The Sources of Unpredictable Emotions Stacey Smith (CGER))

My Notes:

1. God will over come my fears with a submissive heart.

2. Speak truth to the fear and emotion. “Soul, why art thou cast down? Hope thou in God! What do you have to be so sad about? You’ve only been washed in the blood! You’ve only been saved, sanctified, set apart, called into holiness, blameless, unblameable, fruitful.

3. I can't get rid of my emotions. They are a part of how God designed me as a woman. But I can go through it with grace. Accept them.

4. Feeling Lonely: “Stacey, when you’re lonely, that’s My way of saying, ‘I miss you.’ Draw to Me, and I’ll draw to you. I miss you."

5. 1) accept them. 2) Dedicate everything in your life, whenever, to God. 3) restore broken relationships 4) have disciples, not friends and 5) proper sleep and nutrition and 6) build Scripture around cycles and hard times of life.

http://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/revive-our-hearts/sources-unpredictable-emotions/

Stacey Smith: What’s the answer to that? The answer is: Your acceptance is based on Him. It’s not based on how well you can do something. It’s not based on who you know. It’s not based on anything but Christ in you.

Stacey: Causes of wrong emotions:

Number one is fear. Fear of rejection is the first one. We need to understand that fears are not from God. Here’s the main purpose of what all fears want you to do: They keep you from going forward. Your fears will keep you from going forward.

I’m not going to elaborate on all these fears, but I will give them to you: Fear of rejection. That’s being put aside. How many of you deal with fear of rejection? Rejection means to cease. It causes to cease. That’s all the enemy wants. The enemy wants to cause to cease. To cease having you going forward, it says, “You don’t belong.”

Then guess what happens? Then the flesh interprets to you that that’s God’s approach to you. How many of you have believed the lie that God rejects you? Then your flesh starts talking to you that that’s God’s approach, and that’s not God’s approach.

Then you start believing the lie, and the next thing you know, you start feeling sorry for yourself. Then you have insecurities, and you have doubts, and it goes from one point to the other. Fear of rejection is powerful, ladies.

What’s the answer to that? The answer is Ephesians 1:4. That’s a good place to start. Your acceptance is in the beloved, according as He has chosen you in Him, before the foundations of the world, that you may be accepted in Him—accepted in the beloved. Your acceptance is based on Him. It’s not based on how well you can do something. It’s not based on who you know. It’s not based on anything but Christ in you. That is your acceptance.

In other words, when this tomb that sits in that chair—I’m sorry, that’s a tomb there. The only one that’s alive is Christ in you. When Christ steps out of you, and the flesh is shed off, because flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. So who will step out? Your acceptance is not in anything you see, although this flesh will keep you humble and in need of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For by sight I see nothing good. How many of you all, when you look at yourself, you see your inabilities, you see your insufficiencies, you see your inadequacies, you see all that junk, you see all your mess-ups. But when you by faith look inward, you see that you’re complete in Him, made perfect in Him?

So you see, that outward is only an evidence, a proof of who lives inward. So with your acceptance, you can face your fears. Now, look—you can face all these fears from a resistant and stubborn heart, and guess what? You’re going to be overcome by the fears.

Or you can face these fears with a submissive heart, and guess what? The fears will be overcome.

So it’s not a matter that you’re resisting as far as failure and looking at it like, “I just can’t get it right.” Do you have a submissive heart, saying, “God, I need You. I agree with You, God.” Do you agree with God or do you resist Him? God will overcome those fears with a submissive heart.

The next one: Fear of inadequacies. How many of you deal with fear of failure? Or your fear of being imperfect, or fear of your inabilities? Aren’t you glad that there’s only one perfect being, and His name is Jesus Christ? You know what? It’s not a matter of what sin you’ve committed and what sin I’ve committed and what sin they’ve committed and you’ve committed. What matters is there’s only one perfect One, and it’s Jesus Christ.

Speak to that fear of inadequacy—let’s use truth:

Romans 8:37: “Nay, in all these things, we can be more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”

Colossians 1:27 is another one. “To whom God would make known what is the riches of glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in me, the hope of glory.”

Now, if that’s they mystery, and if Christ is in me, and he says, “The hope of glory,” that’s the hope of accomplishment.

Your emotions—sometimes this is what you’ve got to do with your emotions, ladies: You get in that, and you’ve got to say, “Soul, why art thou cast down? Hope thou in God! What do you have to be so sad about? You’ve only been washed in the blood! You’ve only been saved, sanctified, set apart, called into holiness, blameless, unblameable, fruitful. Soul, why are you cast down? Hope thou in God.”

Everybody, my dog used to look at me crazy at home when I would do that. I’d start to—I’d just get up, and, “I feel lonely. Oh, I’m so lonely.”—and that’s another fear. It’s not this next one, but we’ll just go into it anyway. I’d start feeling lonely. I’d start feeling sorry for myself. And I’d look at my dog, Sunday, and I’d say, “Soul, why art thou cast down? Hope thou in God.” And my dog would sit there and go-----(sounds of laughter). But I want to tell you one thing: I was encouraging myself in the Lord, and you can only encourage yourself in the Lord.

I tell you what, in those times like that, you can’t have. . .there’s really nobody, no friend, or anyone, and some of those at times that can even, say, give you the words—I’m grateful for my friends that do that, but sometimes it just doesn’t work. Would you all agree? You’ve got to go deeper, and it’s got to be the Word of God.

Fear of the unknown. Your unpredictable emotions are trying to convince you that you have an unknown God. Your unpredictable emotions are trying to convince you. Now, they’re not saying that to you like that, but they are trying to convince you that you’re serving an unknown God.

God is the Creator. He is the True and Living God. He is the Way, the Truth, and He is the Life. Those emotions will say, “Oh, He’s left me. I feel all alone. I can’t do this.”

How many of you know what I’m talking about? The next thing you know, you’re convinced of that. You start reasoning from that. You start thinking from that. You start feeling from that. And worst of all, you start making decisions.

Your unpredictable emotions will drive you and cause you to be attached where you do not need to be attached. Every relationship I came out of . . . I went from one relationship to the next. I mean, I didn’t even have a day or two in-between.

No wonder why the Lord allowed me to get a sixty-year sentence. I needed to learn that. I always had to have a friend.

Ladies, if you’re married, it is great to have friends, but you need your husband to be a friend of yours, too. If you can tell your friends something that you can’t tell your husband, you need to relook at that. A woman is really bad about wanting her husband to tell his whole heart. "What’s in your heart?” You want to know all his heart, but you won’t open up your heart to him at all. But you’ll open it up to a girlfriend.

Yes, they’re not bent like us. I’ve got a boss that I’ve worked with for a few years—he was my chaplain in prison, and now he’s my boss. There were times that he had to say to me (I’d be out there in my emotions), “Suck it up. Suck those emotions up.”

Well, guess what I’d do? They’d throw me into a war! “I can’t believe he said that to me. How dare he say that to me! I’m so important. Nobody should say that to me.”

He’d say, “You know what? I’m not getting in there with you. If you want to talk, you’re going to get out of that.”

How many of you have a husband that, when you get in your emotions, he just kind of gets quiet. Anybody? We don’t have a camera in here, ladies. (laughter) Truthfulness is good for the soul. Everybody, lighten up. It’s okay to raise your hand. I’m not sending any kind of video home to your husband, okay?

So fear of the unknown. Then, we’ve got fear of sickness and pain, and bottom line in that, ladies, is that we do fear sometimes of our loved ones getting sick and our loved ones going through pain.

I remember when my mom got the ovarian cancer. God did a wonderful work in my life. When you all saw my mom in that video, it takes everything for me to not cry at that time. My mom’s been dead a year ago April, but my mom got to see my changed life. But on the day of that video, when they were videoing her, she was so sick. Oh, she was so sick. We’d say, “You don’t have to do this.”

She got sick; she wiped her face off, and did the video, and then got sick, and was in bed after that. I can just tell you that God took us through some really neat dependency times upon Him. I began to see how that sickness was driving her to Him. Oh, it was driving her. It was pushing her to the One. I found myself saying, “Oh, I can’t wait until that time when God draws me. I’m just so ready. I want to be there.”

I saw that with my mother. I saw God’s grace. When I’d see her go through those pains and things like that, it would just be like God would give grace.

Suffering is part of His calling. We’re all going to die of sin in our lives, that disease of this body.

So—fear of sickness. I found that over those three years that God began to take those fears away. It was, like, this is part of His process. You see, your emotions you have all seasons in your life. You go from a little girl to a teenager, and I’m kind of in the pre-menopause stage right now. I’m not really sure where I am. One day you’re one way, then another day you’re another way.

But I want to go through it gracefully. I want to go through it graciously. I want to go through it with a reflection of Jesus Christ. I want to go through it because it is part of our design as a woman. You cannot get rid of it. You cannot get rid of your emotions. It is part of you. It is part of the way that God designed you. Go through it with grace.

Go through those sicknesses, if you have them, or if anyone remembers having them. Go through it with God’s grace.

The next one is fear of loneliness. You’ve got to go through loneliness with grace. All I’m going to say on that is when I left prison, because of my past, in my relationships and that, I found that I had to ask God. I said, “God, You’ve got to help me get a grip on this loneliness.”

I never was able to function out there. I’d get lonely, and I’d attach myself. I think I was reading an Elisabeth Elliott book, and it was just like He spoke to my heart. It was so simple, and I go back to this any time I get lonely. It’s like He said, “Stacey, when you’re lonely, that’s My way of saying, ‘I miss you.’ Draw to Me, and I’ll draw to you. I miss you."'

But isn’t that just like He is, Abba Father? He’s like Daddy. And then He’s like a holy God. I mean, He’s just awesome, isn’t He?!

These are just some of the fears. Then, fear of broken relationships is another. So we’ve got fears, and we’ve got broken relationships. All I want to say on that is that, number one, it will be your lack of fellowship with God. In other words: Your causes of wrong emotions will come from your fears, and then will come from that, broken relationships.

You’ve got to go back and clear up any wrong relationships.

Well, let’s just deal with God. You’ll feel that distance. That fellowship has been broken. You need to go back and make that right.

Maybe the Word of God has not been an intricate part of your life. You need to say, “God, forgive me for neglecting You. Forgive me for not wanting rich fellowship times with You. Forgive me of that.” You know, He just puts that right back together.

Then damaged relationships with your father would be the next one. A damaged relationship with your father will cause a rebellious spirit. Why? Because it’s usually through the father that God is trying to teach you the principle of authority, submission to authority.

You’ll find, and I find that I get rebellious. I was rebellious. Also, Proverbs 17:6 says, “The glory of the children are the fathers.” It’s the same way within the church. The glory of the children is the fathers.

If you need to go back and make that right with those parents, and you’ve got a father that died, and you never made it right, go to the Lord in prayer and do it anyway. Then if you had siblings that knew you were disrespectful to your dad, and you were rebellious to your dad, go back to whoever was there that saw your rebellion. Go back and fix that.

And then your estranged relationship with your mother, that causes a resistant spirit. Why is that? Well, number one: Mom is a position of instructor. Mom is a teacher. Mom is responsible for molding and shaping who you are and what you are. That child becomes resistant why? Because of our own desires.

You’ve got to go back. How many of you were resistant to your mom? She was the one that, “You need to do this. You don’t need to do that.”

Dad sometimes just came in and just kind of hung out. How many of you get upset with your husbands that he kind of gets to play with the kids, but you’re always the one saying, “No, you can’t do this. No . . .” He does discipline, but you’re the teacher; you’re the molder; you’re the shaper. But if you’re not careful, that’s where a child will have a resistant spirit toward a mother. So if you have a strained relationship, go back and make that right with Mom.

Then always remember this. If you have a strained relationship with your mom, and it develops a resistant spirit, ladies, you will carry that in to your marriage. You will carry that in to your other relationship because that resistant spirit is an opportunist. It just waits on situations, and guess what? Here it is! “I’m here!” And what do we do? We just follow that opportunist right along.

So go back. That will diffuse some of that.

Basic steps to conquering emotions:

1) Accept your unpredictable emotions. You’ve got to accept them. In other words, don’t try to barricade yourself in the room when it’s that time of the month, and you think, “Maybe if you get away from everybody, it will . . .” No. You just accept them. Say, “God, I accept my unpredictable emotions. This is one of those days, Lord, and I’m just going to accept them. You designed me that way. I was unprepared for them. They were kind of unannounced, but I’m going to accept them.”

2) dedicate. “Lord, I want to dedicate my mind to You. I want to dedicate my will to You. And I want to dedicate my emotions to You.” Sometimes I may just pause at the prison when I’m working there and say, “Lord, I just want to dedicate these thoughts to You.”

Number three: Restore those broken relationships that we talked about.

Look for disciples vs. friends. If you’ve got a special friend in your life, you need to be building each other in the Lord. It’s not time to come together and Susie Q talking about Sally Sue and all that. We don’t have time for that. We need to be building each other. We need to be maturing each other. There’s lost folks out there that need the Lord. There might even be lost folks in here. How well are you building, building others for the Lord?

Let me tell you. I run into a lot of lost in the prison, and they say this: “Why do I want what Christians have when they’re just like me?” We’ve got to grow. That’s what. You’re not looking for friends; you’re looking for disciples. You’re looking to grow each other.

If you’ve got any of those fears, go to the Word of God. When that fear starts striking up, speak the truth to it from the Word.

Then 5) maintain proper sleep and nutrition. I’d just like to say this: If you eat a lot of sugar—what goes up always has to what? Come down. When I was at the Chapel—I worked at the Chapel—and they would bring in all these Honey Buns. We had these volunteers that brought them. I had my own boxes. I’m talking about boxes. Okay? I’d tell them, “You all don’t get in my boxes.” There were tons of Honey Buns.

Everybody had their boxes. There were three of us that worked at the Chapel. I started having suicidal thoughts. I got in my prayer time one morning, and I said, “Lord, what is going on? I haven’t had suicidal thoughts in years.” All He brought to my mind was Honey Buns. (laughter)

I got off those Honey Buns for three days, and let me tell you, I have not had another suicidal thought. So sugar is powerful. Maintain your proper sleep and nutrition. Do it how you can, but just look at it.

Then last is 6) anticipate cycles of life. In other words, you have your monthly cycle; you have your annual—maybe you’ve got an anniversary, birthdays, all that—but you may have some cycles that are not so, like, a crisis in your life, maybe a death of a loved one—you’ve got to build Scripture around for that time.

I hope some of this just makes some sense to you, but, in short, it’s the Word of God, ladies. I want to share one last thing. You have two lines of thinking: God’s thoughts, and Satan’s thoughts.

God’s thoughts will always line up with God’s Scriptures. Satan’s thoughts are going to come in accusational, slanderous, looking down, confusion. That’s where you need to identify. You start identifying your thoughts, your emotions will balance right out. I promise you.

If He can take somebody like me and do what He’s done in my thought life and my emotions, He can sure do it for you.