I really enjoy Graham Cooke. In his book, Approaching the Heart of Prophecy, he relates a story that you need to hear this morning. “Many years ago, I was in a Pentecostal church. There was a time of worship that was absolutely excruciating to be a part of. I was squirming in my seat and apologizing to God because I couldn’t join in. I knew the songs – I just didn’t think they should be sung that way. “Lord, I’m really struggling with the worship,” I prayed. “I’m sorry. To be honest, we’ve had fifty minutes of mindless singing and I’m really quite bored.” “It’s alright for you, your only visiting this place,” I heard God whisper back to me. “I have to be here every week.”
Here’s the theology gem from that story. God has a great sense of humor. He laughs often and he wants you laugh often as well.
That’s not what this particular blog is about but I thought the story was worth repeating. One thing God has taught me over the past few years is that our mind evaluates and reasons while our heart just responds. We have been taught over the years not to trust our emotions but rather to be lead with our heads rather than our hearts. At some level that is good advice but not always. It is good advice only if your heart is not in tune with God.
Revelation comes to our hearts rather than to our minds. When Paul was praying for the church at Ephesus to receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation he prayed that their hearts might be enlightened rather than their craniums. Who has ever heard an altar call for Jesus to come into our heads instead of our hearts? The process of revelation is that the Spirit takes from God and gives that truth to our spirit which then reveals the heart of God to our hearts and then we become conscious of the revelation. God calls us to have a renewed mind but he promised to give us new hearts.
The mind always wants more information, another class, and a little more training before jumping into a challenging mission or situation. The mind puts off obedience while it is calculating the risk, the cost, and the likelihood of success. The heart simply jumps in when God calls. I’m not saying there is no place for planning but unless the spirit rules the heart which then rules the head, our reason will talk us out of obedience until our mind can determine a way to obey God in our own strength.
As Jesus was strolling across the Sea of Galilee, he encountered the twelve rowing hard against the wind. Peter declared, “Lord, if it is you, call me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come” and Peter leaped from the boat. I’m pretty sure the other eleven had reasoned their way clear of such a rash act. But Peter responded with his heart not his head. The result was that he actually walked on water until he noticed the winds and the waves and began to reason rather than operate by revelation. As soon as he took a “reasonable” look at his situation, he sank. When challenged to feed the 5000, the apostles took a reasonable look at their inventory (five loaves and two fish) and immediately wanted to break up the party. Jesus reasoned with a faith that came through revelation that had penetrated his heart.
Since revelation is the key to faith and since revelation comes to us through the heart, then we should take special care of our hearts in things that pertain to the spiritual as well as the physical. Distortions in our heart will also distort revelation. Lies from the enemy, unforgiveness, bitterness, distrust, and fear are all conditions of the heart that distort God’s revelation to us and so hinders our obedience. A broken heart does not discern the heart and mind of God clearly and often defaults to a fleshly mind to determine how we will live and serve God.
To live by faith and to hear God clearly, we need God to do a lot of work in our heart. We too often worry about cleaning up our behaviors rather than sifting through the debris in our hearts. David was wise to pray, “Search my heart O God and show me if there is any offensive way in me.” If we want all that God has for us we must be unrelenting in our forgiveness of others, relentless in pulling up the weeds of half-truth and Satan’s lies in our hearts, and relentless in guarding our hearts from the things that defile our souls.
Where there are wounds, we can’t put off finding healing because the wounds distort the revelation of God in our lives. Where there is disobedience we must declare the Lordship of Jesus over our hearts and step out in faith even when our reason rails against it. Where we have built up walls of protection in our hearts with unforgiveness and anger we must ask Jesus to tear down the walls. Broken hearts are like faulty GPS monitors. They will lead us astray and so we think we must trust our reason and our intellect. But reason pushes back against obedience when what God is asking us to do seems unreasonable – which describes most of the great things God has ever done. Jumping out of boats, commanding the dead to rise, marching around walled cities blowing trumpets, or calling on God to send fire down from heaven would get a thumbs down from reason every time.
So…let’s get busy on our hearts because the more debris we clear away, the more clearly we will hear God and the more willing we will be to obey. Heart health is critical to life both in the natural and the spiritual realm. Be blessed today and guard your heart.
