March 28 & 29, 2011 Cultivating a Good Heart

I've been fascinated by the images of water in the Promised Land, and it's got me thinking a whole new way about it.  For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year."  Deuteronomy 11: 10-12

Now, take this thought and put it together with the Parable of the Sower, from the NT reading yesterday.  This is when Jesus explained it to the disciples, the seed being the Word of God:  "But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience." Luke 8: 11-15

Have you ever wondered how we come to have the Word of God grow in our heart to begin with?  Were some of us born with a "good heart" that could grow the Word?  Were all of us born with a hardened heart, like the roadway that was packed down hard and trampled on by feet all the time, unable to even receive a seed, much less sustain the growth of one?  I think that mankind in general is in the second category, and it takes a lot of work to get the ground tilled and prepared to receive the Word at all.  God is the Farmer, or the "Husbandman", who works on people's hearts in many ways.  I was able to be a co-worker with Him in the counseling room, where much of the time was spent digging up hard ground, dredging up rocks and other debris, and in planting the truth.  Some of the time I was allowed to help reap a harvest, but this was due to the work of others who had planted and watered.  It is always God who brings the increase. (I Cor. 3: 6-7)

I also think that some of us are blessed to have parents and other people who set to work preparing our hearts when we are very young children.  A godly parent is diligent to work with God to bring their child's heart to a place of receiving the Word;  and they are diligent to help the child maintain that garden until the Word begins to bear fruit.  I believe there is a generation of children being brought into the world now that have had their hearts prepared even from the womb - who will have the "noble and good heart" from the start.  Throughout the Bible, you can see examples of this type of person.  Think of a large number of Samuels and Marys coming into maturity at a time such as this!  It is all of our responsibility in the Church to help guard and nurture these little ones.

Imagine now, what happens when one who has had their heart prepared, a "noble and good heart" - the good ground - coming into the amazing Land of Promise where the rain of heaven waters it and God's eyes are always on it.  Revelation raining down, flowing in streams, watering the Word that's been planted.  This is a land of heavenly revelation and abundant spiritual fruitfulness like we've never experienced before!  This is the land of Life!  Can you see why here we must be all the more watchful and diligent to guard our hearts from deception and the idols of the world?  Anything and everything will grow with extreme rapidity and abundant fruitfulness.  We must beware of what we allow to be planted in the good ground in the land of Life, and stay on the alert.  We must guard our hearts with utmost diligence.

June 11, 2010 When We Cover Our Ears

From the glory and rejoicing of the dedication of Solomon's temple to the hard-hearted stoning of Stephen:  what a jolting and disturbing contrast!

I don't have a lot to say about this.  Except: this could be us!  At any time, it could be me.  This is a stark picture of what happens to us when we habitually stop our ears from the Word of God, reject true prophetic expressions from the Lord, or refuse to receive a godly rebuke given in love.  Taking the truth can be painful, but when we refuse it, we can kill.  (Don't just limit killing to picking up a stone-- you know we can kill with words, with looks, with rejection.)

I pray that the Spirit of Wisdom and Discernment will show us the heart of the matter.  One thing I see is that, if we get stuck where we're at and make a religion out of what's supposed to be a relationship, we are at risk of completely misunderstanding, and even outright rejecting,  the next thing that God might do.  His purposes have been flowing along, right from the beginning, and He's never turned back from where He's been going.  The people of Stephen's day were right in the middle of God's river, the same river they were in during Solomon's reign, and yet they misinterpreted what was happening.  He even told them in advance what He was going to do. 

KEY:
God always goes higher and deeper!  Instead of the commandments in the ark and the glory cloud in the holy place of the temple, the living Word was in Stephen and the glory of God had filled him, a temple "not made with hands." [Not just Stephen, but any Christian who allows Him to do so.]

I've seen and heard of God doing some pretty strange things.  Sometimes I've misjudged these things, and later had to repent.  I think God's going to be doing some very radical things in these days.  I've heard some things, even just today, that fit that description, and I'm not going to disregard them.  We need discernment, and we definitely need to stay close to Jesus and listen to His Spirit, Who is glad to interpret to us what He is saying and doing in these last days.  Let's not cover our ears!

"But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse." Acts 7:57 NASB

Bonus:  Discern the difference between following the crowd and the unity of the Spirit.

May 14, 2010 God Looks on the Heart

“Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7  I am so very glad that God looks at the heart, and that when He looks at me, He sees Jesus, and me in Him.  After reading this part of Saul's sad, sad story, I was very grateful to read of Jesus' mercy with the woman caught in adultery.  He saw a heart of repentance.  If there had been true repentance in Saul, he would have been accepted. 

No amount of bargaining with God can bring about a truce with Him; only accepting His way, and that Way is Christ.  But His love covers a multitude of sins-- things that couldn't be wiped out with any amount of tears or efforts at restitution.  We need Him.  We need to fear Him and obey Him, which can be hard until we know Him better.  Once we know His love, we would go through flames of utter destruction to get close to His heart.

Samuel was still learning lessons about discernment and seeing the heart, not just hearing words or seeing masks.  Jesus quoted what the Lord said to him, too, about not judging by appearances.  We need to know that God sees our heart: there's nothing we can hide from Him, but there's also nothing that God is hiding from us.  If we want to know Him, He is more than willing to reveal Himself to us.

I have never been the person the world would choose (funny, but I was really the proverbial person no one wanted on their sports team, at least until later on in highschool), and you probably aren't either.  But that's OK, because God chooses us.  He loved us before we knew Him, called us and accepted us.  I don't want to be unchosen for the things He's called me to do.  That keeps me on the straight and narrow.  He's not going to entrust anything to me if I'm untrustworthy.  I'm glad though, that He's not going to "unchoose me" from being His child, or "unfriend me" because I mess up.  He knows my weaknesses, and He helps me (and disciplines me sometimes).  Jesus said He'd never leave us or forsake us.  We would have to totally reject Him and leave Him completely to end up like Saul, which is, I guess, what Saul did.  I'd much rather be the one on the healing end of the harp than the one with a tormenting spirit because I rejected the Spirit of God.

 

April 19, 2010

All the passages today, from Luke on, seemed to speak to me of the consequences of rejecting the Word of God.  Jesus wept over Jerusalem, prophesying that “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41-44

As I read Psalm 88, it seemed like the psalmist (not David) was seeing ahead to that day of destruction and expressing the feelings of a people who had experienced that destruction.  He seemed not to see the restoration, but that doesn't mean there was not to be one.  It reminds me of the times I have been in the throes of deep depression and hopelessness.  It does truly feel like a waking death.  However, I can testify that if we will continue to cry out to the Lord, He will come to us, and again reveal Himself to us and restore us, if we will respond to Him and believe His word to us.  He will come with whatever we need-- conviction, correction, healing-- but He always comes with love.

How often, I wonder, does our Lord visit our life with His presence and weep for our lack of response to Him?  It does not give Him pleasure to have to bring discipline, or to have to allow us to "hit bottom" so that we will turn to Him.  But one thing is certain, when we do realize we are in need of Him, He will answer our cry for help.  He will come with "the things that make for our peace."

April 12, 2010

As I read today in the Joshua passage, I saw something that simply took my breath away! It's possible that I may have heard it taught before, but I don't remember it, and I certainly never "got it" with such impact. What I saw in the story about Jericho was intercession and spiritual warfare over individuals and cities. I'm not saying that we should do literally what the Israelites did, but that it is a symbolic word picture through and through, as well as the historical account.

The Lord brought a Scripture to my mind that upheld what He was saying to me (He is always so kind, isn't He, to help us understand). "A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city." Proverbs 18:19  [Many people are offended with God-- I think it's true of anyone who won't receive Him or others.]

When I read of Joshua encountering the Captain of the Hosts (He was Jesus, the Word, wasn't He!), it absolutely gave me chills. It is His battle-- we are fighting with Him as part of the army of God, and it's a spiritual one, not fought with flesh and blood, but with effective weapons against spiritual enemies-- and He is victorious! Only, we must bow before Him and obey His commands.

Rather than try to pick the story apart for an exact strategy, I will share the things that became energized to me today. I saw the seven days, seven times, seven priests, seven trumpets, as God's perfect and complete plan of redemption and restoration, the trumpets as praise of God and announcing His presence, and the circling in silence as forgiveness. What did Jesus say, "seventy times seven?" 

Oh, I could write a long essay on this! Have we ever been able to win a person who has a hardened heart-- or with walls of defense built up around them-- by trying to batter the walls down? No! And yet, it has been done to me, and I have done it to others. I have learned the hard way that if I haven't interceeded for a person, coming before God with a humble heart (to be circumcised of the selfishness, or to have the log removed from my own eye), the Lord will not allow me to speak.  If I do it without His permission and in His timing, the walls will not fall down, they will only be fortified, and often I will be the one attacked. Most of the time, a confrontation is not needed when intercession is done, declaring the Word over a person (in private, as the Spirit dictates only), and declaring the truth of their deliverance to the enemies who hold them captive-- until their enemies melt with fear. And at the proper time, we can shout the praises of God for the victory, and the walls come down without ever having attacked the person.

Rahab, a prostitute who had come to fear God and believe His Word, was saved along with her family, and everything else was devoted to destruction! There was a heavy penalty for anyone who would take something that was supposed to be destroyed. It is so important to let the Lord deal with anything in us that would hold a person to their sin, especially someone we are close to, such as a spouse,child, or close friend. It is too easy to become attached to the one we used to know, or out of some unmet need, to try to save the very things that God is burning. You could call that co-dependency. I know by experience that it is painful to go through the process of having the walls fall down, and the sinful nature burned up-- when I'm there myself, or when I'm around another who is going through the process. But we must allow the Captain of the Host to do His work.

Salvation rarely looks the way we think it should. So often it offends our proud and self-righteous spirits (religious). Just when we think the process is done within ourselves or in another, something else begins to burn or fall down. Don't forget the picture we saw of the loving Father, who forgives, receives, restores and rejoices over the one who had gone astray-- or the Good Shepherd, who leaves the 99 and goes after the one.

Now, take this picture and see how the Spirit of Wisdom might apply this to winning cities for the Kingdom of God!

January 29,2010

Do you see a correlation between Pharoah receiving God's judgments and Jesus' statement "it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven"? I do! And I think it's "the little children" that live in Goshen. Matthew 19:23, 14

It seems, from reading the Exodus account, that not having the "fear of the Lord" results in "hardness of heart." These are things that keep us from entering into the kingdom of heaven. We can be as "poor as a churchmouse" and still hold riches in our heart as our god. Poor people can be as hard-hearted as wealthy people if they don't trust God.

If we look around, I think we can see the hand of God revealing hearts, as "hailstones" of one sort or the other pound away at corruption, oppression and idolatry. The sooner we admit that "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it" and that we are His stewards, the sooner we can submit to Him and stop resisting His pressure.

I want to have the soft, pliable heart of a child. Jesus laid His hand on them and blessed them. And if His hand is on me, I have nothing at all to fear.