by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n
It’s not good theology to attribute to the Holy Spirit that which the Holy Spirit never attributes to Himself. Doing so results in both faulty and contradictory claims, and this is exactly what we often see. Feelings get attributed to the Spirit, which are then contradictory to the feelings of others who might also claim the Spirit as the source. Such feelings may also directly contradict God’s own word. Claims are made about what the Spirit is doing when all the person has is a good feeling about a work. I wish it were that simple, but we must not reduce the Spirit’s function to making us feel good about ourselves.<\/p>\n
Don’t misunderstand me. I am a believer in the Holy Spirit. I believe God is at work, that the Spirit indwells God’s people, that He aids us in prayer, and that we are not left alone in our spiritual battle. Yet this is precisely why I want to avoid mislabeling and misattribution of the Spirit’s work. If we begin to label our feelings about something as the product of the Spirit, then we are using the Spirit to rubber-stamp what we want. “God leads me through my feelings” is never something that is attributed to the work of the Spirit. What right do we have to do so? And how would we even know, but by using our own feelings to verify what we already want to think? Yet even if the Spirit somehow produces good feelings in us, we should never think that we can use such feelings to do the opposite of what the Spirit has clearly revealed.<\/p>\n
This is why the record left by the Spirit is so important, for even if an angel were to tell us something different, let it be accursed. We have a standard to which we may appeal (cf. Galatians 1:6-8), given by the Spirit, expressing the mind of God (I Corinthians 2:10-13). That will always outweigh my feelings.<\/p>\n
None of this is to say that I fully understand how God does what He does. I’m happy to confess that God can work however He wills. Even so, I am not at liberty to say that whatever I feel must be because the Spirit is leading me that way. He never said that’s what He would do. Feelings change and vacillate. Feelings are prone to mistakes. Feelings can deceive.<\/p>\n
What then is the best source for knowing what the Spirit does? The Spirit’s own testimony, as He moved men to speak and write. The word of God is not due to the will of man (cf. II Peter 1:20), but is given by the will and the grace of God. Let’s start there.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Doy Moyer It’s not good theology to attribute to the Holy Spirit that which the Holy Spirit never attributes to Himself. Doing so results in both faulty and contradictory claims, and this is exactly what we often see. Feelings get attributed to the Spirit, which are then contradictory to the feelings of others who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[546,86],"class_list":["post-54917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-feelings","tag-holy-spirit"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":59490,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-words-of-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":54917,"position":0},"title":"The Words of Jesus (Moyer)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer The recognition of the Lordship of Jesus Christ is integrally linked to His word as recorded in Scripture: \"The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day\" (John 12:48).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4335,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-your-church-be-a-good-fit\/","url_meta":{"origin":54917,"position":1},"title":"Would your church be a good fit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have friends who are soon to be married. Both are leaving their church to find one together. Both very much need a Bible preaching church and also a church that allows the Holy Spirit to move. Would this be a good fit? One coming from a conservative church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90174,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/not-feeling-the-spirit-move-there\/","url_meta":{"origin":54917,"position":2},"title":"Not Feeling the Spirit Move There?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton I've heard several speak of attending various churches and \"not feeling the Spirit move\" there. This idea is foreign to the Bible. Feelings have never been the detector of the Spirit of God. If you rely upon feelings, you are not relying upon the Spirit of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59721,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/tradition-feeling-and-scripture\/","url_meta":{"origin":54917,"position":3},"title":"Tradition, Feeling, and Scripture","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Tradition is basically what has been handed down for the next generation to believe and practice. There is nothing wrong with that. Teachings and practices are meant to be passed down. Indeed, tradition is necessary and unavoidable, and no one is without traditions of some kind (including\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15228,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-holy-spirit-telling-not-to-write-about-magic\/","url_meta":{"origin":54917,"position":4},"title":"Is the Holy Spirit telling not to write about magic?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. So I have been struggling whether the Holy Spirit has been telling me to stop doing this or if it is my feelings playing tricks on me. There is this verse that said, \u201cDo not practice magic.\u201d I have you know, I love magic in literature and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29117,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-holy-spirit-doing-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":54917,"position":5},"title":"What is the Holy Spirit doing today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, I know The Holy Spirit has brought about the Word of God but is the Holy Spirit now inactive? Is its work finish? Answer: Just because Jesus' task of bringing salvation to the world through his death, I don't assume that He is no longer involved in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}