Many times people find out that Emotions are not suppose to control them. They hear that they should not be allowing their emotions to lead them from high to low and back again. But they remain powerless over them.It is not enough to know that we are not to be emotion or flesh dominated, we must gain insight in how to handle our unruly flesh nature which is subject to the sense realm.
We live in a world that is sight oriented and sense ruled.
- If we see it we want it.
- If it feels good we do it.
- If it smells good we have to have it.
- If it is nice to the touch we desire it.
- If we hear something is good we run after it.
A lady sitting on her couch may suddenly see a pizza commercial on the TV at nine o'clock at night, and under the impulse she dials the pizza parlor. The next day, she is upset and complaining of being overweight.
A man at home alone, suddenly FEELS the need for companionship. He moved by feelings is off to find the first warm body available, or clicks the TV to a porn network to try to appease his flesh. But come the next day, he is still alone.
A Woman goes by a counter in the Mall, she smells the sweet aroma of colognes, soon she must have new cologne ... although she may already have three bottles at home and her budget tells her NO! It is not a necessity it is a flesh desire, that has overridden wisdom principle.
I could give examples to ever sensual impulse, but you get the idea. Senses draw away our affections to flesh desires and work to remove us from God's best for our lives. Remember from yesterdays' blog ... the word emotion in Latin origin means ex-movere, meaning to move away. Satan would love for us to follow our emotions and carry us away, he would like to get us over into carnal feelings and move us away from God.
We should be Spirit led, and not Sense Fed.
If we are led by the Spirit, we put the flesh under, we mortify it's deeds. However, as long as we feed our sense realm anything it reaches out for, we will not only fail to train and develop our human spirit, but we will never walk in wisdom that is principle for success. We will also be on continual emotional roller coaster ride all our life.
On the inside of every born again believer lives a controlled balanced Spirit ... (The Holy Spirit/The very Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ) ... the Spirit who now lives within you, and makes His home there. This Spirit man desires to help you, and to lead you into a self controlled and successful life.
Many people confuse the soul with the spirit. The spirit is the very essence of man, while the soul consist of the mind, will and emotions of man. We also hear people say we are body, soul and spirit ... when actually we are first Spirit ... we have a soul (mind, will and emotions) and we live in a physical body.
The body is a covering for the living spirit that you and I are. If you don't believe that visit a funeral home and take a look at the empty shell (body) left behind. The living spirit is gone, and only the covering remains. So we need to understand that ... We are first a Spirit, we have a soul (mind, will and emotions) and we are living in a (physical) body.
We are not to give the body nor the soul dominance, we do not listen to what the body says, or what the soul says, we listen to the inner (born again) spirit man, the Holy Spirit. Once we are saved, the human spirit yields to the Holy Spirit and is changed, and as we grow spiritually our emotions and body will experience renewal (change) as well. Through these changes our living situations get better. Our health is changed, our financial standings are changed, our relationships change, and our life styles are better.
If we go through life allowing our soul to dominate, always allowing our Emotions to rule, our lives will be filled with woes. Woe defined is to be filled with grief, distress, regrets and lamenting. It is to be left unhappy, poverty stricken, sick and stressed. This is not what God intended for born again believers.
Jer. 29:11 tells us that God has a plan for us ... and it is a plan to give us hope and a future. It is a plan to prosper us, and cause us to walk totally fulfilled and successful. Many believers are not walking in the benefit of this God plan, and the major reason is a lack of knowledge and/or effort of handling dominating emotions.
Now that we have some nuggets of truth concerning the three dimensional person that we are, we can move on to learning how to develop the human spirit in order to dominate those overbearing emotions and flesh desires.
In part 2 of "How to Handle Dominating Emotions" which will be our next posting, we will gain the insight needed to master our emotions!
