{"id":84,"date":"2009-08-13T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/catching-gods-virus.html"},"modified":"2009-08-13T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-13T08:00:00","slug":"catching-gods-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/catching-gods-virus.html","title":{"rendered":"Catching God’s Virus"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a lot of talk these days about flu bugs and pandemics. Is God contagious? If we get close, can we “catch” whatever he has? Here’s a bit from my book, Nine Ways God Always Speaks<\/a><\/i>. Beware. <\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

Getting close to God and being infected by his emotion ruins many people for ordinary life. But it prepares them for an extraordinary one. The apostle Paul said in his letter to the Christians at Philippi, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!<\/i>“<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span>How well do you want to know Christ?<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>How much do you want to feel what he feels?<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>How much do you want him to speak to you?<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span>Emotions are easily transmitted from one person to another, yet many of us don’t share God’s emotions. By the sheer force of his presence, there is nothing to stop him from taking over the mood of a room, no matter whether Momma’s happy or not. It seems God doesn’t take over our emotions by force, or the force of his personality.<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span>For God’s emotions to become dominant in a room, we have to choose to get close to him, to mimic him, to experience emotions as he feels them. This is a cognizant act. An act of thinking, of choosing to be infected, that only then leads to feeling. <\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span>You’ve probably experienced a time when you consciously turned your thoughts over to God–in an extraordinary moment of worship, at the death bed of a loved one, or the birth of a baby. At that moment, everyone in the room seemed to sacrifice their own thoughts to catch the feelings of those around them. For a moment, they chose to be infected with God.<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span>If we want to hear God speak through our emotions…<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>we must choose to mimic him.<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>When we mimic him… <\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span>his emotions become our emotions. <\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>When we imitate him…<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span>we take on his feelings.<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span>We began this chapter by acknowledging that many people think our intellect is less corrupted than our emotional side. But we end a chapter on emotions with the need to make a conscious choice to feel what God feels. It is a thinking <\/i>act of our free will to be infected emotionally<\/i> by God.<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span>Get close to him and feel what he feels.<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Stand back and you will miss his emotions. <\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>It is a thinking choice that decides what you’ll feel.<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Perhaps you should let your conscience be your guide. <\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Question: When you pray, do you ever feel God’s emotions? What is that like? <\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a lot of talk these days about flu bugs and pandemics. Is God contagious? If we get close, can we “catch” whatever he has? Here’s a bit from my book, Nine Ways God Always Speaks. Beware.   Getting close to God and being infected by his emotion ruins many people for ordinary life. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nCatching God's Virus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/catching-gods-virus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catching God's Virus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There’s a lot of talk these days about flu bugs and pandemics. Is God contagious? If we get close, can we “catch” whatever he has? 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He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the author of \"Six Prayers God Always Answers: Results May Vary,\" and \"Nine Ways God Always Speaks: Only Available in Certain States,\" both co-written with Jennifer Schuchmann. His third book is \"The Karma of Jesus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mark is a native of Santa Cruz, California. He has studied at Azusa Pacific University, The Academy of Performing Arts, Cambridge, Ontario, and Luther Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. from Regent University. Mark and his wife Jill have four children. His true passion is walking with people in the exciting adventure of communicating with God.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}