The Heart of a Man

Every one of us in the human race has been created to be different from one another. God has ordained it to be this way for His glory. While we have different appearances, we all have certain similar abilities that separate us from all other creatures. We are given a soul. This soul has three specific functions. These functions are perfunctory compartments within us which produce a state of usefulness far beyond any other creature. These elements are distinctive, God-created wonders known as our mind, emotion, and will. Man lives in a realm of constantly being influenced as well as emanating his own influence. This atmospheric potpourri results in our soul’s common nature. Natural thinking says, what we learn we become. God says, what we speak is who we become or already are. Matthew 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. So, we see that the immediate source of our words, is that which is in our heart. Let us take some time to understand this phenomenon.

The words of man come from the heart and they defile, tarnish, and contaminate the whole man. How can words defile the heart from which they are spoken, defiling that which seems to be defiled already? Matthew 12:34 out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Can I have evil in my heart and speak good things? Do good and evil live within one’s heart at the same time? Most definitely we are vulnerable to both because of what the heart really is capable of. We read in James 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing, but also is given a warning that this is not what it should be like. Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful more than anything and desperately wicked, who will know this? This understanding came from one of the great prophets of God. It is of great importance to acknowledge this truth and remain aware of its defiling rudiments constantly. Once we become honest about our fallible heart, the Holy Spirit will help us overcome our reckless tongue by imputing divine influence upon it. I describe the heart of man as a chamber, filled with suggestions that can be inflamed in a second by impulse, or pre-existing conditions. It can be calm as a silent night, and explosive as a burst of vicious force.

Jesus says it is from the heart that evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies come. If all these sinful tendencies come from the heart of man, how can we overcome them? Trying harder? There must be something in salvation that can over-shadow these heart-filling tendencies, else we would be committing these sins all the time. Is it simply self-denial? Denying the self can squelch many wrong desires until it bursts forth in a desire for life. That is the story of most of man’s failure. There must be something to tone the heart that is higher than human nature and greater in power or we would be in the constant trouble of prospering sin and its destruction.

Actually, our spirit houses the defined results of who we are and that which relates to us and comes out of us. This is why it is of such great importance to house things that are clean, spiritually free, and holy. Within this God-created storehouse is the temple faculty where the Holy Spirit dwells. There is only one thing given to man that has enabling power to govern the heart of evil sources. It is the Spirit of God. We need the Holy Spirit and to be constantly filled and overflowing with Him. We are rescued by His holy presence of heavenly strength and power. He changes the atmosphere around the heart and within the heart. He is the heavenly oil that lights the lamp in our life. He must be welcomed and given all priority to do what He is designed to do! He is the burning candle in Revelation. He is the only one sent by Christ after His resurrection from death! He gifts the Bride of Christ with power and victories not possible any other way! He is among us as power for the saint and deliverance for the faint! He turns our eyes toward heaven and over-rides our weakness with strength! He inflames our soul with Himself and changes who we naturally are! Hallelujah!

My Life for His Will

Years ago, I was in Japan and went on a tour during which they took us to places where we were asked to remove our shoes. They considered these to be very high places of consecrated activities, such as the presentation of offerings and incense. There was a statue of Buddha which they made offerings to. I would not go in but saw it through a large open door. There were scores of bells and many small containers of expensive substance housed there. The place was considered very sacred because it was a place to transfer gifts to some higher point of worship. There were signs indicating the many things forbidden in these places which they called shrines. Shoes, for instance, were not allowed through the door. There was only one thing allowed here, they called it worship.

When Almighty God thinks of His own people, what does He know them as? God sees our body as a temple. The original definition of that word is: shrine. 1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? V.20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Did the Japanese understand something about a shrine that we ourselves deface and disvalue before the true God? The purpose of our body is to temple the Holy Ghost. This is done with a grand welcoming from the once hell-bound human being. We present gifts and offerings of praise and thanksgiving, giving 100% of ourselves here. This is the first and most important thing in our entire life. When this is done, there is splendor and beauty that exists here. This royal practice is heavenly and powerful and so pure. To be at peace with God in this inner curriculum of selfish tendencies and yet defray all circumstantial power of the imagination is something only found where the Holy Spirit spreads his wings of serenity. Oh Hallelujah! Here we can walk in heaven’s balance contained within the human heart. This treasure in an earthen vessel is Holy before God and therefore Satan seeks to desecrate it, bringing continuous trouble to it. These are the inner chambers where the prayers of the saints prevail through faith that is not complex.

There are spiritual enemies that are persistent against this harmony. The accord is not all that visible from the soul of carnal man, but is a spiritual threat in the highest capacity because of the Holy Spirit’s unseen presence. It is the culmination of inspiration, revelation, and illumination as portals of Heaven presented on Earth. The Cain from Eden is never at rest in this pleasant portrait. Cain fights it within or without because he is a vehicle of jealousy to outperform everyone. Everyone is a threat to Cain. Cain is never satisfied with his own shoes. Until we are comforted and can rest in the shoes God designed for us, we are failures to the will of God.

Hebrews 10:5 Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Religious pragmatism appeals to the idea that we need to be a victim in order to be a sacrifice. We are no longer victims in sacrifice for offering. What we are, is a prepared body fitted to do the will of God. V.7 Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Our task is a simple one to fulfill. We are here to do the will of God.

Scores of people have asked me down through the years how to know the will of God for their lives. I have only one answer to this self-adjusted and complex question: YOU KNOW! Within the daily activities of a temple of His glory, residing within a transformed life, there will always be a lineup of legitimate notations drawing our attention to a question of the simple will of God. Within the heart of the saint there is rest and peace in His will. The will of God is not an imagination. It is not in your head but profoundly quiet in your heart. In the heart, it is never covered with confusion. In the mind, it is seldom without confusion. What is the will of God for your life? You know, now walk therein.

Spiritual Thirst

Forty verses after Genesis 1:1 we find this word—river. It was a river of water that turned into four rivers to water the vast land. One must wonder where this powerful river came from. It came from Eden, the newly created garden of God. The source of this water was the great Creator, the importance of it being the survival of His new creation! It was a tremendous outpouring of water in mere moments to water the entire land. His original blueprint is still being carried out to this very day. Without water, there is no survival of anything. There is a fundamental law that can be seen within the subject of water which must be clearly understood. It is the simple truth that few will ever drink water without first thirsting for it. A healthy person thirsts for water.

There is a vital spiritual application that is key to going deeper with God. What we find is a similar depiction with those that deeply desire to be right with God. Being right with God is something that cannot be produced by us, therefore it creates a thirst. As we cannot create our own water, we cannot create our own righteousness. Hunger and thirst are present when one seeks to be right with God. Matthew 5:6 blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. When one is hungry or thirsty, he pursues, seeks, makes it a priority. When righteousness becomes a thirst or hunger, you will find yourself in the midst of an Abrahamic type promise in Christ. You will be filled. So, to be filled is where God’s acceptable righteousness in Christ reigns. What are we in thirst of? We might define the answer this way: we want more of God, more of Jesus. God’s answer to our need is His righteousness. This is why carnal people seek to construct their own righteousness, which God will never accept. They only produce rags of filth that hold no appeal to Him under any condition. Offering rags of filth generates no true thirst after God at all. The only thing it does produce is the envy found in Cain’s fruit basket, which God turns His face from.

Abraham is called the father of all them that believe. He received God’s righteousness by believing God’s promise. He simply became fully persuaded that what God promised, He was able to execute. Romans 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. V.23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; V.24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Our righteousness comes by believing on Him that raised Jesus from the dead. Who raised Jesus from the dead? Was it God or the Holy Spirit? It was truly God by way of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. If the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us, he fills us with the same resurrected life that it took to bring Jesus from the dead. Many people will argue the technicalities in these verses, but the question remains in compelling display. Is the powerful resurrection of the Holy Spirit clearly activated within me? Does it repel sin within me? In this battlefield of flesh verses Spirit, we find the Holy Spirit to be the king of righteousness.

Jesus made a clear call to the thirsty in the land. John 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. V.38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. What a stunning answer to our thirst! We are to come to Jesus and drink, believing the scriptures exactly the way it is written. No private interpretation, no biases, no cultural blindness, without predetermined thoughts.

We must bow down to drink of this glorious river from Heaven! Until we can drink from this river God’s way, we will not have rivers flowing from us. V.39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) Many confuse other people’s rivers with being their own, but this is not belly water. Cistern water is not our fountain. When the fountain river gushes forth from within, then you can know that the righteousness of Christ is confirmed through the inner-workings of the spiritual unity of the Holy Spirit. Once we have truly received His righteousness, the flow starts. Hallelujah!

Many can speak with great doctrinal vocabulary and portray astounding theory. However, we must never be swayed by the ear ticklers that carry a message without Gods supernatural attestation. Jesus said the difference is simple. The one that truly believes God’s word as it is written has His evidence. Mark 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; V.18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. These were the last words of Jesus before He departed.

Chaff Within the Sanctuary (4)

When the Holy Spirit baptizes someone, He immediately brings changes to the soul of that person. The heart now becomes enlightened with vision and understanding on a different level. The natural eyes and ears become dull to likely judgment, perception now takes place within their heart in reverence and the fear of God. There is still the human tendency to see, hear, and judge with natural understanding, but as the Holy Spirit processes the natural formations of a man, he becomes completely transformed. His meditations change and his ambitions become spiritual. This change comes on the threshing floor of the wind of the Spirit. Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

What is chaff? Chaff is not called chaff until it needs to be separated from the grain it protects. Chaff is called lemma. It is an important silk-like membrane that forms around the life of a grain that is in the tender stage of maturity. It brings protection from harmful insects and diseases that are prone to destroy the grain. It protects from blight or damage incurred by the surrounding elements. Lemma also protects the grains from drying out in exposure to drought and even natural sunlight. Lemma is of extreme purpose, so long as there is growth in the plant. Once the grain has matured, the lemmas must be separated or it will choke the life from the very thing it was so useful to protect. Now we understand that when the lemma is finished protecting, it becomes chaff. Chaff is good for nothing, humans cannot even digest it. It will spoil the life in the grain if it is not separated.

When the Holy Spirit baptizes the heart of man, there is no longer need for the protectionisms that were depended upon for so long. These personal comfort zones that we were so in need have become a danger to the life now within. The lemmas were so secure, we thought no one could take them away. Now they are in vain and will become damaging to the heart that has turned into a fountain and a running river filled with life. Oh yes! The lemma has now become chaff and has to be separated and driven away by the wind and burned with fire. V.12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into His barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

When the heart becomes baptized in the Holy Spirit, there is an accessory element of unquenchable fire that stays constantly with the Holy Spirit upon that man. This fire is not quenchable no matter how hard one tries. This fire is anti-chaff. It is designed to burn anything that seeks to stem the flow of the river. This fire is as active as the Holy Spirit because it is an integral part of the Holy Spirit. You have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and you have been baptized with this fire. As long as you walk baptized you will be under the power of His fire. This fire cleanses and makes dangerous things disappear and appear. Anything you tend to trust by common nature of the self-life, whether friends, occupation, agenda, hang-ups, biases, lifestyle, will become burnished amber tested by the fire of the Spirit. The temple of the Holy Spirit experiences a heavenly overhaul at His appearance and now it remains completely His to rest in through powerful demonstrations.

This bough of the Holy Spirit is called fire. It protects us at all times and keeps us separated unto the heavenly Father lest we lose the treasure that has been bestowed upon us. It causes our natural man to have many questions at times. As this holy fire does its purifying all around us, we can easily become discouraged until we see what it has fire-proved within us. Now we see these virtues of weakness that have become strengths through the proving of the fire; they are tempered, tested, purified, and cannot be burned up. It is almost a sure thing that our peers will condemn and misunderstand this process. You see, the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. He says it is foolish and godless to him.

To be separated from the thing that was so needed to bring us to a certain place in our Christian walk, feels like losing all we have. Why? Because it was about all we had; brownie points and personal achievements with God that we deem as medals of our own goodness. We think we have done pretty well and perhaps we have in the eyes and ears of natural understanding. So long as we are satisfied with such self-approval, we will not seek the deeper life that is effectual through the power of the Holy Spirit. Chaff cannot remain in the sanctuary where the powerful Holy Spirit thrives. Hallelujah!