Humans have tripartite nature, spirit, soul (mind, will and emotion) and body - 1 Thessalonians 5: 23
uman nature is amazingly powerful and cunning, while the Bible tells us to contend with the devil (after humbling ourselves); it tells us not to contend with human nature under any circumstances but to bring it under the subjection of the Holy Spirit (the Holy Spirit connects with our spirit when we accept Christ). Prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 17: 9) said "the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked" this is the reason we need a savior and the Holy Spirit to direct/lead us.
In Christianity over generations (and more especially today), there is the confusion as to how we serve God, Is it in spirit or with our emotion? There is a fine line here and sometimes it is difficult to decipher, one thing that is however clear is what Jesus said "they that must worship the Father, must worship Him in spirit and in truth" Statistics and attitude today bear witness to the fact that, it is not everyone who identifies as a Christian (from pew to pulpit) serves God in the spirit (and definitely not in truth).
Human flesh (body), especially the five senses is our gateway to the world; through science we now know the relationship between those five senses of the body (flesh) with human soul. The human soul has three parts to it, will (what pushes us to act on a decision), mind (the decision making part of humans) and emotion (how we reflect what is going inside). When one of our senses (flesh/body) sees, ears or touches it sends information to the brain, the frontal cortex (scientific explanation for mind) then sends the decision made through neuro-transmitters to the part of the body that carries out the activity. From a spiritual standpoint the Bible calls where decision is made "mind", the mind is the battleground between flesh and spirit when a decision is being made. The third part of humans is the spirit, according to the Bible this part of us is dead (separate from God or the Godhead - as a result of sin in the Garden of Eden) at birth, and becomes regenerated when a human accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, this is the process often referred to as being born-again (spiritual re-birth). After re-birth, the Holy Spirit then connects with human spirit to, Convict (John 16: 8), Renew (1 Corin. 5: 17), Indwell (1 Corin. 3: 16), Mature (Gal. 5: 22-23) and Empower (Acts 1: 8).
Emotions is a bunch of feelings, from sadness to being happy, to jealousy and envy, to anger and disappointment, it is important to note that God created humans with all these feelings for good reasons, after creation God said "and everything was good". Displaying our emotions shows the people around us how what's going on inside, while showing our emotions may be real, it may also be temporal or fake, just to satisfy someone else. I believe God created emotions to be cyclical based on our choices and other circumstances or situations beyond our control (please do not confuse happiness with Joy, a fruit of the Spirit). If a spouse commits adultery the feeling he/she would have at the time of adultery would be different from the feeling he/she would have when caught. Our feeling also vary when our favorite team win or losses a soccer, basketball or football (American) game.
According to professionals, there are primary and secondary emotions, some emotions are involuntary (you laugh when a joke is funny or tickled) they come naturally, those are called primary and other emotions are reaction to an action - they are called secondary, such being angry, those can be controlled with good teaching and practice. Secondary emotions does not act on its own, it relies on the decision of the mind and the will moving it to action. For instance, as a clean freak, I can come home from a trip and pick a fight with Ola (my wife) over the house not being tidy as I want or I can decide to ignore the untidiness and praise my wife for holding forth with the kids and their schedules when I was away. If I decide to be a grouch about the untidiness, my emotions would follow suit, but if I decide to ignore the untidiness and praise her, my emotion would follow suit, so the key is "mind and decision".
Human emotion listens to the drum beats of either the flesh (laced with sin nature) or the spirit (connected to the Holy Spirit), the battleground is the mind, and whichever one dominates decides what emotion is displayed. Many believe that as Christians certain emotions are off-bounds and certain emotions are christianly, may I say every emotion is Christianly when we allow the Holy Spirit to direct it rather than flesh. God calls Himself jealous and Jesus was angry twice, yet they are sinless, even though humans erroneously identify these two emotions as un-Christianly. Being led by emotion could be to do what humans consider good but God do not judge based on what we do but based on the motives of our heart and who gets the glory.
It is really difficult from a human standpoint to know if someone is worshipping God with their emotions or in the Spirit on a Sunday morning, however with time one can tell if someone consistently live by the Spirit or based on emotion. In Luke 6: 44, Jesus said a tree is known by the fruit it bears, and in Galatians 5: 16-26, Apostle Paul define the two types of fruit humans bear, fruit of the Flesh (or body) and fruit of the spirit. When someone who identifies as a Christian consistently display fruit of the flesh, then there is a problem of who such a person really serve or tree grafted into, in verse 21 Paul actually said those who display the fruit of the flesh [continuously] would not inherit the kingdom of heaven (one time display of flesh attributes, such as David and quick repentance is honored by God - it is called GRACE). Many people (myself included) would question the salvation of someone who consistently bears the fruit of the flesh.
In today's Christendom, we have taken the art of worshiping God with emotion (without fruit of the spirit) to a new level, our choir no longer lead people to the throne room of grace, rather they are a source of entertainment, this is why many church choir leaders have their eye on "crossing-over" so they can make money. Mega-churches are employing talented artist who are not born-again or spirit filled to lead worship just so the people can be entertained. The words been spoken from the pulpit no longer convicts but tickles peoples ears.
The church now runs on various strategies of church planting or church growth rather than on the leading of the Holy Spirit, the reliance on human strategy and thinking far outweigh those who wait on the Lord for what is next for their flock. When purpose driven church came out, that was the in-strategy, then Willow Creek came up, everyone flocked to that as well. We take spiritual principles and give our people emotional application.
There are tons of pastors and leaders who are interpreting the Bible to suit themselves or their own lack, some interpret the Bible with jargons that seem relevant just to be seen as having a lot of "anointing", all with the goal of maintaining status or financial standing, the attention is now on the "brand" (marketing) of that preacher, rather than the God who appoints and makes relevant, everywhere I read in the Bible, humans are just instruments in the hand of God, and whenever He uses us, we are to unequivocally give glory to Him, when a the clay start to tell the potter who is more important (regardless of how fancy the jar - final product is), then it is ready to be thrown out as dust again.
Another area of the fine-line that bothers me is the foundation of our children, as many of them as we take to church can't influence their peers rather they are the ones being influenced. My teenager recently told me about the last "see you at the pole", about 30 kids came and just sat around the pole, it took him a freshman to rally everyone to pray in groups and they pledged to continue to meet (you bet I'm damn proud of him). In our universities, 72% of kids from Christian homes abandon their faith due to peer pressure from friends and uncircumcised professors, simply because they went to church for the fun while home and cannot defend what they believe in the face of fake scientific theories and human logic in the face of faith in an all knowing God. There is a bible quiz program (started by the AGs) where kids quiz on bible questions (http://www.nationaljbq.org ), the statistics over the years is that over 80% of kids who participate in JBQ/TBQ grow up to do something in ministry and understand bible doctrine.
I recently replied a young lady's question, asking how to answer a question posed to her at a mock medical school admission interview "would you as a doctor perform abortion?" I wonder if any pastor or parent has discussed worldview issues with their teenagers or young adults. By the way I gave the young lady a three step answer (my opinion), first, as a Christian you believe that life starts at inception, secondly, the Hippocratic oath says to "do no harm" so that procedure from your judgment is not honoring that oath, thirdly, medical practitioners in America are covered under "conscience clause" to opt out of procedures that violates their religious beliefs, so you will refer out patients that desires such procedure. If that school rejects you because of your answer, there are others who will admit you based on your academic excellence. May I recommend "the truth project" small group series for every young adult or college age groups reading this article, http://www.thetruthproject.org/.
When our emotion is what leads us, even good decisions we make would only last for a while, using a marriage analogy, when a husband or wife agree to do something suggested by the pastor or a therapist just because that is what would bring peace, then it is a matter of time before they return to counseling, but if a change is based on what God wants, even though it is not convenient (but God help me), then that change would more than likely be permanent. Teaching our children spiritual principles such as "abstinence" without spiritual re-birth but from an academic of emotional standpoint is a disaster, the same way not fornicating and not committing adultery are spiritual principles that need spiritual re-birth to effectively comply.
When led by the spirit, we inquire of God before doing anything, when led by the spirit we become less worried of life's issues because someone else in charge, when led by the spirit we are not afraid to speak the truth even if we are alone nor are we afraid of dying, when led by the spirit we seek God for our own short-coming rather than point fingers at our spouse or someone else, when led by the spirit we are not concerned about accolades or negative reaction when we do what God says to do, when led by the spirit we spend less time asking for prosperity and fame and more time asking God for what is on His heart for our city, state and nation.
My desire is that as Christians we stop playing church and stop worshiping God with our emotion but rather worship Him in spirit and in truth as He desires.
Remain Blessed
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