Is it going to be ok?

I have heard these words so many times.

They were spoken to me by my family, friends, and husband when things weren't going right for me. To be honest, I LOATHED those words. My response would always be (at least in my head), "Well it's not ok RIGHT NOW” and “That doesn't help me RIGHT NOW." That's where I was living- in the "right now" and that's a scary place to live because that's a life led by your emotions. The old me was a slave on the roller coaster of emotions that the devil would bring. I felt so out of control and defeated. Any obstacle that would come up would trigger an intense emotional response that seemed to last forever and continually build until I exploded out of control. My poor family would suffer the most, being the brunt of such rage. I tried everything within myself to change- medication, prayer, fasting, Bible reading, worship, counseling- nothing helped. Then I received deliverance prayer at church where strongholds and evil spirits were torn down in my life. After deliverance everything changed. Don't get me wrong- deliverance wasn't a magic spell that cast all evil away forever. There are still the same battles and triggers as before but now I had the PERSPECTIVE SHIFT to know this wasn't a fight within myself but a spiritual battle of the mind, now stemming from evil forces around me instead of inside me. Anger, depression, rage, and resentment didn’t have to be in my life. I could be set free!

Game changer!

The week after, God tested my deliverance and commitment to him. I received some very devastating and hurtful news. My flesh reacted in a mess of tears followed by an overwhelming sense of loneliness, despair, and self-pity. I knew I had a choice- to stew in my emotions until hate, bitterness, and resentment consumed me or obey the Holy Spirit and tell my offender that I love and forgive them. I decided to obey but I didn't want to right away. I was still battling with my emotions that wouldn't subside. I knew my forgiveness wouldn't be sincere if I was still full of anger and bitterness. So, what did I do? I got on Facebook to calm my nerves (insert face palm). But God in His grace and mercy put a quote on my feed that I've yet to forget. It changed the atmosphere and set me free from the hellish roller coaster ride of emotions.

-"The devil wants you to focus on your EMOTIONS. But God wants you to focus on His TRUTH."-

The quote hit me like a lightning bolt! It was the Holy Spirit slap in the face that I needed. How do we get off the Rollercoaster of emotions? Focus on God's truth-His word. Our emotions are part of our flesh that should never be trusted over what God's word says. At that moment I thought of what Jesus did for us. He forgave all our past, present, and future sins with love. What right did I have to hold forgiveness from others?

These passages also speak on the topic:

Matthew 18:21-35 NLT Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor 21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone[a] who sins against me? Seven times?” 22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven![b] 23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.[c] 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. 26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. 28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars.[d] He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. 29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. 31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. 35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters[e] from your heart.”

Matthew 6:15 “But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Yikes! Now when I hear the words, "it's going to be ok" I have a different reaction. It might not be ok right now, but I CHOOSE not to live from my feelings and instead stand on God's word. What was the result? The feelings fade while God's word stands forever. Praise God!

My story dealt with listening to the Holy Spirit about forgiveness and not giving into resentment, bitterness, and anger but the Holy Spirit can lead, guide, and direct you through any negative emotion, thought, idea, or temptation.

May Romans 5:2-5 bring you hope: “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

We are being tested through suffering for our benefit.

Ps 34.19 KJV “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivered him out of them all.”

John Ramirez speaks on this topic in his new book Conquer Your Deliverance on page 96, "We need to stop running to the emotions of our hearts …. The devil is the roller coaster, and the ride is your emotions. You are depending on the highs and lows; you're being governed by your emotions and not the Holy Spirit. The devil will never attack your heart first, no way- he is going after your mind. The Bible says it is with the mind that we serve the Lord (Romans 7:25). The Bible also says that we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16b). When the devil is fighting you in your mind, he is pushing the buttons of the emotions of your heart. You will never win a battle with emotions; you simply expose yourself to the enemy. Never get into a spiritual-warfare fight with your feelings."

I hope by having the knowledge that our fleshly emotions and mindsets can be influenced by the devil if we choose to give into them will help you in this battle. If you are a Christian, you don’t have to be a slave to anything but Christ. He has already won the war; we just have to stand in the battle and declare the victory.