Challenges to Knowing and Hearing from God Part 8

We are challenged to deal with our individual temperament’s strengths and weaknesses.

MIND (what we think/believe) God gives us understanding and wisdom despite our temperament, not because of it.

WILL (what we choose to do) God calls us to act despite our temperament, not because of it.

EMOTIONS (what we feel) The level of our emotions, and their expression to others, depends on our temperament. As with the mind and will, social expectations and personal history also play a role. We need to learn to relate to God and to others based on God’s ways, not how we feel about Him or the person being ministered to, or doing the ministering. Many are “turned off” from receiving ministry from those who express strong emotion, and often reject God’s Truth and Life because it did not come they way they thought it should. God motivates us with compassion and desire despite our temperament, not because of it.

We are challenged to take risks, make mistakes, be wounded and rejected.

Because of our temperaments, personal history, etc., each of us has our own set of fears, though when it comes to God, they generally fit into three categories: fear of punishment (God will make me, or others that I love, pay for my mistakes), fear of failure (disappointing God) and fear of abandonment (God won’t take care of me unless I meet His conditions). Once we become new creations, the Lord starts bringing us into alignment with the truth that because we are genetically a part of His family, we are unconditionally loved (free to be ourselves), unconditionally accepted (free to make mistakes), and unconditionally valued (free to live according to our inheritance).

Embrace the notion that the greatest lessons are learned, the deepest changes are wrought, through making mistakes.