Let Your Feelings Be Your Guide?

In the article “is it hard to be saved” you said: “Feelings are almost never a good indicator for behavior.” Would you say that the guide of the Holy Spirit comes through feelings as well as other ways? What’s your take on this?

Q. I just want to ask you a question. In the article “is it hard to be saved” you said: “Feelings are almost never a good indicator for behavior.” Would you say that the guide of the Holy Spirit comes through feelings as well as other ways? What’s your take on this? Thanks God Bless.

A. As near as I can tell, every time the Lord communicates with one of His people in the Bible, He is said to have spoken with them. In 1 Kings 19 where Elijah sought the Lord, he heard a gentle whisper. When we let our “conscience” be our guide, we listen for an inner voice to direct us. What the Lord tells us may result in feelings of one sort or another, but the feeling is a reaction to a communication, not the communication itself.

One of the skills we develop as believers is learning to listen for the voice of the Lord, and when we do we’ll often hear him tell us to make what we call “contrary to feelings” choices. That’s where He asks to do something we don’t feel like doing, like loving an enemy, or forgiving someone who’s hurt us. No prophet ever said, “I feel like we should …” but “Thus saith the Lord.”