Emotions, reactions, patterns and spiritual warfare
Transcript below if you’d prefer to read!
Hey my friends, in this video, I want to talk about emotions, reactions, patterns and spiritual warfare.
Spiritual warfare does not always look dramatic, dark, or like some horror show evil.
Most of the time, it looks emotional.
A sudden shift in your mood.
A trigger.
A wave of heaviness.
A reaction that feels bigger than the moment.
And if you don’t recognise what’s happening,
you start reacting emotionally instead of responding spiritually.
Now let me say this first.
Not every emotion is from the enemy, that is not what i’m saying
but every emotion needs to be discerned.
Let’s be clear, emotions are not the problem.
God created them.
Even Jesus experienced them.
He felt compassion (Matthew 9:36)
He felt anger (Mark 3:5)
He felt distress and anguish (Luke 22:44)
He wept (John 11:35)
He felt troubled (John 12:27)
But emotions were never meant to lead your life.
They are signals, not instructions.
Scripture says in Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart can be deceitful,
so not everything you feel is something you follow.
Emotions and feelings are connected, but they’re not exactly the same.
Emotions are the initial response.
They rise fast. Someone said they last 6 seconds!
Feelings are what come next.
They are shaped by your thoughts, your narrative, the story you tell yourself, your interpretation of a situation, and your beliefs.
So you might feel rejection in a moment,
but then your thoughts build a feeling like:
“I’m not valued”
“I always get overlooked”
And now what started as a moment
becomes something that lingers and builds.
And this is where it matters.
Because the enemy wants you in a reactive state.
He wants you emotional in all the wrong ways.
Because if he can influence how you feel, he can influence how you see.
And if he can influence how you see, he can influence how you respond.
That’s why 1 Peter 5:8 says to be sober and vigilant.
That’s intentional living. Being aware.
Because if you’re not aware, you’ll just react.
And this is what the enemy does.
He triggers.
He presses on things that are already there.
Fear.
Offence.
Rejection.
Insecurity.
Pressure.
Because your reaction is often revealing something deeper.
A wound.
A past experience.
An unhealed area.
A belief you’ve agreed with.
Proverbs 4:23 says to guard your heart,
because everything flows from it,
and your reactions flow from what’s inside you.
So now you’re not just reacting to the moment,
you’re reacting from what’s underneath it,
from what’s in your soul.
And if you don’t recognise it,
you will keep reacting the same way.
This is also how patterns are created:
An emotion,
then a thought,
then a reaction.
Not in one moment,
but in repeated reactions.
Same trigger.
Same emotion.
Same response.
Again and again.
And now it’s not just a reaction anymore,
it’s a pattern.
And once something becomes a pattern,
you stop choosing it,
and you start defaulting to it.
It feels automatic.
“This is just how I am.”
No.
This is what has been repeated.
And I’ve seen this in my own life.
When I got married, it was a culture shock for me.
I couldn’t read Antony at all.
I couldn’t read his actions or his responses.
I was also a people pleaser and lived in survival mode, so it completely threw me.
It was confusing because it was completely different
to anything I had grown up with.
And I’d love to say I was gracious and very Spirit-led…
I wasn’t.
I reacted from my flesh.
I went into self-pity.
And what started as a reaction
became a pattern.
Oh, I was completely justified.
So every time something happened,
I defaulted to the same reaction that had formed within me.
The same response.
Again and again.
And that created other cycles.
Bitterness.
Resentment.
Continuous downward spirals.
I’ve been married 9 years in April, and if I’m honest,
the first part of my marriage was spent creating patterns.
The second part has been spent breaking them.
And this is why 2 Corinthians 10:5 says
we take thoughts captive.
And why the mind is the main battlefield.
Because if you don’t interrupt it,
you repeat it.
And over time, those patterns form beliefs.
“I’m not safe”
“I’m not valued”
“This always happens to me”
And now it’s deeper.
Because you’re not just reacting anymore.
You’re believing.
You’re in partnership.
You’re in agreement.
Agreement is powerful.
Because the enemy cannot walk with you without agreement.
He needs you to agree with the thought,
agree with the feeling,
agree with the lie.
Because Amos 3:3 says,
“Can two walk together unless they agree?”
So the moment you agree with something that isn’t true,
you give it permission to walk with you.
And that’s how strongholds form.
Not overnight,
but through repetition and agreement.
And the result of all of this
is you end up out of alignment.
Out of peace.
Out of clarity.
Out of position.
And it starts to distort your perception.
So you begin doubting,
questioning,
second-guessing God,
your community,
your relationships.
Now questioning in itself isn’t wrong.
Questioning can bring clarity and understanding.
But questioning from a reactive state
leads to confusion.
Because when you’re out of alignment,
you’re not seeing clearly.
Colossians 3:15 says,
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart.”
Not emotion.
Not pressure.
Peace.
So if you’re experiencing something and you want to react, pause.
Take a moment to stop and ask:
What am I feeling?
Where is this coming from?
What am I believing right now?
And instead of reacting or lashing out,
you bring it to God.
This is how you start walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh.
And this is how patterns break.
You interrupt the reaction.
You choose differently.
Even when it feels unnatural.
Because it will feel unnatural at first.
You’re going against what’s been repeated.
But over time,
what once felt automatic
starts losing its hold.
And we see this so clearly with Peter.
He denied Jesus three times.
He reacted through fear, again and again.
That could have become his identity.
But in John 21,
Jesus meets him again
and asks him three times:
“Do you love me?”
Not to shame him,
but to restore him.
Jesus was undoing the pattern.
Three denials.
Three new responses.
And in that moment,
Peter wasn’t just forgiven,
he was restored.
The pattern was broken.
And that’s what God does with you.
He doesn’t just point out the pattern,
He gives you the opportunity to respond differently.
Jesus said in John 8:32,
“The truth will set you free.”
And truth is what breaks cycles.
So if you’ve been stuck in patterns,
this is your moment to interrupt it.
To pause,
to bring it to God,
to choose a different response.
Choose the fruit of the Spirit:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Prayer
Father, I thank You right now
for every person listening to this.
I thank You that You are bringing awareness
where there has been automatic reaction.
I pray right now that every cycle, every pattern, every agreement
that is not from You
would be exposed and broken in Jesus’ name.
Where there has been fear,
replace it with Your perfect love that casts out all fear.
Where there has been confusion,
bring clarity.
Where there has been reaction,
teach them to respond by Your Spirit.
And I thank You, Lord,
that You are restoring alignment,
restoring peace,
and restoring truth.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.