What is it like to submit to and cooperate with the Spirit of Christ? I'm going to do my best to describe it, because it can be both subtle and dramatic at the same time.
First, what it is not. It isn't like what you may have heard about channeling. That is, you don't black out, and you're fully conscious throughout it all. You may feel a little bit like a spectator in your own body, but it's entirely voluntary. You choose to cede control, and maybe that really isn't the right way to say it either. You cannot force it either. You can only let go and allow it to happen.
Second, your personal feelings and emotions don't necessarily change, but they don't influence how you respond, what you say and what you do. This is important to understand. Your brain may be pumping angry or fearful thoughts through your mind, but as long as you don't choose to let that fear or anger (or bodily cravings for that matter) dictate your words or actions, as long as you don't submit to it, the Spirit of Christ remains in control and it won't be reflected in what you say or do.
This second point is the biggest challenge, and remains the constant battle which the disciple must fight. Submitting to your fear in particular, as the root of all the others, will wrench control back from the Spirit of Christ, and He will let go and allow you to resume control of your own words and actions, and reap the consequences or "harvest" from them. Cooperating with Him is absolutely, painstakingly voluntary. He respects your free will more than you do.
So, what is it like? Well, as I mentioned before, it's a little like being a spectator in your own body. You're watching yourself do these things, and hearing yourself say these things, and at first you're utterly amazed at what you're saying and doing. How kind you're being, how loving. You're utterly amazed that you're saying all the right things even though you know you prepared nothing, and sometimes what you're saying would normally scare the hell out of you to say to anyone. At first, you think to yourself, wow, I didn't know I could do that, or say that. And this is where it gets a bit tricky, because the control of the Spirit is so subtle sometimes you may believe that it all came from you, that is, your own ego. And then this too can cause you to wrench back control believing that it all came from you.
You may be prompted to say something specific, and then be surprised when the words come out of your mouth before you've had time to think them through. You may be prompted to do something specific, and then watch yourself do it before it's had time to really register what you're doing.
Having a baseline of comparison is why Paul continuously gave lists of the "works of the flesh" in his letters as well as describing what the Spirit of Christ would produce. In short, if your actions or words are motivated by fear, aggression, or bodily cravings then it is your own ego which is producing them, and you have wrenched back control. You may not know exactly when or what triggered it, but you did.
As you continue your practice of "walking in the Spirit" and also "remaining in Christ," you will eventually begin to experience how He feels about certain things, and you may feel like a kind of channel for those feelings and emotions. This can get a little confusing at first, especially when your own brain is still pumping out fearful or angry thoughts. As you're speaking or relating with someone, you can be overwhelmed with a love for that person which doesn't originate from you (frequently this becomes obvious because of the overwhelming depth of it, and also because it may not be someone you would normally feel that deeply about). There may be times you become angry, but it is a different anger, more paternal, more, almost exasperated like a parent with his children. It isn't a destructive anger. It doesn't seek to lash out or seek revenge, rather it is a corrective anger, seeking to turn that person around. Sometimes you may feel the humor in things you might not normally, and even sense God laughing as though sharing a joke with you.
It's important to understand that this is a learned discipline. Most don't just recognize the difference between themselves and Him instantly, and most give into their fear more often than not at first. Consistency in this practice, the Way, develops with exercise of it. We don't really develop the stamina or "muscles" to not act on our fear or anger without doing it over and over again. Eventually the "muscle memory" does kick in, and the cooperation and submission to Him becomes implicit.
Finally, you will never cause harm when submitting to and cooperating with the Spirit of Christ. This point must be drilled home. He may get angry through you, but He will never strike someone through you. He will never seduce anyone through you. He will never lie to anyone through you. He will never steal anything through you. He will never defraud anyone through you. He will never be unkind through you. If your words and actions display any of these things, then it is you and not Him. If your words and actions cause harm to another, harm not necessarily pain, then they are born of your own brain, and not His Spirit. And if it is not Him, then you have fallen off the Path and need to course correct back onto it, trying to make amends for what harm you caused when off of it.
Course correction is as simple as admitting that you are in error. Saying it aloud is helpful psychologically speaking because it makes it real to you. Saying it to another person even more so because it cements it with a witness. "I have caused harm. I am in error. I have fallen off the path." After this admission, it is helpful to verbally and intentionally ask Him to resume control for the same reasons. There is no need for guilt. It does and will happen, and the fight against one's own fear, aggression, and bodily craving responses will continue until the body dies. But as you practice, staying put in cooperation with the Spirit of Christ will become more consistent and a bit easier over time.
I am reminded of something which a psychologist friend once told me. At the time, I was undergoing neurofeedback treatment which uses a system of rewards to retrain the brain, and in a sense, rewire the synaptic connections. And what he told me was that typically, you yourself won't notice the difference (my experience was atypical, but I digress), but others will notice the difference in how you behave and act. The reason for this is that the brain doesn't register that there's been a change in the connections (if I remember correctly, it's been fourteen years). The brain just continues on. And I was reflecting on what I wrote in my previous post this morning that, at first, you may not notice anything different at all, or that another is in control of what you are saying and doing because the brain isn't aware of it at first. But others will take note, and see you demonstrating love, joy, peace, tolerance, etc. It takes intentional observation and awareness sometimes to establish when it is the Spirit of Christ and when it is your own ego so that you can more easily recognize when you've fallen off the Path and when you're walking it before you start causing harm to others, intentionally or unintentionally. The objective here being to minimize when the ego (or self, or psyche, or one's own malfunctioning neurology) is in control, and to maximize when the Spirit of Christ is in control. As John the Baptist said, "He must increase, while I must decrease."
From my own personal experience, especially before my neurofeedback treatments for Asperger's Syndrome, the difference between my own responses and behaviors and His could be dramatic. Speaking in public would terrify me personally to where I would shake almost uncontrollably, and yet under the control of His Spirit, when He spoke through me, no one would know it. No one would see it or hear it. With my Asperger's I wouldn't know how to relate appropriately, and yet under the control of the Spirit of Christ I would be relational, appropriate, and caring even as my own brain was screaming at me. With my own devices, I may not want to do something because of the mood I was in, and yet as long as I am submitting to Him, I find myself standing up and not only doing the thing, but going the extra mile. I myself may not want to give money when asked, yet I find my hands opening my wallet and giving the bills within it. There have been times I've been about to explode from frustration at someone and make the situation ten times worse, and yet the words that come from my mouth are calm, kind, and patient even as my brain is raging at me to quit, lash out, and so on. Do I ever lose that fight and submit to my fear and anger? Of course, but it's a lot less frequent than it used to be. And with each won battle of not giving in to my fear and anger, it becomes less and less.
It is scary at first to entrust yourself, your life, and your relationships to Him and have Him interact with all of it through you. But I can bear witness that He has earned my trust with it, and His results are always better than mine ever could be.
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