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What is the difference between an emotion and a prompting from the Holy Spirit? Oftentimes, I’ve noticed that a prompting from the Holy Spirit through an emotion comes suddenly. You may wonder why you are feeling a certain way, yet there is no reason for that emotion to be present. Emotions are meant to make you aware of what is going on inside of you. You then have the choice to either let that emotion take control of you or you can take that emotion to God, asking him what he wants to reveal to you. In the event that God is prompting you through an emotion to minister to an individual, take that emotion and let it cause you to empathize and have compassion. Emotions are not bad in and of themselves as they can be a warning sign that something isn’t right but they should never control you.
I remember a specific time when I was overcome with a negative emotion and it almost took me out a few hours before I was scheduled to lead worship for a women’s conference. Although there’s a lot of back story that led up to this moment but I will try to give a quick debrief. For a long time, I’ve had this deep desire for marriage. It seemed that any time I was around handsome, single, God-fearing men, it threw me for a loop and I began to feel lonely and crave that intimate relationship.
Before we even left for this weekend of ministry, I had prayed that my heart, mind, will, and emotions over this particular scenario; knowing I was going to be around these young men. But I was still caught off guard during this particular event. Our team at Sanctioned Love had just finished ministering to a group of single, God-fearing men, and my heart started to feel sad and lonely after we had concluded our time of prayer and ministry over them. We went back to our hotel for a time of rest and I suddenly began to downward spiral in my negative emotions. It came on so suddenly and I couldn’t determine at what point in the day I had let my heart shift to focusing on what my soul wanted and not what God had for me to do during this weekend. Here came that confusion that I couldn’t explain, not even to God. Good thing God knows our hearts at all times!
After a time of rest and a lengthy discussion with a team member about what was stirring in my heart, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and proceeded to get ready for our evening worship service. And this is where I’ve always seen God to be faithful.
During worship that evening, God came in and settled the lonely feeling in my heart. Praise God for that. Then, while we were calling out specific women for prophetic words from the stage, I heard God tell me, “give away the promise ring I had you buy two weeks ago. There’s a young girl who has been feeling the same loneliness and longing for a Godly marriage and this ring is going to give her hope and a promise.”
I started questioning God. I had just gone away for an overnight trip to seek him for direction in my life and God had told me to buy a man’s wedding band that I would wear on my left ring finger as a symbol that He was going to be my husband until my earthly husband was presented to me. My heart was sad to give away this promise God had given me, but I knew I needed to be obedient.
I almost chickened out and didn’t give my prophetic word. But at the very last second, I piped up and said I had a ring to give away to a young girl, who had just talked to God about marriage earlier that day and had been asking for a sign from God that he was going to be faithful in this area of her life. I told the group of women that I had a size 7 ring, that I knew the girl was to be young and that this girl had been praying to God about marriage earlier that day. There sat this young girl, in the most adorable pink sweater, sitting in the very back of the room. I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of her the entire night. There’s a clue God might have had a word for me to give her! She raised her hand and said that it was her who had been praying to God about that very thing, her ring size was 7 and she was a 14 year old girl. Earlier that day, this young girl’s purity ring broke at school and she was asking God how she was going to get it fixed. This ring held much importance to her, because she longed to keep herself pure and holy before God, believing that when she was ready, God would send her the Godly man that she deeply desired.
As I prayed for this girl and presented her with the ring, I heard God whisper in my heart, “could the loneliness and deep longing you felt earlier today possibly be a prompting from the Holy spirit for a prophetic word, and not your own emotion?” I knew in that moment, that If I had submitted that emotion to God, and asked him if this was an issue in my own heart, or if He was trying to get my attention for prophetic ministry, maybe I wouldn’t have laid in bed with anxiety and sadness for 3 hours before a worship service that night.
I look back over my life and see all the many different times that I let my emotions control me, when Holy Spirit was trying to get my attention. How many times have I missed out on a ministry opportunity because I made an emotion about myself and didn’t take it to God?
I challenge you, especially if God speaks to you through emotional promptings as he has done with me so many times, to ask God to teach you how to discern the emotion and the promptings from the Holy Spirit. Let him guide you and speak to you as you go throughout your day. Maybe the random feeling of depression is Holy Spirit leading to pray for that co-worker who is contemplating suicide. Maybe the anxiety is a prompting to call a friend who has no idea how they are going to pay their next rent bill. If you submit your will and emotions to God, he will be faithful to use you to touch others and you will find that your emotions will not control you, but you will be able to submit your emotions to the will of God.
