A Calling of the Spirit.
Some folks are happy, others are joyous. Happiness lasts for a season, joy for an eternity.
If we follow the calling of the flesh, we'll experience the flesh expressing it's delight through our emotions. Happiness comes to us.
But when a rainy day strikes, our flesh expresses its bitterness through another twist of emotions. As followers of Christ, we are called to be dead to the flesh, but alive unto the spirit.
If we follow the calling of the spirit, the spirit will express it's delight through a spirit of joy. The spirit of joy cannot be crushed by torture, by a rainy day, by the death of a loved one, or by any of Satan's workings against our flesh. If our spirit is joyous, the soul and flesh will follow along.
However, if we sin, that spirit of joy is removed far from us, and we ride merely on the emotion from pleasure known as 'happiness'. It is possible for a season to be happy without joy, but joy brings gladness to the soul in times of affliction to the flesh.
If you know somebody that you regard as 'emotionally unstable', they don't have the spirit of joy, but rather, the emotion of happiness at times. This would imply that they're not following the spiritual calling God places on their lives, whether they're Christians or not.
God doesn't work in emotions or sensations, but in spirits. Humility brings a submission to God, which in turn leads us to follow the calling of the spirit, which produces joy. Pride claims its own way, and thus the only pleasure we can know in this life, is emotional pleasure. Spiritual workings will be altogether removed from me until I bring myself into total subjection to God's divine will. Then, my joy will be uncrushable by man, and even against all the hordes of hell.
I know people who are emotionally stable, because their spirit is right, and the emotions follow. I also know people who bounce from place to place, because they have no sense of proper direction, due to a lack of subjection to parents, spiritual authorities, and most commonly, the influence of the Holy Spirit.
It's like Christmas time, when presents are exchanged. While we may be for a season happy with the presents that we receive, we will be filled with joy when another person receives a gift from us. Though both are emotional in a sense, the former requires subjection of others to our will, the second, our will subjected to another. The second is the spirit we'll feel when we give God the very greatest of our treasures; Our life.
Life not in the physical sense, but in the sense of the soul. I give my birth to God, I give my daily living to God, I give my eating to God, my drinking to God, and my thinking to God. I also give my death to God. He will not misuse it.
Just a few thoughts from late into the night.
God Bless!
~ In Christ, John.
If we follow the calling of the flesh, we'll experience the flesh expressing it's delight through our emotions. Happiness comes to us.
But when a rainy day strikes, our flesh expresses its bitterness through another twist of emotions. As followers of Christ, we are called to be dead to the flesh, but alive unto the spirit.
If we follow the calling of the spirit, the spirit will express it's delight through a spirit of joy. The spirit of joy cannot be crushed by torture, by a rainy day, by the death of a loved one, or by any of Satan's workings against our flesh. If our spirit is joyous, the soul and flesh will follow along.
However, if we sin, that spirit of joy is removed far from us, and we ride merely on the emotion from pleasure known as 'happiness'. It is possible for a season to be happy without joy, but joy brings gladness to the soul in times of affliction to the flesh.
If you know somebody that you regard as 'emotionally unstable', they don't have the spirit of joy, but rather, the emotion of happiness at times. This would imply that they're not following the spiritual calling God places on their lives, whether they're Christians or not.
God doesn't work in emotions or sensations, but in spirits. Humility brings a submission to God, which in turn leads us to follow the calling of the spirit, which produces joy. Pride claims its own way, and thus the only pleasure we can know in this life, is emotional pleasure. Spiritual workings will be altogether removed from me until I bring myself into total subjection to God's divine will. Then, my joy will be uncrushable by man, and even against all the hordes of hell.
I know people who are emotionally stable, because their spirit is right, and the emotions follow. I also know people who bounce from place to place, because they have no sense of proper direction, due to a lack of subjection to parents, spiritual authorities, and most commonly, the influence of the Holy Spirit.
It's like Christmas time, when presents are exchanged. While we may be for a season happy with the presents that we receive, we will be filled with joy when another person receives a gift from us. Though both are emotional in a sense, the former requires subjection of others to our will, the second, our will subjected to another. The second is the spirit we'll feel when we give God the very greatest of our treasures; Our life.
Life not in the physical sense, but in the sense of the soul. I give my birth to God, I give my daily living to God, I give my eating to God, my drinking to God, and my thinking to God. I also give my death to God. He will not misuse it.
Just a few thoughts from late into the night.
God Bless!
~ In Christ, John.
posted at
1:19 AM
