Have You Heard From God Lately?

And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:9-13

Elijah was feeling sorry for himself and God had to teach him a lesson about how to make decisions. Many people base their decisions on feelings. They wake up and eat what they feel like eating and that in turn sets the pace for their entire day.

Dr. Phil made a career through getting people to talk about their feelings on television. Debbie Boone is often blamed for lowering the moral bar when she sang, "It can't be wrong when it feels so right." Bill Clinton brought in the era of compassionate politicians and was reelected as president because he told the country that he could feel their pain about the economy.

Even our language has become hijacked by feelings. Rarely do people believe or think we should do things, but rather say that they "feel" like we should do things. I realize that much of this could be due to grammatical bad habits, but I meet people everyday who base their decisions more on how they feel than on what God has to say about an issue. Society tries to tell us that we should be more feeling because we cannot judge what is wrong for someone else unless we are in the same boat as them. And even then we cannot judge because it might hurt their feelings.

Basing what we think or believe solely on our feelings is a dangerous thing. After all, that feeling could just be last night's Meat Lovers pizza. God has told us that He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit in specific ways: through direct communication during prayer; through studying His Word, the Bible; through Godly and wise counsel from His church, the people of God; and through circumstances and experiences that have help us to better understand and know God. Yet often Christians will just chuck all of that out the window because their feelings tell them to do something else.

In truth, blocking our feelings out of the equation is not a simple thing to do. Our bodies demand that we pay attention to the "needs of the flesh." we need to learn how to put aside the hunger, fatigue, worries, anger, aches and pains, etc., when we strive to hear from God. Just as Elijah had to get past the raging wind, earthquake and fire before He could hear God's voice.

"Be still and know that I am God," Psalm 46:10

Comments

deirdre said…
Great words about not working off our feelings, but taking time to be still and know Gods voice.
9:38 AM
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