Opening the Gates of Heaven Perry Stone

Spirit and worship was encouraged and practiced. As time progressed, we were continually reminded that we are not to live by feelings but by faith . Good advice and very true. However, among some denominations, spiritual leaders refuse to allow, or they place certain restrictions upon, any form of emotional expression during a church service. Some believers are reminded from the pulpit, “God is not deaf and doesn’t require hearing your noise.” I once reminded a minister that neither is God nervous, and holy noise has never frightened Him! The Holy Spirit is not just an invisible force of supernatural energy, a cloud, a fire, or a fog (Exod. 13:22). He is a person, identified with the personal pronoun He (John 16:13), and His presence can be felt when He comes near. The sense of touch is significant for several reasons. If certain flesh sins were not fun or exciting, they would never attract sinners like a magnet to metal. Men and women become addicted to illegal drugs because of the feeling (the high) they get from some counterfeit chemical. Drunks can act like fools one night, and then the next morning not remember how dumb they were acting the night before. They act that way because they thrive on feelings. Actually, they are fooled by a feeling. They remind me of Isaac, whose eyes were dim and he “believed” his hands feeling the hairy arms of Jacob, thinking he was Esau. He was fooled by a feeling. (See Genesis 27:1–29.) The adversary is the master of deception; he is capable of using your feelings to get you