Following your heart?

[Naomi Leyva]

The question that I have asked many times, but still have no concreated a conclusion as of yet is ;

Is following your heart a feeling or a head knowledge? Possibly both?

I.E. : When the holy spirit "moves" in your life toward a certain direction, should you follow what you "feel" is right, or do you continue to balance that out with what your knowledge of Gods workings guide you toward your destination.

(Still to date I don't believe that the Holy spirit is limited to either of these methods, nor through examination of Gods workings in my own life do I believe hes limited to either one of my listed points above, however we serve a creative and amazing God that has alot to show us which doesnt always fit into our "Small Box" version of himself.)

For starters, Gods word is a great starting point for all direction in our Christian walks. Jesus does all to tell us what life asperations for our lives he holds dearest to himself, he tells us in many fasinating ways how he wishes to see our lives lived, how we can best invest our time, what are end goal should be, many more things not described in my abbreviated discussion here, but the jist of this statement is just to say that Gods word gives us a great starting point in learning about whatever direction he has for our lives.

Second, God definetely uses signs to guide us in our direction ;

As many of us like to use the metaphor for opportunities coming and going as the "opening and closing of doors", No matter how much you have your lifes direction planned to the dot, things will always come and go no matter who you are, sort of narrowing the possibilities of choices you have to make, but definetely still divinly tailored for your life, just how God would have it.

Third, I believe he does use feelings as a great way to help move us. God created us with emotions, feelings, and all those other sensitive things not everyone likes to admit they have, but they are there, and he created them in us to be used for his kingdom (Amazing how God does things like that!).

Example IE : Our Consonous. - That part of our soul that helps us decipher from "right" and "wrong" and allows us to feel certain ways whenever either one of these conclusions are reached.


This is just something that has been on my mind lately and I just thought that you guys may find it interesting. I'm open to any feed back on this.

[Tina Ricketts]

Hey Naomi,
Thank you for taking the time to share with us one of your many thoughts =). Here’s my thought to your posting.

When I think of your question:

"Is following your heart a feeling or a head knowledge? Possibly both?"

I think of what one bible scripture says about the Heart, you can find it in Mark 7:21-23, it says "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."

With that said, to say one should follow what you "feel" is right, can be very dangerous if that's one's only basis. A Christian should always be checking what their ultimate motive is about doing something, and should never let their heart lead them w/o God involved (i.e. prayer, bible reading, Christian counsel, ect). You said it right when you said “Gods word is a great starting point for all direction in our Christian walks". It's the starting point, it’s the middle point, and it’s the ending point. If someone is "feeling" they should do a certain thing... they should first check to see what the bible has to say about it. They also need to check their motives, i.e. why do we want to do something, or say something, or act upon something. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal why this certain "feeling" is developing. There's nothing we deal with here on earth that Jesus/God Himself has not covered in the bible.

So I believe, for the Christian, to follow your heart is about not only a feeling one has, and/or head knowledge one uses, it’s so much more. Because out of the heart comes evil as well as good, we need Gods word to help us out, along with prayer. If a person is a born again believer, they have the Holy Spirit living inside of them, who is there lending a helping hand as well. It's up to us as individuals as to whether or not we want to listen to the Holy Spirit.... At the end, following your heart may or may not be a good thing, but ultimately He wanted it to happen... because God is Sovereign...

With Love,
Tina Ricketts