A Way To Listen to Every Negative Emotion (Note that the way to pray about the emotions once you identify them will become clearer as you read the rest of the book chapters).
It is of utmost importance that you actually act in applying the blood of Jesus every time you judge, or you will have no change in your life.
You will have the most success in walking out your healing if you have a practical routine to use. Otherwise it is easy to slip back into your old pattern of not listening to your emotions.
I suggest that you make it a practice to listen to every negative emotion, and I have created an assignment that you can do daily.
The following are common questions people have expressed about their healing walk:
• How can I truly make peace with myself and come to love myself? • How can I hear the voice of God so He can lead me in my healing? • How can I take down the wall inside me? • This healing thing is so complicated. How can I possibly get it right? • How can I keep from losing the healing I have already attained? • How can I know that the Lord has healed a bitter root? • How do I know when there is a deeper root behind what just happened that triggered me? • How can I know when I should be done praying? • How can I possibly "count it all joy when I encounter various trials?"
Listening to every negative emotion is a very powerful practice that can provide the answers to these questions and peace for the anxiety that results when emotions are stirred up.
Your negative emotions are a powerful tool that the Lord can use to direct your healing. He is in charge of your healing, truly wants you healed, and knows the path you need to follow to get healed. Therefore He puts you into situations that are divinely ordained to bring up the next issue He wants to work on. He will tell you about it by the negative feeling that comes up. It is like a dentist poking around in your mouth. When he touches a sore spot, you know it.
Therefore, your negative emotions are a powerful way that the Lord can lead you, all day every day. Therefore, you can "count it all joy," because the pain is going to lead to healing.
THE ASSIGNMENT
Pay Attention Keep a pad of paper with you to write down every incident of a negative emotion, no matter how small. It can be a short note or a long journal. It is your choice.
A major purpose of keeping a written list is so that if at the end of the day your paper is blank, you will know you haven't been listening. We all judge (and therefore have a negative emotion) many times every day. It is very easy to fall back into the old pattern of not listening if we aren't careful.
Pray over each item on your list Be diligent to set aside time to get quiet and comfortable where there is a minimum of distractions. Look at each item on the list. Close your eyes and remember the recent incident that triggered the negative emotion. • Choose a feeling word to describe the feeling. Most negative emotions are signals that you have judged. If you need help naming the emotion, see the attached list of emotions. • Forgive whomever/whatever you have judged. • If your Treasure Inside is the one you have judged, ask him/her to forgive you.
Ask the Lord to forgive you for the judgment, • To remove the bitter root • To cleanse that place with His blood • To fill that place with His spirit.
Sample Prayer I always hesitate to give sample prayers, because we need to be praying as Jesus leads, not in a rote prayer. But I am including an example to get you started. As soon as possible, try to begin to pray in your own way. For example, suppose a man cuts me off in traffic. I feel anger spring up at him, I honk my horn and utter some words. Then I would catch myself and say something like, "Lord, I have just judged that man." I would name the feeling behind the anger, in this case "demeaned", or "belittled." I would speak directly to the man, "Mister, I forgive you for pulling out in front of me, for treating me as being of less importance than you, for ignoring my safety. Lord, forgive me for judging that man, for taking Your place on the throne as the judge. I ask You to reach down inside me and remove that bitter root I just planted. Wash that place clean with Your blood, and then please fill that place with Your Holy Spirit. Lord, bless that man's day, and keep him safe. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen."
After you pray Review the incident and see if there is peace. If there is peace, you are done. If not, there is more praying to be done. The further praying may have to do with the current event, or there may be an older, deeper root to be prayed about. • When you have peace, you are done. Peace means that the work the Lord wanted you to do right now is done. It does not necessarily mean that every bitter root with respect to that person or type of situation is gone. If there is more, in due season the Lord will bring it up. • Once you have prayed and have peace, then just go on and enjoy the day.
Continue Paying Attention If on any given day you have an almost blank piece of paper, this always means you haven't been listening. We all judge many times a day.
Making Friends With Yourself If you have a history of judging yourself, once you begin to listen you may be astonished at how awful you are to yourself. A key to healing is to make friends with your Treasure Inside. This friendship, built on a growing trust, comes about by listening every time your Treasure Inside sends up a negative feeling, It is a bit like a parent with a child. If the child cries, a good parent will ask the child what is wrong, with the idea of correcting whatever is the problem. When a parent does this consistently, the child grows to trust the parent, knowing the parent has their best interest at heart.
Positive Emotions Also listen to your positive emotions, because they are also directional. They point you towards things that are good for you.
It is not selfish to listen to your positive emotions. Of course, no prayer is necessary, because they are not pointing out sin. Just enjoy them!
The Questions What about the common questions posed at the beginning of this article? By letting the Lord lead you through your negative emotions, and forgiving and being forgiven (applying the blood of Jesus), you will find all these questions being answered.
You can't do it, but Jesus can - and wants to! Through this process you will be changed into the image of Jesus, step by step.
Negative Emotions Anger (When you feel anger, you need to go deeper. Look below the anger, and you will find another emotion that is being expressed as anger. It is important to find the underlying emotion, because it is a clue as to what went wrong when you judged; and therefore helps you to know how to pray).
Other Negative Emotions
Positive Emotions
Copyright 2003 Edward Kurath
Divinely Designed Being changed into the image of Jesus
Belittled Betrayed Controlled Cross Disvalued Exasperated Fear