You have a body and your body has emotions. Well, your soul has emotions. Your soul has a mind, a will and emotions, and the thing that connects your body with the place where you take action is your emotions--the places where these things connect.
The Word of God comes into your spirit, it's translated through your mind, your thinking processes, into your soul. It's believed by your will and your will affects your emotions, and your emotions stimulate your body to go out and do what your mind, your will, decided it was going to do, says Richard Jordan.
You don't start with the emotions; you start with the thinking. You are designed to take action based on a decision of your will educated by truth in your mind.
So, you have to have your mind programmed with truth so that your will can make a decision based on that truth, and then your emotions will put you into motion with acts that support the decision based on truth.
Now when you get the emotional revolt, your old sin nature (Romans talks about the "motions of sin"), the motions in your life that are stimulated this way, from out here, your flesh, come in, take over your emotions, tell your will, "This is what's real," and your mind . . . listen, that's backwards!
What that does is it puts you into revolt and absolute failure in life, because now you are literally in revolt. Jesus told His apostles, "Let not your heart be troubled."
You can have emotional pain in here and when you have it it's because instead of your mind being programmed by truth, your will making decisions based on that truth, that your emotions can then support . . . by the way, sometimes your emotions don't want to support what your will has decided to do. You know what you do? You give them the Bronx Cheer and go on anyway.
If you understand how these things work, when you get into the gritty details of life on a daily basis, then you begin to understand how this kind of stuff works in life. So, you have to understand that love . . .
The emotions need to come as a result of some truth educating your mind. Your will making a decision based on that truth that then your emotions can support.
That's what real love is designed to produce. That's the way it's designed to operate. It's more than emotions. It's not something you fall into and out of. It's a commitment you've made based upon faith in some truth, that then your emotions come in line with.
Your emotions don't really have any intellect. They are designed to be responders. They respond to what's in your mind. That is reality to your emotions; whatever you're thinking.
So, if you've got some bad thinking in here, your emotions are going to respond to that bad thinking. That's why they need to be programmed by truth. What is true? "Thy Word is truth."
When you make decisions in life, you need to have truth based on God's Word in you. That's where the right division comes in and that's why we pound on that all the time. That's the basis upon which spiritual life is built.
Jesus said, "The words I speak unto you they are spirit and they are truth," and God's life works through that Word when you believe it. It programs your mind and your will makes the choice to believe it and then it "works effectually in you that believe."
Jesus said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death." In His inner man, His emotions were revolting against what His mind and His faith had told Him lay ahead of Him.
Hebrews 12: [2] Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
He had a realm of understanding in His mind and He said, "Not mine but thy will be done." Jesus was sorrowful for what was coming: As "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it."
He wasn't run by His emotions. He recognized where they came from, why they were there and He walked by faith in His Father's will.
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Here is an old post:
There are two fundamental emotions humans deal with in life—one is love, drawing us toward things, and the other is fear, pushing us away from things, notes Richard Jordan.
“Fear is a debilitating thing; in John 14, the fear of men kept people from trusting and believing even when they saw the truth of God’s Word by seeing the Messiah in their midst!
“Jesus said, ‘Let not your heart be troubled.’ What does your heart do? With a heart man believes. Then He says, ‘Neither be afraid.’
“Without having that turmoil down inside, you have the ability to just go, ‘Ahhh,’ and let it all hang out and relax inside; relax in the truth of God’s Word about who Jesus Christ is and what He’s accomplished.
“Why should you trust it? Christ says, ‘Look at me; I’m trusting it!’
“He says in John 14:28, ‘Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.’
“Christ is saying, ‘You know why you ought to have your heart trust me and not be afraid? Because you’ve heard my Word!’
“He already told His disciples, ‘If you love me keep my commandments.’ 'I’m living in complete total dependence on the will of my Father,' is what He’s saying. Paul has a great phrase for that—he calls it ‘the faith of Christ.’
“Jesus Christ entered into a plan and an agreement with His Father about what He would do and said, ‘Now, my peace I leave you.’ He’s completely at peace. He has complete inner tranquility even though He knows the agony He’s going to face on the Cross.
"In fact, when He says in verses 30-31 (‘Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
[31] But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence’), He’s saying in the vernacular of our day:
“ ‘Let’s git-er done! . . . Let’s get on with it! The Adversary, the prince of this world, has come to fulfill the conflict of Genesis 3:15 where the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan will be in personal hand-to-hand combat. That day has arrived, so let’s go!’
“Because He’s got nothing . . . ‘There’s no weakness in me at all; I’m ready to go.’
“He knows what the Scripture says is going to happen to Him and yet He doesn’t hold back. In Hebrews 12, it says, ‘Who for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame.’
“He had in His mind an understanding of what God had promised Him and believed it and confidently trusted in it. There’s no rebellion, no hesitation; He has that complete inner tranquility.
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“There’s a fascinating passage in Philippians 4:9: 'Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.'
“You want the God of peace to be with you? What does that mean? Well, look at verse 7: ‘And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’
“Wouldn’t you get the peace of God from the God of peace? This is peace that BELONGS to the God of peace.
“When Paul talks in Philippians 4 about the ‘peace of God,’ that’s the peace that BELONGS to God. In Romans 5, he talks about ‘being justified by faith we have peace WITH God.’
"That’s the peace that God Himself has. God is at peace with His own will. He’s at peace with His own plans. He’s at peace with His own word. And God’s peace; that total tranquility and inner calmness over what He’s doing, He takes that and gives it to us when we trust Him.
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“By the way, when it talks about the peace WITH God and the peace OF God, Melchizedek was the king of righteousness and the king of peace. Righteousness is first, peace is second. Because peace can only be based on righteousness; things have to be dealt with righteously.
“James 3:17 tells Israel, ‘But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.’
“First you have the righteousness, then you have the peace.
“Isaiah 32 says, 'And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
[18] And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.'
“Righteousness has to do with being right. God’s Word is right and I’m in relationship with it and the peace comes out of His righteousness.
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“John 14: 27 is the great illustration of the peace OF God. Jesus says, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’
“Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. Here’s God living in our humanity and He has complete and total peace—inner tranquility, inner calmness, a relaxed mental attitude in His heart that results in that faith, that total dependence on the Word of His Father.
“He’s going away to receive the kingdom. Remember the parallel in Luke 19? Remember the passage in Daniel 7 where the Son of Man comes before the ancient of days to receive the kingdom and the power and the dominion? He goes there to receive the kingdom and to return.
“Philippians 2:5 says, ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.’ This is a truth that Paul followers should be very clear about and should rejoice in.
"Paul goes on, ‘Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: [7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: [8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’
“He made Himself of no reputation. Who did that to Him? He did it to Himself. Voluntarily, He took up a position and took upon Him the form of a servant. Though He’s equal with the Father, He chooses to function in relationship to the Father as a servant. Did He have to? No, He willingly chose to.
“The next verse says, ‘He humbled Himself and became obedient.’ What does a servant do? He does what his master, his lord, tells him to do. So when Jesus Christ says, ‘The Father is greater than I,’ it’s in relationship to Jesus Christ coming as a servant. What He’s doing is owning His place as a servant.”