We are not saved by feelings. We cannot be saved by feelings, since we cannot hold or feel the Finished Work of Christ Jesus.
What is faith, per the Bible?
"1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2For by it the elders obtained a good report." (Hebrews 11: 1-2)
We are saved by grace, which we receive by faith (Ephesians 2: 4-8).
We have to walk by faith, because Jesus cannot die again, and He cannot recreate what He did on the Cross.
When Mary found Jesus resurrected in the Garden, Jesus advised her not to grab Him (John 20: 17), and in the Gospel of Luke, we find Jesus teaching about Himself through the reading of the Word (Luke 24)
We cannot be saved by feelings, since the truth of who we are in Christ cannot be felt.
In fact, for Jesus to die again would violate God's justice, since Jesus died once for all for all our sins.
Moreover, for Jesus to die again would suggest that what He did was not enough.
Not at all. When Jesus said "It is Finished", that means the purging of our sins has been finished!
We are called to rest in what Jesus did for us, not strive every day to feel in our heads and bodies that Jesus is OK with us.
I am not ashamed to admit this truth today: I lived so much in my feelings, convinced that Jesus Christ was with me as long as I felt that He was with me.
As long as I felt at peace in my body, as long as my mind was rigorously focused on Jesus, then I was OK.
Such a mantra of religious fanaticism nearly brought me to the insane asylum. Imagine living every day convinced that what you think or feel can block your connection with God?
Such thinking is inevitable if we insist on mixing a Covenant of works with the New Covenant of grace and peace through Christ's death, resurrection, and high-priestly ministry at the right hand of God the Father.
We are not saved by feelings, but by faith, that we recognize in our hearts that Jesus has put away all our sins. When we rest in this truth, the New Covenant is fully activated in us:
"10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
Twelve Stepping makes God so small, primarily because the whole program makes light of what Jesus did at the Cross. There is no other name under which man can be saved, and to teach men and women that they can choose their own conception of God is the height of blasphemy and foolishness.
A dangerous cult which brings untold harm to many, Alcoholics Anonymous has no place in the life of a believer. The program teaches people to rely and identify with their feelings, instead of walking by faith in what Jesus Christ has done for us at the Cross.
Trust that Jesus has paid for all your sins, and let His Spirit write God's laws within you and teach you more about Himself!
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