The Holy Spirit will teach us how to feel and think

When God saw everything that He had created, He declared that is was all very good. This included our full range of emotions – even the ones we are anxious about feeling. Emotions are not bad or good in themselves, God graciously gave us every emotion as a signal for what is going on inside us, spiritually. When we learn how to bring our anxious emotions to the Holy Spirit to ask for His counsel on how to obey Jesus, we will always be led to victory.

Genesis 1:31 NKJV  Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Our emotions reflect our true selves. Our individual way of thinking and feeling about things is what makes us unique. No one reads or reacts to a situation in precisely the same way. Our inner thoughts and emotions reflect who we really are, they speak of what we truly want and desire, the “real me”.

Human beings, however, are good at masking our inner emotions in self protection. What we say or what we do may not reflect the “real me”. This is why being emotionally controlled or suppressed feels like a form of “dying” inside.

Our subconscious emotions drive a large part of our lives

Emotions are powerful navigators for our lives. Studies show that damage to areas in the brain associated with emotions can significantly impair a person’s ability to make decisions. People will struggle with simple everyday choices, such as choosing what to eat or wear, and face difficulty with more complex decisions like managing finances or maintaining social relationships. (Source: The role of emotion in decision-making: Evidence from neurological patients with orbitofrontal damage)

Our emotions are nuanced, diverse, numerous and multilayered. Our bodies appraise situations around us all the time (like our body is doing right now, without us being aware). We have been created to do this on a subconscious level so that we are not overwhelmed. The subconscious mind is very powerful and processes emotional stimuli in milliseconds, before our conscious mind is even aware of any of it.

There are emotions that we are conscious of but many more emotions that we are not! In fact, our subconscious mind, which accounts for about 95% of our thoughts, decisions, and actions, is emotionally driven. It reacts instinctively, based on our emotional memories and patterns. It does not analyse situations like our conscious minds do.

We often think that our issues stem from one or two particular things, but when we seek the Holy Spirit, He will reveal much deeper subconscious and core issues that are hidden even to ourselves! The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, He lovingly shines truth into our emotional strongholds and distorted mindsets.

Testimony 1: The Holy Spirit reveals the root for reactions towards boss

A lady suffered a nervous breakdown because she was triggered by her boss’s controlling behaviour. The Holy Spirit showed her that growing up, she had judged her own father for “not being a good leader” as she saw him as “clueless” and “mean”. Because she harboured deep resentment and judgements against her dad, she had very little tolerance and grace for other authority figures in her life. That included her current boss.

The lady was only consciously aware of her emotions towards her boss (on the surface), but she was not aware of the deeper underlying resentment she had bottled up towards her father (below the surface) that was being triggered. Her subconscious mind had already “calibrated” her body into reacting with resentment and judgment whenever anything triggered similar emotions from childhood. It was a very subtle, automatic and subconscious response. This greatly affected her attitude towards superiors at work and caused her to over-react. Once she forgave her father, she was able to show her boss more grace.

Our anxious emotions do not just go away

We cannot ignore uncomfortable emotions, push them down, or bottle them up. Painful emotions do not just “go away” or fade away. All our emotions get stored in our subconscious. In fact, the more we try to suppress our emotions, the more power we give them because of the greater energy we need to exert in order to keep them under control.

Emotional suppression and repression are not emotional freedom at all.

Emotional suppression is the conscious, deliberate act of pushing our emotions down while repression is the unconscious, automatic, and often chronic pushing away of painful feelings and memories into our subconscious.

Suppression says, “I’ll deal with this later”. Repression says, “I’ll ignore this forever”.

Repression often stems from our inability to cope with intense, forbidden emotions or our body’s mechanism to survive severe trauma.

Asian cultures, which are full of performance, comparison, and shame, are full of emotional repression! Most repression begins very early, in childhood.

Some emotional symptoms of repression include:

• Emotional numbness, appearing detached, withdrawn, or indifferent, or having an inability to feel
• Intense anxiety, people in such instances are sometimes diagnosed as “ADHD” “schizophrenic” instead
• Intense mood swings, sudden irritability, leading to diagnosis as “bipolar“
• Constant feelings of dread or fear, unexplained panic attacks
• Memory gaps, particularly regarding past traumatic or uncomfortable events
• Nightmares, which can be flashbacks of past traumatic events
• Uncontrollable outbursts of anger
• Intense reactivity (people are sometimes labelled as “highly sensitive” instead)
• Signs of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) etc..

Some physical symptoms of repression include:

• Weakened immune system leading to frequent illnesses
• Low energy and exhaustion, even with adequate rest
• Chronic unexplained pain (headaches, stomach issues, muscle stiffness, or chronic pain)
• Stress-related skin issues such as eczema or acne etc.

All this is not to encourage us to vent our emotions out at others.

Rather, it is to encourage us to learn to take all our emotions to the Holy Spirit for His daily renewal and refinement! He will help us renew our minds and heal our anxious hearts. He is the best Counselor, Healer, and Teacher we could ever hope to have – particularly when it comes to emotions that cause us anxiety, such as fear, betrayal, abandonment, jealousy, anger, sadness, or shame, just to name a few.

This is why 1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

Testimony 2: The Holy Spirit reveals the root cause for muteness

A young man literally became “frozen” and mute whenever he encountered anything new or stressful. He said he didn’t want to behave in this way but his body would react on its own volition. He had no control over himself. As he prayed, the Holy Spirit led the young man back to a memory when he was around six years old. He recalled standing behind his mother as she knelt before a school principal and begged him to admit her son into the school after he did not pass the entrance interview.

This event led to deep shock, trauma, and a lot of shame. He made a promise to himself to be “perfect” so his mother would not have to humiliate herself on his behalf. Now as a grown man, he would freeze whenever he was not confident of doing anything perfectly because he never learnt to process his emotions. Those feelings of the six-year-old boy were still there in his subconscious and “ruling” his reactions today. There was a lot self-forgiveness to do before he could recover his own voice back. He also had to release that traumatic memory to the Lord and ask his Heavenly Father to redeem the incident to the glory of God, turning ashes to beauty. This is the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 61:1,3 NKJV  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Our anxious emotions affect us spiritually

The original Hebrew root words for Proverbs 15:13 shows us that when we feel troubled, pained, sad or wounded, our spirits are stricken and overwhelmed. 1 Peter 5:6-9 tells us to give all our cares and anxious emotions to God. Otherwise, we:

• Can’t think soberly
• Can’t resist the devil
• Can’t stand steadfast in faith

Proverbs 15:13 NKJV  A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, But by sorrow [atstsebeth ie. troubled, pained, sad, wounded] of the heart the spirit is broken [nake – striken].

1 Peter 5:6-9 NKJV  Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

Trauma, in particular, shatters us inside. We experience trauma when we are under-equipped to respond to deeply distressing events which overwhelm our ability to cope and leave long-lasting negative effects on us, whether consciously or subconsciously.

A broken heart, for instance, is traumatic. The Hebrew word for “brokenhearted” is “leb shabar” where “leb” means “heart, will, self” and “shabar” means “break, shatter, crush, or smash.” This implies that a broken heart shatters our sense of who we are and crushes our willpower. (For some people, things can go as far as breaking their will to live.)

We know what we ought to do but we just do not have the willpower to do it. The spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak to resist sin.

Matthew 26:41 NKJV  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Many sins are triggered emotionally

Many of our sinful behaviours are driven or triggered by unchecked anxious emotions, fleshly desires, or passions, such as anger, envy, covetousness, and fear.

Proverbs 29:22 NKJV  An angry man stirs up strife, And a furious man abounds in transgression.

James 3:16 NKJV  For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

Timothy 1:7 NKJV  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Our repressed emotions, in particular, are one major reason we turn to coping mechanisms. Coping mechanisms may mask our internal anxieties and provide some relief in the moment but they are sinful in nature because they do not lead us back to God. Coping mechanisms rely on our flesh and our flesh will always oppose the Spirit of God.

Galatians 5:17 NKJV  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Some examples of fleshly coping mechanisms include:

• Striving to make our outside world “perfect” in order to compensate for our internal emotional tensions
• Distracting oneself with constant media consumption
• Consuming alcohol and drugs to numb feelings of anxiety
• Isolating oneself from society or avoiding emotional intimacy
• Passive-aggressive behaviour
• People-pleasing in order to avoid further anxiety
• High intellectualism and overthinking
• Being suspicious and judgemental as a defense mechanism etc.

The Bible warns us against allowing our emotions ie. our flesh to “rule” us. Emotional control does not come from suppressing or repressing our feelings but releasing them to the Holy Spirit and exchanging them for His love, joy and peace, so we dwell continuously in the refreshment of the River of Living Water ie. the Holy Spirit

John 7:38-39 NKJV   He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

If the Lord is our God, then He is the Ruler over our emotions too. This is one major key to being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, who only said and did what His Father showed Him to do. Philippians 2:13 (NLT) says, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”

John 5:19 NKJV  Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

The Holy Spirit renews our hearts and minds

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to be sober-minded and renew our minds.

1 Peter 5:8 NKJV  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

This plays a large part in re-calibrating our minds so we are no longer driven by our subconscious emotional impulses, but by the Lord Himself. We see that King David wisely cried out to the Lord in Psalm 51:10-11, “Create in me a clean [tahor ie. pure] heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” The Holy Spirit will teach us self-control over our emotions, that is one part of His fruit in our lives.

Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

The most important part we need play is to first acknowledge our anxious emotions to ourselves and not try to cope on our own, but to bring all our thoughts and emotions to the Lord for His guidance and correction, so we don’t end up harming ourselves or others.

May this sharing be a blessing to you as you seek to love the Lord with all your heart and lean on the Spirit of God for emotional guidance.