“The sin is fulfilling it, not feeling it.”

By Alexa Tamayo/ Photo by Andrew Faulk

Everyone on this planet has emotions. Chances are we have all felt sad, angry, happy, scared, irritated, or lonely. Usually those feelings change over time so it is important that we don’t rely on those feelings for stability in this life. Our feelings are irrelevant to our purpose in life. Living in accordance to negative emotions can lead a person to reacting revengefully. God would not have us live in bondage to what our flesh would want to do. Instead God wants us to trust Him. When we get caught up in our emotions, we get messed up because we are not choosing to walk by faith.
Paul was a man of revelation. He wrote in Galatians 5:16, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh”. A lot of young people think that just because you had a feeling or were tempted to do something wrong you sinned. The problem is when you fulfill what you feel to do that is against God. No one can live temptation free. We live in a real world with real spirits that fight over our souls. Never think that just because you feel like doing something you have to do it, or then you won’t be true to yourself. We are God’s children, so how much more true can we be then when we obey our Father? Being true to God is more important than giving in to a moment’s feeling. Being led by what you feel is dangerous. Being led by the Spirit gives life.
Walking in the Spirit is how we overcome ourselves and afflictions. Romans 8:37-39 says, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
When we walk after Him there is no way to be separated from God’s love. Adam and Eve were separated because they walked after what they felt like doing at the moment. Their sin separated them because they were walking after their fleshly will, not the Spirit’s. We are conquerors only through Him, not ourselves. Walk after the Spirit through prayer, faith, Bible reading, and listening to God’s voice. Psalm 1:2 says, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night”. Our lives would be so much more powerful if we could get God’s word in our hearts. Meditate daily on His precepts and you will find your heart and mind washed and strong ready to face whatever situation comes your way.
Use the Holy Ghost’s discernment for any situation. The Spirit will never change, but those emotions you feel so strongly at a moment will dissipate and new feelings will come. Being grounded in the Spirit will carry you through anything. “God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and Truth”- John 4:24. How much easier can life be when we figure out that our purpose is to worship Him? We worship Him even though we feel awful or wonderful because it is not about us. We worship Him through pure and separate lifestyles because He is Holy.
If we do not live by the Spirit, we then live by the flesh. Galatians 5:19-21 gives a pretty clear outline of what fleshly living is like: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred…”and the list goes on. Verse 21 says that those which live by the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God. Our feelings and emotions usually start off pretty innocently. But sometimes if we let them grow it turns into regretful actions like adultery or murder. Let God be the center of your thoughts and your feelings. Be passionate about what He is passionate about.
The next verses (in Galatians 5) give the fruits of the Spirit; the good stuff like love and joy. These fruits last unlike our emotions because they come from a Root and Tree that does not sway with a human’s change of heart. It is important that we don’t beat ourselves up when we feel angry or jealous. God also gets these emotions. But how we react to them is key. We can be more stable with ourselves and our actions when we walk in the Spirit, because God is our Rock. To keep from doing things you know you will regret, walk daily after the Spirit. Don’t let this flesh get the best of you because “you are more than conquerors through Him that loved us”.