do not get help. Wounds in the soul can be healed by the Healer. I will write more about that later.

An emotion seems very real to us, but not necessarily true. Emotions can be very strong. The devil can magnify a negative emotion and make that emotion seem more real than the spirit in us. Maybe we get disappointed. Then the devil can remind us of every other disappointment in life and we are on a spiral leading deeper and deeper into a depression. The devil is also an expert in making us feel lonely. Nobody cares. He drives us into darkness. I highly recommend to stop these thoughts and emotions in the beginning. Later it will become more difficult. These thoughts and emotions are not true. In Matt.28:20 Jesus says: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” You are never alone as a child of God. If you are not, you can call upon Him and He will come to you.

If we are too wrapped up in ourselves, we loose the Power of the Cross. There are times when we have to look at painful experiences from the past, but never do that without the help of Jesus. It is also good if you have a Christian sister or brother with you in the process.

A very common emotion is fear and anxiety. We use the word fear when we refer to specific objects or happenings. Anxiety is an emotion not directed towards anything in particular. These emotions can make us paralyzed. I have talked to people with fear of men. They cannot testify because of this fear. Others cannot travel because they are afraid to fly. Many students are afraid to read aloud since they think somebody might laugh at them. We have all experienced fear and know how it affects us in a negative way. It can give physical symptoms as perspiration, heart-beat, dizziness and nausea. In other words, a very unpleasant emotion.

I believe that fear can have a demonic root. We read in Rom.8:15 that we did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out: “Abba Father.” When we fear, we are afraid of being punished.

Both love and faith are opposites to fear. We see in 1.John 4:18 that perfect love casts out all fear. When emotions want to take over, we have to cling to the Truth. It is the Truth that sets us free. Our emotions can be like a boat drifting on the sea. The Word is like an ANCHOR.

Another strong emotion is anger. The Bible uses the word wrath or Holy Wrath. Quite a few ask me if Christians are allowed to be angry. I say: “Of course.” I remind them of Eph.4:26+27. Paul says: “Be angry, and do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” We have to remember that we are not having a war against people, but against sin and the deeds of the devil. I recommend people to make peace before they go to sleep. I highly recommend a parent never to hit a child in anger. Think twice before you call a person when you are angry or write a letter. If you write off you angry emotions, burn it.

I attended a conference. Many had a problem with anger. They had a low tolerance and they got easily irritated. They wanted help. Somebody prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to lead them to the root of the problem. Maybe they revealed a wound that needed healing, maybe a demon sat in that wound. They got help and they are not having the same problem to-day.

God has created us with a healthy emotional life. The devil wants to get us off balance. He also likes to say that emotions are for women only. We can express them differently, but both sexes are created with a rich emotional life with many colors.

LET JESUS BECOME LORD OVER YOUR EMOTIONS AND LET HIS SPIRIT RULE THEM!!!!!!!!

Mother Else