Study Notes

I.      Theirs is no verse of scripture that exempts the believer from experiencing pressure.  There are however many verses of scriptures that exempt the believer from experiencing defeat in the pressured situation.

A.    We have an adversary who comes to steal, kill, and destroy-1 Peter 5:8, John 10:10

B.     We should not be surprised or think it to be strange when we experience pressure-1 Peter 4:12

1.      The righteous will experience affliction, persecution, and pressure, but if they will live by faith and obey God they can experience victory no matter what they may be facing-Psalm 34:19

2.      John 16:33-Be of good cheer, you can have victory in the middle of a pressured situation

C.    Psalm 40:1-3-God is a God who delivers people from the pit, the dark place, the pressured situation

1.      In the midst of pressure it’s your responsibility to resist the enemy steadfast in faith, standing on God’s word refusing to cave in under the pressure-James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:9

II.     You’re going to have to learn to not allow your life to be governed by your emotions (senses) and instead do things by faith

A.    This issue of controlling your emotions is paramount in talking about obtaining victory in troubled times.  The reason being when you are in the dark place, when you are facing trying circumstances you are going to have all kinds of negative emotions and you cannot allow one of them to move you.  You might feel like quitting, you might feel like the Word’s not working, you might feel like saying the wrong thing, you might feel depressed or you might feel afraid.  In the dark place, if allow yourself to be governed by your emotions defeat and destruction are inevitable

III.   2 Corinthians 5:7-We are to conduct our lives based on the Word of God and our faith in that word and not how we feel

A.    We conduct our lives by faith, by what we believe

1.      The basis for my conduct is my faith in God and in his Word; I do what I do because of what I believe, not because how I feel

2.      There is no connection between what I do and how I feel

a.    How I feel has nothing to do with what I do

b.    Just ignore what this body wants and do what we do by faith

3.      There is however a connection between what I do and what I believe; What I believe is the basis and the foundation for everything that I do

B.     When it is time to act don’t consult your feelings because they are not to be the basis for what you do, but rather consult your faith for that should be the basis for your conduct

1.      Too often believers are more focused how they feel, than what they believe (Stop asking yourself how you feel and being conscious of how you feel and start asking yourself, “What do I believe?)

2.      Feelings are the enemy of faith because they constantly contradict the word

IV.   The walk of sight (a life conducted based on how you feel and what you perceive with the senses) is a defeated one; only the walk of faith will get you out of the dark place and into victory-1John 5:4

A.    You can’t win being governed by how you feel, you can’t win making decisions base on how you feel; your feelings will never bring victory in your life

1.      You can’t walk by sight and walk in victory

B.     The walk of sight is the walk in the flesh of the flesh (where you are governed by what you see and how you feel) and it never profits anybody anything (John 6:63)

1.      Galatians 5:16-21-You want get to your good inheritance by following your feelings

a.    There’s a confrontation coming between flesh and spirit

b.    All works of the flesh are stuff you did because it felt good

2.      2 Corinthians 3:17-When you’re being led by the Spirit and not by your feelings that’s liberty

C.    There’s going to come a time of confrontation between your feelings and your faith and when they meet if faith doesn’t win out, then you don’t win-1 Peter 1:6-9

1.      Your faith is being tested the moment you have feelings that contradict the Word

2.      You’re going to have to make a choice; follow your feelings or live by faith

a.    The moment we begin to be governed by our feelings is the moment your defeat begins

3.      You can receive the end of your faith if you don’t allow the heaviness to move you

V.    Romans 8:14-16-It was never God’s design that men govern their lives based on how they feel

A.    Mature believers are led by the spirit and by the Word, not by their emotions

1.      Immaturity is revealed in just how submitted you are to your feelings

B.     Ephesians 4:26-We are not to be governed by our emotions or allow our emotions to move us in a direction that opposes the Word of God

1.      Let not the sun go down on your wrath-Apparently you can control how you feel

a.    You either have to keep the sun from going down or get rid of that anger before it does

2.      27-When you are governed by your emotions (not walking by faith) the devil has an entry way---1 Peter 5:9, James 4:7-If you’re not resisting in faith you’re accessible

C.    Your emotions are on of the prime areas of target for Satan; Know this about your enemy: He loves to play on the emotions of God’s people because the moment you start being governed by your emotions you’re not walking by faith and you fair game then

1.      Psalm 15:4-No matter how you feel refuse to be moved by how you feel

a.    Learn to disesteem your emotions and instead esteem the Word of God; How I feel means nothing to me in light of what the Word says about me

2.      Acts 20:22-24-We have to do develop the mindset that says nothing moves me but the Word

3.      Hebrews 4:14-16-We have to come to the place where we believe the Word, obey the Word, and act like it’s true regardless of how we feel

a.    Our feelings have nothing to do with the validity of the Word of God; the word’s true no matter how I feel about it 

VI.   Our words are one of the main ways we govern our emotions

A.    Emotions are the voice of your flesh and they speak 24/7; From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed they are talking; they are a voice that constantly speaks and you’re going to have to learn to constantly talk back to them and not be governed by them-Psalm 103:1-20

1.      Rather than being governed by his emotions he is ruling over them

a.    He’s not just going to sit there and allow himself to fee bad

b.    In troubled times if you allow yourself to be ruled by your emotions they will take you deeper and deeper into troubled

c.     Apparently he doesn’t feel like doing this because he’s having to tell himself to do it; when you feel like doing something you don’t have to tell yourself to do it, you just to do it

2.      Who’s he talking to in this Psalm? Himself

3.      Why is he doing this? To pick his soul up and get his emotions in gear

B.     Feelings are in the soul and the soul is to be ruled over by the spirit; If you can help how you think, how you act, you can help how you feel; I can’t help how I feel is a lie

1.      Feelings like thoughts u can’t control which ones come, but you can control which ones stay

2.      Some people are bound by their feelings, by their flesh and the only way to get free and stay free is to develop in the walk of faith

C.    Proverbs 16:24-Your words have an affect on the condition of your soul (emotions); the words you spend time with play a huge factor in how you feel; your words have an affect on the condition of your soul

1.      If you eat right you can feel good no matter what you are at

a.    Philippians 4, Matthew 11:4-They’re both in prison but one wasn’t eating right

b.    You can be in a dark place, facing trying circumstances with feelings of discouragement and fear all over you, but if you’ll begin to feed on pleasant words they will be sweet to your soul and cause you to feel better

c.     If you feed on bitter words your soul will be bitter

2.      Something sweet versus something bitter: pleasing to the ear, the smell, the eye (pleasant)

D.    Proverbs 21:23-If I can control my mouth I can rule over my emotions

1.      There’s a connection between the guarded mouth and the peaceful soul

a.    If you’ll pay attention to what you are saying and keep watch over your mouth, you can keep your emotions out of trouble 

b.    The key to having a stress free soul is to have a mouth full of pleasant words

c.     There’s a connection between what you say and how you feel and rather than saying how you feel you need to say what you believe and you’ll change how you feel

2.      1 Samuel 30-David could not have felt good at this moment, but rather than being governed by his emotions he feed on pleasant words and as he did he was strengthened, encouraged and began to feel better

E.     These words don’t always take the first time in regards to the soul (The Psalmist in 103 addressed his soul twice and then followed it up with 15 more verses)

1.      Isaiah 26:3-To rule over your emotions (soul) it requires staying power

a.    That staying power is the ability to continue in the proper action without the feelings to drive or support that action

b.    Your soul may not fully respond to the first word

2.      James 1:21-It’s only the word attached to the soul that saves the soul

a.    And that’s why when you don’t have the feelings, when you don’t feel like doing it, you just have to stick with it; If I stay attached to this word eventually it’ll take in regards to my soul; So I just stay attached to it until it takes

b.    The word not attached to the soul will not effect the soul

3.      When the opposite is present there has to be a separation of the two before the sweetness of the pleasant thing can be enjoyed

a.    That word has a cleansing and nourishing effect and each time you say it, it cleanses and nourishes and the more cleansed you are of the bitter the more aware you become of the sweet

F.     Psalm 42:11-4 Keys to Not Being Emotion Led

1.      He is talking to his emotions

a.    Talk to your soul, rule over it, tell yourself how to feel

b.    EX: Somebody asked Smith Wigglesworth how he felt

2.      With a disquieted soul he praises God; he’s not allowing his life to be governed by his emotion

3.      He looks to God to be his source for “feeling better”

4.      He doesn’t wait to feel better before he starts acting in faith

a.    Get started acting in faith and trust God to take care of you emotionally and be the health of your countenance