WHAT IS THE STATE OF YOUR HEART?

 

Vision received during worship a year ago

 

I saw a blanket coming down (night time getting ready for sleep). Then there was a moving of people around getting then ready and putting them in the right place.

Sword holder being emptied out as he gets people ready and they take the swords. They are prepared.

I see the Lord then going around at night while people are sleeping and opening a flap to their heart and Him looking at it. He quickens Psalm 17 v3 to my mind: You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and found nothing; …

The Lord is then cuddling everyone, some were put down to rest again. Others were asked to stand and He further fitted them out with what they needed for the walk ahead.

I saw then going out as spearheads of light around the globe (like superman)

I then saw Him going each night and checking the heart of the remaining sleepers. To see if they were ready. Then they joined the ones of light if they were.

 

Proverbs 17:15

As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.

The Lord has spent a lot of time showing me the importance of the heart and more importantly the importance of the state of your heart.  The state of your heart dictates the pace you move forward at, the sphere of your influence, your current walk in the kingdom of God.

 Luke 17:21

… For indeed the kingdom of God is within you.

 

When we go through the word we are given so much wisdom about the heart and the importance of its position.  There are a number of key things the Lord has highlighted to me

 

He Tests our hearts

 The opening vision above shows this but He also tells us this again and again.

As a man thinketh on his heart so is he.  Proverbs 23:7

What a powerful yet scary verse. This is why the Lord checks our heart. How does your heart think? When mine is not right then I repent, repent and repent as I ask the Lord to bring me in line with His will. I have seen when my heart is not right, quite often He is showing me something I need to address and He desires to see it right because He loves me and wants me further in Him. He tests my heart to see if I have learnt.

 

Deuteronomy 8:2

And you shall remember that The Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness to humble you and test you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep His commandments or not.

I wonder how long we stay in the wilderness because we are not willing to listen to His voice about what He wants to change in our heart.  He loves us and wants us in the right place and then He will use us.

 

Psalm 7:9

 Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, But establish the just; For the righteous God tests the hearts and minds.

Jeremiah 17:10

I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

Again and again He tests out heart. Ok Lord let mine be found right.  He is God and you can’t hide those things in your heart from Him.  Open then up and let Him work on them.  He wants to.

 

He wants all our heart

 Deuteronomy 1:36

…Except Caleb the son of Jephunneh he shall see it and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked because he wholly followed The Lord.

I believe Caleb gave all his heart “wholly” which is why He could be used so powerfully by the Lord.  There was no holding back.

Deuteronomy 30:14

But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it.

 1 Kings 8:23 and he said: “LORD God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts

Deuteronomy 6:5

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

All our hearts that’s what He wants. You can’t keep some of it back! It’s all in.

 

He knows our hearts

We know in scripture that Samaria feared The Lord but saved the gods of the land they came from.  Not the position the Lord wants from us.

It would be like us fearing The Lord but putting money, career or family ahead of The Lord.

Eventually you don’t fear The Lord which is where the Samaritans got to and their walk went of the path.

 

1 Samuel 16:7

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

 Hebrews 4:12

 The word is living and powerful sharper than a two edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

He uses the word to discern our hearts.  Read the word as He will use this to help put your heart in His will.

Genesis 6:5 

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

God has searched the hearts from the start of man being on the earth.

Jeremiah 17:9

“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

He knows us

 

He wants a heart seeking Him

2 chronicles 19:3

“Nevertheless good things are found in you, in that you have removed the wooden images from the land, and have prepared your heart to seek God.”

Seek Him he tells us again and again.

 

Jeremiah 29:12 

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

13 And you will seek Me and find ME, when you search for Me with all your heart.

14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity;

We search for Him

He wants our prayers not a prayer is wasted. He wants us to want Him with all our heart.

 

Amen I seek you Lord

 

 He wants a heart willing to do His will

 Ephesians 6:6 

not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

 Proverbs 19:21

There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the LORD’s counsel—that will stand.

So we can do all we like but it is only his word and ways (counsel) that will stand and that is where our heart needs to be.

2 Chronicles 7:11

Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the LORD and in his own house.

And later

2 Chronicles 9:23

And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

So he accomplished everything that came into his heart. And who put it in His heart but The Lord.

He will accomplish what He sets out to do. So if you do what The Lord says then it will be completed.

1 chronicles 28

“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.

 

The heart and Holy Spirit

Acts 15

7 And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

8 “So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us,

9 “and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

 

So God knew their heart and gave them the Holy Spirit. A pretty clear statement. I wonder when we don’t receive the baptism whether it is because when we really get down to what is in our heart it is not right. He doesn’t give up on you. He cuddles you and the work continues in you.

Let us have the right heart.

 

Our heart is foundational to all that the Lord wants to do in us and through us.  Let’s let it be fully His.