How do our feelings apply to understanding? Are they useful? Are they essential? Or are they misleading?
I have had much discussion as subtopics in many threads about this and want this to be the main topic. My belief and experiences have taught me that feelings are essential to understand the things of God. But, if not properly applied they can deceive us. Like any test instrument, they must be calibrated and maintained to be trustworthy.
Many people think love is a feeling. I disagree in that love is a devotion that requires giving and sacrificing to someone or something. However, love can and will invoke our senses and cause our feelings to respond, if our senses are healthy, for indeed, they can become sick or "desensitized."
When I read about love in the scriptures, ever so often there is a requirement or action, and sacrifice linked or attached to it. "If you love me, keep my commandments." "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend. It seems that the greater is the sacrifice, the greater is the love. Is it possible that we are being tested and taught to attain a higher love? Even a Christlike love? Being created in God's image and likeness, does that "likeness" include the attributes of God? Is there any limit to the development of our Godly attributes if we continuously focus and work on them daily by learning what is corrosive to them and avoid them, or repent of them if they have place in us? And can we focus on learning and applying those things that enrich our Godly attributes to their full potential, a potential that we do not see or understand in the process, but will when we endure the process?
We are taught in scripture to "apply our hearts to understanding" and also warned that our hearts can become corrupt, or are corrupt until we choose to serve God with all of our hearts. Can we fully understand the things of God without the application of our hearts? Do our hearts require preparation?
As I see it, our feelings are a shared application between the physical senses of the body, and the spiritual senses of our spirits. Because of that, only one or the other can operate these feelings, but not both at the same time. One of them will rule the other. The implications are obvious. When our bodies are devoted to worldly pleasures, or addicted to the many stimulations as we abuse our bodies, the Spirit of God cannot access our feelings. He gets a "busy signal". Could not this be one of the reasons that Jesus and His disciples have stressed repentance with such high importance? Could this be why Job declared that to depart from evil is understanding? Our hearts are at play in this important equation, and Ephesians reveals some of the formula, when talking about the wickedness of the gentiles.
Ephesians 4: 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
God IS Love. Our hearts can respond to the senses that His Spirit invokes upon us, as He dwells within us, if we have prepared ourselves to receive Him.
How could we not sense His presence, He being the very Standard of Love, unless our hearts have been polarized to the kind of love that the world inspires?
The feelings that our heart experiences (but not all have felt it, .... yet) is described by the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The resurrected Savior came upon them, and by the Spirit had opened their eyes to understand scripture. In Luke 24 it is recorded: 32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
This feeling did not give them understanding, just like our feelings do not give us love. Their feelings responded to the presence of the Spirit as the Spirit revealed the things that are true, because our feelings respond to love .... if we are not devoting our senses to those things that give the Spirit a busy signal.
I find this 4 min. video, a story given at a LDS General Conference that is doctrinally universal and illustrated very well, to be a good example of how our feelings respond to the things of the Spirit.
Lessons I Learned as a Boy - YouTube
I have had much discussion as subtopics in many threads about this and want this to be the main topic. My belief and experiences have taught me that feelings are essential to understand the things of God. But, if not properly applied they can deceive us. Like any test instrument, they must be calibrated and maintained to be trustworthy.
Many people think love is a feeling. I disagree in that love is a devotion that requires giving and sacrificing to someone or something. However, love can and will invoke our senses and cause our feelings to respond, if our senses are healthy, for indeed, they can become sick or "desensitized."
When I read about love in the scriptures, ever so often there is a requirement or action, and sacrifice linked or attached to it. "If you love me, keep my commandments." "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend. It seems that the greater is the sacrifice, the greater is the love. Is it possible that we are being tested and taught to attain a higher love? Even a Christlike love? Being created in God's image and likeness, does that "likeness" include the attributes of God? Is there any limit to the development of our Godly attributes if we continuously focus and work on them daily by learning what is corrosive to them and avoid them, or repent of them if they have place in us? And can we focus on learning and applying those things that enrich our Godly attributes to their full potential, a potential that we do not see or understand in the process, but will when we endure the process?
We are taught in scripture to "apply our hearts to understanding" and also warned that our hearts can become corrupt, or are corrupt until we choose to serve God with all of our hearts. Can we fully understand the things of God without the application of our hearts? Do our hearts require preparation?
As I see it, our feelings are a shared application between the physical senses of the body, and the spiritual senses of our spirits. Because of that, only one or the other can operate these feelings, but not both at the same time. One of them will rule the other. The implications are obvious. When our bodies are devoted to worldly pleasures, or addicted to the many stimulations as we abuse our bodies, the Spirit of God cannot access our feelings. He gets a "busy signal". Could not this be one of the reasons that Jesus and His disciples have stressed repentance with such high importance? Could this be why Job declared that to depart from evil is understanding? Our hearts are at play in this important equation, and Ephesians reveals some of the formula, when talking about the wickedness of the gentiles.
Ephesians 4: 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
God IS Love. Our hearts can respond to the senses that His Spirit invokes upon us, as He dwells within us, if we have prepared ourselves to receive Him.
How could we not sense His presence, He being the very Standard of Love, unless our hearts have been polarized to the kind of love that the world inspires?
The feelings that our heart experiences (but not all have felt it, .... yet) is described by the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The resurrected Savior came upon them, and by the Spirit had opened their eyes to understand scripture. In Luke 24 it is recorded: 32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
This feeling did not give them understanding, just like our feelings do not give us love. Their feelings responded to the presence of the Spirit as the Spirit revealed the things that are true, because our feelings respond to love .... if we are not devoting our senses to those things that give the Spirit a busy signal.
I find this 4 min. video, a story given at a LDS General Conference that is doctrinally universal and illustrated very well, to be a good example of how our feelings respond to the things of the Spirit.
Lessons I Learned as a Boy - YouTube
