Editor’s Note: In this month’s Teaching Letter, we’re presenting an adapted excerpt from Denise’s newest book Jesus Is Your Healer, which will be released next month. This book will illuminate you concerning Jesus’ great willingness and ability to heal you and make you whole — and this excerpt will encourage you to take hold of that divine ability today and let Jesus love you!

Hello, Friend!

Happy New Year! I pray you had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior and are looking forward to 2024 with a sense of renewed hope and expectancy. In my last few letters, I wrote to you about divine healing, and I would like to continue teaching along this line. This subject is so close to my heart that I wrote a book called Jesus Is Your Healer, and I am excited to share with you another excerpt from it.

Our emotions play an important role in our health and wellness, and emotions also play an important role in being able to receive the healing that is ours. If you need healing in your body (or know someone who does), I pray this letter is a word in due season.

Things are happening in our world that tell us the time is near for Jesus’ return. Never has it been more important for us to keep our spirit man strong and in control of our emotions.

You have probably seen someone in your life who absolutely lost control of his or her emotions. Maybe that person yelled, screamed, or even cursed at someone you loved, and you said to yourself, I don’t ever want to be like that. Or maybe you were that person who got in a situation where you lost control of your emotions and then felt terrible about it later.

Emotions are a gift from God and a blessing, but it has never been His will that we would be controlled by our emotions. God has provided wisdom for us to learn how to control our emotions, which is a vital part of what we need to do to receive our healing and live in divine health.

We Can Control Our Emotions

The Bible says that we were created in God’s image (see Genesis 1:26,27). God has emotions, and so do we. Emotions in themselves are not bad; it’s what we do with them that makes them good or bad.

Many people have a false picture of God painted in their minds. They assume that He is often angry and out to destroy us. For instance, society has a term for natural disasters, such as tornadoes or hurricanes, that can wreak havoc on the earth: They are often called “acts of God.” But that’s a lie of the devil, because those weather events are not initiated by God.

God does have emotion. Zephaniah 3:17 shows us that He experiences joy.

The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will
save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet
you with His love….

God has so much gladness and joy that this word “rejoice” in the Hebrew includes the meaning of spinning. God doesn’t just rejoice over you; He dances in delight over you! That’s how much He loves you. He feels great joy and compassion when He thinks of you.

So we know from God’s Word that there is nothing wrong with our emotions; however, we don’t want to be controlled by them. The Bible says be angry, but to sin not (see Ephesians 4:26). So anger in itself is not a sin; it’s what we do with that anger. If we yell and scream and curse at someone because we are angry, then we have allowed this emotion to move us into fleshly action. Emotion has great power, and it can move us to do the wrong thing.

Anger is normal, but we need to control it because controlling our emotions is vital to our physical health.

You might be saying to yourself, I can’t control my emotions. I listened to my mother scream for so many years of my life. I heard my father’s angry cursing throughout my years growing up. Now I’m just doing what my parents did. I can’t help it.

If you’re saying that, I want to tell you that it’s not true. You can help it. When God says, “Be angry and sin not,” He’s telling us what to do. He would never tell us to do something that He didn’t equip us to do, because He is just and completely fair. God has given us the equipment we need to control our emotions.

How To Keep Your Spirit Man in Control of Your Emotions

 So when our emotions are knocking at the door, how can we answer the door in a way that brings light and help to us? How do we ensure that our spirit man stays in control of our emotions?

Let’s consider what we can do when we’re angry. We can either speak to ourselves, or we can listen to that emotion and allow it to move us to an emotional state that isn’t good. We might start yelling and screaming at someone, or we might block our heart from that person, telling ourselves, I’ll never forgive him (or her) for this. If that’s the choice we make and we allow that powerful emotion of anger to move us and cause us to sin, I guarantee you that this kind of reaction will have a detrimental effect on our bodies.

But there’s an answer for those of us who are Christians. We’re not supposed to be led around by our emotions or to allow our emotions to control us. We shouldn’t be screaming and yelling at people. We are not at liberty to give people a piece of our carnal mind or to threaten people with negative consequences for not pleasing us!

So what is our answer? We are to take the time to ask the Holy Spirit who dwells within us for wisdom.

The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the
mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.
Proverbs 15:28

Do you see the two choices in this verse? We either study how to answer, or we pour forth out of our mouths what is evil. The Holy Spirit is so personal, and when we fall into these kinds of emotionally upsetting situations, He is there to give us the help we need if we will take the time to ask Him for that help.

Overcomers Even in Tribulation

We won’t have perfect lives while living on this earth. We will face obstacles that we will need to overcome by faith, and at times those obstacles may include physical sickness or infirmities. But in the midst of it all, Jesus gave us these powerful words of encouragement to sustain and to strengthen us:

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may
have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of
good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

Now, that is a powerful promise. In this world, we are going to have tribulation, but in Jesus, we have peace that surpasses natural understanding (see Philippians 4:6,7). As we face situations that seem impossible, it might take us a little while until we experience His peace. Things that we simply wish weren’t happening can press on our minds and hearts. But what can we do? Jesus told us in that verse. He said, “In Me, you can have peace.”

My life is not a perfect life, and, yes, at times I’ve had to deal with physical and emotional challenges. But one thing I know — it is in Jesus that I find my peace.

After Jesus promised us His peace, He went on to promise something else: “…In the world you will have tribulation…” (John 16:33). Why is Jesus promising us this? Because He knows something about this world. He knows something about people. But even though Jesus says that we will have tribulation in this world, He also says, “…Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

As we serve Jesus faithfully even through a time of experiencing tribulation, we’re showing the strength of our faith. When everything is going great, it seems like we don’t even have to use our faith. It’s when we’re in those hard places and we might be tempted to give up that the real test comes.

We have to let our spirit man rise up and take control of our emotions in those times. We have to look to Heaven and say, “Jesus, I’m not giving up. This trial isn’t easy to go through, but I know this: You are good, and You are faithful. And no matter what I’m going through, I’m trusting You to bring me out on the other side!”

Always remember these words of Jesus, because you’re going to need them in this life. Jesus said that tribulation comes to everyone, which means you and I are not exempt. But He also said that in Him, you will find strength in His abiding peace. And then He said, “Cheer up — because here is the bottom line: I have overcome the world, and that overcoming power is in you!”

That overcoming power comes in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who promises to do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ever ask or think. He works in you with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (see Romans 8:11; Ephesians 1:19,20; 3:20). That means you are well able to take control of your emotions so that they work for you and not against you. Wholeness in every area of your life — spirit, soul, and body — that is the will of God for you!

My friend, I count it a great privilege that you decided to spend this time with me, and I hope you’ve found hope and healing in these words! Together, we’ve sat at the feet of Jesus with our eyes and ears fixed on His Word. Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” And Proverbs 16:24 reminds us, “Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.”

If you would like more sweetness for your soul and health to your bones, I invite you to join me for my program TIME With Denise Renner on Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. CT on YouTube and Facebook. You can also find me on the following:

•  GospelTruth.TV — Saturdays at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. CT

•  PTL — Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. CT

•  Spotify, Apple, and Google — Mondays at 5:00 a.m. CT (new audio podcasts)

Do you need healing or have a special prayer request? We have a team of Spirit-filled prayer partners who are just a phone call or email away. Call 1.844.473.6637 or send us an email at prayer@deniserenner.org to connect with the power of agreement. Healing is available to you, and we would be honored to be a part of the miraculous work that God wants to do in you.

We are moving forward together,

Denise Renner