Jesus Stuck in the Heart

What happens when, after I genuinely invite Jesus to live in my heart, I fail to practice daily living from my heart? It looks to me like I would be trapping Jesus into a box that was never designed to contain Him. I would be starving the life of Jesus in me, because His life would not be able to receive nourishment from doing the things Jesus does for nourishment.

Where does Jesus get nourishment? He stated that clearly several times when he was here on earth. He told Satan in the wilderness that 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' He also explained to His disciples His source of nourishment after thrilling the heart of the woman in Samaria. “His disciples urged Him, saying, 'Rabbi, eat.' But He said to them, 'I have food to eat of which you do not know.'” When they seemed confused Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”

The apostles John and Paul both go to great lengths to explain and emphasize the importance of having Jesus dwell within us. Our heart is where Jesus dwells when He comes into our life. But religion has all but annihilated our experience of living from our heart, and this puts tremendous constraint on the ability of Jesus to express His life through us.

If, after we have received Jesus as our Saviour, we continue to insist on only living from our head and reject God's calls for us to open our hearts to each other so that Jesus can be seen in us, at some point in time that life that was placed within us will be crowded out and we will discover too late that we are again in a lost condition. Eternal life is entered into when we accept Christ. But it is not irrevocable on our part. It is like the seed in the parable of the sower. If we harden our hearts by living from our heads in religious activities and formal routines we do not allow the seed to take root and the enemy of our souls will steal it away.

Of course, there are other ways we can shut out the life of Jesus from surviving within us. The parable explains that a heart that is too shallow, that refuses the life of Jesus to go deeper into the heart can eventually starve out the life of Jesus within our heart and cause it to perish. Also allowing other emotions and pressures to take priority over nurturing the life and growth of Jesus' desires in our heart and life can have a similar effect. While the seed will do everything it can to survive and take root, it is ultimately our choices to live from our heart in openness and honesty that will allow Jesus to continue to grow His eternal life within us.

So it is apparent that living from the heart is a very important practice if we want to fully experience eternal life. It is not enough to just accept Jesus as our Saviour and do nothing more. However important that is, it must be followed up by a willingness and honesty to bare our hearts both to ourselves and to others in the body of Christ is He is to incorporate us into the dynamic community of saints, the living organism of the great mystery of redemption.

If Jesus is living in my heart, and I know He does because of the confirmation of His Spirit, I need to allow Him access to all my equipment so He can produce fruit that will testify to His power to transform. It's His specialty and He is faithful.

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Cor. 1:9

Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 1 Thess. 5:24

Celebration Holiness

As I lay in bed this morning trying to work up enough energy to get up I talked with God about my feelings, my family and my relationship with Him as I usually do when I wake up. This morning I had a noticeable feeling of longing for a deeper conversion and closeness to Him, a dissatisfaction with my current condition, an increased hunger for the real presence of God. I asked Him to bless me, to tell me directly Himself who I am and how He feels about me. I chose to restrain myself from bringing to mind verses that explain what He thinks about me even though I realize there is a place for that. I want a fresh, personal message of affirmation from Him that I know I did not generate myself.

After I got up and dressed I settled into my chair for my morning time with God. I always try to avoid allowing my devotions to get too much into a rut. My Dad got so much into a routine with “worship” that it seemed to me that the routine had become far more important than God Himself – maybe even a god itself. I do not say this to be critical, but it has been a lesson of warning for me. So even though I do have a routine that I generally follow, two devotional books and an organized sequence of Bible study, I try to always remember that everything I read is primarily for the purpose of listening with an open heart and emotions to catch what God may want to share with me through what I read. I try to stay alert for impressions inside of me. I take careful note especially of emotion words and descriptions in what I am reading so I can better understand the sense of what people were feeling and especially what God is feeling. This has greatly enhanced my devotions and is helping me to better synchronize my heart with His heart which is what I pray for every day.

I want an experience with God that is far beyond a mere intellectually correct understanding of “truth”, though that is a good structure. I want to experience the beauty and passion of God in the context of truth – I want the best of both and I believe that's what God wants for all of us. Doctrinal truth is like the bones inside our bodies. It is crucial to have all the bones in the right place and in healthy condition. But if that is all you are interested in you will have a spiritual condition that may more resemble a scary Halloween party than a love affair with the ultimate Lover.

This morning I listened for what God might have to say. It is like Him to answer this kind of prayer after He puts the hunger for Him inside my heart early in the day. So I listened and read and dealt with the mental distractions and diversions and brought my mind back to pay attention to what I had missed while reading without concentration. Then I opened to Nehemiah where I had left off yesterday and began reading chapter eight.

This is the story of Israel after they had returned from captivity in Babylon. Ezra and Nehemiah and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah had been working hard to encourage the people and retrain them in the ways of God. There was a lot of problems going on, not only in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem (which I found strong parallels to rebuilding the walls around our families in blessing and holiness), but there was a lot of abuse and major spiritual problems going on. The rulers and the rich were exploiting the rest of the people (sounds very familiar) and a lot of arrogance and hypocrisy was evident. At the same time there was a hunger for returning to God and a life more in harmony with Him so they would not have to suffer the terrible consequences that they had just come out of for the sins of their ancestors.

Chapter eight tells about a large gathering of all the people soon after the walls had been rebuilt and they were feeling a bit more secure. It says that “ all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the LORD had given to Israel.” This looks like an interesting event. Something compelling is going on here. There seems to be an undercurrent of strong desire that resonates with what I am feeling this morning.

The next ten verses paint an emotional picture of people very hungry for God and very involved and emotionally connected in their worship. “Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen!' while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.”

Wow! I wish I could participate in a powerful worship experience like that. I believe I will sometime somewhere when the time is ripe.

Then I read something that really grabbed my attention. It lists a number of men – Levites – who it says “explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place. They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.” This is exciting to me. This is the kind of thing that we need today. We need Levite-type people who can read, translate and make sense of what God is really trying to say to us. I realize we have an over-abundance of preachers and writers claiming to do just that, and some of them actually do. But I found this fascinating taking place in real-time in an assembly where people are gathered specifically to discover God for themselves. And I believe there is a big difference between explaining and making sense of the Word of God like I have experienced in inductive Bible studies, and those who want to pre-digest the Word and then insist that their interpretation is the voice of God and you must agree with them completely. The first is a real heart-sharing and opening experience and the second is no more than dogmatism.

But the real bombshell exploded my emotions open when I read the effect that this experience had on all these hungry people soaking up the Word and presence of God. For whatever reason it says that “all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.” What was really interesting was the response to this situation. The leaders led by God's Spirit pointed out that this day was “holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.”

“Then he said to them, 'Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.'

So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, 'Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.'

All the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival, because they understood the words which had been made known to them.”

The Lord spoke to my heart and melted it this morning. I was overwhelmed that He is the kind of God that would lift up the chin of someone who was weeping, like I am when I read these words myself, and say, “There is more than what you thought! Don't just be sad in your repentance. Go past that and celebrate the incredible goodness of God to you. Celebrate by indulging in the blessings God has given you and by sharing those blessing with those who don't have them yet. When you get this close to God, when you encounter the real holiness of God, instead of fear I want you unleash your heart in celebration, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”

Thank-you God so much for that blessing, that affirmation that you primed me for this morning. I feel rich just because you honor me with personal revelations of Yourself like this. I feel grief much of the time because I am so unlike You and feel so stuck in my stuff. But you are telling me something very different here than what I expect you to say to me. Please help me to live more fully from my heart free of the suffocating inhibitions that have held me in lies about you all my life. You have lured me to Your heart for years, inviting me to live with abandon in the safety of your love. I give you permission to continue what You are doing inside me. Now its time to go eat some fat and drink some sweet and send gifts to someone who has nothing prepared, who doesn't realize the truth about Your goodness and is still living in terror of You. O God, make my life a better celebration for Your glory.

Thoughts for StS

2/7/07

I arrived at the men's group last night late and they were already well into discussion. After I arrived we called StS to see how things were going for him. During the phone call I was praying for focus and struggling against the strong urges of my flesh or picker to throw out advice without waiting for the Spirit first. I was studying my motives and not particularly happy with what I was finding. So I kept quiet and prayed inwardly and waited to see what God would do. I have found that waiting for God's timing always seems to result in better outcomes.

I observed that Satan is targeting StS very intensely along with his family right at the most critical time in their son's life at the age of twelve. Craig Hill has pointed out that this is very common because Satan intends to steal any blessing that might and should be passed to the children from their father at the age when they need it the most. Our culture has not only completely forgotten the rite of passage to adulthood that many other cultures still observe, but Satan has succeeded in ripping the father completely out of so many families particularly at this very point in time in their children's lives. Thereby, instead of a specific blessing being imparted to the child empowering them for success a curse is cast over their life that they must struggle under for years to come if not remediated.

I also sense that God may be using this situation for StS to create an internal hunger for Himself that is so necessary for us to move into deeper dependence on Him. We go through so much of our lives in easy cooperation with so many of our hidden false gods, sources of support and satisfaction that are so acceptable and approved by our friends and religious people. We have no idea of the extent of our dependence on these gods until tension and conflict rise to an intensity that draws our attention to alert us that all is not right. Even then it is so difficult to admit or recognize our cherished idols after they seemingly have served us so well for so many years. And even then, only the Holy Spirit can safely convict us of these arrangements without driving us into over-defensiveness or hopeless condemnation.

So often it is easy for me to see what I believe are the problems of those around me and desire to point them out so they can see and correct them. You can easily see where this is going. All I have to do is remember how well that works with me when others try it on me. But when the Spirit convicts me of the things that are preventing me from experiencing the deeper, richer intimacy that is God's desire for me to come close to Him and also my growing desire, it gives a completely different perspective on letting go of my idols. I need to see more clearly the contrast between the shallow and temporary satisfaction or pleasure offered by these false sources and the lavish, extravagant riches of favor, grace, freedom and power that my Creator is eagerly waiting to flood into my life.

I would like to strongly recommend to StS the full set of Munchies by Jim Wilder. This is an invaluable source of wisdom that has been a blessing to those of us who are listening to them. They come in MP3 format which makes them even easier to take with and listen to anywhere. He covers a wide range of things that are extremely practical and yet very profound. God has gifted him with wisdom and I am so glad he is sharing it with us. I believe that it would make a great contribution to the capacity of StS to perceive what is really going on in his current struggle for perspective.

I see an intense thrust of the enemy of souls to cast a veil of deception that is not unlike the spells used in heathen countries to control people and distort their view of reality. I believe we are all subjected to various intensities of magical-like powers endeavoring to deceive us and prevent us from living in freedom. But there are times when the spell is greatly intensified, when the enemy specifically targets an individual or family and all sorts of strange events and behaviors are displayed. This is when it is most dangerous to follow human wisdom and counsel. It is when we need a strong infusion of divine insights, revelations and frequent immersions in the conscious presence of God. The intensity of the struggle is directly proportional to the value of the things at stake. We are up against the greatest thief in the history of the universe. He hates our souls and our families because they are so valuable to God. But we have available to us the far-surpassing resources of protection and means of exposure to unveil his schemes if we will learn to live in the true reality of heaven's atmosphere.

I am praying for StS and his family that God will have permission to intercept the attacks, preempt the illusionary thoughts and urges with revelations of what is true reality, and flood light into what is now shadows and confusion. I would encourage you, StS, to practice the praise and worship strategy to disable the powers arrayed against you, to fill your mind with contemplations of what God is really like and call to memory the words that God has spoken to reveal Himself to us. Do not give an inch to any thoughts of failure or alternative plans. Launch yourself into the battle for your soul and align all your resources with God's will. Release all dependence on anything that interferes with total trust in God's love and test God's faithfulness. Remember, God is passionately on your side to infuse life, abundant life into your heart and your family.

Every struggle produces strength unless we don't resist. The muscles we use to resist become stronger. If we resist God by trusting our own plans and wisdom, then those ways of thinking become stronger. If we submit to God and resist the Devil, then those character muscles are strengthened. When we practice focusing on the truth about God we release that very power into our experience. Notice all the incredible stories of victory in the Bible and how many of them were preceded by rehearsals of God's wonders from the past. God is eager to reveal His power again but needs our permission through the agency of our faith in His faithfulness.

Bind the Sacrifice

The reading in My Utmost for His Highest today talks about a very uncomfortable issue that God has been pressing me about. I have realized at times when He convicts me about things I say to others that are self-promoting or undermining that my resistance to repentance usually involves self-pity. I often whine and drag my feet with God while analyzing myself and maybe even trying self-therapy. I believe it is important to get past the surface circumstances to unmask the deeper issues. But the self-pity is a liability that inhibits growth in ways I do not yet full realize.

“'I am ready to be offered.' It is a transaction of will, not of sentiment. Tell God you are ready to be offered; then let the consequences be what they may, there is no strand of complaint now, no matter what God chooses. God puts you through the crisis in private, no one person can help another. Externally the life may be the same; the difference is in will. Go through the crisis in will, then when it comes externally there will be no thought of the cost. If you do not transact in will with God along this line, you will end in awakening sympathy for yourself.”

I saw the familiar pattern at this point. The Spirit prompted me to go ahead right now and tell God that “I am ready to be offered”. I detected a great amount of resistance, a desire to change the words – to soften them. But that is evasive and betrays something trying to hide inside, most likely another strong false god in there. So I go ahead and say the words. Yes there is fear and a certain amount of pain. But I also instantly realize that it is a choice, an important step toward the intimacy with God that I long to experience.

Then I read the next line and it tightened even more. “'Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.' The altar means fire – burning and purification and insulation for one purpose only, the destruction of every affinity that God has not started and of every attachment that is not an attachment in God.”

Not only must I offer myself as a sacrifice, my self-protection, self-justification, self-defense, but I must fasten it there with some kind of security measures to keep it from escaping the flames. This is serious and threatening. But then dying to self is not a picnic at the park. The flesh inside of me that has tried to protect me all these years becomes angry that I am “betraying” it to be destroyed. It threatens to create hell for me if I really go through with this. The truth is, that is what hell is all about. If my flesh, my self-dependence does not die now in the fire of God's presence it will die later in God's presence at take my soul with it.

“You do not destroy it. God does; you bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar; and see that you do not give way to self-pity when the fire begins. After this way of fire, there is nothing that oppresses of depresses. When the crisis arises, you realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do.”

Yes, I see it more clearly. Self-pity is often the symptom of my resistance, whether it is complaining to God during conviction or trying to subtly elicit sympathy from others to soften my struggles. But as I read the last line the Spirit was insistent. “Tell God you are ready to be offered, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.”

Thank-you God for that reminder of what this is all about. I must remember that the whole object of this sacrifice is to remove all the things inside of me that prevent me from experiencing your presence more fully. Your passion is to prove Yourself to be more than I could ever imagine, to ravish me in your love, to satisfy and fill the deepest emptiness of my soul.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3 NAS95)

Winter is Cold Finally

It has gotten very cold here lately and promises to get even colder over the next few days. This is what happens when the door doesn't get shup properly. Of course maybe its good that it froze open or it may have frozen shut and we could not get in or out at all. As you can see our house (actually my daughter's) is in need of more insulation so we don't lose so much heat out the roof to form all these stalagtites. They are forming a bigger and bigger curtain over our kitchen window. Last week my daughter's car transmission went out on her. With the Lord's blessing a 90 year old customer and friend of mine told me of a relative trying to sell a car for a very reasonable price. We were able to pick it up from them last week but are still in process of getting all the paperwork finished. Here is some interesting natural snow art that I stopped to capture after dropping my daughter off at work one day. I have spent most of the day typing up multiple writings from an old ledger that I had written between May and October of this year. I will soon be adding them to my site back-dated. If you have been perusing my writings recently you will find the new ones inserted by date as I enter them over the next while.