Loving out the Lie

Most people can agree with the idea that we are made up of three parts: soul, body, and spirit, with the soul being made up of our mind, emotions, and will. I’ve heard in some of Bethel Church’s teachings about how when we are fighting against our “flesh” or emotions it can help to realign our souls with our spirit. Because while our soul can wrestle with God and with wanting to submit to Him, our spirit, once we’ve received the Holy Spirit, is always turned towards God and in agreement with Him. How can we realign ourselves? As simple as it sounds, just by speaking we can bring ourselves back into alignment. Our words hold power that not only affect the natural but the spiritual realm as well. (Hence why the enemy tries so hard to steal our voice!)

 When I am trying to connect with God but keep getting distracted or when I am struggling to surrender something I usually say something like “my spirit, I give you leadership position over my body and soul to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit.” (for more guidance check out the Nothing Hidden Ministries app*).

I said this one Sunday under my breath during worship because I kept getting distracted by my thoughts. (Yes, you have to be ok with looking like you talk to yourself if you do it in public.) When I did, I heard a phrase being repeated in my head, “I love Him, I love Him, I love Him” which I somehow knew was coming from my spirit.

The reason this phrase was especially impactful, was because the moment I heard it in my mind, I was taken back to recent memories where I had been struggling with feeling like I didn’t really love God sometimes. And then the more I would dwell on it, the worse I would feel, wondering how I had made it this far in my walk with God and still felt that way. In those times I was reminded that love is a choice and I’m choosing to love Him, but I still felt like I had to fight through those feelings with some guilt and shame mixed in.

Later in the service we had time to just listen to God and that’s when I felt Him communicating the message, “You love me. I feel loved by you. You love me well.” In that moment I realized I had been believing a lie that whole time and God had spoken the exact truth I needed to hear to overthrow the lie. I have become good at identifying lies but this one really felt true. I’m again reminded that our feelings aren’t the best indicator of truth. As Steve Backlund says, to feel better we don’t usually have to do something different, but believe something different. We have to believe something higher than what we’re experiencing: that’s faith.

It’s crazy how dealing with that one lie has changed my relationship with God. Before when I felt distance from God throughout the day I would feel guilty and struggle to connect with Him again. Now I just whisper “I love you” and we are back to where we left off.

*”Spirit Blessing” https://app.nothinghidden.com/tools/c/0