Emotion

Before we delve further into the book-  'The Spiritual Man' and what Watchman Nee has to say about emotions and the believers and the function of emotions read this-

Heb_4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

We need to remember that our Savior had FEELINGS like we have FEELINGS. Our Savior experienced EMOTIONS like we experience EMOTIONS. Our Savior was never consumed by his emotions, his feelings, he never let them rule over him.  Truly if we read the following about emotion and disagree I can't comprehend why. 

Go ahead and read the excerpt and by the grace of God we will study it tomorrow. All through the love of our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ now and forever!

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'The Believer and Emotion

Although A Christian may have experienced deliverance from sin, he shall continue to be soulish— that is, powerless to overcome his natural life—if he fails to experience additionally the deep work of the cross wrought by the Holy Spirit.

A limited description of the life and work of soulish Christians has been given earlier. Careful study of the soulish reveals that the conduct and action of such ones stem principally from their emotion.

While the soul possesses three primary functions most soulish or carnal Christians belong to the emotional category. Their whole life appears to revolve largely around the impulses of emotion.

In human affairs it seems to occupy a greater area than mind and will: it apparently plays a bigger role in daily life than do the other parts of the soul. Hence nearly all the practices of the soulish originate with emotion.

The Function of Emotion

Our emotion emits joy, happiness, cheerfulness , excitement, elation, stimulation, despondency, sorrow, grief, melancholy, misery, moaning, dejection, confusion, anxiety, zeal, coldness, affection, aspiration, covetousness, compassion, kindness, preference, interest, expectation, pride, fear, remorse, hate, et al. The mind is the organ of our thinking and reasoning and the will, of our choices and decisions. Aside from our thought and intent and their related works, all other operations issue from emotion.

Our thousand and one diverse feelings manifest its function. Feeling comprises such a vast area of our existence that most carnal Christians belong to the emotional type. Man’s sensational life is most comprehensive, hence highly complicated; to help believers understand it, we can gather all its various expressions into the three groups of (1) affection, (2) desire, and (3) feeling.

These groups cover the three aspects of the function of emotion. Should a saint overcome all three, he is well on the way to entering upon a pure spiritual path. To be sure, man’s emotion is nothing but the manifold feelings he naturally has. He may be loving or hateful, joyful or sorrowful, excited or dejected, interested or uninterested, yet all are but the ways he feels. Should we take the trouble to observe ourselves we will easily perceive how changeful are our feelings.

 Few matters in the world are as changeable as emotion.

We can be one way one minute and feel quite opposite the next.

Emotion changes as feeling changes, and how rapidly the latter can change. He therefore who lives by emotion lives without principle. The emotion of man often displays a reactionary motion: a time of activity in one direction will sometimes produce an opposite reaction. For example, unspeakable sorrow usually follows upon hilarious joy, great depression after high excitement, deep withdrawal after burning fervor. Even  in the matter of love, it may commence as such but due to some emotional alteration it may end up with a hatred whose intensity far exceeds the earlier love'

Excerpt - The Spiritual Man - by Watchman Nee