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People live their lives from out of their feelings. Most believe that their feelings are a result of their situation in life, or of an event, or treatment by others, perhaps even an offhand comment. People like to believe that they are rational, level headed and objective and that only negative situations, circumstances or treatment by others changes their balanced mental state. However, it’s not what we believe or feel that makes it true. It’s what God thinks that makes it true.
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes; but the Lord ponders the hearts. Proverbs 21:2
Truth lives in the heart, but that’s also where sin and deceit live. The heart is where Satan works, behind the scenes, unnoticed, unrecognized. The heart is also where God works, as He is allowed.
For the word of God is alive, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the separating of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Believers that don’t get into the Bible in order to know God on a regular basis find themselves more and more seeking to justify the way they feel by the thoughts, actions and words of themselves and others, and so there is more failure and unrest in their lives. Those that get into the Bible on a regular basis in order to know God discover more and more that they are wondering what God thinks of the things going on in their hearts, and thus there is more success, fullness and peace in their lives.
We can become more and more aware that there is an evil force in the world which has always and will always seek to invade our hearts with the acutely specific purpose of impoverishing our minds and weakening our souls, even unto death. This is Satan and this is sin.
Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13
This verse seems to declare that sin is something that is done, or performed. It seems to say that doing something leads to sin. Following is a more accurate translation of this verse which provides a more accurate understanding of how sin and behavior work.
Neither yield your members unto sin, instruments of unrighteousness; but yield your whole beings unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members unto God, instruments of righteousness. Romans 6:13
To clarify exactly what this verse is saying, here is my translation of this verse.
Neither allow your mental faculties (emotions, logic, rationale, etc.) to enter into the influence of sin, making them implementers of unrighteousness; but allow your whole beings to enter into the influence of God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your mental faculties to enter into the influence of God, making them implementers of righteousness. Romans 6:13
The first version of this verse seems to indicate that sin is something that one does. The second (and third) more accurate versions indicates that sin exists apart from any action on our part; that we are to not allow our actions to come from out of our presence in sin. Rather, we are to stand in the spirit of God, and allow the use of our mental faculties to be influenced by or come out of that spiritual power.
When we yield to sin by allowing its feelings to become ours, by allowing those feelings to justify their presence and power in our lives; then our mental faculties serve that feeling, flinging out unrighteousness against whatever or whoever happens to be our target. And thus Satan and sin are served by our spreading of unrighteousness. Your mind and all its mental faculties (logic, reasoning, planning, prioritizing, deciding, choosing) are influenced, infused with and guided by those sinful feelings, all of which were carefully, craftily, systematically and maliciously supplied to you by Satan, distinctly apart from any person, word, action or situation of the flesh.
This is why it is so important to spend time seeking Christ and his Father in the Bible. Like we cannot grow, stay healthy and strong without the continual input into our lives of good food and drink, so we cannot grow and stay healthy and strong spiritually without the constant input of good spiritual food and drink into our lives.
And Jesus said unto them; I am the bread of life; he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst. John 6:35
Those who live in sin and sin’s evil feelings will not experience that sweet fullness and peace which abounds in the spirit of Christ. Again, sin is not something you do, but rather is the devil’s offering of the lie that somehow our successful existence lies anywhere other than in the spirit of Christ. The devil offers worldly success; the praise, approval and respect of others; religious membership and activity; wealth and its pursuit; the need for feeling good and cozy; success in sports, among others, as life-fulfilling goals. There is nothing wrong with any of these things in themselves. The sin lies in our subjection to them as gods, as suppliers of our needs, as necessary for life, for peace, for joy, for our identity and the justification of our very existence.
As we live in sin, in our belief and acceptance of the devil’s lie that our feelings are always valid, worthy of use as an instrument to discern what is right and wrong, what is good and what is evil, then we will live out of control and out of fellowship with the true God. As our hunger for what is true begins to trump our feelings, and as we allow that hunger for what is true to direct our paths into the wisdom that is the spirit of Christ, we will become (like God) discerners, or critics of the thoughts and intents and feelings which seek to direct our hearts.
But unto those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. I Corinthians 1:24
Truly, Christ is the wisdom of God. If that spirit of Christ is okay with the feeling or impulse or influence which seeks to direct our heart, then it is good and acceptable unto God. If that spirit of Christ is contrary to the feeling or impulse or influence which seeks to direct our heart, then it is not good and not acceptable to God.
The world always points fingers away from itself and blames others for the way it feels. When you live in and of the world, this is what you do. You become and remain like the world. Christ is always empowering you, giving you the insight, strength and wisdom to stand victorious no matter how anyone treats you, no matter what situations you find yourself in. Christ is always filling and empowering you and giving you the victory from within. The world is always promising you a victory which comes from without, but which never seems to fully materialize or fully satisfy your being.
And be not conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2
Learn to recognize the working of Satan in your life and mind and feelings. Learn to treat your feelings with doubt, with the need to check them against the discernment of the spirit of Christ. Learn to allow Christ to be your emotional guide. That anger which you are currently blaming on the way your wife treated you? It’s always been there, always blaming someone or something else. That resentment which so harshly closes you off to anyone else’s heart of love for you? It’s been there as long as you can remember, stealing from you by locking you in a sealed dungeon of self pity and desolation. That outrage and need to argue which some political group elicited from you? Way before that group or that situation ever came along, you know that tendency to outrage and need to argue has been with you.
Come to Christ and to the guaranteed victory his spirit offers you; release from sin, the freedom and power to become who you’ve always wanted to be, a glorious being made in the image of God with the right to fully enjoy all of creation and even more, to become one with Him and with all others who call on His name.
Feelings follow. They should never lead. Allow the ones you enjoy. Refuse and rebuke the ones you don’t enjoy. Become the master over your feelings instead of their servant. Read your Bible, seeking Christ’s presence and the power which only his spirit can provide. Withstand the devil and he will flee, taking his devilish feelings with him.
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Other related studies:
Loins Girt with Truth
Emotions of Sin
Vanity of the Mind
Satan’s Justification
