What would it feel like to experience the truth of scripture in our emotions and what if peace ruled your heart? What if you trusted God to empower you with every good work prompted by faith? And what if you knew you lived with his yoke that is easy and a burden that is light?
You would need to discern what your emotions are telling you. I've got a tool for that.
Trevor H Lund is the founder of Live LIGHT Academy at https://livelight.ca and the Chief Storyteller at https://revtrev.com. Subscribe and set notifications on https://revtrev.com/tv for past videos and live casts and https://revtrev.com/radio to subscribe to his podcast wherever you listen.
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Discerning the ALIAS of my Emotions Tool
You need to know how to discern what your emotions are telling you. And yes, it's time for a tool.
This is the discerning by emotion tool and we call it... ALIAS is the acronym. I don't know why I settle on acronyms, but I like them for tools.
How do we discern our emotions?
First one is ask God to ask Holy Spirit to reveal hidden sins. Do I say I believe something about you that I don't really believe? "You know God, I haven't had peace this past week. Why am I not trusting you?" "What do I say that I believe about you that I really don't believe?" The great news is Holy Spirit will show you. He loves to show us that. He will show you that. Be keen to listen.
The next part.
Look, the L is Look. Look to see what he will say. That's from Habakkuk 2:1 God tells Habakkuk to look to hear what he will... Look to see... that's from Habakkuk 2:1 The way that I use that verse is in conversational journaling. I write down a question for God. I'm in the flow of Holy Spirit. I am in his presence. And I ask him a question and then write down his response. I don't worry about it lining up with scripture. I don't worry about it aligning with my thoughts. I'm just writing as it comes to me. Afterwards I'll take that and make sure it lines up with scripture. I'll take that and make sure it lines up with the nature of God. I've been doing it for so many years. When I started, I would bring it to someone who is wiser than me and get his input on it. But I generally will do that if it's something really that I think is from God but isn't.
But...I've learned to trust that.
And it's given me great peace and an easy yoke, by the way.
Anyway,
Number three - Inquire: You ask Holy Spirit what lie you're believing. And that's a great way to do it if you're conversational journaling, "What lie am I believing?" "Why do I feel like I can't trust you to take care of this God?" "Why do I feel like I've got to do this on my own?" "Why do I feel like I'm not supported in this?" "Why?" Holy Spirit will show you.
The next phase...
You agree - with the lie you're believing. This is the confession and repentance part; confession is agreeing with God with the truth he reveals to you. That's confession. Repentance is turning around and doing the exact opposite. You can do that with Holy Spirit's help.
The S:
Final is Seek Him. And ask him for the truth if he wants you to know.
Often how this breaks down is you may have an image: "What lie are you believing?" Well, "When did I start believing that lie?" He'll take you to a memory. In that memory what's going on? Let me look. "Let me see what's going on God." What's happening in that memory? OK, "God, where are you in that memory?" "What's the truth of this that you're showing me?"
And when he reveals the truth of those situations.... those memories he wants to heal, those things that we are believing not because of this incident but because of something that happened years ago....
The interesting thing that I've found working with people around forgiveness is sometimes people can decide to forgive and they feel like they've forgiven the person. Other times they make the decision to forgive and they don't feel like they've forgiven until they actually bless the other person. Whether that's saying a blessing or if it's a safe situation they can go back and go and actually do something to bless that person—whatever Holy Spirit's telling them to do—and as long as their emotions—they're back—it's OK.
They feel like they've forgiven them.
Still other people make the decision; they do that action they bless—and yet they can't get over it; they don't feel like they've forgiven.
The only solution I've come up with is to use this tool and allow Holy Spirit to use this tool and get to the place where he will heal those former offenses that we have not forgiven. Remarkable things happen when that happens.
Other times people give up because they say they've forgiven someone and they don't feel like they've forgiven. And they take the next step and they bless someone but they don't feel like they've forgiven. And they don't know what to do for the next step—to actually feel like they've forgiven someone.
I've been talking about forgiveness, but this can happen for anything that's going on. Generally, it's a forgiveness issue.
But,
you know, we pick up offenses all the time. We pick up things that sometimes it's from good people who want us to succeed, and other times it's from evil people who want to do us harm. Sometimes it's from neglectful people who let us go.
But all of us are wounded and all of us need healing.
We need to allow Holy Spirit to heal us. We need well-healed wounds. Hurt people hurt people, but healed people heal people. And you and I need to be healed so we can help heal those around us.
So peace needs to rule our hearts, but every emotion will show us what we really believe. If you use this tool, you can find out. Let God heal those things that don't line up with the truth of scripture, those emotions that don't line up with the truth of scripture. And it'll revolutionize your life. It will transform you with Holy Spirit's help. So I would encourage you to do that. And I want to challenge you. Will you allow peace to rule and insist that the rest of your emotions serve you by showing you what you really believe? Can I pray for you?
Challenge
Will you allow peace to rule and insist that the rest of your emotions need to serve you?
Next Steps
Check out the Live LIGHT Above the Negavity Course https://revtrev.link/bless
Live LIGHT Above the Negativity Course
Move from being easily regularly frustrated, usually feeling busy, often afraid or easily angered TO having peace at all times and in every situation.
