11/24/23 When a soul starts to make an effort to pray, and begins to try to be devout in that direction, it is very likely, probable, and definite, that the soul will be tested. It will occur that some temptation or trial will come about that will not only try to sway you, but could try to derail you from following the Lord Jesus altogether. There is one reference for sure that I know speaks about the devil himself trying to derail you from your sweet salvation: Luke 8:12, “Those along the path are the ones who hear, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”God have mercy! It is a powerful and strong problem when the its the devil Jesus refers to here, trying to take away a good word sown.
The Trial of Prayer
Many smaller demons do many evil things, but you can expect a person with a great call on their life, to have a problem with the devil himself. That’s when the powerful blood of Jesus and washing of the water of the Word can help us, and only that, I’m afraid. I have experienced some things along this line, and so it is with only humility I can write this. It is in these seasons, where when tried and pushed, our faith can be enhanced by having to plead with God for mercy, endurance, understanding, comfort, guidance, etc. Whatever the trial or test is, its usually an already vulnerable moment for the individual that deserves an accompanying moment where the devil wants to wallup you (at least) twice. This phenomena happens all the time, and maybe its so we will have one trial with another loaded to help distract from both of them back and forth, if they occur simultaneously. I think this is true, because this is what has happened for me!
Trials X 2
If Jesus had to go to the cross, it was that first his disciples were to be scattered from him; If Peter denied Jesus, it was at the same time he would have saw Jesus crucified, and know he to, could suffer Judas’ fate if he did not repent. If Corrie Ten Boom was to suffer hell on Earth in a concentration camp, it was also the same time at one point, having to see her sister Bessie suffer and die at the hands of the Nazi’s in their camp. Bessie had her needs neglected and was tortured so that Corrie had to endure her sister’s death, and her absence, and seeing that the love of God for neighbor was not quickly availed to herself, and that the state of torture wasn’t expected to change. If Job (old testament) in the Bible, was going to lose his family, he was also going to have it so that there would be a felt void between him and God, and there being absence of having God’s smile of approval and aforeknown reward for righteousness of his life.
Jesus helps us in prayer overlook many things bad in ourselves, and seasons of testing can produce many emotions. Personally, I have cried out to God from the depths of my soul (and I mean the base level), numerous times, and times where I would groan communicating (in my imperfect weakeness), that I needed help, or else! LOL. When you are whittled down by life, you can say that you’ve reached God when you know its true.
Pixabay
I had times in college where I needed to “let out emotions” when I was first coming to see Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, and I was overwhelemd in both directions with joy of my imputed righteousness, and of the sorrow of seeing the blackness of sin. I felt the joy at the message of “God’s not angry with you, because when He looks at his anger, but sees Jesus on the cross, that anger is turned to approval”. Something along these lines saved me, the message of “God’s not angry with you anymore”. I think this is what imputation is. I WILL ALWAYS BELIEVE THIS MESSAGE IS TRUE! I was so floored by the message, and could cry and laugh and rejoice alone or with people. But on the other side of things, if I were weighed down by my sins so as to confess mean thoughts in my heart, places revealed to me by the Word of God/the Bible, where I knew I was missing the mark, I would cry (alone in the chapel, in my room alone, or in the Blazer, our car). I could scream, cry out, praise or prophesy good things to myself and to my heart. Because of my wholesome upbringing, I knew it was godly to cry if you felt like God was near, and to cry for feeling sorry for sins. But when I got regenerated, I asked the Lord Jesus to help me not conform to the pattern of the world but to have my mind washed: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Then and now, when my spirit connects with God because of His Son, Jesus, I am able to express, feel, receive and give emotions from my soul. And with the measure I use, it is measured to me. A good movie with a portrayal of all the emotions I can think of for a woman is a Hildegard de Bingen movie on Youtube: https://youtu.be/MlziyM3xWWs
I would want to console everyone those who find themselves having a desire to pray, cry out, lay prostrate, weep, laugh, be righteously angry at injustice, etc, to bless all those correct emotions and responses in Jesus’ name. We are to “build ourselves up in the most holy faith”, and sometimes it is very right for us to weep while the world rejoices (John 16:20), and to laugh when the world can only mourn.
Emotions: Some Easy, Hard, Good and Difficult
Honestly, I believe that groaning towards God in your emotions, and then letting sounds come out of your mouth might just cause tongues (like “speaking in tongues” as a demonstration of the being filled with the Holy spirit), to come out. If you ask God for the Holy Spirit, he will give it to you! All we need to do is ask (Luke 11:13). Those tongues (praying with the Holy Spirit and with the help of angels/ angel languages as referenced in 1 Corinthians 13:1), will help you to pray more, by the way. And they’re meant as a gift for the church.
So, I wanted to review some ideas and that’s one side of things, about feeling emotions from God, and emotions in prayer. Now, I want to review something different about emotions, or more like impulses in prayer that come from much exercising of the will, or spirit in personal prayer. I have seen persons, maybe many persons, that have struggled with having various God-emotions, knowing how to manage them, and how to properly respond to impulses and dare I say “compulsive” actions that come from the spirit of God. I have struggled with this. “Impulses” are defined as strong urges or impulses to act on something. There are sometimes messages given from God to us, and we are STRONGLY pushed, I guess you could say, to act on them. Spirited messages are those given to Christians so they themselves can be healed, fulfill mini-missions for God, heal people in Jesus’ name, and act in power, preach the gospel, etc. What I am talking about is something directly related to the gift of prophecy, and I have much more to learn about this to know how to communicate such heavenly things.
Gift of Prophecy and then What Happens?!
When the gift of prophecy starts to “act” upon a person, it can be received by (1) getting dreams and visions, which is what qualifies a prophet to be a prophet! (Deuteronomy 13:1; Numbers 12:6); (2) prophesying – which is what prophecy is about and is often how the gift of prophecy is revealed in like the telling of God’s wonders (Acts 2:11), things to come, revelations of man’s hearts being revealed (Luke 2:35). Furthermore (3), prophecy is used for many things in instruction to the church (1 Corinthians 12 and 14), even in all the prophets’ writings of the Old Testament, we can still apply those living words today! Also, on a more practical level, I think in regards to the spirit guiding with impulsive behavior, it may perhaps not be a “nay-say” or a negative thing at all, but can be more like a “jump-start” or “kick” you get in your motor/spirit to help you with a task God has assigned. For example, if approaching a serious decision, you may suddenly be emboldened by having a vision that you will have a successful endeavor. So, if the task is making the decision, and the gift was the vision, the the impulse was the rush/high or feeling given, for you to empowered to go with God boldly on a decision as confirmed by him. If you feel moved in a conviction over a message in a sermon, the impulse may be from God to cry aloud, and in doing so – great relief immediately comes from heeding the Holy Spirit’s prompt. If you are led to testify your testimony before friends and family, which is always requiring boldness, you are needing love, too, and so your impulse may be to obey that mini-mission and not turn back, and this is an especially hard case for many people. I have been called before a panel of judges before, and in that case was not allowed to speak, but only interrogated. The impulse is often there for zealous new converts to Jesus to “just gotta go tell someone”, and that is great – What a reasonable and holy impulse that is! And as you obey, you get more of the Holy Spirit. “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:32). https://biblehub.com/acts/5-32.htm
If God gives strong emotions/impulses, dry seasons or travailing back and forth from both flooded and dry seasons, its good to know God Himself has emotions. If you want to see a mournful God, you could read Jeremiah. If you want to see God upset with His people, you could read Ezekiel. If you want to see Jesus angry, you might like the passage of Jesus overturning tables, or confronting the Pharisees. If you want to portray a gentle Jesus and gentle Father you might like Jesus with parable of the lost sheep, or the 23rd Psalm, or Paul’s moving speech in 1 Corinthians 13. There is much more to God in the Old Testament that is good to see in the older Scriptures, and He is NOT always angry.
All of the facets of Jesus’ emotions and God’s emotions are valued, and not to be denied to God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus or His people. To not expect a Christian to show all flavors of the emotions is not reasonable, as we can see all of them in the early church too, as portrayed in the New Testament. If God gives good gifts to us, we can know that all demonstrations of the soul can be healed and made whole by His healing balm. We can see a portrayal of the emotions that will certainly fill Heaven itself, and give us a light taste of Heaven on Earth!
Rebekah's Reflections 