The Issues of the Heart

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Prov 4:23)

In the King James Version the word “wellspring” is “issues.” We can have good things in our heart, which flow out from us, or unresolved and sometimes hurtful things, which we call issues. When hurtful events happen to us in our childhood, fears develop over time. As important as the contents of our heart are, they can remain illusive to us. It is the domain of the Holy Spirit to search our hearts out and to help our own spirit discover its contents (1 Cor 2:10-11). Today I will talk about having unresolved hurts, and the different fruits the issue of fear can eventually bear in us.

When adults or other children hurt children, trust is lost. Children do not have the skills to process words and events and gain understanding from them. Hurt children can develop a sense of inferiority based on the bad things that happen to them. This opens the door for the enemy of their soul to intimidate them with feelings that others are watching them. Once a child believes others are watching him, he feels they are criticizing him, leading to feeling set apart from others, and finally rejected. The fruit this season in a child’s life will bear is to see others as “them”, different from himself. The child will never perceive the enemy’s part in this thinking, for he is a child.

Once a child feels rejected by other children and/or adults, he still has a choice. Yet it takes maturity to realize that there is a choice to be made. 1) he can love and forgive those who have hurt him, and those he has perceived to have rejected him, or 2) he can resist the people who have hurt him and those he perceived to have rejected him. The fruit from choice #1 is intercession, and works of love. The fruit from choice #2 is criticizing and labeling others, no intercession or love, and a perceiving that God is unjust, leading to building one’s trust in one’s self. Also, a person choosing #2 will begin to build his own image up into something admirable and powerful to counteract the intimidation he has felt all his life. The person that chooses #2 does not see the work his enemy is doing in his heart nor does he believe that having love is more important than being someone special. (see 1 Cor 13: 1-3). Yet the person that chooses #1 becomes formed into the priestly image of Christ, and a sweet aroma goes up with his prayers to God.

The person that has chosen to criticize and label others, who does not pray for them, nor trust God, and who builds up his own image to counteract the intimidation of his enemy, advances to a self-concept that is deluded and not built upon truth. This person will lose discernment about himself, others, and spiritual matters. He will gravitate to scriptures that support shunning others, and receive personal prophecies that support his belief that others are not the same as himself. Therefore, he depersonalizes people, and he sees them as types, with labels. The terms “Jezebel spirit” and others are used by this man because he does not sense the personal investment of Christ on behalf of all Mankind, and therefore he will not invest the efforts of his own heart towards those he perceives as inferior to himself. This season of the man’s life will bear the fruit, therefore, of depersonalization of others, lack of prayer for others (sometimes justified by the man as being refused by God because of the sins of the people), and a trust in himself as the source of justice.

This differs from the person who is being formed into Christ’s image, who begins to see that injury by others causes him to become a sacrifice, wounding his flesh yet giving his spirit wings to soar with God in prayer, intercession, and works of redeeming love. He becomes a type of a “savior” (Obadiah :21), yet never loses sight of the fact that He is God’s servant and is not great in himself. Besides powerful answered prayer and a personal knowledge of the One he partners with, this man will bear the fruit of deep trust in God, and his faith will leap by bounding steps (Mal 4:2).

The man who refuses to be molded into Christ’s image will enter into the stage of being deceived. He will not only lose discernment about good and evil, but will advance to the stage of putting evil for good, and darkness for light (Is 5:20). He is no longer letting the Holy Spirit minister to him about the contents of his heart, but thinks he knows better. He will believe that his anger and hatred are agents of good and use them as tools to exalt himself above others. The fruit this stage of the man’s life will bear is that he will receive messages from satan instead of from God; he will become formed into the self-righteous, man-hating image of satan; and he will twist the scriptures to justify himself and condemn others.

The man who let his life become a sacrifice will become a friend of God, for the Lord can trust him with matters close to His heart. The Lord will share His heart with this man, and they will walk together. Because this man lost his life, he will find it in Christ.

Issues of our hearts can take us in different directions, causing us to bear different fruit. We have the scriptures to bear witness to our fruit, whether it is good or bad. Simply put, let us examine ourselves to see if we bear the fruit of love and forgiveness. If not, the Lord will be faithful to lead us to healing and restoration. At any time we can stop bearing bad fruit, turn (repent) and follow He who knows and loves us. Amen.

Let the Word of God dwell in you, and in others

“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” (Col 3:16)

Letting the Word of God dwell in us richly as we minister is the key to advancing the Life of the Word in others. Jesus used the parable of the sewer and the seed to illustrate that the Word of God contains life for the hearer.(Lk 8:11-15). As Jesus sows his Word in us, so we are supplied with seed to sow into others (2 Cor 9:10). We understand this principle, but hardly see the Life that is at work in the seeds we plant in others.

God works beneath the soil, bringing life to the seeds that are His. It is He that gives growth, and not we ourselves (1 Cor 3:6). When we realize that the seed is so precious to God that He will take care of it, doesn’t that make it work planting the Word of God into others’ lives? I’d like to encourage you today, whatever your ministry is, to speak that Word of God which dwells richly in you. Amen

the rapture

We have all heard various teachings on the rapture. If you think that you may be “left behind”, though you believe in Jesus, that would leave you with many fears . . . fears that will undermine your faith. Today I will address this scripturally, to set you back into the confidence you should walk in, in Christ Jesus (Heb 10:35).

People who fear being left behind by Jesus usually wonder how they could have missed the clues that they were rejected by Him. This is the feeling of being disconnected. Here is one of the verses about people who lack in the area of being “connected”;
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. (Col 2:18-19)

These verses say that it is “idle notions” that disconnect us from the Head. We are all supposed to be connected to Jesus, but those who get side-tracked by false humility or worship angels become disconnected. So, unless you carry such idle notions around in you, you are not disconnected; you are connected. It is not God who is causing you to fear being disconnected, it is your enemy.

The feeling of being left behind that is most prominent is abandonment. God is not a God who lightly leaves His people behind, as seen in these scriptures;

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb 13:5)
“(nothing) will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (see Rom 8:35-39)

In the verses in Romans we again read that “Neither angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future” can cause God’s love to separate from us. This does not mean that we’re saved no matter what we do with our lives here on the earth, such as going back into sin. But it does show us that God’s intentions are to save us because He loves us, and that His love is stronger than any other forces at work in our lives. We would actually have to reject God for the rest of our lives . . . and even then He would try to change our minds so that we wouldn’t be sent to hell. To rid ourselves of the fear of abandonment are these scriptures, and more, which tell us how strong God’s love for us is. Fearing abandonment is the opposite of trust, and without trust our love of God and faith in His goodness will not develop.

Being left behind also makes one feel that God is unjust, for we believe in Him and trust the Holy Spirit to show us our hidden sins and weaknesses. Yet, God is known for being just. Satan accuses God of being unjust to take our hope away. But we see that the Father has put Jesus on our side, to intercede for us on a daily basis (Heb 7:5). Jesus’ prayers and ongoing ministry to us by His Holy Spirit knit us together with the Father. The cross was just the beginning of Jesus’ care over us. For those who feel hopeless, He holds out hope, and “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Heb 2:18), and “He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray since He himself (was) subject to weakness.” (Heb 5:2). So hope is very important, and maintains our faith in the good and just character of our God who will help us.

At times we may not feel fully forgiven of our own sins, and therefore feel disqualified for God’s grace. Let’s look at the next scripture to see how God feels about accepting us;

Both the One who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers, (Heb 2:11)
In the literal translation it says
For both He sanctifying and the (ones) being sanctified (are) all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers,

God doesn’t expect our sanctification to be an instant occurrence, but a process that takes place all our lives. Yes, we are weak, and yes, sometimes we sin. But Jesus washes us daily as we bring our shortcomings, fears and sins to Him in repentance. What is confessed and repented of goes under the blood.

As people who minister God’s word to others, we need to encourage the weak and those who stumble in sin to put their sins under Jesus’ blood. His sacrifice not only bought us from a life of sin, but His blood continues to cover the sins we confess to Him. It is that strong. We need to believe in the goodness, fairness, and honesty of God’s nature in that He truly does forgive us of our sins, He would never forsake us, and He is always working with us to be formed into His image. When we truly believe God is this good, and the blood is that strong, we are ready to face our enemy with a new weapon.

When Jesus was resurrected He breathed on His disciples and told them that they had the power to forgive sins (Jn 20:22-23). This is just as powerful of a gift as prophesying or casting out devils. In fact, satan accuses our brethren to us just so we won’t forgive and intercede for them. Ransoming a soul from sin is so power a gift that satan and all his demons are purposed against us forgiving. We scare satan, when we truly forgive and pray for those who sin. This is the beginning of true power in the kingdom of God, but very few Christians practice it. The reason for this is that all our attempts to forgive and pray for those who sin are met with a strong and unrelenting resistance from satan. And yet, the more we stand for people, the more we are in our priestly role, and found to be in the image of Jesus, our priest. That’s where true power comes from; being found in His image, with the sweet incense of His nature offered up with our prayers.

Today, if you fear being abandoned, treated unjustly, disconnected or disqualified by God, realize that your enemy has put these fears in your heart. For God does not give us a spirit of fear. But He has given us the scriptures mentioned in this lesson, and so many more, that tell us we are loved, interceded for, planned for, worked with, forgiven . . . and many more good things, for God is good. It is time we stand in the truth of God’s word, and use the weapons God has given us to defeat the Accuser. This message, and not the rapture, needs to be taught so that God’s people will be knit together into one strong body, ready for Him when He comes. Please encourage one another as you see that day drawing near. Amen.

discernment

We just passed the time for fulfillment of an end-of-the-world prediction, and we are still here. No, there was no rapture. In fact, righteous and unrighteous alike are remaining on the earth just as before the prediction that the Lord would catch His saints away on May 21st. Though predictions like these are not new, it reminds us that discernment is very important. Jesus warned about false prophets (Mt 24:10-11), just as the apostles did. Jesus left us the Spirit of Truth (Jn 14:16-17) to guide us.

There are times when God gives people a prophetic discernment. It is a discerning of people’s hearts as mentioned in 1 Cor 14:24-25, where the contents of a man’s heart is “laid bare” so that the man will know God is there with him and in those ministering to him. There is also the gift of discerning of spirits (1 Cor 12:10), which shows a man the basis of the thoughts, words or actions of what another is doing, has done, or what has been going on that is of an unseen nature. All these manifestations of discernment are necessary to help Christians keep in the truth, and away from deception.

There is also the Issachar anointing (1 Chron 12:32) which God often gives His prophets. The sons of Issachar “understood the times, and knew what Israel should do.” The prophets with this gift know God’s seasons for the body of Christ they serve, and how the people should be prepared for service to God.

I am always happy when someone tells me that the Lord has given them the gift of discernment, for all the manifestations of this gift, whether for a prophet or a new babe in Christ have common steps of development.

• First, the person with the gift must be purified of his own prejudices so that He can see as God sees, and purged of his own agenda so that he can do what God would do.
• Second, the person with true discernment will be protected from lies, and will grow in the knowledge of the truth.
• Third, the person with this gift will grow in love. For you see, knowing the truth about a person or a situation is just the beginning of what God wants to do with the person whom He gives discernment to.

God wants to show His heart to His people. His truth becomes established when He speaks to us. If we perceive that a brother is in error, for instance, that is knowledge. Yet if we seek the Lord further for His heart concerning the brother, we enter into a friendship with God. He will show us His heart for the brother in error, and how to pray and/or minister to him.

God told me once that He was not going to give His goodies to people who do not want to be like Him. His goodies, in this case, are the gift of discernment. He proceeded to say that, if a man thinks he has discernment but does not love the one he is discerning, he will not want to pray or intercede for his brother. Because the hearts of men feel intruded upon when asked to care about others, it takes a soft, yielded heart to follow the developmental steps of discernment.

When Jesus prophesied about the end of time, He not only mentioned false teachers and false prophets, but also included the fact that the hearts of many would grow cold (Mt 24:12). You see, love causes our hearts to burn hot, and selfishness causes our hearts to grow cold. Love forms us into God’s image, and coldness prevents it, for caring about others is a heavy burden upon a selfish man’s heart.

It is interesting that those who love seem to find works of love to do, and those who do not love, don’t. In the parable of the sheep and goats (Mt 25:31-46) the ones who cared about their brother received the kingdom, and the ones who did not care, didn’t. The ones who loved became God-like, and the ones who didn’t love, didn’t. When reading this parable we can easily understand how the goats had no discernment, for their selfishness caused them to make all the wrong choices. How could God share His heart with them when they wouldn’t spend time feeding, clothing, or sheltering Him? Though they once had a knowledge of God, they grew in a completely different way than those who loved God and wanted His love in them.

Discernment. A very needed and valuable gift for the body of Christ to have, and one that will only be developed correctly by those who want to be God-like. Let us remember to seek God not only for the truth about people and situations, but to pray and intercede for them with the same heart that the Father has. Amen.

Lesson on dream interpretation

Often times we see familiar people and places in our dreams. However, the dreams from the Lord are not a review of history for information’s sake. God often uses people and events to represent concepts, using what we know and have become familiar with as symbols. This is what I will be writing about today.

When reviewing our past, we can see people whose pattern of thinking and behavior has been repeated over and over again in other people. Those people may be seen in a dream as a “type”, or symbol of the behavior they had.

The Lord uses things from this world to represent spiritual concepts. When Israel became unfaithful to God, He used the symbolism of harlotry to describe their behavior (Jer 2:20). If a group of people feel that their position is so important that it doesn’t matter how they act, the Lord has described them as becoming a widow (Is 47:7,8). When the Lord receives His people as His own, He uses the example of a Bride and Groom (Is 62:5). Because we understand these symbols, we find them used over and over again in the Bible. They bring meaning to the concepts the Lord is speaking about.

In our dreams, it is more valuable to discover the concepts God is portraying and their relationships then to put our memories in chronological order. Even the true history of the nation of Israel, the founders of our faith, has become an example for us to learn from (1 Cor 10:6 & Heb 4:11). As we progress through our lives, the people and events we learn from set the stage in our dreams by becoming a representation of the concepts they illustrated in our lives.

I find it helpful when praying over my dreams to ask the Lord if He has a message in the dream for me, what the dream is about, and why He gave it to me. Usually the Lord starts by showing me the concepts in the dream. Then He leads me to the purpose for which the dream has been given to me. You can do the same. Do not discard dreams with old events and people in them because you do not think they are prophetic. Anything the Holy Spirit ministers to us, while awake or while sleeping, is prophetic. He may be showing us our heart, or an area that needs to be healed in our heart. He may show us a hidden truth about an area that we are praying about. These are manifestations of the Word of Wisdom, and the Word of Knowledge. It is never a waste of time to sit before the Lord to determine what He may be saying to us.

I hope this lesson on dreams will be of help. Have a great week, and God bless, Helen

God didn't market Jesus

Have you ever wondered why God didn’t market Jesus? When He verified that “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased,” (Mk 1:11) He didn’t have Jesus take advantage of the timing by going around the town saying “I’m He, the one God spoke about . . . remember the thunder you heard down at the river? That was God bearing witness to me.” Instead, God sent His Son into the wilderness to be tempted and tested (Mk 1:12). It was more important to God that His Son become strong, and overcome, than that He become known.

When Jesus gave the parable about the workers in the vineyard, He personally brought men out of the marketplace to work in the harvest for Him (Mt 20:3 KJV). Yet there are teachers heaped upon teachers that tell us to use marketplace techniques to promote our ministries. And there are many Christians that wonder why, if they are indeed called by God to minister, they have such severe trials when they do so. These are two issues, though separate, that have a common beginning; God’s call on one’s life.

Jesus’ ministry began after two events; His baptism by John the Baptist, which signifies repentance, and His walk in the wilderness for 40 days. Now God, the Father verified that Jesus was His Son. Yet He did not seek to promote Jesus ahead of the time of His testing. Temptation and testing, trial and suffering were what proved the Son of God in the furnace of God’s purposes for His ministry. Jesus did not question this. He suffered Himself to be tested in every way as we are, and overcame His fleshly nature so that He could be our priest (Heb 2:16-18). He did not question God’s timing. We could think within ourselves “why don’t I capitalize on this moment (when God spoke at the river) and minister to those here so they can make the link that I am the Son of God? Even John verified that I am greater than he, so if I begin with my ministry now, the people will receive me.” If we inserted ourselves into Jesus’ situation, we would be tempted to “market” ourselves to our greatest advantage, justifying the error of our thinking with the belief that we seek to further God’s kingdom. Yet no one could further God’s kingdom as the Son of God except Jesus, and He went into His wilderness experience.

This leads us to the second issue; if we receive our calling and begin serving God, why aren’t we received and put in a place to further His kingdom? Ah, the testing! The fire that burns so hot we can barely stand it, in the wilderness where there is no one to hand us a cup of water. Do we follow God, or do we follow our own devices of promotion and setting ourselves in place? Will we submit to the trials, temptations, and testings so that we will stand strong in our ministries, or will we market ourselves? Every great man and woman of God has to pass through the 40-day wilderness test to become the one who ministers in the grace and power of God. This is a hard place to find oneself in, yet it yields great strength and we will have seasons of tremendous fruit-bearing if we submit to it. I’d like to encourage you today that, when you find yourself in the wilderness, know that it is an appointment of God for a very big and upcoming event. Yet, if we promote ourselves in the marketplaces of Christianity, we will find ourselves not ready for that event. Amen

He's not heavy if I choose to love

Sometimes we feel like we can’t carry a person. It’s as if they are draining the life out of us. Of course, this seems unkind at the same time. Once, when I felt as if I were carrying someone who was very heavy, the Lord said this to me; “I didn’t think Judas was too heavy.” That put things in perspective. Though the Lord wasn’t asking me to carry someone who was going to betray me to death, He was telling me that His grace was sufficient for my situation. Jesus knows what it’s like to carry, or care for, people.

The strength we need to carry people and to bear with situations comes from God. Endurance, Hope, and all the components of life that enable us to “last” out a situation are what make up love (1 Cor 13). When I was thinking of “dropping” the person that seemed too heavy to carry, I was thinking of not loving that person anymore. We have a choice in this life, whether to love, or not. So I chose to love.

Though the Apostle Paul describes what love is, we seldom think that we serve God by loving. Yet our faith works through love. If we have faith for a person to be saved, we must minister to them by love. When things are not going well it’s easy to think that other people might benefit from us more than the difficult person we are with, or the slow person who just doesn’t learn well. But practicing love by being patient and kind makes time with the lost go easier for us, and shows the face of God to the unsaved and saved alike

Our presence with people is powerful. The Lord had people in His life, whose lives were transformed. That is how the Spirit of God works through us also. It would be futile to think that we can pray down God’s kingdom if we won’t spend time with the people we are praying to enter that kingdom. The Life of Jesus in us is powerful, to the extent we let it move into other’s lives by loving them. Let us be encouraged today as we carry the situations, and yes, people who seem heavy. There is grace in loving, and we will make a difference in the lives of those around us. Amen.

standing in God's council

God sends His word to accomplish His purpose. If we are faithful, we share His word so that God’s purposes can be fulfilled. It is a trust on God’s part to give the word to His servants, and we do well to handle His trust, and His word with care. For God’s word is valuable and holds life eternal.

God tests His servants, to see if they are trustworthy. He watches to see if we feed our fellow servants their portion in due time. God’s portion for each man is measured, accurate, and good. The spiritual food He sends onto the earth comes through His servants and to their fellow servants in the season God purposes, and for the reasons God purposes, for He is building a Kingdom.

The testing comes upon those entrusted with handling of God’s word to see if they grow impatient, or pre-eminent. If a man seeks a place of pre-eminence amongst those with ministries, he will fail in the purposes of God. He will not know the seasons of God’s timing, nor the understanding of God’s words, for he has not stood in God’s council (Jer 23:18-22). This man will be found to seek information for the importance of what he knows and can share, and not that his motives are pure before the Lord. It is a difficult thing for some to remain silent when others have words of God to share, and it takes a humble man to set his own thoughts aside and wait for the valuable words of the Lord. It takes a wise man to wait for the exceedingly valuable peek into the heart of God.

If a man will stand in the council of God he will hear God’s heart-beat for His people. That man will reprove his brother who is in sin, and will not strengthen those who are deceived. The man who hears God’s heart-beat will put God’s issues at the forefront of his mind, and will set his own importance at naught. He will not steal God’s platform for his own purposes, neither will he mix the two.

Yet there are men that mix God’s purposes with their own, who take occasion to further themselves with their own speculations so that they might have something to say. They ruin the listeners with their own words, and the ground is saturated with their dew, so much so that it cannot receive the pure Word from heaven. God is inviting all His servants to come, stand in His council once again. Be washed of all pre-eminence and patiently receive the Word that brings eternal life. Amen.