Matters Of The Heart

 

Proverbs 4:23 (AMP)

23  Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

 

The Spirit of The Lord is a matter of the heart and through the heart is the renewing of the mind.  There is no greater or deeper love than the love of our heavenly father.  There is no greater strength than the river of life that flows abundantly from a heart, a heart sanctified through the love, atonement, resurrection and grace of Jesus Christ.

 

John 3:16 (AMP)

16  For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

 

The heart is where the fruit of life comes from.  For out of the heart are the issues of life.  Emotions and expressions are manifestations of the heart.  Emotions are reflections of experiences from our heart and what you reflect from your heart is directly related to those experiences.  I often say that people are one encounter away from radical change and transition in their lives.  We all know that these encounters or situation can be good or bad, healthy or unhealthy.  When Christ is the center of your heart, soul, mind and spirit transformation happens and spiritual encounters with the Lord Jesus changes our hearts thus renewing our minds according to His will and divine nature.

 

We must not confuse spirit with body (soul, flesh, temple), as God is a spirit. Jesus was God in the flesh.  Flesh and spirit are separate and the apostle Paul clarifies this in Ephesians 6 that we do not war against flesh and blood.  

 

Ephesians 6:12 (AMP)

12  For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.

 

We must remember that the love of Christ is redemptive not complacent and that grace is the empowering presence of God to transform us into sanctified vessels transforming us into the image and likeness of Christ.  Grace doesn’t cover your sin it eradicates sin by submission, faith and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us sanctifying our hearts and renewing our minds.  Christ died because of our sin and as our sins and to believe that we are not to see or discern what is sinful as Christians is heresy.  Love is redemptive not complacent and truth spoken in love and grace sets people free.

 

Hebrews 4:12 (AMP)

12  For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.

 

 

John 4:24 (AMP)

24  God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality).

 

2 Corinthians 3:17 (AMP)

17  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). [Isa. 61:1, 2.]

 

1 Corinthians 15:45 (AMP)

45  Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life]. [Gen. 2:7.]

 

Matthew 16:16 (AMP)

16  Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 

 

Romans10 tells us that if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus suffered, died and was resurrected that you will be saved.  In the book of John 15:5 we are told that if we abide in Christ and Christ abides in us we will abide in His word.  Hebrews 8:10 says the Lord will write it upon our hearts.  We must give the fullness of our hearts to the Lord.  

 

Mathew 11:28-30 talks about us casting our burdens upon the Lord for we are not meant to carry those burdens.  Jesus paid the price and suffered the wrath on our behalf why would you want to carry what the Lord has already paid for and overcome? The apostle Paul says he dies daily and that he is crucified with Christ and we must also do this.  Each day we must cast all of our worldly pressures upon the Lord and in thanksgiving praise Him for bearing our pain and paying the price of our salvation.  We must put our trust and faith upon the Lord and stand on the truth of the full atonement of Christ Jesus.

 

Where are the “over coming” sermons, where are the “victory” sermons and where are the warriors in Christ.  We must stand in the victory, declare the victory and speak the victory of Christ Jesus.  If the victory is the Lords’ then whose battle is it?  Jesus overcame the world and through Christ we too shall over come the world. 

 

Romans 10:9–10 (AMP)

9  Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

10  For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.

 

John 15:5 (AMP)

5  I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

 

Hebrews 8:10 (AMP)

10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will imprint My laws upon their minds, even upon their innermost thoughts and understanding, and engrave them upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

 

Matthew 11:28–30 (AMP)

28  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]

29  Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer. 6:16.]

30  For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

 

Matters of the heart are real and our feelings and expressions of our hearts are real but if we are to rejoice in all things we must rejoice in Christ our redeemer, strength and fortress.  The Apostle Paul was an educated man and a scholar.  Yet just one encounter with the resurrected Christ and he was knocked of his horse, blinded and the living truth was revealed in the flesh the resurrected Christ.  This was a life-changing experience providing revelations of Christ.   In the epistles of Paul he elaborates that he now speaks not on his knowledge but on the revelations of Christ for everything Paul once embraced as truth he no longer considered as he now spoke on the revelations of Christ.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (AMP)

18  Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].

 

1 Thessalonians 5:16 (AMP)

16  Be happy [in your faith] and rejoice and be glad-hearted continually (always);

 

Psalm 18:2 (AMP)

2  The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my keen and firm Strength in Whom I will trust and take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower. [Heb. 2:13.]

 

 

Christ sacrificed his life in love so that we may have eternal life, are you willing to release your heart in fullness to receive the fullness of His love?   Yes, release and share you heart in fullness with humility admitting your weaknesses, faults and shortcomings.  Are you willing to pray in faith submitting to His grace and mercy so that He that began a good work will complete it?  

 

Philippians 1:6 (AMP)

6  And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.

 

 

The process of sanctification is a battle between flesh (soul) and spirit and we must crucify the flesh submitting to the spirit.  Your struggles are no different than those of others but each of us must go through our own process submitting our will and hearts to the Lord.

 

Romans 7:13–25 (AMP)

13  Did that which is good then prove fatal [bringing death] to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing [as a weapon], in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.

14  We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh [carnal, unspiritual], having been sold into slavery under [the control of] sin.

15  For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns].

16  Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

17  However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.

18  For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.]

19  For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing.

20  Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [fixed and operating in my soul].

21  So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.

22  For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature]. [Ps. 1:2.]

23  But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].

24  O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?

25  O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

Galatians 2:20 (AMP)

20  I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

 

Let us submit our hearts in prayer:

 

Father I come to you in faith embracing your love, mercy and grace.  I pray in faith that you will create in me a clean heart Lord sanctifying me and edifying me to live a more Godly life glorifying your holy name.  Father I thank you for your sacrificial love and your beloved son my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Father create in me a passion for the lost, reverence for your sovereignty and holiness and a purpose for your divine will in my life.  I ask this in Jesus name my Lord and Savior.

 

Psalm 51:10 (AMP)

10  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.

 

HAVE YOU GIVEN YOUR HEART TO CHRIST JESUS?