Part 2
That Jesus perceived life's situations with His Spirit. That Jesus was moved on the basis of those perceptions. That Jesus candidly expressed His emotions to those closest to Him. [Also to be noted are His ability to surrender His spirit to God and that with the surrender of His spirit His life ended.]Note the power and depth of Jesus reactions. He cries out with a loud voice, is troubled unto death, or rejoices greatly. His Spirit-filled emotions were powerful and present. He is no antiseptic, calm beyond belief, purely logical and mental being. The triumphs and tragedies of faith move Him deeply indeed - as they have moved all great men and women of God.
Jesus And Perception In Mark 2:8 Jesus "perceived in His spirit". The spirit is the true organ for the perception of reality for Jesus as Isaiah declared in one of the best known passages in the Bible:
2 ( ( ( #) C B > 8 ! B !"* ./ 0 8 4 6 : * 8 * "8 !* " 8 " 4 6 : ./< 0 " 4 6 : ?* " $ " $ ! $ " %/' 0* " * ?* " ! G * $ % * $ ! ./) 0 " * * . The presence of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus gave Him extraordinary knowledge and wisdom so that He judged situations righteously and truthfully and inwardly. He did not judge situations as they appeared to the eyes and ears and to sense perception (verse 3 above). Rather He judged life's situations with a spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and knowledge that saw into the heart of things. This special perception that Jesus had shows in many of the gospel encounters and is neatly summarized by the apostle John who writes: (John 2:24 NKJV) But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men. ( see also Matthew 9:4, 12:25, Mark 5:30, 12:15 Luke 11;17, John 5:6, 6:61, 64 , 13:1-3, 18:4)
Jesus' perceptions of situations then led to His emotional reactions to them. On sensing His impending death His soul was troubled unto death, on seeing the grief at Lazarus's tomb He groaned in spirit and was troubled, when the disciples returned victorious He rejoiced, when He perceived the hardness of heart of the Pharisees He became angry, and when He sees masses of people coming out after healing and teaching He is moved with compassion. (see "objection 3 in the previous chapter) . Jesus then expressed these emotions powerfully but appropriately. There is always great dignity in the reactions of Jesus Christ. His emotionality was deep and expressive - never trivial, sentimental or chaotic. This then gives us a process for our own emotionality: 1. Perceive life spiritually, righteously, truthfully and with a Kingdom perspective. 2. React in our soul and spirit. Be moved by life. Not aloof and detached or cold and hard. 3. Express those reactions with dignity, power and poise. Be full-hearted emotionally but also be wise in expression. In the next chapter we will see that the apostles and many great men and women of God over the centuries have done precisely this - bringing their emotions under the control and empowerment of the Spirit of God so they reacted to things no longer from a merely human perspective with its five senses and self-interest but from a divine perspective with spiritual perception and true Kingdom interests. This is what makes a good Christian biography so compelling - we sense a different way of looking at the world - a heart controlled by God and seeing His interests in all things. In that chapter I will argue that a Kingdom perspective is not only good for our sanctification it is also critical for good emotional health and a high EQ. However I have more to say about the emotional life of Jesus first. The Beliefs of Jesus Christ Emotions flow from beliefs. When I was a young boy I was playing by the local creek when I found a huge lump of iron pyrites (Fool's Gold) and it was heavy and soft and looked like gold. I showed my brother Peter and we went home very secretively so nobody could see us with our important find. We then showed Dad and said, "We are rich! We are rich! We found this huge lump of gold and there's more just down by the creek!" Dad just laughed and explained about Fool's Gold. Even though our belief was not a true belief it still made us very happy while it lasted. We were so excited, not by actually finding gold, because we didn't actually find gold, but by the belief that we had found gold. When this belief was corrected, our emotion of joy was unsupported by an adequate belief, and it vanished. We went from very excited to being a bit disappointed. Once the belief vanished, the emotion vanished. Underneath emotions are beliefs, if you take way the belief the emotion vanishes, if you change the belief sufficiently, the emotion changes. How we believe has a direct affect on how we feel. This applies even in spiritual things. So if , like Jesus, you think that stealing houses from poor widows is wrong, you will react to it with the intensity that Jesus did. The difference between a video camera recording an event and a person seeing the event is that the person has prior beliefs. These prior beliefs cause the person to react to what they see. Lets look at three incidents in the life of Jesus to see how His beliefs informed His emotional reactions and made them different from those of so called "normal people". First we will look at His cleansing of the temple:
7 ( ( ( ) #( A C B > $ ! B * .8 B * " + * * " + * $ !" + . /( @ 0 * $ !$ * " ./( A 08 * " $ " 12 D7 $ * ! * $ DE * $ * + D + .D1 B ( < #( A C B > 5 + B B * * B * ./( ' 0 * F + $ !" " * ./( ) 03
! + * F * * !"D $ + * ./( @ 0 + 18 "$ H: 7 $ D* * ! H1/( A 08 ! 1I 9 * * 7 * .1 What beliefs of Jesus lay behind the strength of His reaction here? In Mark's gospel we see that Jesus believed : a) That the purpose of the Temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations. b) But that it had become a robbers den. In John's gospel Jesus is shown believing that it is : c) My Father's house b) But instead it had become a house of merchandise (with the implication that it was dishonest trade. [The accounts are not contradictory they just report slightly different samples of Jesus reactions at the time. It is probable that he said many other things as well while He was overturning the tables.] Lets look at the sequence of events. Jesus believes it should be A but perceives it is in fact B this leads to emotional reaction C which is expressed in verbal and physical behaviour D. For Jesus His beliefs included the honor due to His Father , the fact that the right use of the temple was prayer and that all nations should have access to it. They also included the belief that trade, especially dishonest trade was inappropriate in such a location. These were not widely and strongly held beliefs in His time otherwise the traders would not have been there in the first place. His unique beliefs led to His unique emotional reaction based on His spiritual perception of the nature of the situation. Lets move on and look at another of Jesus' puzzling reactions - during a fierce storm on the lake of Galilee.
7 ' # @ C B > * $ " !+ + . * ./ ) 08 ! ! $ "14 + * H3 "H1/ @ 0 * 13 $ $ * * 6 $ * E 18 * " !. Here Jesus' belief seems to have been that He was absolutely safe and that nothing could touch Him because His Father was protecting Him and the disciples. His belief also included the fact that it was a sane and reasonable thing for Him to speak to waves and wind and expect that they would obey Him. Furthermore He seems to believe that the disciples ought to share these beliefs and were quite unjustified in being fearful in the midst of such a storm. Based on these beliefs Jesus perception of the situation seems to have been "Not a problem!". It just wasn't a big deal. To say that this is "counter-intuitive" and defies all common sense is no under-statement. Nevertheless his beliefs were justified for He calmed the storm with a word. It truly wasn't a problem for Him at all. People of great faith have a tremendous poise in crisis situations. In a later chapter we shall learn how to handle situations we dread from a position of faith and a sense of mastery. Here Jesus beliefs led to Him having emotions of calm and a sense of mastery in a crisis situation and enabled Him to take effective action to remedy the situation. For our third illustration of Jesus' belief system we will go a few verses earlier in Matthew 8 to see the only time Jesus is recorded as "marveling" at something…
7 A #( ' C B > B * 12 ! .1/ 08 ! * 14 2 $ 9 * * !* $ .* $ $ + ./ 012 * * $ + " * . 2$ D; D "% D, D !% $ + D: D .1/( - 03 B * + 1* $ 2$ $ * 2+ * * !" + 2H/( ( 01 2$ $ * $ ! 2! B ! " + ./( 01* " ! * * .8 " " " .1/( < 08 B * ! * 1; $ * $ % $ * + + $ * .1 + * . Here Jesus is marveling at the "great faith" of the Roman centurion. There are many beliefs of Jesus recorded here such as the hardness of Israel, the salvation of the Gentiles and the power of His commands to heal the sick but none of these beliefs are the mainstay of His marveling at the centurion. Jesus is reacting to the presence of great faith in an unexpected place - a Gentile and a soldier, a man who was outside of the covenant and whose job was killing people and who was in part responsible for the occupation of His nation. This was the reaction of one belief structure to another belief structure. The centurion expressed His beliefs about a) his unworthiness as a Gentile (though a powerful man) to have Jesus visit him and b) His belief in Jesus' authority and the power of His words of command. As the centurion expressed these beliefs Jesus in turn resonated with them. Just as the hardness of heart of the Pharisees enraged Him, just as the littleness of faith of the disciples disappointed Him, the great faith of the centurion encouraged and astonished Him. It was a "rare find" "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!. So we see that belief structures react to one another and evaluate one another. When we find another who is astonishingly full of faith we rejoice. When we find someone hard and cynical and unbelieving we are discouraged or angered. Like Jesus we search out those that resonate with us. They are a rare find and a treasure. The way we interact with others will depend in large measure on what we believe about what they believe. Much inter-denominational misunderstanding revolves around "what we believe about what they believe" and the strong emotional reactions that result. It's a critical area for mental health and is why some types of fundamentalism though very sound in many areas are incredibly damaging psychologically. Putting It All Together Earlier we saw that perceptions led to internal emotions which were then expressed appropriately. Later we have seen that our perceptions work in with our beliefs to produce astonishing emotional reactions that are unique to the Christ-like Spirit-filled believer. On top of this we have a physical predisposition to certain types of emotional reactions and behaviours - covered in the first part of this chapter. Thus we can say that for Jesus and the Spirit-filled believer the steps are: 1. Perception of person or situation - ideally in the Spirit. 2. Interaction of perception with belief system. 3. Internal emotion generated. 4. Interaction of internal emotion with physical predisposition. 5. Expression of emotion outwardly.
You may be wondering about the title of this chapter "The Holy Spirit And The Emotional Life of Jesus" where is the Holy Spirit in Jesus' beliefs, perceptions etc. Lets see!
Situation
Perception
Personal Belief
Internal Emotion
Interaction with physical predisposition
Outward expression of the emotional reaction
• Perception: Jesus perceives by both His Spirit and the Holy Spirit who brings these realities to Him. • Beliefs: The Holy Spirit writes the law of God on our minds and hearts and forms our beliefs within us as our teacher and the One who shows us the things that God has prepared for those who believe and reveals to us the deep things of God. Here are just a few direct references to His teaching ministry. (John 6:45, 14:26, Galatians 1;11,12 , 1 Corinthians 2:9-16, Ephesians 4:21, 1 Thessalonians 4:9, Hebrews 8;10-11, 1 John 2:20,27 ) • Internal Emotions: Emotions can proceed directly from our spirit under the influence of the Holy Spirit " and Jesus rejoiced in His spirit.." and emotions such as love, joy and peace are called the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23). • Interaction With Physical Disposition: The indwelling Holy Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies that we may be renewed and cry out "Abba Father!" (Romans 8:11-15) to our gracious Heavenly Father. See also the first section in this chapter on how His powerful work can break the domination of our lives by sin and addictions. • Outward Expression Of The Emotional Reaction: The spiritual basis for revelation that culminates in teaching is shown in 1 Corinthians.
( , #( < C B > * 1& $ + 8 " !; + .1/( - 0* ; + * * " . ! "$ "; ./( ( 0 "F ! ! E & + "; F ! ; ./( 0 + ! + * ; " " + $ " + * $ ; ./( < 0 ! $! !!% ! ! ! ! & ! $ ! $! !" Thus verse 13 is the culmination of a long sequence. Firstly truth which eye cannot see and ear cannot hear is revealed to us through the Holy Spirit (verses 9-11). Then we receive them through
the Holy Spirit who teaches us and works them into our belief system. This is freely and graciously given (verse 12). Finally we speak and we speak not human, but divine wisdom and not in human words and categories but in words the Holy Spirit gives us. Thus Scripture is not just God's Word in human words; rather it is God's Word in the Spirit's Words. Lets see how this worked for Jesus:
B C B > 8 B * 13 $ * * 7 $ * 2 2 "7 $ %!'$ !%! $!./ 01 7 7 .8 7 2$ " .1 The responses, reactions, words and expressions are taught to us by God and are in spiritual categories "comparing spiritual with spiritual." That leads on to the last section of this chapter - symbols, metaphors, and archetypes - how the Spirit teaches us to express spiritual things - including our emotions. The Language Of The Spirit and The Emotional Realm - Symbols, Metaphors and Archetypes. As I am writing this "Just As I Am" is playing on the stereo in the background and the choir is singing "O Lamb Of God I come..". This is the language of the Spirit that makes no sense to the carnal man but which abounds in Scripture and in the great moments of the Christian faith including the hymns that lift us to God. To take up where we left off in the passage1 Corinthians:
( , ( < #( @ C B > 8 " !D ! * ! $ !! " * " * ./( ' 0* * ! + " ; $ %! !* $ * $ ! ./( ) 0* * ?* " "$ " $ ?* " $ ./( @ 01 4 6 : $ * ! E 1* + , . There is something called "the mind of Christ" which enables the believer to make sense of symbolic language such as "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world" and to quickly grasp the meaning of parables and to feel the wonder of the scenes in Revelation. The Holy Spirit enables us to perceive and believe correctly thus renewing our mind into the mind of Christ . He is our Teacher and instructor and does so in the language of the spiritual realm - dreams, visions, symbols, parables and metaphors - using analogues of the faith to explain it as well as more straightforward language such as that of the book of Romans. In the language of the Spirit beasts with seven heads and ten horns are juxtaposed with scarlet women and numinous symbols such as the Throne of God. These can be visual as well as verbal symbols and realities angels, demons, cherubim and seraphim are seen by the seers and prophets. To the purely material and "scientific" mind this is all quite offensive and many liberal theologians have stumbled over it. The more we think of the power of our own intellect the less we think of God's Word and the more we think of God's Word the less we think of the power of our own intellect! Jesus was supremely taught of God and a master of the symbolic realm so the He expressed Himself skillfully in parables, aphorisms, sermons and stories. His teaching was unlike that of the scribes and Pharisees for He taught with authority and in such a way that those truly seeking God understood Him while those who were just curious walked away puzzled and frustrated with His teaching. The language of the Spirit is not "plain language" but is strangely numinous and symbolic. If you have seen some the "New Age advertising" around that taps into these common and universal symbols of the emotional world you will know what I mean.
These symbols or archetypes such as a woman dressed in a flowing white robe holding a torch aloft, or a dove against a clear blue sky, or a rainbow or a man on a white horse dressed for war or a shining sword or a red dragon. These symbols have universal emotional content almost independent of culture. The psychologist Carl Jung spent His life exploring them and Hitler was a master at exploiting them. Transpersonal psychology and various schools of psychoanalysis take them very seriously indeed. Myth, saga, music, song and poetry all tap into this treasure trove of emotional and spiritual symbols as do fables and stories and most national anthems. We interact with spiritual language either totally or not at all. The phrase "the Lamb of God" either has immense meaning or is a total enigma. It is an almost binary form of communication that literally "separates the sheep from the goats" and believers from unbelievers.
B ( - ) # A C B > B * 12 $ * $ * + .8 2 7 $ D $ 7 ./ @ 01* $ * + !* $ * 7 $ 2 $ * ./ A 017 $ 7 $ + ! 2 $ 7 . In a startling statement Jesus said "but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep". In other words you have to be one of God's people to understand His teaching! It's the other side of the more usual "because you do not believe you are not God's". Here its "because you are not God's - you d o not believe." Some eagerly believe and can understand the language of the Spirit while others are just further hardened by it. (John 12:40). Thus the spiritual person understand the things of the Spirit including symbols, parables and dreams; is taught spiritual things by God, has a deep emotional response to them which in turn finds its deepest expression in the language of the Spirit speaking spiritual truths in words taught by God comparing spiritual with spiritual. Summary For Jesus and ideally for the Christ-like Spirit-filled believer the model of the process for the development of the emotional life is as follows: 1. Things are perceived in and by the spirit by believers with the mind of Christ and a lucid grasp of symbol and metaphor. These believers see life as being in a Kingdom framework. 2. This perception is then passed through a grid of beliefs taught to the believer by God. 3. This results in a godly internal emotional state in the believer - of rejoicing, awe, wonder, repentance, burdens for the lost etc. 4. This is then mediated through the renewed life-filled temple of the Holy Spirit that is the believers body and translated through his or her natural God-given temperament. 5. Finally the emotional response is expressed in words taught by the Spirit bringing edification to the body of Christ and reflecting the mind of Christ on the matter. This should result in a deep, powerful resonant emotional life that is totally in tune with Kingdom realities and which can express matters of justice and truth as well as care and compassion. This Holy Spirit produced emotional life should weep for the lost, ache for the poor and celebrate the repentance of a single sinner. Like Jesus we should have a Holy Spirit given courage that enables us to speak God's truth in God's words at God's moment. Like Jesus the Holy Spirit in us should make us radiant with a healing and gracious personality so that people sense the love and peace that is in us and know that in our earthen vessels dwells a priceless treasure. The next two chapters will test the above five step theory before we put it into practice on ourselves. Firstly we will look at the emotional life of apostles, prophets and great Christian leaders. Then we shall examine the dreadful emotional life of carnal Christians. On the way we shall see if the model we have developed works.
Discussion Questions
1. What are the five steps in the five-step model?
2. What was special about the body of Jesus Christ?
3. What difference did the Holy Spirit make in the life of Jesus?
4. How did Jesus perceive reality differently from others
5. How did the beliefs of Jesus Christ affect or determine His behaviour?
6. How is symbolic language often quite different from the language we normally use? Why is it useful ?
The Emotional Life Of The Apostles, Prophets and Great Christian Leaders (Acts 13:22 NKJV) "…. 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.' If the previous chapter summary of the emotional life of the Christ-like Christian is correct, then it will predict the lives of the most Christ-like people - and will also predict, in a negative way, the lives of the most carnal people. In this chapter will check if the theory of biblical EQ has predictive validity when applied to the lives of the great Christian leaders and in the next chapter we will check to see if it also predicts the emotional lives of carnal Christians. According to our model the following twelve things should be true of the apostles and prophets and great Christian leaders. Perception 1. They should see the world differently from the rest of us. For them the Kingdom perspective will be the only true perspective. 2. They should be able from time to time to see into the hearts of men and women and to speak accurately to their condition. 3. They should be conversant with dreams, visions and symbolic language. They should readily grasp the prophetic and be excited by the Scriptures. Beliefs 4. They should have beliefs that the surrounding culture has not taught them or which it opposes vehemently, beliefs that only God can have taught them. 5. Those beliefs should give them a sense of what is righteous and what is unrighteous like Jesus had when He cleansed the temple and create an unusual zeal within them that consumes them. 6. Those beliefs should give them unusual poise and power in crisis situations like Jesus in the storm. 7. As a result of those beliefs they should resonate with and be emotionally drawn to others who are of great faith, like Jesus resonated with the Roman centurion. Emotions 8. They should have deep and vivid emotions like those of Jesus Christ. 9. They should have a sense of their emotions being God's emotions and be aware of what they are feeling and able to name it clearly as Jesus did with His emotions. They should be people of authentic and powerful emotional expression - groans, tears, crying, and rejoicing. Physical Nature 10. They should demonstrate victory over addictions and sexual temptations and have a renewed physical nature whereby they were able to express their emotions in godly ways through their physical bodies. Emotional Expression 11. These righteous emotions should lead to righteous actions such as when Jesus' compassion moved Him to act. Their emotionality should be an integral part of being a righteous person. Not detached from life like the emotions of an actor or a hypocrite. 12. The course of their lives should demonstrate an ever-increasing wisdom in emotional expression as if they were being taught by God in how to say things.
Do these twelve predictions pass the test of Scripture and of the testimony of the saints down the ages? Are great men and women of God people of deep and vivid emotionality? Do they demonstrate an unusual sense of righteousness? Do they indeed see life differently? Do they hold counter-cultural beliefs or have an unusual power and poise in crisis situations? The answer is Yes! In fact great men and women of God are so vivid emotionally that they are often accused of being overly emotional - from Jeremiah with his tears to John Wesley with his preaching. Luther saw life so differently that he threw his ink-pot at the Devil! Isaiah was so counter-cultural that he went around for three years with his buttocks uncovered! (Isaiah 20:1-3). Lets test our predictions on the spiritual heroes of Hebrews 11. I will go paragraph by paragraph commenting on how these heroes perceived, believed, felt and reacted differently. The bible version is the New King James Version.
( ( C B > * ! " + ! " ./ 0 $ " $ ./< 0$ * $ ; " ! " !+ . These heroes of faith saw a different reality to others they had evidence of things not seen and understood that the visible world was predicated on perception of an invisible spiritual world.
/' 0$ ; F ! ! ! , * " ! " * ; $ " " % * " " ./) 0$ & ! $ 1 * !* ; 1% $ ; ./@ 0* * ! ; * + " $ . The belief system of these people was different from and more excellent than that of their contemporaries and was grounded in the invisible spiritual reality that they perceived.
/A 0$ " + $ " $ + " $ + " * $ !! ! " * ! !! " . / 0$ $ ! "* ! !* ! + !. * "" "./ 0$ "!* $ " 2! B ! %/( - 0 ! $ ! * * ; ./( ( 0$ ! + " !! + ! " !* ?* " * ./( 08 " $ $ * * % * ! $ . /( < 08 + "! + * + " * ! ! $ " " ./( ' 0 $ * ! " ! $ $ ./( ) 0 * $ $ ! !* $ ! $ !* $ * + * $ * ./( @ 0* $ + $ !* $ . 8 ; ! ; ! $ . These great men and women of God had beliefs that gave them an unusual sense of righteousness which condemned their generation e.g Noah. Their beliefs gave them the courage to be countercultural to seek a heavenly country and to see life from a Kingdom perspective.
/( A 0$ * 2! ! + * $ " /( 0 122!$ * ! 1/( 0!!* " ; * + !! + "* + ./ - 0$ 2! B ! & * !! " " !./ ( 0$ B ! $ " ! B " ./ 0$ B $ " * ! 2 "+ * ! !! " ./ < 0$ 7 $ !* $ * * ! % $ "D! ./ ' 0 $ 7 !"* ! 5 D * " / ) 0! "
* ! ; ?$ " * / @ 0 " !, " ! * & "$ % ./ A 0$ & "$ " "% * " + ./ 0$ 5 + " $ * * ! ./ 0$ $ * " $ $ & "$ " . Their unique beliefs led to godly emotions such as Jacob worshipping on the top of his staff . It led to unusual poise and courage in the face of enraged Pharaoh. It led to the ability to go against normal human emotions in the case of Abraham sacrificing Isaac.
/< - 0$ B ! $ ! ! + $ ./< ( 0$ + ! + !./< 0 2$ E * ; B : + * /< < 0 * " * * " " * * /< ' 0G * ! + ! ! " * " ! + * " ./< ) 03 ! + " . * !! " + ! $ " * ! ./< @ 0 ! " !* " "$ ! ./< A 08 $ $ .8 $ * " " * ! %/< 0 $ .8 $ * !+ ./< 0 + " " $ * " ! + /' - 0; + " + " * $ * ! * . Finally we see such great emotional mastery and Kingdom perspective that men and women of faith were enduring torture in the hope of a better resurrection! Poise, power and peace and a most unusual set of emotions characterised these heroes of faith. Their emotions moved them to righteous lives and actions. They were not subject to cravings or addictions or impulses of the flesh, rather they had the steady strong enduring emotions that were part of the life of Jesus Christ. What's The Difference Between Overly-Emotional People And The Vivid Emotions Of Jesus And The Prophets? Good question! Lets start this investigation by taking a look at that chronicler of the emotional life - David the Psalmist. I have just picked a Psalm "at random" - Psalm 30.
5 < - C B > 2 (9 * 6 4 6 : 9 * + * + $ ? !+ ./ 06 4 6 : $ ; 9 * 9 * ./< 06 4 6 : 9 * * " $ * * "+ %9 * + + 2* " ./' 0& $! 4 6 : 9 * $ %! ! $ ./) 0 " * + %) $$ * " #! "./@ 0 $ $ 2 12+ + .1/A 04 6 : $ 9 * + 9 * + $ * "%9 * 9 * ! 2./ * 9 * 6 4 6 : % 4 6 : ! +/ 013 $ 3 2" E 3 * 9 * E 3 !9 * * E /( - 06 4 6 : + !$ %4 6 : $ H1/( ( 09 * + * $ $ $%9 * + * $ !! ! $ !!/( 08 $ "$ $ "!9 * ! .6 4 6 : $ ; 2 $ %! 9 * + . These twelve short verses give us a good sample of David's emotional life. What is the difference between David's emotional life and the emotional roller-coaster of some Christians? • The negative emotions are temporary "weeping may last for a night but joy comes in the morning". • There is a righteous resolution of the emotions, a giving of thanks in the end. • The emotions are primarily directed towards God in a private and appropriate fashion. • There is a wide range of appropriate emotions from joy to a troubled spirit. The emotional thermostat is not stuck in just one position e.g. deep gloom or constant happiness. • There is an ability to see good in God in the midst of it all - to sing praise and give thanks. The spiritual perspective is not lost.
• There is no stifling of emotions, they are expressed in spiritual terms "that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent". • There is repentance of false perspectives and beliefs. "Now in my prosperity I said 'I shall not be moved..". When God challenges this David repents of his self-sufficiency. People who are out of balance emotionally do the opposite and cling to their self-defeating perspectives • In the expression of emotions there is genuine dignity and beauty. This psalm is poetry! [If this area interests you why not take some more of the Psalms and explore their emotional content. The men and women of God down the centuries have valued them for the insights they give into the emotional life of the believer.] So we se there is a vast difference between the deep, powerful and godly emotions of the saints and the clanging, shrill emotions of Christian neurotics. The emotions of the saints have God at the center. The emotions of neurotics have self at the center. What About The Different Temperaments? The question "which Bible character are you most like?" is an interesting one. I am a miniature "clone" of Paul the apostle sharing much of his impatience and his intellectual approach to the faith. Others say they are like Peter or Moses or David or Jeremiah or Amos. Tim La Haye made an important contribution with his book Transformed Temperaments which identified four personality types - Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy and Phlegmatic. Those of you familiar with Myers-Briggs personality tests will know it also has four basic categories divided into sixteen sub-types. Whatever your schema, one thing is obvious - there is a wide range of personality types! God uses people of all temperaments in His Kingdom and designs ministries and places for each of them. He called complex Thomas as well as straightforward Peter, Simon the Zealot and the sons of Thunder as well as Matthew the pragmatic tax-collector, sophisticated Daniel was sent to minister to Nebuchadnezzar while Amos the farmer went to bluntly prophesy to the northern kingdom. Having a high biblical EQ does not mean that you are the same as everyone else or that you become a cute, saccharine sweet, always smiling,never-a-hair-out-of-place believer. There is a vast range for individuality and even for eccentricity within the Kingdom of God! Eccentricity? Well the prophets were hardly "normal"! John the Baptist wearing camel's hair clothes and eating locusts may be viewed as "eccentric" along with Elijah, Ezekiel and characters such as Samson. These people were culturally distinct but not the least bit mentally ill - they just lived by a different and higher reality which consumed them. Different temperaments have different uses within the Kingdom of God. Barnabas was a great encourager of the brethren, Peter's high emotionality made him a master preacher and evangelist, Paul's razor sharp mind made him a great one for attending to the operational details and theology of church life, John's mystical temperament pointed to the deep abiding spiritual realities and resulted in wonderful teaching on prayer. Titus seems to have been a born trouble-shooter while Timothy was the sensitive and caring pastor par excellence. God will use your basic temperament that He has built into you - and even some of your weaknesses for when you are weak then you are strong! Your basic God-created and renewed self is OK! God can and will use it and has accepted it in Christ Jesus (Romans 14:7). Being accepted does not mean being unchanged. The Holy Spirit will take certain parts of your basic emotional temperament and refine them into the image of Christ Jesus. Paul matured in tolerance and love, Peter became stable and reliable, Timothy had to overcome his timidity and learn to suffer hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. As the Holy Spirit convicts you and
teaches you and ministers to you a slow but sure transformation will take place that will increase your maturity in Christ and your usefulness to the Master. I find Hebrews especially encouraging - the fact that I have a merciful and faithful High Priest in heaven who understands my weakness and intercedes for me and a throne of grace that I can go to for strength and help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:12-16). Emotions In Times of Revival If the Holy Spirit acts to redeem our emotions into those of Christ Jesus what causes the emotional excesses during times of revival? Does the Holy Spirit, who so desires balance, holiness, wisdom and truth cause these bizarre manifestations? This is an often discussed question and in recent years this has become a controversial topic and so I will try to offer some comment and resolution. Firstly emotions DO run high when God moves mightily in times of genuine revival. I recommend the book "The Nature of Revival" a collection of writings from the journals of John Wesley, Charles Wesley and George Whitfield abridged and put into modern English by my friend Clare G. Weakley Jnr and published by Bethany House Publishers. These journal entries give great insight into the emotionality of these great men of God and the extraordinary events of their times. Here are a few more or less random extracts. P 84. John Wesley.. "On Friday all Newgate rang with the cries of those whom the word of God had cut to the heart. Two of these were filled with joy in a moment, to the astonishment of those who watched them" P 85 John Wesley regarding one who opposed the revival: " While reading the last page he changed color, fell off his chair, and began screaming terribly as he beat himself against the ground…..between one and two in the morning I came in and found him on the floor. The room was full of people who his wife tried to keep out. He cried aloud "No let them all come! Let all the world see the just judgment of God!". Two or three men were trying to hold him down. He immediately fixed his eyes on me, stretched out his hand and said "Aye this is he who I said was a deceiver of the people! But God has overtaken me! I said it was all a delusion, but this is no delusion!" …(He is eventually released from torment..) P 87 "While I was enforcing these words "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10), God began to bare His arm, not in private but in the open air and before more than two thousand witnesses. One then another, and yet another was struck to the earth, greatly trembling at the presence of God's power. Others loudly and bitterly cried "What must we do to be saved?" Few revivals have been without great emotion and the revivalist Jonathan Edwards wrote a famous treatise on "Religious Affections.." which established that the emotions were a by-product of grace not its chief aim. The aim of the godly evangelist is not an emotional audience but a repentant and believing audience. If the emotions expressed so powerfully indicate that repentance is taking place and that people are meeting with God and having their souls transformed then that emotion is a good thing. However if it is simply emotionality, hype, manipulated sentimentality and the like and no work of God is taking place and people are not truly turning from darkness to light then it is unprofitable. A revival in which there is no great emotion would be like a wedding without joy. Such a momentous thing is happening to so many people that surely some great expression of emotion
must accompany it. However when the emphasis is on the manifestations - the tears, the laughter, the falling etc then it has gone off track. The wedding should focus on the bride and groom and the revival on Christ and on the believer's transformation. The emotions are just part and parcel of the process and not ends in themselves. In a later chapter on handling our strong emotions I go into the issue of discernment at quite some length. However I think we should conclude this brief section by saying that the powerful and bizarre emotions of revival are a temporary excess that God permits, but does not encourage. After the emotions and the changes the person so powerfully affected should go on to lead a normal, balanced, wise, godly and sanctified life. They should not keep on having bizarre emotional experiences. That is immature. Mature people display resonant love and deep wisdom and emotional control. Christian Maturity and Emotion I soon got the impression as a new Christian that my enthusiasm was expected to wear off and that when I "became mature" I would have rather dull and respectable emotions that resembled cold porridge poured into a grey flannel suit. Is this the sort of emotional maturity that Scripture speaks of in Ephesians?
(Ephesians 4:13-15 NKJV) till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; {14} that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, {15} but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head; Christ; Christian emotional maturity does involve emotional stability - we are not "tossed to and fro…by every wind of doctrine". It also involves "growing up" in all things and becoming a person participating in the stature and fullness of Christ. While it involves the stability of Christ it also involves the passion and zeal of Christ (John 2:17, Titus 2:14) and His ability to bless and to care. In fact part of the purpose of our redemption is to become a people "zealous for good deeds". 8 * ( ' "+ * " * + $ * $ J * " . Maturity is not the loss of emotions but the educating of emotions so they are like those of Jesus Christ and the mature person is both stable and zealous. Childish emotions are OUT for the mature Christian but Christ-like emotions are IN. In the next chapter we will see what carnal emotions look like, how they are the reverse of the biblical EQ process and how we can move beyond them and start the process of "growing up in all things into Him who is the head - even Christ". Discussion Questions
1. Do you think that King David was overly emotional? If not, why not?
2. What is different about the emotions of the great Christian leaders?
3. What about revival? How should we cope with strong emotions in Christian gatherings?
4. Go back over the twelve predictions that we began this chapter with; how do you feel as you read them and what picture do they paint for you about how the Christian life should be lived?
5. How do our different characters and temperaments fit in with a view of emotions that is centred around one person – Jesus Christ?
6. What do you think Christian maturity looks like?
The Emotional Life Of The Carnal Christian
(1 Corinthians 3:1-5 NKJV) And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. {2} I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; {3} for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? {4} For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal? We just saw how the five-step model of emotions quite accurately predicted the emotional life of Spirit-filled men and women of God. Now the model has as its central theme that emotional maturity is arrived at by focusing on Jesus, and modeling our emotions after Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who renews our perceptions, beliefs, emotions, and physical bodies and who gives us wisdom in how to express our emotions in ways that are "taught of God". We saw a positive correlation between what the theory predicted about the great saints of God, who cooperated with the Holy Spirit, and how they turned out emotionally, becoming beings of emotional grandeur. If our model stands the test, then those who resist the Holy Spirit, those who are unspiritual, should not be beings of emotional grandeur. Rather they should be emotionally unformed and immature. If, as our theory predicts, the Holy Spirit is essential for full emotional formation, then unspiritual Christians should be emotional wrecks, or at the least quite shallow and indifferent emotionally. These unspiritual Christians are termed "carnal Christians" and this chapter will see if our model can predict how they will turn out and what lessons we can learn from that. The carnal Christian is characterized by an astonishing lack of spiritual maturity to the point where they cannot be addressed as spiritual people. Carnal Christians behave like "mere men" and are indistinguishable from the surrounding culture with their actions and reactions. Using our model we can again make certain predictions about the emotional life of those who do not give the Holy Spirit full lordship of their lives. We will just reverse the predictions in the previous chapter. Perception 1. They will see the world in much the same terms as the surrounding culture. For them the Kingdom perspective will be rare and they will be mainly self-centred. 2. They will be unable to see into the hearts of men and women and even empathy will be rare. They will not speak accurately to the human condition. 3. They will be baffled by dreams, visions and symbolic language. They will be bored by the prophetic and struggle with the Scriptures. Beliefs 4. They will mainly have beliefs that the surrounding culture has taught them. They will not hold beliefs that the culture opposes vehemently, and will have few beliefs that only God could have taught them. 5. They will have a very weak sense of what is righteous and what is unrighteous and rarely react to social evil. They would tolerate the selling of doves in the Temple. Zeal will be unusual for them and even undesirable. They will not be consumed by kingdom interests. 6. They will not have unusual poise and power in crisis situations like Jesus in the storm but rather will be prone to anxiety. 7. They will not resonate with and be emotionally drawn to those who are of great faith. Rather they will feel more at home with the world and with other carnal Christians.
Emotions 8. They will not have deep, vivid and stable emotions like those of Jesus Christ. They will instead be characterised by shallow sentimental spiritual feelings that vary with every wind of doctrine. 9. They will have little sense of their emotions being God's emotions. They will often be unaware of what they are feeling and will be unable to name their emotions clearly. They will not be people of authentic emotional expression. Physical Nature 10. They will not demonstrate victory over addictions and sexual temptations They will fail to express their emotions in godly ways through their physical bodies. Emotional Expression 11. Their spiritual emotions will rarely lead to righteous actions. Compassion for the lost or the poor will rarely be felt and will not move them to action. Their emotionality will be detached from real life and be like the emotions of an actor or a hypocrite. 12. The course of their lives will not demonstrate an ever-increasing wisdom in emotional expression. They will go from bad to worse and become increasingly discordant like " a clanging gong and a clashing cymbal" if they should continue as carnal Christians.
How does this tally with your experience of carnal Christians? Unfortunately it tallies very closely with my experience of them! They are not growing and in fact they are often going backwards spiritually. Lets see what the New Testament says about them. In the quote that opened this chapter we find Paul referring to the church in 1 Corinthians as "carnal" – well what was it like? The carnality of the church is reflected in a long list of very serious sins – the first four chapters detail division, intellectual and spiritual pride, factions, and infighting. Chapters five and six show they were visiting prostitutes, and engaging in sexual immorality, and incest, chapter seven discusses marriage, divorce and the basics of sexually appropriate behavior, chapters eight to eleven correct gross disorder such as being drunk at the Lord's Supper, not waiting for one another so one goes hungry while another is full, and participation in feasts in pagan temples and eating food sacrificed to idols. Chapters 1214 reveal a paganisation of the spiritual gifts and their use in competitive, unloving and chaotic ways. Chapter 15 finds them denying the resurrection and being in major error over basic doctrines. The church was a mess but it was still considered a Christian church. The church James wrote to may have even been worse! There they murdered one another (James 4:2) and treated the poor with contempt (James 2). Both these churches were considered Christian churches and the recipients were addressed as believers and referred to as saints or holy ones (1 Corinthians 1:2). Several epistles are addressed to churches with a good percentage of carnal Christians these are : Galatians, 1 & 2 Corinthians , Titus, Hebrews and James. In these epistles the language is extremely plain and there are many stern warnings about the consequences of sin and the judgment of God. (e.g. Galatians 5, Hebrews 6, 1 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 12 & 13 etc). In the first six or so chapters of his epistle the writer to the Hebrews calls his audience in various turns - sluggish, unfruitful, dull of hearing, immature, like children, and says they were neglectful of their salvation, in danger of drifting away from the faith and hardening their hearts to God's Word and on the point of having "evil, unbelieving, hearts" (Heb 3:12). In chapter 10 the writer goes on to say they are neglecting meeting together and on the verge of giving up the faith, returning to sin and being judged by the living God. This is a terrifying picture indeed! Carnal Christians are so close to being unbelievers that they are almost indistinguishable from them. Such Christians are characterised by apathy, division, ongoing strife and a very low EQ!
Carnal Christians "bite and devour one another" (Galatians 5:15) The carnal Christians needed lengthy instructions on the basics of human relationships and fortunately the apostolic response to this need has given rise to some of the finest literature on relationships in the world including the famous "love chapter" in 1 Corinthians 13. This is in direct contrast with other more Spirit-filled churches like the one at Thessalonica of whom Paul said :" ( 8 ' C B > * !! " $ + $ * + 2* $ * $ * $ * + * " $ ; + %.1. Where Then Is The Holy Spirit? All truly born-again Christians receive the Holy Spirit as part of the dynamics of conversion and the formation of the new man in them, which is Christ in them the hope of glory. So all these Christians in Corinth, called 'saints" by Paul, presumably had the Holy Spirit. Yet they were a mess. Something was dreadfully wrong. There seems to be a breakdown along the way. Their sanctification was falling to bits; it just wasn't working. The Holy Spirit in them was not producing maturity, the fruit of the Spirit were not evident. Was this God's fault? Had God given up on them? Surely not! These people were doing something that was stopping the Holy Spirit from having His way in their lives. They were sinning against the Spirit's presence in their lives. This raises the question what then happens to the Holy Spirit in born-again Christians who have become carnal? In tribal cultures they often think that the Holy Spirit vanishes from you if you sin. That is not New Testament teaching. The Holy Spirit remains within the believer but is sinned against. Several terms are used such as: Grieved (Ephesians 4:30), quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19) lied to (Acts 5:4), put to the test (Acts 5:9), insulted / outraged (Hebrews 10:29), made jealous (James 4:5), blasphemed (Matthew 12:31) and resisted (Acts 7:51). In Jude the divisive people are said to be "devoid of the Spirit" (Jude 1:19). We will very briefly look at each of these terms to gain some understanding of the spiritual dynamics of sinning against the Holy Spirit and its effects on the emotional life. Grieved (Ephesians 4:30) - by unnecessary and immature interpersonal conflict such as bitterness, wrath, slander and malice. The Spirit is a Spirit of love and is grieved by that which is opposed to love. Carnal behavior such as divisiveness and quarreling is anti-love, and causes grief to the Holy Spirit who is constantly trying to mature us in love. Quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:18-21) - by despising the gifts of the Spirit especially prophesy. It implies that his fire - His inspirational activity in prophecy and revival is resisted - perhaps in the name of order, and "cold water" is thrown on attempts to minister in spiritual power. Lied To (Acts 5:4): Ananias and Sapphira conspired in an act of financial deception of the apostles. This was seen as not deceiving men but God and lying to the Holy Spirit. (Acts 5:4) and resulted in them being carried out dead. Put To The Test (Acts 5:9): Again refers to Ananias and Sapphira and refers to their testing the omniscience of the Holy Spirit by thinking they could deceive those He had filled with power and anointed. Made Jealous (James 4:4,5): * * H: $ * $ ; E 3 + $ ; .6 $ * ! * $ + 18 * $ ?* $ 1E A difficult verse to translate. Refers to friendship with the world, which is seen as spiritual adultery and makes the Spirit jealous. The world system and the Kingdom are opposites. To love one is to make the other jealous and if we love the world (as in worldliness, not as in John 3:16) we enrage the Holy Spirit. Worldliness is often characteristic of carnal Christians and does great damage to their relationship with God. Insulted/Outraged/Do Despite Unto (Hebrews 10:29): Refers to someone who turns back from Christianity to Judaism (or to any other religion) and thus says that the work of the Spirit of grace in his or her life was of no value to them. These are apostates. Devoid Of The Spirit (Jude 1:19): Refers to false teachers who joined into Christian groups and created division leading people away to their own groups. These are probably not even believers to start with.
Resisted (Acts 7:51): Refers to the unbelieving Jews who were stoning Stephen and resisting the clear testimony of the Holy Spirit. Later God said to one of those resistant Jews "Saul, Saul, it must be hard for you to kick against the goads..". This term is not used of believers. Blasphemed (Matthew 12:31): Is used of those unbelieving Jews who so deeply resisted the Holy Spirit that they saw the miraculous ministry of Jesus Christ as the work of the Devil and attributed His power to Satan. Again it is never used of Christians. The emotional consequences of sinning against the Holy Spirit are dire indeed. The more people sin against the Holy Spirit the nastier they become. In the above verses we see them pilfering, murdering lying, fighting and quarreling. As the Holy Spirit is quenched, grieved and resisted His love departs and hatred enters in. How does this come about? A love of worldly things, a growing resentment , anger and malice, a dislike of prophecy and revivals, a little dishonesty with finances here and there and after a while the activity of the Holy Spirit in the believers life is reduced to a whisper and as they head out the back door of the faith they deliver the final insult by rejecting the value of Jesus whom the Spirit bears witness to. In answer to our question, "What is the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the carnal Christian?" the relationship is one of struggle and pain. The Spirit is grieved, made jealous, quenched and resisted. He seeks to bring the carnal believer to a point of repentance and to cooperation with God. However in the words of the famous Campus Crusade booklet "How to Be Filled With The Holy Spirit" (which I thoroughly recommend), "self is on the throne". The carnal Christian is a "me first" Christian led by their own desires, and seeking their own interests and having their own agenda. Christ may be in their life but He is not being allowed to fully direct their lives. The struggle with the Holy Spirit will only end for them when they abdicate from their throne, and instead decide to place Christ on the throne, obey His commandments and be led by the Spirit not by their own desires. If you think that this may apply to you why don't you consider praying a prayer somewhat like the following: "Lord I am sorry that I have put self on the throne and run my life according to my own desires rather than according to Your will. I repent of this and ask that Christ may be on the throne and in the control room of my life, and that I may be ruled by His desires, and by the Holy Spirit. I ask that You may fill me with the Holy Spirit and produce in me a soft and obedient heart. In Jesus name. Amen". The Low Biblical EQ Of Carnal Christians The poor control carnal Christians have over their emotional life is due to their lack of cooperation with the Holy Spirit and can be seen in:
Poor Impulse Control: Giving in to sexual immorality, drunkenness and even in the disorder of their worship. Poor Anger Management: Most notably the congregation that James wrote to which were murdering each other (James 4:2) and the Galatians which were "biting and devouring" each other. (Galatians 5:15) Disintegrating Relationships: Envying, factions, strife and contentions. ( 1 Cor 3:3 Low Levels of Personal Motivation: They are variously described as evil beasts and lazy gluttons (Titus 1:12-14) , neglectful, dull of hearing, and in danger of drifting. Instability: Following after "the latest" false teachers particularly if they were good talkers and emotionally persuasive (2 Corinthians 11) and being tossed around by every wind of doctrine.
Lack Of Basic Empathy and Compassion: Such as saying to a person who was without food or shelter "be warm and filled" and not doing anything! Or dishonoring the poor by making them sit in lowly places in church. (James 2). A Toxic Tongue: Gossip, slander, and the like that proceeds from out of control emotions. (James 3) A Poisonous Personality: Such people are described as a "root of bitterness that defiles many" or like the emotionally rigid Diotrephes who "like to put himself first" and controlled the church (3 John). The Obvious Conclusion So we see that our model for biblical EQ predicts accurately the disastrous perceptions, beliefs, actions and reactions of people who are carnal Christians. We see that the process we have outlined accurately predicts good and holy emotions for those filled with the Spirit and negative and hateful emotions for those who resist and grieve the Spirit. This leads to two conclusions. Firstly, that our model seems to fit the biblical data and probably does describe the process of emotional development and expression. More importantly it leads to the conclusion that the single most important factor in a high biblical EQ is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the cooperating and Spirit-filled believer. Those most full of the Spirit are grand beings of deep emotional authenticity, Christians that grieve the Spirit are emotional wrecks. However believers do not neatly fall into two camps, one with wonderful emotions and the other with sharp, brittle and unstable emotions. That is because we start at different points. Some Spiritfilled believers from emotionally difficult backgrounds may have a lot of learning and growing to do with respect to their emotions, but they are going in the right direction. In time, providing they remain close to God, they will learn and grow and become more Christ-like in their emotions. This seems to have been very much the case with Paul who went from being very abrasive in his early years to very gracious in later life. On the other hand some very worldly and carnal Christians are squandering a wonderful emotional inheritance from a loving Christian family. They seem emotionally together but in time, slowly but surely, emotional disintegration sets in and generally becomes obvious by late middle age. What About Non-Believers? What does our model say about non-believers? Generally non-believers are neither cooperating with nor resisting the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus the emotional life of non-believers should be normally distributed (that is "on a bell curve") around a central mean that is less than the emotional mean of Spirit-filled Christians but perhaps not as low as that of truly carnal Christians. Since the Spirit does not indwell unbelievers, the great inner work of the Spirit is not there and the upper reaches of the Christian life are unavailable to them. For instance they are generally not able to love their enemies. While they may be very decent and loving people they will generally not have the tremendous power and life, the "zing" that being like Christ produces. This deep pulsating joy is almost exclusively a work of God in the regenerate believer. Thus our model is not destroyed by the fact of the occasional good non-Christian. It needs to be also said that God has His prevenient and common grace and the Holy Spirit will give some external aid to anyone who seeks to live a good, decent and loving life and encourages Jews, Buddhists, humanists and existentialists alike to be decent human beings. In such people many Christian values will be found in the belief system that undergirds their emotional life. Such people who are seeking good, but have not yet found Christ may well be emotionally together as they are cooperating with God in a stumbling sort of way. However the deep transformational power of the Holy Spirit may well be lacking.