One of the ways you do that is you develop this journey in your own life. You get past the surface and you begin to discover what's really going on inside you; how do I feel? How do I think? How do I behave? What do I really believe? See we all believe in Jesus - Glory to God! Okay, but when you're faced with a pressure what feelings surface, what do you really think? What is going on and how do you really behave? So everyone in a church meeting feels good. The musicians create a great atmosphere, we all feel good, lift our hands, praise the Lord, oh that was great! Then tomorrow, down the road and now we face a pressure and we feel other things and those feelings are telling us or indicating to us what is really going on in our heart, the conflicts, struggles, the belief system that's inside us. If we're not willing to connect with it we can't change. As you believe in your heart, that's how you'll live your life.
So we can come to church on Sunday and in all sincerity lift our hands, praise the Lord, tell Him we love Him, but on Monday live a very unloving life, unaware of what is really going on in our inner world and part of the growth to maturity is becoming much more aware of what goes on inside you, why you do what you do. So the first level of changing, you've got to become aware of things and scientists have worked out there's a number of emotions we have and not all of them are pleasant: anger, sadness, fear, these are common emotions people have. These are feelings people have. It's okay to be angry, it's okay to be afraid, it's okay to be sad, but when you're a Christian somehow you think I shouldn't have that. But Jesus had them all. He didn't have the fear one but He was angry at times and He was sad at times, He was astonished at times, He was joyful at times, He was amazed at times and He was totally connected to His feelings. How connected are you? See, how connected you?
So we need to recognise then we have feelings and we need to identify what they are. If I can [be aware of 00.20.12] what I feel it's like an indicator on a dashboard. It tells me the conflicts, turmoil or whatever's going on inside my heart, so you have a look - for example you're driving down the road, someone gets in front of you, you start to get irritated. Let's define irritated, it means angry okay, so we've got little angry, a little more angry, angry, very angry. Most guys can't tell you anything, they just bang the door and you're angry. No I wasn't! Because of disconnection. We need to actually become aware what is it really going on because the first way to get victory over your inner life is to acknowledge what's there and name it. God brought all the creatures to Adam and He named them. Naming them is a part of having dominion over things. If you don't identify and name things it's unlikely you'll have dominion over it. You'll just - I just feel down. Come on, well let's talk about that, what do you mean by that? How long has it been like that?
You begin to enquire and then you begin to feel actually I'm angry, I'm depressed and it's because I didn't get my way. I believe I should have got my way. I believe they should have come through and done what I wanted them to do and they didn't and they disappointed me. But because I want them to like me I never said anything and now I feel really down and bad about me as well. That's what goes on in the inner world of some people and you ask them how are you doing? Oh FINE! Okay then, so we need to explore and look, so one of the things about feelings is that they're given to us by God as part of being a human being, part of being in the image of God, so with feelings you just need to name them and identify them, be aware of them and then name them. Now one way you can become aware of it is you watch your body. When your stomach feels knotted up there's something going on, there's anxiety or fear. If you find you're grinding your teeth there's something wrong. It's sending a signal to you you know? Just like when you feel hungry, it's sending a signal I'm empty, I need food.