August 13, 2006

• After I wrote what is below, I went to the grocery store to pick up supplies for dinner. In the car I was feeling pretty down because I realized how much I fall short in what is taught below. The Holy Spirit reminded me that we are not perfect when we come into the Kingdom, that it is His job to convict us so that we can grow and change and become more like Christ. It is a process, and one part of the process is realizing that we fall short of God’s best for us. Then we can begin to change with His help.

  
  

  The Holy Spirit is impressing Pastor Don to keep teaching regarding the topic of study that we that we covered from the Wednesday Bible study. He taught it Friday (which is what I am going to write on today), and he also taught it Sunday. The Holy Spirit wants us to walk in freedom.

  
  

  Feelings are our enemy unless they are of the Holy Spirit. Nothing out of our feelings has any validity unless they line up with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. If we are justifying our feelings, to try and believe that they are valid, we are in error. FAITH is different from feelings. If our feelings line up with FAITH, then act upon them. If our feelings do not line up with faith, and are outside of what God speaks, they are a lie, an antichrist.

  
  

  IT IS THE FEELINGS OF MAN THAT LEAD US INTO JUSTIFYING ERROR. We are so attached to our traditions, in church, in our lives, in our relationships. Traditions FEEL good to us, but often they have nothing to do with faith or the Word of God. When we accept the traditions that feel good, we are approving a lie. Pastor Don talked about how every church has traditions that aren’t directly written in the Word of God. That when we get to Heaven and look at what God really said, we are all going to be surprised. No denomination has the truth 100%. But, once we realize that some tradition does not line up with the truth of God, we are then responsible about what we do with that information.

  
  

  When you let your feelings speak and have an improper emotion like hating your brother, you talk about the feeling in your mind, you speak the feeling, and keep elaborating on the feeling – ultimately giving the improper feeling substance which can lead to action.

  
  

  When we realize we are in error, we need to make a correction, honestly assess where we are in error and repent (change direction). We can end up stepping outside of righteousness by our feelings if we don’t judge them.

  
  

  Remember when Jesus spoke about adultery, Matthew 5:27-28 You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

  
  

  The person that Jesus was referring to did not do the act, but in his heart and mind he did commit adultery. There were no outward physical signs of this, just a heart feeling, a thought.

  
  

  Heather’s note, Jesus also said, Matthew 12:34 “….For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

  
  

  When we are outside of God’s purpose for us, we bring evil on ourselves. We want to project onto God things that are not the God of the Bible. God is a God of judgement, not a God who lives up to our feelings. We can’t let our feelings lead us to stupid illogical things.

  
  

  We make feelings our idol, and emotions our god. We need to define our words. Our kids would like us to believe that loving them means that we let them do whatever they want, but that is not true love – love judges. If we tell our kid not to touch a woodburning stove because they are going to get burned, that limitation is love.

  
  

  God loves us and limits us. If we go by feeling, we will have the wrong definition of love. God who is love gave us the 10 Commandments (not the ten suggestions), and if we go by them, our life will be better.

  
  

  We need to keep a reign on our feelings when they are not accurate. We can trust feelings that are impartial, show good judgement, and line up with the Word of God.

  
  

  We also need to keep a bridle on our mouth because our mouth reflects what we are feeling. When we take what we feel in the heart and speak it, it gives air to the feeling, and thus the feeling has more power. We need to make sure we are speaking what is within God’s parameter.

  
  

  (Heather’s note, in a previous Bible study, Pastor Don talked about how satan cannot read our minds but he can hear what we say and sees what we do. Do we really want to give him more ammunition?)

  
  

  Job said that he felt his kids may have sinned and he made sacrifices for them. He did not judge them, or put limits on their behavior. He stayed in the feeling realm, and satan was able to use those feelings, those fears of losing his kids, to satan’s advantage to try and pull Job away from God.

  
  

  If Job acted in faith, saying “I believe my kids will do well,” spoke words that lined up with God’s words, and corrected his kids, satan would not have been able to do what he did. Faith covers what feelings don’t cover.

  
  

  Feelings produce words which produce action.

  
  

  David brought his feelings to the Lord, the only safe place to bring our feelings. He asked the Lord to help him. God then showed David how to feel about his situation.

  
  

  You have a thought life, before you speak with your tongue the thoughts you have, you need to first pay attention to what you are thinking, so you do not speak into action something that is not true. You need to ask yourself why am I thinking what I am thinking? We need to judge our thought life.

  
  

  (Heather’s note, I have to tell you that before the weekend was out I realized that I said many things that I should not have said, and it is being brought to my mind so that I can repent of them. I really need to discipline my thought life and my mouth so much more).

  
  

  Proverbs 23:7-9 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, and waste your pleasant words. Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.”

  
  

  Isaiah 10:7 Yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few nations.

  
  

  Things get into your mind that may not be what is deep in your heart. What your mind can think or what you are speaking, may be speaking against what’s in your heart. But if you have accepted into your heart lies, what you speak from your mouth will be what is in your heart.

  
  

  Mark 11:23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

  
  

  Here the person is speaking from his heart, no doubt in his heart.

  
  

  Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

  
  

  Here is an example of THINKING a wrong thing, wanting to believe that if you repeat over and over and over the same thing God will hear you. The truth is God hears you before you even speak, and he hears your prayer the first time you say it. This kind of thinking that the heathen do is an effort in futility.

  
  

  Emotions give us standards and traditions that we approve of (such as if you pray many times the same prayer, if your dress is so long, if you kneel and bow three times, if you spend 15 minutes in devotions, or whatever), these do not bear fruit. God does not approve. It isn’t volume, quantity, density that brings results, but God’s grace and mercy.

  
  

  John 5:39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

  
  

  We get attached to what we like, for when God says no, we have to decide, God our our belief. Notice that Jesus said YOU THINK. It is dangerous to think you have arrived until you have a relationship with Jesus.

  
  

  1 Corinthians 8:2-3 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.

  
  

  Thinking will not edify us, only knowing God and loving God edifies us.

  
  

  The application of the above is 1 Corinthians 8:4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

  
  

  We cannot feed our minds (eat of thoughts or food or actions) that are idols, that doesn’t edify. We must realize that there is only God.

  
  

  1 Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

  
  

  The Amplified version of 1 Corinthians 10:12 So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

  
  

  To be an effective Christian, you have to doubt what you believe by tradition, throw out the bad theology, and find the foundational rock of the truth of God’s Word.

  
  

  Galatians 6:1-5 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.

  
  

  This verse is about a believer who is caught in sin. Part of the endtimes harvest is going to be people like this, who have been ostracized by the church, and they are coming back to be restored. They will not come back clean, but will often come back into the church with their sin. God will clean them. We have to let them know that they are welcome, but their sins are not welcome. We love them, but not the sin.

  
  

  How we do it, Galatians 6:6-9 Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

  
  

  Don’t think you are hot stuff at the expense of another person. Brag on God, not on yourself. When there is a battle do not lose heart, the battle is in the feelings, not in the truth of God. If  you are always feeling that life is a struggle, you are sowing into negative feelings. Sometimes God’s timing is different from our desired timing, so if we lose heart, and start speaking the words of doubt from our feeling, we can lose the blessing that was being sent to us, killing the blessing.

  
  

  Notice it is in DUE SEASON, and God’s idea of what is due season can differ from us. God knows the proper timing.

  
  

  Pastor Don said: YOUR TALENT CAN TAKE YOU TO PLACES YOUR CHARACTER CAN’T SUSTAIN YOU.

  
  

  Sometimes when we get promoted too early, we haven’t developed our characters enough to sustain the position. That is why God waits, until we are really ready for the position.

  
  

  Pastor Don said that there were two books that affected him when he was a teenager.

  
  

  The Power of the Superconscious Mind, and the other one was The Power of Positive Thought by Fulton Sheen.

  
  

  And then Pastor Don concluded with “Don’t let someone’s feelings or mood talk you out of your dream.

  
  

  Hope this teaching was a blessing to you. I know that God is working on me in this area and with His help, I can do what I can’t do in the flesh.

  
  

  Heather

  
  

   

  • 8:48 pm
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