Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: The Holy Spirit isn’t new—Mary and John the Baptist’s mother were filled with Him. When your identity is in Christ, not emotions or roles, you can discern what everything else is trying to tell you.
This week, we’ve been talking about our emotions and having an identity in emotions and how debilitating that can be. Being able to separate our emotions away from us so they aren’t our identity, to be able to think about our emotions, have a conversation with our emotions, and be able to discern what are our emotions trying to tell us, what information are they trying to give us. And then we went into some of the sources of big emotions, and that was taking things personally and making assumptions.
Our heart is the source of emotion. It’s the source of deception. I thought the Holy Spirit was new. Jesus left, and He was gonna send the Holy Spirit back into the disciples. But as I was reading in Luke 1 today, Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit, and John the Baptist’s mother was filled with the Holy Spirit. And that makes me think through and be more alert looking back at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and all those folks and search for that Holy Spirit in my future reading.
Because Jesus is the Word and was there from the beginning of all creation. And so was God and so was the Holy Spirit, all three in one. And though Jesus says, I will send a consultant, I will send help in the form of the Holy Spirit, that help is around all the time. And when we place our identity in Christ and not in emotions and not in gender and not in your job and not in your role in your family. But when we put our identity in Christ, we can have conversations with all those other things that used to be identities.
Gender tendencies, emotional issues, labeling of my job as my identity. That’s where I was for thirty-five years of my life. My job was my identity. But my job was my identity. There was nothing else besides me. And then our role as a parent, a father, a husband, a family leader, being able to separate all those things as, I guess role is the best word for them.
What is my role with my emotions? Or what is my relationship with my emotions? What is my relationship with my intimacy and my friendship? What is my relationship with my job? And what is my relationship with the other roles in my church, in my home, in my community, in my world? And when all those are pushed out and we have God as the center. I’ve been saying this for the last month, seek ye first the Kingdom of God. When we have that as a center all the other things are outlying, they’re all information, they’re all opportunities to perform the great commission and spread the good news.
Then we can listen to the Holy Spirit as our identity. Our spirit, our soul, in communion with the Holy Spirit guiding the flesh, guiding the body, guiding this being in the world. This holy temple for the Holy Spirit that is with us always.
And by realizing that identity provides peace, comfort, confidence, knowing that when we step forward before God, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, this flesh and all its sins are completely washed and paid for. And we are one hundred percent clean. So wipe out emotions, wipe out assumptions, wipe out taking anything personally, serve His Kingdom and be blessed.
