Living by our feelings will cause us to seek the next high. Living by faith, and consecrated wholly to the Lord, we seek God and keep His will our priority. Once we enter into a new life in Christ, we walk humbly and progress into a fullness of joy by our daily submission.  Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” GOD begins to deal with us as we are His most beloved possession. Maturity comes through various trials. When the excitement of being chosen seems to have evaporated, believers may think that the abundant life vanished because they are NOT able to RETAIN their happiness. Coronary Christians know God never departs as we are indwelt by His joy always. Signs that our emotions may be ruling our life in Christ: If we are easily angered. Quickly frustrated. When our focus is on our personal needs rather than others. When our priority is to do life our way, instead of God’s way. So it was for the prophet Jonah. He thought God’s target audience was too far gone. Jonah chose to disobey God by boarding a boat and sleeping off the direct command of God.

God dealt with Jonah in the belly of a fish, and then the prophet came to his senses and went where God sent him. To his dismay, God’s compassion angered Jonah. He prayed that God, would just end his life!  Was Jonah feeling embarrassed? Was he thinking of pleasing God or himself? One lesson: Whatever we may feel is secondary to God’s call. His will shall be done, His Way, with or without our feeling good about any of it.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ Sinister  plans are being played out.

This 40 minute documentary summarizes world events.  The Bible is banned in China. In Australia and Sweden, citizens must get a chip implant or be unable to buy. In USA court rooms, schools, and in government offices, Bibles are not allowed. Why? Lawlessness is here as people are without restraints. Many will have a form of godliness but they harbor hate, unforgiveness, and deceive themselves.

It was the personal choice of Jeremiah to submit to the Spirit, regardless of his feelings. God may overlook a feeling, but never His will.  The Spirit of God will test a prophet, or any ordinary believer to use their will, to make a conscious choice to trust God’s Way. A believer willfully remains truly consecrated, when they obey God regardless of their feelings.  Spiritual laws never change. IF a believer chooses to live surrendered, they are not subject to the storm of shifting emotions.

The danger of relying on feelings is that we rely on a heightened experience rather than a continuous state of surrender. Submitted to the Lord is a willing sacrifice of our feelings to be led by the Spirit.  Our feelings rise and fall, but the Spirit is steady, and He never changes or departs from us.  By our will, we choose to remain obedient to the spirit and ignore our feelings. For example: After a believer attends a Christian conference, they return home to the daily normal. A neighbor is sick, an accident occurs, a friend dies, and their feeling of happiness disappears. Has the Spirit of God perished? Of course not. Our life in Christ remains the truth; how we feel makes no difference.

Surrender is a choice. To walk according to His will, and —“in Him,” there is no danger at all. God’s goal is that His kids—intently pursue Him in each situation while refusing to allow our feelings to bypass the reality of His presence.  Believers are exposed to many dangers, and yet we exercise our will to not make our feelings our principle measurement of joy.  His constant presence is sufficient for the submitted.  If a believer is only fueled by happy feelings, their will becomes weak.  Running on emotion, we are of zero use to the Spirit of God. Only if we are surrendered to His Presence can He develop our sense of intuition. A person who chooses to walk according to their emotion, actually supresses the intuition given through His Spirit. “Peace be still.”

The intuition coming from the Spirit is hard to hear if we are paddling in a puddle of self-pity tears. We know by intuition only when our emotions are quiet. Just like a muscle, our spirit filled intuition is strengthened only when it is constantly in use. A believer who is moody does not have the ability to make decisions. Clarity escapes them as their intuition is dulled by raging emotions.  We are unable to hear His voice if we are filled with anger, bitterness or resentment. When our ability to choose gets paralyzed, the believer needs to push their will into action. Choosing to once again surrender, we are led by the Spirit. Being stuck in emotions, feeling hurt, disabled, under valued, rejected, angry, frustrated,

disgruntled, depressed, or annoyed, is a choice to live disconnected from the Spirit. If a believer requires a new experience to feel adequate, equipped, or encouraged, their spiritual life declines day after day.  There can be no spiritual life in Christ without being submitted to Him.  The ADDICTION to emotions is a shot of adrenaline to the believer who requires another high. It is a pity that SURRENDER is NOT emphasized in the church. Our Spiritual high should not rely on the next Sunday message, a concert, a conference, or emotion.

Many believers are erratic because they only feel the Lord’s love or His Presence when emotions are high. “Returning to our first love” is not a feeling.  Our own fervent love toward the Lord is when we choose to deny our feelings, pick up our cross, and love the Lord when we cannot feel His Presence. We love Him, when we hurt, and when life throws us curve balls. We choose to fervently love the Lord regardless of circumstances or feelings because He first loved us. Because He chose us, because He rescued us, because He called us by name, set us apart, anointed us, and gave us purpose.

Regardless of how we feel, the Spirit of truth remains steady. “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that He will receive what He will make known to you.” John 16:13-14

“The hour has already come for you to WAKE UP up from your SLUMBER, because our SALVATION is NEARER now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in drunkenness, sexual immorality, dissension, or jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” RM 13:11-14 and Titus 1:7-8 “Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.”

The first miracle was at a wedding when Jesus turned water into wine. Our Lord said that He went to go to prepare a place for us, and in His plan a great wedding banquet has also been prepared for His spotless bride. This is a season for fresh wine, in new wine skins. A time to be filled with a fresh out pouring into our skins, His dwelling place! In this new season, we search our hearts and confess our transgressions.  “The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy.” Psalm 126:3 His will be done with or without our help. The key to getting involved in this new season is to be surrendered and obedient.

In our spiritual life, these season changes are similar to the season changes of nature. The trees get rid of their old leaves to make room for new ones. When God is preparing us for a new season, He has to get rid of our old habits to make way for new patterns. We can’t go into our new season with the practices from our previous season. Changing seasons can be a challenge, but when the Spirit of God tells us to move, we must move. By staying in our last season, we’re blocking our blessings for what’s to come. When we’re transitioning into a new season, the biggest thing to remember is that God gave us faith to trust Him always. We must trust Him and welcome Him to work in us and through our submission. Expect to eat of the tree of Life and drink wine with Jesus at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.