You are More than Your FEELINGS!

 

We have made our feelings God.

Morality is now at the whims of fickle human emotions. Something which, I am sure, has never been affected by late night pizza or burrito binging. Our desperate need to be known and loved is masked and hidden beneath the surface by drama, insecurity and neediness. We are not fulfilled or complete in ourselves.

This emotion over logic mania has taken control of the morality of our culture. Feelings have become more valid than reason and fact. YOLO has become the rallying cry to express yourself and behave however you feel like. Urges and unrestrained desires have been let loose at the expense of common sense. Is this a good thing? Have your feelings ever changed? Can our feelings be a good guide for our morality? Why are slander and name-calling an accepted practice used against those who disagree with today’s permissive society? “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser,” Socrates.

If we were to look back through history, would we find this to be a good practice? Are we looking into the future to see what the logical conclusions could lead to? Is what we feel, who we are? We have lost or not yet known what our true identity is. Feelings are not helpful in discovering who we are. My feelings often lie. How about yours? What has led to this moral vacuum of defining ourselves by our urges and emotions?

A massive part of what created the problem is that the church has not demonstrated the love of God to a lost, hurting, broken world; instead, we have been mean and judgmental. We have become the enemy of the world that God so loved He sent His Son for.

I apologize for how I have wounded you. I apologize for how the church has wounded you.

The real enemies of humanity are the demons [not ghosts] who accuse, shame and condemn all of us into a life of fear, hopelessness, self-condemnation and judgment of ourselves and others. They HATE us; all of us. They spew vomit of judgment and hate on all humanity. We need to recognize their voices, tone and messages and stop listening to and obeying those negative messages. Often, they use our own voice to trick us into thinking that these awful thoughts originate with us. That is a clue. If it is a thought that disgusts you, then it is not yours. So flush it and move on.

Because of all this condemnation a huge gap has been created in all of our lives that has left many feeling isolated and alone and unworthy of anyone liking us, let alone loving us. Our feelings, because of all these negative messages have led us to believe we are garbage.

Therefore, we believe crazy ideologies and live like we are mindless junk searching endlessly to fill this gigantic void of unworthiness that is a torrent of sewage flooding through our wounded souls. What a disgusting, sad, devastating and graphic picture that is.

Christians have struggled with all these same issues on a massive scale. I know I did. The first 28 years of my Christian life were an emotional roller coaster because I did not know if God really could accept me or like me. I believed His love was unobtainable to me because of the mess in my mind. I am an example of a follower of Jesus who wanted to do, think and be good but was under the spell and lies of the demons. Unfortunately, I was a typical example of the Christian crowd who was just as screwed up after accepting Jesus as we were when we did not know Him.

Many leaders in the USA churches have so much external pressure to keep up the appearance of holiness that we all miss out on a real and vulnerable relationship with God and people. Instead of focusing on what we are not, we need to focus on Who IS. God is good, holy, pure, gentle, loving, kind, gracious, joy-filled, patient, etc. The Holy Spirit is building us up in all these areas to be like God. God is greater than the enemy who does not want us to grow up in these areas. God is also greater than our church organizational and leadership structures that inhibit truthful relationships with Him. Stop being afraid of God’s holiness and realize He loves you. Jesus would not have died for you if He was not gracious and loving toward who you were, are and are becoming. [That was a good word right there.]

God desires that we walk in a relationship of love with Him and people. We need to stop walking in fear of punishment. God is not ashamed of His children! Wake up! If Jesus is Lord of your life, He LOVES you. Get this.

Can we start looking at what God does want to do in and through us and stop looking at what we have done wrong? God does not focus on what we are not. He focuses on who we will become.

It is not about our feelings. It is about truth. And for all people, not just Christians, truth is a person. Jesus is the Truth. God IS love. They are not feelings. They are God. They are awesome, amazing and wonderful and worthy of worship and adoration. The Holy Spirit is here to teach us to love, hear and obey this fabulous, too fantastic to imagine tri-une God.

You are the answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17. You’re identity and morality are not about how you feel. It’s about Who you believe and what He thinks about you. You are loved by the only One whose opinion matters. Truth [Jesus] needs to rule feelings so new thoughts and feelings can replace the garbage with the truth. All of our thinking, feelings and morality are drastically altered when we know God is real, loves us and will continually pursue a fantastic relationship with us. That is what set me free. Because of this, I am free to love everyone; even, those who disagree with me or live in a way that I may not like.

I pray that you get free in Jesus knowing He loves you and is pursuing a grand relationship with you. He likes you. He loves you. He came to earth and went to the cross for us. He cares about every aspect of our lives and our identity. He cares so much that He will transform our mind and emotions once we surrender to His love. His love is so good and gentle that it washes away all shame and condemnation. It washes away the desire to continue the unending pursuit to make ourselves happy. Only peace and joy come from knowing Jesus. That is eternal and unchanging.

Do you want to know Jesus? Do you want freedom, rest and joy in your soul? Jesus is the answer to what life is for and about. Jesus is the meaning of life. He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes into a relationship with God, the Father, except through Jesus [John 14:6]. Let’s walk together to God. Let me help you find peace, joy and meaning. Stop wrestling with your emotions and rest in God.

       

      I highly recommend any video by Dan Mohler to help you discover the truth about God and how He views you:

https://youtu.be/dXaUc0PiD-Q

"Jesus died, not just because we are sinners, but to redeem our value and restore the truth back inside of us," Dan Mohler.
    
     

You are NOT Who You Were

     

Many Christians need to be saved from their bad theology and beliefs about themselves and how God views them. God is not waiting around to zap you with a shock collar whenever you mess up. It is the accuser that spews shame, guilt and condemnation all over you. That is not God! God thinks about us very differently than we do. That is why He corrects out thinking. He is not in the process of behavioral modification or sin management. Our behavior will change drastically once we realize how ridiculously and lavishly He loves us. Once we are addicted to Him, all other addictions will wash away. Stop holding onto things believing God does not have the power to heal you from brokenness and sin. [OUCH!] “God, I know Jesus died and rose and all, but you cannot fix my problems or deal with my mess. It’s just too much.” Really!? Why do we live like that? “Oh, those other Christians hurt my feelings so much it’s just wounded me to the core and I don’t think I can be around other people without having my walls up to protect me from them.” When we exist like that, we give the demons a stranglehold in us and show the world a powerless faith.

When you choose to surrender to Jesus and turn over your life to Him, a bunch of stuff happens: you die to self, you turn from your sin, you surrender control of your moral choices, you submit your will to God, you seek Him for guidance, you pursue a relationship with Him; God kills your old sin nature and buries it, God places you into Christ giving you a new life, God lovingly rears you as His spiritually newborn child, the Holy Spirit indwells you permanently as the guarantee that you now belong to God, God gives you spiritual gifts so He can pour out His grace to others through you and much more.

You are not a sinner saved by grace but a holy person of God saved by grace for good works He prepared in advance of your existence. The sinner was crucified with Christ and buried in baptism. You were raised to life out of baptism with the resurrection of Jesus and placed into His life. You no longer live for you but for the glory of God. That is God’s will for you!

  

You are no longer trapped by your past. You no longer need to be a victim of any circumstances or past pain and wounds. You are set free. Will you choose to move forward and believe it? Jesus has set the captives free. That is past tense. It’s time to let go of being so tense [pun. Ha.]. Move into the future. God has a better future for you than you can dream or imagine.

   

“Jesus didn’t come to redecorate your jail cell. He came to break you out.” [David Wagner, 2016 Prophetic Conference, Bethel Church, March 2016] When talking about Jesus calming the storm David says, “Jesus is not reacting and responding. He is ruling and reigning.”

   

In place of abandonment, you have been adopted. You are not fatherless but a child of God and His family forever.

   

You are no longer broken. You have been born again [anew] spiritually.

    

Your foundation was crumbled but you were crucified so you could realize you are cherished. God proved His love for you once and for all at the cross. Stop wondering or doubting!

   

You are not damned, doomed or defeated. You have been delivered.

   

You are no longer God’s enemy. This all should be exciting and make you enthusiastic [“en theos” = in God].

    

God is not frustrated, angry or despairing over humanity. He already took care of sin. We need to surrender to Him and be transformed by His love. We need to understand how He sees us and understand our position in Christ due to the resurrection. We need to stop acting like we are nailed to the cross vainly attempting to pay for our own sin. It is time to start living on this side of the empty tomb.

    

We are not in a survival culture. We are in a revival culture. [David Wagner]

  

Don’t tolerate something Jesus came to terminate. [David Wagner]

   

·         “Depressed Christians are like the Dead Sea. Nothing flows out of an inward focused person.  So everything in the sea is dead: fear, anxiety, discouraged, depressed. Even praying about our rottenness is self-centered as it is focused on who we aren’t instead of Who He is!  It’s just as bad as braggadocio arrogance.  What is true humility?” [Bill Johnson, The Resting Place – sermon]

   

We are not powerless victims. And God does not answer our prayers when we pray like we are. In fact, that is not prayer; it is just whining and complaining which Graham Cooke calls the “worship language of hell.” And, when we pray from a position of offense, wounds, frustration, envy or self-seeking, every evil work is present; which means when a person prays from those they are inviting in the demons who they think they are binding. God wasn’t so tired, frustrated and fed up with people that He sent His Son. He so loved us! [This paragraph is a summary from teachings by Dan Mohler.]

   

We cannot serve, minister or pray from a place of wounds expecting God to do anything good with that mess. If we have died with Christ, then we no longer have rights that must be met for us to feel good about ourselves and need no longer be offended or wounded. Our old selfish flesh has died with Christ and we are now living through Him because we have been placed into His life at our death. We need the old guy to stay dead!

    

We are not empowering people when we sympathize with their brokenness. We need to tell them who they are in Jesus and that they do not need to be broken or crushed. Let’s pray because of the promise, not the problem. Jesus didn’t come so we could get a blessing but so we could be transformed by being born again. [Dan Mohler]

    

We were not made for ourselves. We were made for God. We were made to be transformed into the people of God who shine the light of God into the darkness. We were never intended to be self-seeking and find ourselves or pursue happiness. It is only by dying to these that we come to life in Him. When we die to ourselves, no one has the power to offend us. We can live from His love and pour out life on the broken world. Imagine how freeing it is to not be overcome by the negativity of other people’s emotions. “We are not what we did. We are what He did.” [Dan Mohler inspired much of this paragraph] “We are not Lot’s wife, so let’s stop looking back. We are the bride of Jesus, so let’s look to Him.”

   

2 Corinthians 5: You ARE a new creature in Christ. The old passed away [DIED]. Be the new you, the true you designed by Jesus before the foundations of the galaxies. He has reconciled us so we can be ambassadors of this good news and reconcile a lost world to Jesus. Jesus became sin so we could become the righteousness of God.

    

Stop being a caterpillar moping around slowly in depression and dissatisfaction with your circumstances and feelings. Do not be ruled by either of those fickle things. Like a butterfly, you are something new and glorious to display the majesty of God. You were not created to get your emo needs met. You were created to love. You were loved first. Now go walk in that truth and be love to others.

   

Let’s start living out of who we ARE!

     

“Father, thank You for Your unstoppable love for me!”