Hi Chiristen1 and thanks for your thoughts.

I respect your opinion but I have to point out a few things. Namely, that following your own feelings is a quick way to get in trouble when trying to decipher and understand God's truth.

When you read scripture, you will read story after story where people followed their own feelings rather than following the commands of God and ended up greatly regretting it. Our feelings quickly mislead us. This is why scripture continually tells us to walk in the Spirit, of course we have to know what this means.

There are two types of feelings and I believe most people are not able to tell the difference. One type is from our own soul (a.k.a. "heart"). The other is the nudging of the Spirit. We have to learn to discern the difference in this life so we can make good decisions.

One way we can test whether we are truly listening to the Spirit is to ensure that what we are "hearing" does not conflict with scripture. If it does, then we are not listening to God because He will never contradict His word. Of course, in order to do this, we have to know scripture. This is vital.

Some of the old "prophets" were reported to have spoken from their own hearts rather than following the leading of God. This is rampant today. Todays media tells us to follow our own heart. Can you think of a Disney cartoon that does not promote this idea? This is not Godly.

On the other hand, as be become more mature we should actively work on telling apart the prompting of the Spirit from our own heart. This way we can truly walk in the guidance of the Spirit.

Books have been written on this subject as it is an important enough subject to deserve that kind of attention.


"My sheep [color:"brown"]hear[/color] my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

—John 10:27-28


Some translations use the word "know" rather than "hear", which is probably a better translation.