04 Sep Who Am I? Learning to respond to life from your position not your condition (Part 3)

Have you ever heard the expression, “Get real!”  How about this one, “Keep it real!”  With all the hypocrisy in the media, political arena and the sports venue, people are truly looking for authenticity…which I truly believe is vital.

While I am all for biblical authenticity, sincerity and genuineness (see Eph. 6:24), I am not in favor of being true to my feelings!  If you are going to truly “keep it real”, you must first discover who you really are…you are a spirit!  Because I am so full of joy I have been accused before of not “keepin’ it real”.  However, what these people really want me to do is to give in to my feelings.  They say I am not being true to myself unless I acquiesce to how I feel.  If were a soul, this would be perfectly appropriate, but I am a spirit that has a soul and I live in a body.  Therefore if I am to truly “keep it real” I must be true to the real me…my spirit.

There is never a time that my born again human spirit is not filled with the joy of the Lord (see Gal. 5:21-23).  So if I’m going to keep it real, I’m going to continually choose joy no matter what my circumstances are saying!  It’s a choice to rejoice (Ps. 118:24)!  You see, it all comes down to an identity issue.

Over the last number of weeks we have discovered why your identity is so important:

1)      You behave according to your self-image (Mark 12:31)

2)      You marry according to your self-image

3)      You succeed or fail according to your self-image (Prov. 23:7)

Then we began to share with you “Three Wonders of Who I am”:

1.      Who am I…you are a spirit (John 3:3-5)

2.      Who am I not…I am not a soul or a body (Phil. 3:19)

Then we began “10 Facets of Fickled Feelings”:

1.      Feelings are the first thing to go in negative circumstances (Eph. 6:13)

2.      Never depend on your feelings to tell you the truth

This week let’s continue…

3.      Never try to serve God based on your feelings (Rom. 1:9).

Here the Scripture tells us to “serve God from my spirit”.  As you know, I am a pastor who does three weekend services, a Wednesday night service and two Bible school classes every week.  If I waited until I felt like preaching, I would stay home curled up in a fetal position with my curtains closed!  Seriously, while most of the time I can’t wait to teach, there are a few times when I did not feel like teaching at all.

When my dad went on to be with Jesus on a Saturday morning.  From the time they removed his body from his house to the time I had to teach on Saturday, was only a few hours.  My faithful Executive Pastor kindly offered to take the service for me, but I knew deep in my spirit that I was supposed to minister that day.  Dad would’ve wanted it that way.  Now if I would have asked my feelings if I wanted to preach, they would have told me “No”.  So I just didn’t ask them.  That day I served God out of my spirit!

A few years back just before I went up to teach on a Sunday morning church service, I was hugged by a very strong martial arts artist in our church that promptly cracked my rib.  No one knew but I sure didn’t feel like preaching.  I felt like crying!  I simply claimed my healing and went up to preach one of the best messages I have ever taught!  If I would’ve asked my feelings (or my ribs) if I wanted to teach…they would’ve said “No”.  So I didn’t ask them…I served God out of my spirit that day!

Someone said, “I just didn’t feel like my prayers got any higher than the ceiling.”  They don’t have to get higher than your nose…the Holy Spirit dwells in you!  Your prayers are not answered based on your feelings, they are based on your faith in God’s Word!

Someone else said, “I just don’t feel like God loves me.”  Yet the Bible tells us nothing can separate you from the love of God (see Rom. 8:35)!  What if I woke up one morning and told my wife “Anne, I just don’t feel like I’m married to you.”  She would tell me, “I don’t care how you feel big boy…we are married and you better remember that lest you feel the hot slap on your cold face!”

Thank God for feelings…I have them!  You have them!  God has them…just don’t serve God out of them.  Let feelings in your car, just don’t let them into the driver’s seat!

4.      Feelings don’t represent the anointing (I John 2:20,27).

In our church circles, we hear all the time, “I feel the Holy Ghost.”  Now please don’t mistake me, there are times when the Holy Spirit manifests Himself in such a way that it affects your soul.  There are times when you feel absolutely nothing.  You can get saved, filled, healed and delivered and experience big feelings.  You can get saved, filled, healed and delivered and feel absolutely nothing!

Many Christians will come out of a church service and say, “That was so anointed!” When you try and pinpoint them as to why, they respond, “I felt something” or “I had goose bumps!”  At times if it was loud then it is considered “anointed”.  Please don’t misunderstand me, as it could be loud and anointed, or quiet and anointed.  You certainly don’t want to relegate the anointing down to a goose bump.  The anointing is the presence of the Holy Spirit to remove burdens and destroy yokes (see Isaiah 10:27).  This can happen with or without feelings.

Some Christians believe if you really are going to repent there must be tears and if there are not tears, then it must not be real repentance.  However, I must differ.  There are times when tears get in the way of true repentance.  The word “repent” is the Greek word metanoia. Meta means to change and “noia” denotes the mind.  Put the corresponding Greek words together and it means “to change the mind”.  You can change your mind and not feel a thing!

After having been in ministry now for 26 years, invariably I have seen two people come to the altar to give their life to Jesus.  One is crying profusely and the other seems to feel nothing at all.  If you ask most Christians they will tell you the one who was crying “really got saved”.  However, I have seen the opposite…it is the one who makes a definite decision, not based on emotions, who normally goes on to be a disciple of Jesus Christ!

When I gave my life to Jesus I didn’t feel anything.  I didn’t feel a burden lift off me, I didn’t cry…nothing!  But I made a definite decision to invite Jesus into my heart and life.  This has helped my walk with Jesus considerably as I know I don’t have to feel anything for Him to radically affect my life.

Again, please don’t mistake me I am not talking about some cold, stoic, emotionless relationship but I am talking about serving God out of my spirit!

Next week we’ll continue our discussion on, “Who Am I?”