Sunday Sermons

The Will of God - Part 5

Mark Dunagan
07/07/02 - Sunday Morning

The Will of God 5

The Role of Emotions

Friesen notes that when a person has spent their life responding to inner impulses as through God was speaking to them, it is very difficult to conceive of a personal relationship with God that is experienced in some other way. “Even when the believer accepts with his mind that those impressions are not communications from God, and he mentally understands that God has revealed 100 percent of His moral will for the believer’s guidance (in the Scriptures, 2 Timothy 3:16-17), he may feel a void in his heart. He may find he cannot escape the notion that he has had to exchange present tense direction for past tense revelation. It can seem that God is at least 1900 years away, while the believer is left by himself to sort out God’s guidance ‘by the Book’”(p. 247). The first thing that we need to note is that anyone who feels disappointed that God is not speaking to us directly today has really failed to understand what we have in the Bible. The Bible is the totality of God’s revelation to man, in our own language and written in a way that we can learn the lessons of the past (Romans 15:4), understand precisely what God wants us to do (Ephesians 3:3-5; 5:17), and be fully prepared for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Spiritual men and women in the past did not depreciate the Scriptures, rather they rejoiced in them and longed to be able to meditate upon them for instruction, guidance, and wisdom (Psalm 19:7ff; 119:97ff; John 17:17 “Thy Word is truth”).

The Danger of Living By Emotions

Long ago Solomon noted, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26), yet we seem to be surrounded both by a secular and religious culture that advocates following the feelings and impulses of one’s own heart. Yet God knows that our emotions can be greatly affected by our health, upbringing, fatigue, medication, the weather, our diet, our hormonal balance, a news report, the feelings of others, young children, in sum, everything that influences our immediate perception of reality. God gives us examples in the Scriptures where people were emotionally 100% sure of something and it turned out they were dead wrong (Genesis 37:33 “Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!”; Acts 26:9).

Friesen notes, “The believer who evaluates his walk with the Lord primarily on the basis of his subjective feelings is vulnerable to spiritual ‘seasickness’—the cumulative effect of being ‘like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind’ (James 1:6). Such an individual may experience euphoric ‘highs’ and despondent ‘lows’ with neither extreme being directly related to God’s work in his life. It is entirely possible for such a person to ‘feel good’ about his relationship with God even though he is living in disobedience” (p. 248). In fact, Jesus notes that there will be many people at the Judgment who fully expect to be saved, yet who have been living in rebellion to God (Matthew 7:22-23 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’”). If Jesus “never knew” such people as His, then obviously they did not actually perform miracles, for God does not give miraculous power to people who were never His people. Yet these people were 100% convinced that they had actually performed such miracles!

Objective Truth First: Emotions Second

This is the pattern we find in the Bible. “For often, in the midst of hostile circumstances, one’s inner impressions are casting doubts on God’s wisdom, love, and or power, while God’s Word affirms that He is at work in all things to accomplish what is good on behalf of the believer (Romans 8:28-29)” (Friesen pp. 248-249). I may “feel” overwhelmed and forsaken in a temptation, but God’s Word tells me the opposite (1 Corinthians 10:13). I may “feel” the need to worry about the physical necessities of life, yet the Bible tells me to put God first (Matthew 6:25-33). I may “feel” afraid in a certain situation, but the Scriptures tell me not to fear (Hebrews 13:5-6). Paul expressed it this way, “We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Paul also noted that the peace of God that guards our hearts and minds, is directly related to dwelling on those things that are “true” (Philippians 4:7-8). In light of the above verses, we must allow the truth in the Scriptures to determine our emotions, and we must pull in our emotions and bring them into alignment with what the Bible teaches (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). A modern application of this would be the claims of Mormonism. The promise in the Book of Mormon is that if you read it and ask God, in the name of Christ, if these things are true; and if you ask with a sincere heart, and real intent, having faith in Christ, then God will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Spirit (see Moroni 10:3-5). A warm feeling or glow in the bosom typically explains this “power of the Holy Spirit”. Yet God’s objective truth condemns the book of Mormon, for it claims to be another gospel of Jesus Christ given by an angel (Galatians 1:6-9).

Walking by Faith not by Sight

“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). The Bible also tells us, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Therefore, “walking by faith” would be living according to the Scriptures, and trusting what God has revealed in His Word. In this discussion “walking by sight” would be, “To require perceptible proof of God’s presence and ongoing direct communication of His will” (Friesen p. 249). Friesen is right. What many people in the denominational world are demanding from God is a continual stream of direct communication from Him and a continual stream of signs that He is working directly in their life. Yet such a demand from the standpoint of the Scriptures is viewed as “testing” God (Deuteronomy 6:16 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him as Massah”). Exodus 17:1-7 records that actual event and there Moses wrote, “because they tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’” (Exodus 17:7). That is, unless God was constantly doing something miraculous and meeting all their needs immediately, on their time schedule, in the way they expected, they would not continue to believe in Him.

A Scriptural Personal Relationship with God

“To spell this out further, there are three specific steps that can be identified in the process of cultivating a personal relationship with God:

Intellectually: One must learn what God has declared to be true and real, “This is the man who hears the word, and understands it” (Matthew 13:23); “Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4); “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). One cannot have a relationship with God if one remains ignorant of what God has revealed in the Scriptures, in fact, such people are often viewed as going off into apostasy (2 Peter 3:16 “which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction”), being easy prey for false teachers (Romans 16:18), or going backward spiritually (Hebrews 5:12). I know that often the religious world downplays the need for diligent Bible study and views such a task as old-fashioned, boring, or worshipping the Bible, but consider this: 1. The Bible commands diligent study (2 Timothy 2:15). 2. The Bible is the actual words of God (2 Timothy 3:16). 3. The Bible contains information that is not found anywhere else (1 Corinthians 2:9ff). That is, information about God, Who is He, what His nature is and what He likes and dislikes? There is no way that a person can “know” God apart from the Scriptures.

Volitionally: One must take God at His word and accept His pronouncements as being true. That is, we must obey what God has said (James 1:22; Hebrews 5:9). Once again, I know that in the religious world “obedience” to what the Scripture says has a very negative connotation, but the only way that demonstrates to God that we do love Him and believe Him, is when we obey Him, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15); “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46); “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). Notice that in these passages the true test for loving God, the true test for knowing God and the true test for respecting God is the same, obedience to His revealed will. The problem I see with people who are told that God speaks to them directly and gives them “signs” concerning which path in life to follow, is that they end up substituting obedience to such subjective feelings and impressions for obedience to the Scriptures. After we learn what God has revealed and after we obey what has been revealed, then we can respond emotionally (Romans 6:11 “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin”; 17).

Commanded Emotions

People tend to forget that the Bible also legislates our emotional responses, besides our actions, attitudes, motivations, means, and goals. According to the Bible, God is to be loved (Matthew 22:37), praised (Psalm 135:1), blessed (Psalm 135:20),worshipped (John 4:23-24), exalted (Psalm 99:5), feared (1 Peter 1:17), hoped upon (1 Peter 3:5), trusted (1 Peter 4:19),rejoiced in (Psalm 149:2), extolled (Psalm 145:1), and thanked (Psalm 140:13). Added to this, there are emotions that are commanded or expected in other situations as well, “Abhor what is evil” (Romans 12:9); “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love” (Romans 12:10); “Rejoicing in hope” (12:12); “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (12:15). We could also note such things as wives respecting their husbands (Ephesians 5:33); husbands cherishing their wives(Ephesians 5:29); and children honoring their parents (Ephesians 6:2). If respect, honor, and cherishing mean anything, then there must be some emotion in those terms.

Friesen notes a huge contrast with what is often practiced in the religious world and what the Bible teaches: “In my heart I know God wants me to quit my job, for He surely has something better to take its place”. That is unacceptable subjectivity, for that conclusion cannot be verified by an objective source of truth. “My heart exults in God, my Savior”. That is a proper, emotional response to the character and work of God. The believer’s emotional energy should be channeled into biblically mandated responses to divinely defined truth” (p. 250). Too many religious people are expending their emotions on an imagined relationship with God that has no basis in Scripture! In addition, while at times they “sound” spiritual, typically we are only seeing some emotional high while at the same time we never see their emotional lows. Rather, we need to be truly in subjection to Christ, and giving Him our entire selves, heart, mind, will and strength (Mark 12:30). This means that we love God so much that we allow His truth to determine our emotional response, rather than demanding that our emotions determine what is truth. “The Bible declares that God is my Father. There may be days when I do not feel like God is my Father, but that does not change the truth one iota. On those occasions, I can either believe my inner impressions and feed the self-pity that attends my imaginary state of orphanhood; or I can refute my initial feelings with the truth” (p. 251). Allowing the Scriptures to determine my emotions is not “impersonal”, for the Scriptures reveal that God is indeed involved in the life of each believer (1 Corinthians 10:13; John 3:16; Hebrews 13:5).