Spiritual warriors must be able to recognize when they are not living and moving in partnership with the Holy Spirit. The Lord has an impressive impact on our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual states when he is present with us.
Physically, it can be something as simple as loss of appetite. Tension and stress fill our stomach with excessive nervousness. Our sleep pattern is disturbed. We can’t go to bed, and we cannot get up in the morning. In between, we toss and turn.
We feel tense, on edge, throughout the day. Often we can have a headache. Our eyes hurt. We cannot focus or pay attention. Our body has flulike symptoms. Our joints ache. Everything is an effort. We prefer to do something physical rather than something spiritual. We avoid people and places where we may have to engage with them.
Emotionally, we are reactive. We do not listen properly. We are agitated, irritable, sad, and moody. We feel sorry for ourselves. We want sympathy, we don’t want sympathy. We push people away. We drive people away. We are prone to being anxious, worried, and fearful. We pretend being unconcerned. We could care less what people think, but we are also worried about being rejected.
We are angry at everything. It simmers under the surface of our interactions. We are on this roller coaster of feelings, yet we must pretend there is nothing wrong. We can feel suspicious, mistrustful, and even cynical about people and situations.
Eventually, we question everything. We have this negative tape going around and around, background conversations, playing endlessly in our head. We speculate constantly; and most, if not all of it, is negative. We pick holes in what people say. We are hunting for game; our mind is the rifle, and our thoughts are the bullets.
We chase down everything and everyone that does not agree with us, and we shoot holes in them. We replay events negatively. We engage in mental conversations, movie scenes in our head, where we come out on top in the argument.
We vindicate ourselves or imagine others doing it for us. We believe the worst and look for it to happen. We become super – analytical. We pull fragments of thoughts together to form a negative picture that suits our feelings in the story we want to create.
When we are out of alignment, it is very difficult to trust anyone. We magnify the negatives to justify our wrong emotions. Every word and action is under a microscope. The enemy loves a poor mental state. He subtly adds more and more negativity until we are choked by it. We become suspicious of motives in people. We seek similar people to fellowship with in cynicism.
All these can become barriers where we form a resistance. We man the barricades to repel truth, wisdom, and the requirements of love. We prefer our own perceptions, no matter who they hurt. Spiritually, it leads to isolation. We come to a place of accusation. We ignore the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes non-alignment begins by something people can do or say that wounds us. An event can occur that can damage us. We lose self-control and allow ourselves to spiral down into the flesh. Usually, what happens is that anything in our hearts and lives that is not dealt with, now rises up to stake its claim on our lives.
In the aftermath of a negative circumstance or event, we initially feel contrary. If we have broken through these thoughts and feelings previously, they will not last now. It is a temporary reaction, and our usual spirituality will reassert itself. The place of the Holy Spirit in us will overcome. All we need generally is a place of quiet reflection.
If we have not broken through previously, what is rising up in us is our own carnality. Now we have a fight on our hands. The sad truth is that the vast majority of Christians are not under attack from the enemy but are actually being assaulted by their own carnality.
Why would the enemy waste time attacking people he already controls when instead he can use them to hurt or wound other people? Such people do not warrant an attack from the enemy; they do too good a number on themselves for him to waste his resources.
Negativity causes pressure and means we allow ourselves to be under attack from within. Inadequate alignment can lead to guilt, condemnation, unbelief, wounded-ness, and poor relationships.
Assignment – ask the Holy Spirit to run a diagnostic check on you physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Your chief requirement at this time is honesty and humility. Read 1 Corinthians 1; 1-3 and Hebrews 5; 12-14. Keep yourself in the love of God, and be merciful – 21; 21. What fruit of the spirit do you need to employ in your own heart? Write down your symptoms, and asked for help. Resist the stupid notion that you can do this yourself! That would be enemy speaking.
Commission- be more conscious of the four states of health; physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Without being overbearing, look at your family and friends. Are there any signs of nonalignment with God? Write them down and pray over them. Think of the antidote. Important! Read Galatians 6; 1 – 2 before you speak to anyone. How will you say it? How can you help people around you to stay in alignment and not lose it?