Overcoming the Deadly D’s
In this study we will look at 6 things all beginning with the letter D that are emotional struggles that we have to learn how to overcome. The only one that doesn’t explicitly deal with the emotions per se is the first where we will look at spiritual Dysentery.
Into: Aids (HIV) does not kill but it weakens the immune system and allows other deadly things to attack and kill, therefore it is only fitting that the first deadly D we discuss is like Aids, it is the absence of and the weakening of our spiritual immunological system:
The First Deadly D is Spiritual Dysentery.
Dysentery is a loss of fluids due to a bacterial infection. The fluid loss can reach dangerous levels. Water is essential for life! Spiritually speaking the water of the Holy Spirit is essential for spiritual life. Spiritual dysentery occurs when the Holy Spirit’s influence and presence is greatly reduced in a person’s life.
You won’t die per se from not being filled with the Holy Ghost. But if you are not filled other things will come a calling that can kill. Aids doesn’t kill but weakens one so other diseases which normally could be fought off no longer can be, and now become serious and life threatening. Even so, one who is suffering from spiritual dysentery becomes very vulnerable to the following deadly D’s; they are:
Disappointments
Dilemma’s & distresses.
Depression
Discouragement’s
Despair
You need the Holy Ghost to fight these effectively. Dysentery is very deadly as is aids.
To overcome dysentery ask God to stir up the river of the Holy Spirit in your life. John 7:37-39.
The Second Deadly D is Disappointments.
Some disappointments are short term, some are long term.
Short term: canceled vacation, missed opportunity.
Long term: relationship that won’t happen or won’t be healed; a career or goal that will not be realized. A standard of living that will never be achieved.
To overcome disappointments make them God’s appointments!
Every Christian has an appointment with brokenness, Jesus said Luke 20:18 "Whosoever shall fall upon that stone (Christ) shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Everyone who comes to Him will be broken.
As you struggle with disappointments, you can turn them around by making life’s disappointments God’s appointments. If you have faced a disappointment, in prayer acknowledge the sovereignty of God, and His desire for only good in your life. This will take the sting out of the emotion of being disappointed. Once you have dealt with the emotion than you can go hunting for the gold by asking of God, "what good thing are you trying to work in me Lord, what bad thing are you trying to take out of me Lord? If you will remember Jesus is only working through life’s circumstances to make you more like him, than you can join with Paul and joyfully say: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
If you don’t learn how to mentally reckon life’s disappointments as God’s appointments you will be adding to the load you have to bear. For the man/woman who sees God in their disappointments has by that fact alone, cut the burden down in size immensely.
Let me share something from the scripture that may help with dealing with disappointments. In Jeremiah 18 is a story where Jeremiah was commanded by God to go to the potters house and there God would cause him to hear God’s word. He goes and he sees a potter working on a piece and somehow the piece became messed up, so the potter simply took the clay and reshaped it as he saw fit. Upon seeing that God tells Jeremiah that since He is God, He can do the exact same thing with His people. If the piece doesn’t turn out just so the potter will simply remake it as it pleases the potter.
But there is an amazing difference between a human potter and a Divine potter. Suppose the potter Jeremiah had seen was Michaelangelo? What do you think his remake would have been? That’s right a masterpiece! Michaelangelo because of his gifts and talents, if he decided to rework a piece no one would complain about how sad it was the original plan didn’t work. Sometimes marriages end in divorce. Sometimes college careers don’t pan out because people don’t study hard enough, or loans don’t come through. If you feel that something in your life wasn’t God’s first and best choice, cheer up! For when your life is over others will say, "But look what the Master hath wrought from that lump of clay. Bravo sir!, Magnificent, It is a masterpiece!"
Hummel throws out its errors, God reworks His (ours) and you never will know that it is any less a masterpiece than all His other works. Is God capable of producing shoddy work? Absolutely not! If the lump of clay that is called your life has had to be reworked don’t fret over what has been lost or left behind, but with joyous anticipation look forward to what He will do in and for you.
The Third Deadly D is Dilemma’s & Distresses
Both of these situations include an element of danger: Financial, emotional, physical.
To overcome dilemma’s and distresses stress something else.
Our victory in Jesus
What a mighty God we serve
I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
The ability to be able to stress something else has a lot to do with what I call focus, and Christian vision. It is illustrated in the following passage:
Jeremiah 1:11,12 "Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it."
In the Bible hearing has to do with understanding the Word of God. Over and over again Jesus challenged people about their hearing skills: "Him that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says..." Seeing in the scriptures has to do with perceiving God’s plans, purposes, and activities, and understanding things from God’s point of view. Let me try to explain the difference to the two once again. Hearing has to do with God’s rules and word, seeing has to do with God’s actions and perspective.
Often when Jesus would teach, He would say him that hath ears to hear let Him hear, but as to seeing, Jesus in John 1-3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that you cannot possibly perceive what God is doing unless you are born again. ("Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.")
Once again hearing has to do with understanding God’s truth. Seeing has to do with understanding God’s actions, and values. For example in Revelation 3:17,18 the Laodician church is rebuked for lukewarmness and told that though they could hear God’s word, they could not perceive their own spiritual condition and what God was saying to them about their life. Lukewarm people always see themselves as finely clothed in God’s eyes. When in fact they are naked miserable and blind. The lesson we can learn from this is, that it is not what we think of ourselves that matters but what God thinks of us, and the only way to know that is to have good spiritual vision. Further it is not the way we view circumstances that matters, but the way God views them.
To see clearly, don’t let their focus (satan’s, circumstances) become your focus. You may recall the story in the Gospels when Peter is walking on the water at Jesus’ command. All of a sudden he takes his eyes off of Jesus and begins to notice the wind, water and waves. As if wind has something to do with hindering one’s ability to walk on water, or if big waves all of a sudden render God’s power impotent. The key to that story is that Peter lost his focus. Instead of focusing on God’s provision of power he focused on his inabilities. Dilemmas and distresses will always cry out to you and say, "Hey you! Yeah you! Pay attention to me! You are losing the battle!" It is important at such times that one keeps focused on Jesus, His love, power, and keeping grace.
A question you might ask is, "How do you invalidate the obvious, or how do you keep from focusing on it?" This is not an easy task. One trick I have found very effective to helping me keep focused is when I feel trouble brewing, or am in a difficult situation, I simply pray, "Father use this to make me more like Jesus." If the devil is behind the circumstances you are facing and you pray that prayer, faithfully refusing to cave in to fear and doubt, satan will begin to hate bringing difficulty your way knowing you always try to turn it for good. If the devil is not behind your circumstances but God is, because of the attitude of humility you express in all probability you will shorten the length and depth of trials, because you already have the right attitude God is looking for.
The Fourth Deadly D is Depression.
To overcome depression ask God His impression of the situation.
Is there nothing that can be done?
Is everything ruined?
Is it hopeless? Nothing is hopeless with God. Get God’s impression and you will lose your depression!
The Fifth Deadly D is Discouragments.
The American Heritage defines discourage thusly: Discourage 1. To deprive of confidence, hope, or spirit. 2. To hamper by discouraging; deter. 3. To try to prevent by expressing disapproval or raising objections
Discouragement is like a hand that reaches right into your bosom and rips out your courage and your confidence. It is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a Christian.
Discouragement can come from circumstances: Numbers 21:4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
Discouragement can come from others: Numbers 32:9 For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.
Discouragement can come from our own self! We can sometimes be our own worst enemy, for who knows better to say the things that hurt deeply. For example you could say to yourself: "You have always failed" "Nothing good ever happens to me..etc. Here is an example of one time in David’s life that he let his emotions get the best of him: 1 Samuel 27:1 "And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: [there is] nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand." David felt God’s protection just wasn’t there. He let the blues get the better of him, and if you study his life during this period you will find he spent about two years lying to Achish king of Gath, and didn’t turn things around until chapter 30 of 1st Samuel.
To overcome discouragement apply God’s encouragements.
Is there not a word of cheer in this book?
Are there not promises to which you can cling?
This is what David did to turn things around. David encouraged himself in the Lord. 1 Samuel 30:6.
Another way to turn things around is to ask God to encourage you. Often when people are discouraged they will tell God about how they feel and then they will tell God what he has to do about it. They will tell Him just what He should do to change the situation. The problem with that approach is it doesn’t allow God to be God. God is not always wanting to change the situation, sometimes He is wanting to change you! You can’t always ask God to change the situation and expect it will happen, but you can always ask God to encourage you and He will!
David was going through a rough time and this is the prayer he sung to God in Psalm 35:3 Draw out also the spear, and stop [the way] against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I [am] thy salvation. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Besides holding off the enemy, the Lord can also calm the mind of his servant by express assurance from his own mouth, that he is, and shall be, safe under the Almighty wing. An inward persuasion of security in God is of all things the most precious in the furnace of persecution. One word from the Lord quiets all our fears. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
Sometimes even those who seemed to know best that God loves them cry out for assurance. David that knew it, yet prays to know it more.
How else might we be encouraged?
The following is from Thomas Acquinas’ comments on Psalm 35:3 and really relates to our present discussion on how we might be encouraged:
Ver. 3. Say unto my soul. God may speak with his own voice; and thus he gave assurance to Abraham, "Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." Genesis 15:1. If God speak comfort, let hell roar horror.
2. He may speak by his works: actual mercies to us demonstrate that we are in his favour, and shall not be condemned. "By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me."
3. He may speak by his Son. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." MT 11:28.
4. He may speak by his Scripture; this is God’s epistle to us, and his letters patent, wherein are granted to us all the privileges of salvation. A universal si quis; "Whosoever believes, and is baptised, shall be saved."
5. He may speak by his ministers, to whom he hath given "the ministry of reconciliation." 2Co 5:19.
6. He doth speak this by his Spirit: he "sendeth forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." GA 4:6. By all these voices God says to his elect, I am your salvation. ... My. Let this teach us to make much of this My. Luther says there is great divinity in pronouns. The assurance that God will save some is a faith incident to devils. The very reprobates may believe that there is a book of election; but God never told them that their names were written there. The hungry beggar at the feast house gate smells good cheer, but the master doth not say, "This is provided for thee." It is small comfort to the harbourless wretch to pass through a goodly city, and see many glorious buildings, when he cannot say, Haec mea domus, I have a place here. The beauty of that excellent city Jerusalem, built with sapphires, emeralds, chrysolites, and such precious stones, the foundation and walls whereof are perfect gold Re 21:1-27, affords a soul no comfort, unless he can say, Mea civitas, I have a mansion in it. The all sufficient merits of Christ do thee no good, unless, tua pars et portio, he be thy Saviour. Happy soul that can say with the psalmist, "O Lord, thou art my portion!" Let us all have oil in our lamps, lest if be then to buy, beg, or borrow, we be shut out of doors like the fools, not worthy of entrance.
The Sixth Deadly D is Despair.
2 Corinthians 1:8 "For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:" We despaired of life was said by one no less than the Apostle Paul, there are things that can happen to the best of men that can bring them down emotionally.
Paul was upset over so little fruit.
Paul was upset over such fierce opposition
Paul was probably very conscious of his own weaknesses at this time
Despair is to lose all hope, or to be overcome by a sense of futility or defeat. When Paul says he despaired of life, basically, he said in the modern vernacular that he was suicidal! This is very serious business.
The only solution that is effective for despair is the one Paul found. 2Co 1:9-10 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver [us];. In other words he first recognized God’s hand in the circumstances. It is no small comfort for a child of God when He realizes God is in control even of the most disastrous circumstances: Isaiah 54:16 "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire," David disobeyed God once by numbering the people of Israel, a thing that really displeased the Lord. As a punishment God asked David to choose between three punishments, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land?
David thought the matter over and his very wise reply was, 2 Samuel 24:14 "And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies [are] great: and let me not fall into the hand of man." Realizing that the Lord is Lord even over great personal tragedy, and that with Him no situation is ever hopeless for as David said, that even if God were punishing me for sins committed let me not fall into the hand of man, but into the hand of God for there is hope for His mercy.
The other thing Paul obviously did was spend some intense time in prayer. Ps 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
Taking control of your emotions is not an option, for either you will control them, or they will control you. I would like to give 2 final scriptures as we end this lesson. The first is some advice Paul gave to the Thessalonian church in 1 Thessalonians 3:3 "That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto." When Paul speaks of no man being moved he means that no one should be troubled or disheartened as they thought upon the difficulties and tribulations he was encountering. The only way to keep one from being disheartened is to actively attempt to take control over ones emotions. We see every person of great faith in the scriptures ruled over their emotions. That is not to say they ruled over them all the time, or that their emotions never got the best of them, but as a general rule they did not permit their hearts to be troubled.
Our final scripture for this lesson is in a similar vein: Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. The NAS uses the word mind instead of affection, both are correct, but I think in this case the KJV conveys to us something that is closer to the true meaning. Affections are the things we care for, are interested in, and are important to us. The Bible therefore tells us to set (fix) our affections on things above. You can direct your affections, you can make yourself care for the things of God more than the things of the world. Prayerlessness can be rebuked. You can (with God’s help, of course) set the direction your heart will go. In fact this verse orders us to do so! We are not to follow our heart, for "The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer 17:9) We are to direct our heart, guard it will all diligence, not let it be troubled, over and over again the Scriptures admonish to take charge. Taking charge involves active and aggressive intervention by the mind/will/and spirit. May God give you grace, to grow in this grace!
