How God Speaks Through Our Emotions
In my work, I frequently transport people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Many of them are homeless. I’d like to say that I have a heart full of compassion and love for them, but if I said that, I would be lying. To be honest, I don’t have a lot of natural affection for these people. I’ve been on the receiving end of my share of violence and abuse from some of my former patients who were struggling with addiction. Yet God in his wisdom gave me a calling to minister healing to these folks. One of the most frequent ways He communicates to me about an addicted person He wants me to pray with is through my emotions.
I’ve sat in the back of the ambulance a thousand times writing my report as I transported an intoxicated, verbally abusive person to the hospital. I generally try to remain as uninvolved with them as I can. The more detached I remain, the less likelihood there is of an altercation. But I’ve been surprised at how often I’ve felt a deep ache in my soul over the condition of one of these people. There I am, minding my own business, writing my report, when a wave of broken-heartedness comes over me. At first, I didn’t understand what was happening when I felt these emotions. I’m sure I shrugged them off a number of times and didn’t respond the way I should have. But gradually, I began seeing a pattern in these emotions and one day, when I was feeling the deep broken-heartedness over a drunk I’d just met, I asked if I could pray for him. He smiled and said, “I’d love that.”
One of the most reliable ways of knowing you’re sensing something from God is knowing it didn’t come from you. I suspect the problem some of us have is that we aren’t sure which emotions are ours, and which are external to us. We’ve been trained to think that every emotion we feel is one of our own emotions. But emotions are tricky things. Demons can make us feel certain emotions, and so can angels. And God often conveys to us His emotions when He wants to communicate something to us. Even though these emotions seem to be ours, because they feel the same as the rest of our emotions—there are subtle clues that point to an external origin for some of them.
I think we probably give ourselves more credit for having compassion and love for others than we rightly deserve. It feels good to give ourselves a pat on the back when we show unusual kindness to a stranger. It’s human nature to think we’re the one responsible for “paying it forward.” But I suspect that in many cases, what’s happening is that God is communicating the way He feels toward that stranger through our emotions. After we sense His heart for them, we’re moved to do the right thing—something other than what we would normally do. We take the credit for our good deed, but in many cases, God was behind it all. Most of us feel God’s emotions for the people around us more often than we realize, but we’re simply not aware of where the emotions are coming from.
This is an excerpt from my book Hearing God’s Voice Made Simple. Click on the link or on the image below to learn more.
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Thank you for this post. It shed some light on something I’ve been experiencing this year. There is a grocery store that I shop at occasionally and almost every time I go in there I want to cry and I feel a heaviness. Not due to what I’m seeing with my eyes but there’s something else going on. One time this past Spring I was shopping there and the urge to cry came over me and just lingered. There was nothing going on in my life to connect it to so I was puzzled. Later at check out my husband and I noticed that our cashier was upset and she started to cry and could not continue the check out process. She apologized more than once and I went to find the manager so the woman could be helped or let out of her register for a break. I thought maybe that the Lord was alerting me to this woman’s plight before hand and that maybe I was supposed to offer prayer to her. I didn’t though, as I was too afraid and uncertain whether it was God alerting me or I was feeling a spirit of despair that was operating in the store or something else, so I didn’t ask her if she wanted prayer.
Staci – I believe God was speaking to you about a need for someone in the store. Don’t be too hard on yourself for not recognizing it. Most of us are prone to ignore these little nudges from God. I do speak to this issue a bit more in the book if you’re looking for more information. Thanks for dropping by!
~ PM
PM- Thanks. I usually notice stuff like that. My problem is that I can get hypersensitive to how I’m feeling and automatically start trying to figure it out and assume it’s spiritual. Sometimes I can get confused as to who’s speaking to me. I just got out of a six year stint/problem where what I was thinking was God’s voice was actually the enemy. God set me free from that last year and is teaching me about who He is and how to discern His voice. So now I’m slow at times to say things are of God and I don’t always jump up to do something when I hear or feel something so that is why I didn’t ask that woman to pray for her. I wasn’t sure of the source of my feelings.
Will look into that book. Thanks!
Thank you sooo much for this post. As one who is called to these individuals, I am often asked how is it possible for me to feel love and compassion for people who are so frequently verbally and physically abusive to their loved ones. It just NEVER made sense to me NOT TO because Jesus died for them when they were! We MUST recognize that it isn’t because WE are so great that we have compassion. It IS BECAUSE JESUS IS!
At one time, I experienced with this a lot, then it seemed to taper off. Now, this gift is increasing again. It often happens when I’m in my apartment and most times I do not know what it is all about, or who it is for. In the past week, I mentioned to a friend of mine how I felt as I spent time with the Lord one particular morning, and tried to pray and instead had this overwhelming sense to weep. I didn’t understand it and knew it wasn’t for me but couldn’t imagine who or what it was for. My friend said, “that is strange and that another friend of his was experiencing the same thing.” And she and I had discussed the evening before concerning a relative of hers who is dying and with whom I had been associated. She was dreading the possibility that she would be present when this individual died. I now know that the Lord was showing me that someone in distress needed prayer. This type of confirmation helps me not to doubt that the Lord is working through me, and though others may doubt my experiences, I just need to learn to be still, not share with others and trust the Lord and pray in the spirit.