The one-foot journey is from head to
heart. We all work from our head, calling our current thought-life trustworthy.
But we know this isn't true.
Is there a place within us that we can
trust? Yes! God is shouting from the rooftops that there is a place in the core
of our being that we can trust.. but we have been led to believe that our
hearts are not to be trusted. The common belief regarding salvation is that we
have forgiveness of our sins (the past) and a place to go to (the future).
However, it's not just our sins that our forgiven, but our self being changed.
Can we really trust our hearts? It's
easy for us to pull out an Old Testament verse, take it out of context, and
lead a multitude to believe that we have wicked hearts. However, we should see
the New Testament where it says we are born of God, born of the Spirit, born
again, made new creations!
For
the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division of the soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow,
and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12
If you want to understand your heart,
don't go to your feelings or your past experiences, go to the Word. God has the
answers for us in His Word. Before we understand our own hearts, we ought to
understand the unbeliever's heart.
Therefore
God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.. Romans 1:24
But because of your stubbornness and
unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Romans 2:5 (Note: Who experiences
wrath? It is the unbeliever. Let us not take verses for other people for
ourselves!)
The Unbeliever's heart is unrepentant
and lustful.. but what about your heart? We say that we have a problem within
us.. can we trust our hearts? Are we truly practicing humility by saying we
have wicked hearts, or is there greater humility in understanding the actual
truth of your heart?
Our hearts? God has 'crossed' our
hearts. God took us and our hearts and nailed us to the cross, and we died with
Jesus. We died spiritually.. and now we have been given new hearts, in
conformity with the OT prophecies..
I
will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you
your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in
you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. - Ezekiel 36:26-27
See that we get a new heart, and we
also get a new spirit. Don't believe that you only received the spirit without
a new heart - it wouldn't make sense! No, we have been given new hearts, and a
new spirit with it! See, when we came into this world we were dead to God and
alive in sin.. but then God took our hearts, took us and crucified us, then
made new creations with new hearts and new spirits. Now, we are alive to God
and dead to sin!
We are not in process; God does not
dwell in dirty places, so he tears us down and builds us up anew, making us
literal Temples of the Holy Spirit, right here, right now! So yes, we have
forgiveness of our sins, a place to go to, and to address the present, we have
been made new creations, living, breathing temples where God dwells!
So, even in light of this, it is fair
to ask, why do we still sin? The thing is, you can say that we have been made new
temples for God, yet we would still have the tendencies to operate out of what
we were used to doing - religious rites, old habits, sinful addictions are
still in our minds.. But we should also remember that God took out all these
systems ('software', if you like), and gave us a totally new operating system!
We would do well to update, instead of refusing, or to click on 'Remind Me
Later'..
The flesh is out-of-date, unrenewed
software.. but we ought to know that we have new hardware ('heartware', if you
like).
This
is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time,
declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their
hearts. I will be their god, and they will be my people. - Hebrews 8:10
God has taken His desires and placed
them where? IN YOUR HEART. We do NOT have wicked hearts. Christ paid a great
price for us to have brand new hearts!
What else can be said about the
Believer's heart?
But
he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and the circumcision is that which is of the
heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but
from God. - Romans 2:29
There is a circumcision of the heart -
there is a cutting away of the old heart and an implantation of a new heart.
But
thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from
the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. - Romans 6:17
We used to be slaves of sin, but now
we have become obedient FROM THE HEART. Let's not fall into the trap of
separating grace and obedience. Here we see by grace, we have been given
obedient hearts. Grace and obedience come hand in hand - we shouldn't live
contrary to our hearts, and God knows the damage this does, so He goes straight
to giving us new hearts!
It's really important that we know
this because we couldn't put on love and compassion, and we couldn't put on
Jesus until we realize that all of us, including our hearts, has been made new
through Christ.
Do we know who we are? Christian, you
don't really want to sin. The impulses, the thoughts, the flesh and the enemy
may be tugging at us, but Christian, you who have been born of God, born of the
Spirit, do you find yourself loving the sin you commit, or do you find yourself
thinking that it was something you didn't want to do? If Christ has indeed
infused you with His life, then you would naturally go for the latter.
And
hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. - Romans 5:5
Again, God has cleaned house! He
cleaned house and poured out His spirit in us... Our hearts are pleasant to the
Lord. Our lives are a pleasant aroma to God, totally contrary to what we are
forced by this world to believe, that our God is disgusted at us and has His
work cut out in really making us pure and blameless before Him! God prepared a
place to dwell in - He cleaned house, took away the old heart, and all things
have indeed become new! We ought to make our software compatible with the new
hardware!
So
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being
rooted and established in love.. - Ephesians 3:17
We have a new heart, and a new
spirit..
Because
you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit
who calls out, 'Abba, Father.' -
Galatians 4:6
Our spirits have been changed as much
as our hearts, to the point that we have been made a child of God by nature.
Thank You, Jesus!
We've oftentimes been talking about
knowing it in our heads, and that we should believe it in our hearts... but
(news flash) this is false! It's actually the other way around. Our hearts are
new, and we are transformed by the renewing of our minds - we aren't
know-it-alls, but we do have 'it' all in our hearts - we are not found wanting,
we are lacking nothing in our hearts!
But.. what about your 'self'? We keep
saying we cannot trust ourselves, and that we should trust in God... but what
we're really saying if we really believe this is that God and you are not on
the same side, and this cannot be further from the Truth! God is on our side,
and as He is for us, who can be against us? We have been united with Christ,
and nothing can ever separate us - how preposterous it is now for us to think
that we have some sort of enmity with God, even after we have been made new
creations, holy and acceptable to him.
Galatians 2:20 states, once again,
that the old self has been crucified with Christ, and now we have a self that
lives in faith in Him who loves us and gave His life for us. We only have one
self, and this self has been made new! The source of temptation is not from
within, it's not from the new heart or the new self, but from outward sin, and
from outward flesh!
It's so ironic that we look as Christ
as separate from us, and are focused on a lie that sin lies within.. when the
Truth states the exact opposite! Christ is within, and sin is separate from us!
These sources of temptation, therefore, are away from us and definitely not of
us.
If we understand how clean we have
been made, if we understand how spotless Christ has made us, if we understand
how we are new and clean, we can look at a piece of garbage, a sinful thought,
a temptation, and understand that it doesn't belong with us, that it doesn't
fit with who we are! Your view of who you are matters!
We therefore are able to put on
Christ, because we know that Christ lives within. We are generous, we are bold
and courageous, when we understand that these are compatible with what we are,
and we are new creations in Christ, with new hearts and new spirits! Gentleness
and kindness are a fit to our new hearts!
A new heart and a new self mean new
possibilities... We are in Christ. We were crucified in Christ, buried in
Christ, and we have been raised with Christ, seated in the heavenly places with
Christ, right here, and right now! Check out the possibilities:
Each
one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under
compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. - 2 Corinthians 9:7
People have us focused on being
cheerful when we understand that generosity and cheerfulness are perfect fits
with the new heart that we have. And what else does this tell about our hearts
if we are to do as we have purposed in our hearts?
But
the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and
a sincere faith. - 2
Timothy 2:22
Let's trust our hearts, which have
pure purposes!
The goal of this command is love,
which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Flee
the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace,
along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.. But let your
adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a
gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. - 1 Timothy 1:5
But
let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a
gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. - 1 Peter 3:4
Your heart, and your spirit are
precious in God's sight. God 'crossed' your heart. He cleaned house and moved
in, and now your heart is an obedient heart.
Let us respect the finished work of
Christ by trusting our new self, which is united with Christ, one spirit with
Him. You really can trust yourself, and you really can live from your heart,
instead of your mind!
Take the one-foot journey from the
mind to your spiritual core. Your mind is constantly being renewed, but your
heart is already made new! Take the one-foot journey to a better marriage, a
better leadership, to better communication... in the midst of all that we go
through, we can operate from the head, but we can communicate from the heart,
being slow to speak and quick to listen, in contrast to the mind which does the
exact opposite!
Disunity and disruption are birthed
when we try to live from our minds instead of our hearts... We must understand
that we can trust our hearts more than our minds. Our hearts are a safe place
where Christ dwells. He cleaned house and operates now from our hearts. We can
deviate from the way our minds believe we have always been doing things, and we
can listen to the hearts we have been given, and from there we can compromise,
understand, communicate, and walk in His ways.
We can live from our new hearts, where
Christ lives. He gave us a new heart, a new spirit, and a new life. We died
with Jesus, our hearts were crossed, but we praise God because we have been
made dead to sin and alive to Christ! Halleluyah!
_________________________
jb.redeemed
email me at jibee@rocketmail.com.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26