SPIRITUAL SENSITIVITY

Crucial to controlling our spirits is the ability to understand the way that our
spirit habitually operates. Some of us function almost totally in the realm of
natural feeling or sensations. For example, in a quest for masculinity, men have
lost touch with their feelings while women have wasted their feelings in a cycle
of emotional self-indulgence. Moreover, people who are in recovery have
experienced the pendulum sway of moods and feelings during the consistent cycle of
seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. The real "power" in empowerment evolves from
being able to face our weaknesses so that we can find our real strengths.
However, this process is blocked if we attempt to avoid the pain that plowing and
weeding brings. No real growth and self understanding comes without pain.

If we are to function in the spiritual realm of feelings which I have called

"spiritual sensitivity", we must overcome sensations that emanate from the soul
and the flesh. Feelings of rejection, loneliness, unforgiveness and unresolved
anger can lead to depression and negative attitudes. Ambivalence of this kind
will attack our spirits and do it great harm and damage. At times, these
sensations will feel like a heavy weight or an overshadowing dark cloud. As a
heavy weight, negative feelings are an albatross around our necks, pulling us
down each and every time. As a dark cloud, feelings can blocks us from the truth
about ourselves, blinding us to those areas of our lives that work together to
bring about our defeat. They can also give us false messages about people and
situations. The more our natural feelings are broken, wisdom and discernment will
increase, wherein spiritual sensitivity will encompass the cooperation of our
natural feelings and emotions with God's purpose. Since natural feelings are
both transitory and preferential. The Lord Jesus Christ's goal for our feelings
is threefold:

1. that we choose to act beyond the original level

of our natural feelings and emotions, by doing

what is RIGHT, in spite of how we FEEL;

2. that we are able to discern the "real" condition

of others; and

3. that we are moved to care for others as He cares

for them.

Moreover, the Holy Spirit will use adversity to move us beyond the power of our
natural feelings into the dimension of spiritual sensitivity. As a case in point,
the emotional trauma of abusive relationships can destroy our feelings and block
their accuracy. God's goal is that we learn to find comfort and rest in the midst
of trials and tribulations. At times, He will keep us in situations that are
impoverished, humiliating, and disappointing. Why? So that we who are broke,
busted and disgusted will rise up to victory. Self indulgent "woe is me" pity
parties will continue until we submit to the Lord's instruction on how to develop
emotional strength in the midst of adversity and unpleasant circumstances. The
Holy Spirit will exercise our innermost resources within us so that we will grow
stronger and stronger with each failure, with each rejection and with each
mistake. Consequently, we will learn how to be victorious in the midst of every
situation.

An important element of spiritual sensitivity is the capacity to not only

assess our own condition, but to spiritually discern the needs of others. For
example, the Holy Spirit has gifted me to be able to place my hands upon a person,
and feel within my own spirit those hidden feelings of the person touched. If my
own natural feelings were not under control, I would not be able to distinguish my
own feelings from those of the person in question. I have also acquired the
ability to touch the Lord's heart and know how He feels about a particular matter,
and in so doing, find that my own natural feelings have been dramatically changed.

I can still vividly recall the first time that my feelings were transformed.
Shortly after Christ became my Lord and Savior in 1977, I had a supernatural
experience of forgiveness and cleansing that is difficult to describe. In 1977, I
counted several people as my enemies. Strong anger and bitterness were my soul's
constant companions, and up until that time, I relished my hatred and my intense
desire for vindication against my adversaries. But early one morning as I moved
from sleep to consciousness, I felt like I was literally levitating about a few
feet above the top of my bed. One by one, the faces of each of my enemies
supernaturally traveled toward me on an invisible panoramic screen. As each face
approached me, I could hear words which emanated from deep within my gut cry out,
"I forgive you." My subsequent actions were totally incongruent with my former
feelings of hatred, bitterness and vindictiveness. With an exhilaration that was
beyond my normal state of being, I entered into a state of joy that motivated me
to visit my worst enemy,---a woman that had seduced my first husband from me.
The woman stared at me as though I was crazy. She knew the extent of my former
rage because my husband had rejected my daughter for her two (2) sons. This
experience taught me that the Lord can transform us from being a victim of abuse
to an empowered survivor and overcomer.

Spiritual sensitivity is accurately defined in "Living in the Presence" by

Tilden Edwards:

"The purest discernment is the simplest. Sometimes we are such open

channels of grace that we spontaneously say or do something for others that is
completely uncalculated. It is only afterward that we realize by the fruit of our
actions that it was just what seemed called for. It may have been so un-
calculated, so missing in any kind of self-image mediation, so self-forgetful,
that we were not even aware that we had said or done anything of particular
significance." (Tilden, 1994,p 99)

Sixteenth century Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross poetically

illustrates the renewal of feelings and emotions in his work entitled "Dark Night
of the Soul", translated by E. Allison Peers:
 In poverty, and without protection or support

in all apprehensions of my soul---that is, in

the darkness of my understanding and the

constraint of my will, in affliction and

anguish with respect to memory, remaining in

the dark in pure faith, which is dark night

for the said NATURAL faculties, the will

alone being touched by grief and afflictions and yearnings for the love of God---I
went forth myself---that is, from my low manner of understanding, from my weak
mode of loving and from my poor and limited manner of experiencing God, without
being hindered therein by sensuality or the devil. THIS WAS A GREAT HAPPINESS AND
A GOOD CHANCE FOR ME for when the faculties had been perfectly annihilated and
calmed, together with the passions, desires and affections of my soul, wherewith I
had experienced and tasted God after a lowly manner, I went forth from my human
dealings and operations to THE OPERATIONS AND DEALINGS OF GOD. (E.A. Peers, 1990)

Clearly, sixteenth century thought embraced as a truth the devil's

obstructive role in the emotional and sensual realm. Demonic evil was not a
mere archetypal image or a light fantasy of our present day Halloween, but a
fundamental premise---a natural concept, firmly rooted in reality. The negative
forces of demonic activity as hindrances to spiritual empowerment and recovery
are referenced throughout this book. Where the emotions are concerned, It is
obvious that negative feelings are conducive to demonic oppression. Such emotions
can lead to addictive behavior, and other self-destructive acts. The mystery of
the power of a negative emotion like hatred upon others is alluded to in the
scriptures, for "whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer..." I John 3:15. A
profound account of how a person's spirit can be used to harm another person
without his conscious awareness is found in the book "He came to Set the Captives
Free", by Dr. Rebecca Brown:

Hatred is a conscious sin. As such, it gives Satan legal ground in our lives if
we permit it to dwell in our hearts. If you hate someone, Satan can step in and
use your spirit body to attack the person you hate. Such an attack can produce
all sorts of illness, accidents, emotional problems, and even physical death. The
person doing the hating usually is never aware that Satan is using his spirit
body. The person being hated usually has no idea where his trouble is really
coming from. That is why we must be so careful to ask Jesus to cleanse and keep
pure all three parts, body soul, and spirit. That is why the Lord Jesus gave us
so many commands to forgive one another. Forgiveness puts a stop to hatred. We
Christians should ask the Lord regularly to clean out our hearts of any sin.
(Brown, pg, 177)
 I can personally attest to the power of my own hatred. The supernatural
forgiveness that I received from the Holy Spirit toward the woman previously
mentioned who had seduced my first husband may have delivered me from being a
spiritual murderer. However, two years before my spirit was cleansed and made new
by the blood of Christ, I was probably a spiritual arsonist. For five long years,
my hatred of this woman caused me to imagine her destruction by fire. Countless
times I would repeat the same deadly image in my mind. I'd watch myself walk up
her stairs with a vessel filled with gasoline in my hand. Methodically I would
see myself pouring the gasoline along her steps and under her door. I'd light the
match. I'd drop the match. Finally, I'd wait with anticipation for the screams.
Upon this deadly vision, I meditated almost day and night for five years. During
that fifth year, I was living in Hempstead New York and my enemy was in
Springfield Massachusetts when I learned that she her house caught on fire, and
she barely escaped with her life, while I was physically 200 miles away. As soon
as I heard the news, I shouted with victory, "I DID IT!" Jumping from her window
to safety, my enemy broke all the bones in her feet ---a condition requiring
several operations, from which she still suffers even twenty years later. I
believe that my hatred of this woman was so powerful that hatred gave Satan the
authority to use my spirit body to attack her.

Notwithstanding, emotions and feelings come in a variety of expressions

that are not always negative. Emotions can be both frustrating and exhilarating,
bringing us from the mountain top to the valley in a quick, unexpected leap. At
these times, there is a temptation to live by our feelings rather than by our
spirit. When our emotions continually vacillate between positive and negative
extremes, an open door is provided to the evil one to equip our sensory organs
with physical sensations that counterfeit the true spiritual sensitivity that
emanates in and through our spirits from God. In such cases, the devil will offer
us sensual pleasures that cause us to lose control. If a believer remains
ignorant of demonic devices and strategies, he may fall victim to a compulsive
euphoria or similar elation and become deceived by false visions, dreams and
revelations. These supernatural experiences will appear to be from the Holy Ghost
but after the passing of time. will subsequently be proved to have been sent by
the enemy. Satan's goal in this instance is to cause sincere believers to sink
into a dark, gloomy depression, believing that their own lack of discernment is
proof that they do not have the capacity to know the voice of the Lord.

In spite of Satan's deception, there are seven (7) kinds of feelings in our
spirits that we will be able to recognize when we become spiritually sensitive.
They include: heaviness, blockage, zeal, hardness, urgency, joy and peace. It is
apparent from this list that like natural feeling, spiritual feelings are not
always joyous or jubilant, but can also be mournful or sorrowful. The Sermon on
the Mount provides enlightenment on this subject. Blessed are those that mourn,
for they shall be comforted, declared Jesus the Christ. (Matthew 5:4) Inherent
in spiritual sensitivity are the blessings that come from the Lord when we
sacrifice our emotions for the sake of those who are emotionally oppressed. In
all cases, spiritual feelings have a divine purpose. In order to arouse our
spiritually sensitivity, the Holy Spirit will break our natural feelings by using
people and situations in our environment. His overall purpose is to keep our
spirits continuously free and untrampled.