This summer, I learned firsthand how the Holy Spirit readies us for crisis.
I was staying with my parents because my mother had undergone knee surgery. Early one morning, I heard my mother shouting, “Eileen, Eileen, Dad needs help!” I jumped to my feet, ran downstairs, and found that he had fallen in front of his door, making it so I couldn’t open the door and reach him.
Emotions were welling up and coursing through me like a river. In that moment, I heard the Spirit say, “Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:1). Words from Andrew’s Harnessing Your Emotions book slowly and clearly came to mind, as if the Lord were slowing everything down so that I could make a calculated choice: “Emotions are not just something that happen[s] to us like a chemical reaction [that] we have no ability to control” (p. 7). In that split second, I realized that my response would set the tone for my parents, so I calmly picked up the phone and called 911.
The ambulance arrived shortly. Once the door was opened, we could see blood everywhere. My dad had nearly bled out.
Despite seeing that, I can say that I was aware of the mind of Christ operating in me. As Andrew wrote, “The mind of Christ is in your spirit. To benefit from it, you have to draw it out. How do you do that? By the Word of God, which is Spirit” (p. 121). When I heard what the Crisis Manager—the Holy Ghost—was saying (“Let not your heart be troubled”), the power in those words gave me the liberty to control my emotions and be present and full of wisdom. Like Andrew tells us, “We have an unction from the Holy One” that lets us know things (p. 122). I was operating in the assurance that my dad would be okay.
In our New Covenant, the Holy Spirit prepares us for the trials we face. While He was on the earth, Jesus prepared His disciples for their coming crisis—His crucifixion:
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid…. [29] And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
John 14:27,29
In Harnessing Your Emotions, Andrew says, “The Lord has given us the power to control our emotional reactions to whatever comes against us” (p. 9). The disciples were told what was coming, but most fled as their emotions ran away with them.
It’s not that I had no emotions or had become numb. In fact, I felt very strongly in that moment! But my emotions were directed toward believing that God was working through me to get my dad to safety. I am grateful to the Holy Spirit that I directed the force of those emotions toward accomplishing the task at hand and not allowing them to overflow the banks of my peace and the truth guiding me.
You, too, can respond calmly no matter the situation. Prepare your mind and emotions for anything that may come your way by studying Andrew’s Harnessing Your Emotions teaching. It is available in CD and DVD series as well as in book form, or you can watch this on the Gospel Truth television program. Please share a comment below if this has blessed you.
