Becoming Spiritually Healthy - "A Soul Flow”

Becoming Spiritually Healthy

“A Soul Flow”

{Audio: https://mega.nz/#!mcNAhArZ!dvkwwXguvXaI_azETNbXwax-TUHak97qWrgFOunY2KE}

You have probably noticed with the whiteboard up here that today’s teaching is not what we normally do. But I believe that it is something that will help us all get unstuck from our unhealthy thought life and emotions.

I believe that God wants us to walk away from today’s message with hope, which is something that most people, unfortunately, don’t find when they go to church, and that’s because while we’re great at pointing out the problem, we don’t know what to do with that information, and how we go about doing it.

Today’s message is something that I have learned, and am working on in my own life, so hopefully this isn’t a technical or clinical teaching, but a way we can work through all of our stuff and come out as spiritually healthy as we can possibly be, realizing that this walk of faith we’re on with the Lord is always a work in process that won’t be completed until we are with Jesus in heaven.

It is a teaching that I am calling, “A Soul Flow,” because as we’ll shortly see from God’s word, that our soul, that is, the seat of our emotions, flows through the brain. Now, the brain is made up of four quadrants. There is the intellectual side of the brain, and the emotional side of the brain, which is basically understood by most if not all those who study brain activity.

The intellectual side is where we gather in facts and truths. I call it the Sargent Joe Friday from Dragnet side of the brain that says, “All we want are the facts.”

The emotional side is basically how we feel about the facts or truths in which we receive. For those who live mainly in this side of the brain, they will say, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, they mess up my reality.”

The other two quadrants work in both the intellectual and emotional sides of the brain. They are the “Be” and “Do” quadrant.

Just as a side note. I have heard a lot of negative about church being performance oriented, and while this may be the case when more of a show is put on for the pleasure of those sitting in the pews, performance isn’t a bad thing, because if we don’t perform as God has designed us to perform, especially as a church, then there would be more churches closing their doors than opening them.

We need to be about the Lord’s business, and that is sharing the good news about Jesus Christ and making disciples of all nations, as outlined in the Great Commission.

But the “Be” portion of our brain is where we observe and relate to the Lord, as well as the world around us. It is the relational part of the brain.

The “Do” portion of our brain is where we start acting in a right way to this relationship we have with God. It is that portion of our brain where we direct our “corrected” thoughts and emotions into action for God’s kingdom, and as our mission states, “To make a difference in our community for Christ.”

To understand how these two work together, the “Be” and “Do” areas of our brain, especially in our relationship with God is found in the Great Commandment as brought out by Jesus.

When asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37 NKJV)

This is the relational part. But as the saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words.” And so this must then transfer or move into the “Do” portion, or how do we show God how much we love Him, and how we love Him with the whole of our being, or with all our heart, soul, and mind. And Jesus doesn’t leave us in the dark. If we’re going to be spiritually healthy, if we’re going to love God with the whole of our being then this is what it looks like, this is what we must do.

“And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:39)

So we show God how much we love Him by loving others, those whom He made in His image and according to His likeness, and those in whom Jesus came and died for, just as He came and died for all of us.

Now, why is this important to understand? Because it begins to explain how God created us, and how we can begin to relate to God, others, and the world.

Proverbs 23:7 says, and I am paraphrasing, “As a person thinks in his or her heart, that is who they become, that is who they are.”