Creflo Dollar Ministries Featuring: "Queen of Kings" on Your World with Creflo and Gaining Control over Your Emotions (Part 3)

Gaining Control over Your Emotions (Part 3)

by Creflo Dollar | 

Summary

God’s will for us is to be successful and prosperous in every way—including harnessing our emotions and keeping them under control. We are authorized to resist anything that is not His will; when we feel negative feelings rising up in us, we have power over them. However, if we do not know God’s will regarding our thoughts and emotions, we will accept those negative emotions and allow them to rule our lives. Our emotions are based in our souls, and our success in life is based on how successfully we dominate our feelings. If we have been born again, it is a misconception to think that we cannot help how we feel. We have direct authority from God in this area. Our success in keeping our feelings in check gives us emotional prosperity, which is what He wants for us.

1. There is a link between our lives and our feelings. We can choose our emotions.
   1. Our success in life is based on success in our souls. It is God’s will for us to succeed in every way. However, we must know God’s will first before we can fulfill it.
      1. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth (3 John 1:2).
      2. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers (3 John 1:2, AMPC).
   2. Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee (Deuteronomy 28:45-48).
      1. Under the law, failure to serve God with the right emotions resulted in multiple curses. However, we are no longer under the law; as believers, we have been equipped with what we need to dominate negative emotions.
      2. We always have a choice as to what emotions to embrace. The people could have chosen to serve God with joy and gladness instead of murmuring and complaining.
      3. We must view our emotions as a choice, not simply as a response to the situation.
   3. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me (John 14:1).
      1. “Let not” implies we have emotional control. Even when we are in trouble, we have authority over it and are not troubled by it.
      2. This mindset differs significantly from the way the world thinks. Most people think they have no choice in the matter, and that they cannot help the way they feel.

2. Whether we are spiritually-minded or carnally-minded is a life-or-death choice.
   1. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live (Deuteronomy 30:19).
   1. Our freedom of choice carries with it real power. God made us free moral agents.
   2. If we take God’s advice and choose life, part of this choice includes choosing the right emotions. The wrong emotions lead to death; the right ones lead to life.
   2. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6).
   1. Being spiritually-minded is an indication that we are spiritually mature.
   2. Our thoughts and our minds determine our emotions. A spiritual mind brings us to a place where our emotions are peaceful.
   3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee (Isaiah 26:3).
   3. It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63).
      1. The Word of God, itself, is Spirit. We get spiritual minds by getting in the Word.
      2. “The flesh” is a mindset that goes against the Word.

3. We have authority to resist the temptation to succumb to negative emotions.
   1. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God (Philippians 4:6).
      1. We do not need to be anxious or worried about anything. Worry is a negative form of meditation. It moves us away from God’s will for our lives.
      2. Instead of worrying, we are told to stay focused on God, pray, and give thanks.
   2. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
      1. Just because we are Christians does not mean we will never encounter trouble and tribulation.
      2. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12).
      3. We can use the Word of God to help us prepare for the inevitable.
      4. There is no trouble that can come on us that Jesus has not already dealt with. He has already made provisions for it; therefore, we can rejoice because of this.
   3. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:6-8).
      1. Self-control is a gift from God, and temperance is a fruit of the spirit. God will use it to lead us down the path to discover what He has designed for our lives.
      2. Temptation is pressure applied to our emotions.
      3. We rejoice by faith, even though we have not seen Jesus yet. Our faith will be tried if we are in the Word.

4. When we choose to be spiritually-minded we walk by faith, not by our physical senses.
   1. We can depend on God. He will never allow us to be tested or tried beyond our ability. We would not be in a situation if we could not handle it.
      1. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).
      2. For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently (1 Corinthians 10:13, AMPC).
   2. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (James 1:13-15).
      1. We must verbally declare that negative emotions are not God’s will for us.
      2. In the context of the New Testament, “lust” means any type of deep emotion.
      3. Sin is conceived in the emotional realm. If we do not deal with our negative emotions, eventually we will sin.
      4. Unbelief, discouragement, and depression are emotions that can be conceived. If we refuse to give place to self-pity, anger, bitterness, and hurt, we will not conceive the results of those emotions.
   3. For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
   1. “Sight” in this context means all of our sensory mechanisms. If we do not walk by faith, we walk by appearances.
   2. We cannot trust our emotions; they change frequently. We must instead trust in God’s unchanging Word.
   4. Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body (James 3:3).
   1. We use a bit in a horse’s mouth to control the entire animal and prevent it from galloping out of control. Likewise, we use the Word of God to control our emotions and prevent them from running away with us.