Deliverance minister Vlad Savchuk says, as human beings, it is extremely possible that we can be deceived by our feelings.
The concept is explained well in Deuteronomy 4:19, which reads, “And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, you are led astray and worship them, and serve them, that which the Lord your God has allotted to all nations under the whole heaven; the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.”
“When we direct our focus from the Creator to the creation, we can find ourselves being driven—feeling driven—to do certain things that are actually not from the Lord,” Savchuk said in a recent video. “The Bible says it is possible to be driven by your feelings and feel a sense of urge, an impulse, a sense of drive, a sense of ‘man, I feel like this is what I need to do.’ And those things might not be from the Lord. In fact, they could be contrary to the Lord.”
Savchuk says that feelings are important to God and He created them and He can use them and our emotions and thoughts to communicate. But, they could also be a channel by which the enemy can draw you into sin and disobedience.
God, he says, speaks to us through four main ways—the Bible, through His Holy Spirit, through godly counsel and through our circumstances.
“My friend, David Diga Hernandez, would say that hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is not a skill to be acquired; it is a sense to be sharpened. The Bible says that sheep hear His voice. Therefore, hearing God comes natural if we are born-again Christians, but we can sharpen the sense of discerning His voice.”
So, Savchuk says, here are eight things we can pay attention to so that we can distinguish your thoughts and emotions from the voice of the Holy Spirit:
1. The Holy Spirit’s voice aligns with Scripture. Emotions many times contradict the Scriptures. We have to be very careful not to lift one verse out of context and use chance verse, like flipping open the Bible and whatever it opens it, that’s what God is speaking to you. When the Holy Spirit speaks, He speaks in alignment with the Scripture, the whole Scripture, not one pulled out of context. Don’t trust in your ability to hear the Holy Spirit. Trust in is ability to communicate with you.
2. The Holy Spirit’s voice is divine. Emotions are natural reactions to stimuli, and they can be influenced by things like hormone levels, past traumas or present circumstances. The origins of your emotions are not always divine. The origin of God’s voice, on the other hand, and God’s guidance has a divine source. It’s not based on human circumstances or psychological reactions, but on the eternal truths and God’s will.
3. The Holy Spirit’s voice is consistent. Whereas emotions fluctuate and are based on our moods, they are not consistent. Sometimes we feel happy. Sometimes we feel connected to God and sometimes we don’t feel connected to God. But you cannot take emotional cues always, by saying, “Oh, this must be God speaking.” And so how you distinguish is that God’s voice, the voice of the Holy Spirit, is consistent. There’s stability involved in that.
4. The voice of the Holy Spirit guides us according to God’s will. Our emotions reflect our internal state. The Bible says, “Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2). God’s voice, the voice of the Holy Spirit, will always strike to guide you into God’s perfect will.
5. The Holy Spirit’s voice is reliable, trustworthy. Your emotions can be very deceptive and be tricked by the enemy, by your circumstances and by your own flesh. The Bible makes that very clear in Jeremiah 17:9. The Holy Spirit doesn’t contradict the Word of God. The Holy Spirit’s voice does not pull Scripture out of context.
6. Responding to the Holy Spirit’s voice requires faith, managing your emotions and demands self-awareness. When the Holy Spirit speaks, faith is required. When your emotions are raging, you have to become self-aware and you have to regulate them.
7. The Holy Spirit’s voice has God’s backing or support. “My emotions lack supernatural providence. What I mean by that is the Bible says in John 12:4: When a shepherd leads the sheep, he doesn’t just speak to them through earphones. He actually is with them, guiding them. I love that. That means when God’s Spirit speaks, a lot of times you will sense His guidance, the circumstantial providence of God.”
8. The Holy Spirit usually whispers. “Emotions can be very loud and impulsive. If I could say it another way, Holy Spirit has impressions. Emotions tend to be impulsive; very strong, pushy. The Bible says in 1 Kings 19:12 that after the earthquake was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. But after the fire, it was a still small voice.”
Are you catching the vast differences? If your thoughts and emotions don’t line up with Scripture, it’s best to steer yourself away from them when making decisions for your life.
Remember, the Holy Spirit has your back. {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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