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.

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!

Contusions in the Sanctuary (3)

While Satan desires to make us feel like continual failures, the truth remains secreted within the sanctified ones. It is the quiet voice of the shepherd that acknowledges the treasure in our earthen vessel. There are simply no devices nor contrivances which Heaven has designed to devastate that which He fills the saints with. These are purified ones, having their vestures dipped in the blood of Jesus for constant redemption. These saints of God don’t worship upon other altars. Their cry is deeper than a shallow soul can perceive. They are the neediest of spiritual humanity. They have forsaken the criticism of constant disapproval from the treacherous souls of men and devils. These sanctuaries of God could be focused entirely on pain, hurts, and the utter rejection which has been inflicted upon them, leaving contusions as evidence of their woundings. Instead, their heart speaks of healing, blessing, and overcoming victory. This is their victory cry, and their mission. It is what flows out of them because it is what is within them. The true saint often faces trouble on every side of life because there is so much life within him. The fullness of the flow of life within him comes from having overcome so many obstacles and clever traps that were set up for his demise. He is hated by opposing forces that seek to destroy his inner life.

These sanctuaries of God do have faults at times, especially in the eyes of the carnal man. Faults are simply interpretive, that is why they are not really classified as sin. I do not believe God classifies mere faults as sin. James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. Here it never suggests that faults need forgiveness from God. Faults cause personal hurts and pain at times. The tender conscience that has developed within the saint receives extreme crushings and buffetings from Satan at times. This is usually accomplished through persons in whom the saint has placed their trust. Peter did this very thing to Jesus when he suggested that the death of the cross was nonsense. These darts are designed to wreak heavy destruction upon the heart. But the one who surrenders to the cross does not go into distress easily. He often becomes bewildered by perplexities, but his trust in the Lord will not let him fall into hopeless despair for he knows the cross well. While persecution is a close companion of his, he does not forsake nor is he forsaken. This spiritual man is often cast to the ground but not by his own sin; these sanctuaries suffer for righteousness’ sake, not for evil doings. He survives, and with some time and patience will overcome the intended destruction. Yes, he may suffer and tangle with difficulty for extended periods of time, but will prevail because of His master shepherd who already knows how to overcome.

2 Corinthians 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; V.9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; V.10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. V.11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. V.12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

Paul’s experience was identical as he writes to the Corinthians. What is often so difficult for the saint is to have understanding and spiritual comprehension as to why he is going through these valleys with shadows of death all around. Sometimes we must die to our need of understanding. Can we rest in the fact that we might never know nor understand? Maybe that is in itself the trial we are to endure. Is it the fact that the Holy Spirit wants to walk with us to deepen our dependence with Him? One thing is clear: the Holy Spirit is our comforter and glorious strength through joy. The Holy Spirit will never, never, leave the saint alone because within him is His sanctuary. One of the supernatural attributes of the Holy Spirit is that He can be fully at rest and in complete power within His sanctuary; in His silence, He can seem completely hidden, yet the next moment He is gushing forth in power, purity, and the heavenly overflow from His fountain of love and excellence. A human that is wrapped around the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit is like the wind, not knowing for sure what’s next. The wind is blowing and you hear many sounds, but you don’t know for sure where it’s coming from or where it will end up going.

Contusion of the soul or complete healing, however it may be at this moment with you, there is one thing you must fully know: The Holy Spirit is always completely present within His sanctuary when He is welcome to set free His power to fulfill all the promises of God for His glory. John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.    

Hallelujah!

Within the Heavenly Sanctuary (Part 1)

I want to write a series of messages on what transpires within the heart of the true saints of God. Throughout 32 years of ministering to these saints of God, I have found a mass of concerns that have defeated far too many well-meaning saints. I have noticed that in the last four years there is an overpowering plague that has troubled the finest of God’s people. These are things we need to understand lest we be brought to a place of complete despair.

The marvel of the holiness of God reigning in a previously sin-plagued human being, is one of the great achievements of the power of Jesus. This heavenly ambiance within an earthen vessel where the righteousness of Christ reigns, is an exhibition so powerful that Satan relentlessly pursues to bring heavy destruction upon it. God will at times use these abrasions in times of trouble and even sorrow, to bring sanctification to a saint through the Holy Spirit. However, we must take note that not all is sorrow and heartache within the heart of the redeemed. Often, the saint of God can lose his joy when the enemy pursues his soul. The idea that God is constantly chastening us and finding fault with us is simply not the truth of His ways. God Almighty from Heaven is all about building us up and bringing us to a deeper walk with Him through His redemptive ways. If the god you listen to is always tearing you down and overpowering you with inductions of guilt and irrelevant pressure against your soul, know one thing clearly: it is not the Father Elohim.

Satan can transform himself to appear as an angel of light, making us think that it is God that is speaking or chastening us. When God chastens us, He corrects us; this is exactly what He achieves. God truly does chasten those whom He loves, but that is not all He does. Some saints allow themselves to go through a continual beating for years until even their desire for God becomes jeopardized and soured. My friend, this is simply not God!  God’s love does not damage your passion for Him. God’s loving conviction does not tear you down. Jesus said, “I will give you rest under my yoke”. God’s love does not spiritually destroy His saints. God chastens us when we need to be correctively loved, then He moves on leading us into deeper things of faith, joy, hope, grace, and love. God does not damage the saint. Satan is out to destroy, damage, kill, and deceive. When God corrects us, He does it by convicting our soul through the Holy Spirit. When God rebukes us, He does it with a full disclosure of love and perfect timing. Yes, God does lead us to brokenness but not by obliterating us into a cloud of constant condemnation of despair.

There are angels that are transformed, appearing as light that can speak swelling words of understanding or pretense of light. They seek to destroy the soul of God’s effective ones and bring them into the bondage of condemnation. They inflict words that cause great harm and offer nothing redemptive. These thoughts pursue the slight faults of the saints seeking to obscure their view of God. These thoughts from the disguised are utterly sinful and they seek to tarnish the spirit of a clean saint. The Holy Spirit always has the right timing when He speaks, instilling trust in His care. The angel of light has the wrong timing, inflicting despair.

Why does God call Satan a pretending angel? These angels seem super-spiritual whether in thoughts or in ability to speak into a situation. The problem is clear — that it brings the heart into deep constant despair and condemnation. These thoughts, whether they come through man or to man, are very destructive and anti-Christ. They hold themselves as bearers of light or revelation. These punitive thoughts appear to be out of concern, therefore going easily undetected because they seem so spiritual. The saint in his purity has a sensitive conscience to reverence God in honor and to maintain the fear of God. This makes him vulnerable and an easy target.

These people or thoughts are ‘wondering stars’, as Jude describes them. They rove and move but are wanderers in the desert of defeat and ensnarement. There is a carnal tendency for the saint to sense that God is constantly against them. This is never the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will never issue such antagonistic influence of constant despair upon the saint. Satan, as an angel of light, will certainly do so, but it needs to be quickly understood that this it is not the Holy Spirit. Does a godly loving father castigate his son for several years in an unrelenting way? Then how could we perceive that God does this to us? These are tactics to rob the joy of the saint and can never be received as being from God, regardless of how spiritual they may seem.

Proverbs 3:11 My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: V. 12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, [Greek: convicts] even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

The Emanation of the Heart

God has been teaching me to walk with greater carefulness in the company of people who have tendencies to tear down the character of fellow believers. I have been very careful with what kind of friendship I nurture. Someone having a constant expression of complaints under the disguise of sharing a burden contains a poison too dangerous for me to interact with. If the fingers always point out you can be assured that there are problems within that are self-justified and toxic.

I understand that there are times of such despair in difficulty when a person shares his heart. It is when these tendencies are constant and the patterns are continual that I find a nature very destructive to the life of the Holy Spirit within. Most have learned to recognize this emanation and to either guard against it or embrace it. Some people have very little genuine wholesome encouragement to emanate. Others are overflowing with strength that brings joy, hope, and blessing. Sometimes meeting someone in a store and sharing a short conversation can change your entire day. Why is this so influential?

Things spoken from the heart are vastly more effective. There are those who have their knowledge encased in the book of intellectualism that they convey only with the desire to impress. The effectiveness of such content seldom builds up spiritual health for the man of God. It is designed to impress the weak and grieve the Holy Spirit within the believer.

Isaiah prophesied about the coming Messiah and stated that He will judge a righteous judgment. Isaiah 11:2 And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; V.3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: Christ’s example of how the Holy Spirit manifests His true judgment, is also the method that every believer needs to have confidence in through faith and not by sight. This truth of being an active participant through such depth of holiness within the character of mankind is the element of transformation we all must experience before there can be any accuracy in judgment. Here it becomes apparent that man cannot conclude by merely seeing or hearing.

This wonderful truth is a great challenge that every believer needs to embrace with sincerity and zeal. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding with counsel and might has to be given residence in our heart. Not the spirit of imagination and exploration. When the Holy Spirit has such powerful preeminence and protection within the believer, his imaginational judgment and perception of others is concealed. Oh, may this be found in me lest I think falsely of others redeemed by the same blood of Jesus.

Many times, I have prayed: God, set a watch on my lips. But now I pray: God set a watch on my eyes and ears. We know that the mouth speaks that which is in the heart, so the heart needs fervent, attentive protection! Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Now we understand that life’s issues are within the heart. We also know that the heart is desperate to be wicked and is ranked as the most fraudulent tool that we have. Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? This fact as described by God must be the perfect understanding of our God toward mankind. This needs to invoke a sobering dilemma within the saint of God! Oh, how desperately I need a deeper work of the Holy Spirit within my heart! I cannot live one minute without Him!

If I am deprived of His greater presence, than I have become a monster of judgment toward everyone by what I hear and see. Seeing and hearing are the daily functions of many who are professors of Christianity. Oh, Spirit of grace and love, may you lead me into the darkness of eyes and deafness of hearing from the tongue of man, lest I know not that which you want me to understand. I long for your presence in my eyes and in my ears lest I curse and not bless! John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Oh, Lord, change within me daily that which pollutes your work and word. Remind me of the more important things heaven wants me to know and be. Let me not despise those who you accept. Cover my eyes with love and my ears with your holiness lest my heart becomes defiled and I emanate hell and not heaven, life and not death.

Romans 14:3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

The Wind of the Spirit

Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

It was the wind from the breath of God that made Adam a living soul after the clay was formed and fashioned by the hand of God.

God caused a wind to blow over the Earth after the flood of Noah that assuaged the waters and a new world stood washed from its evil past.

God caused the wind to blow from the east that brought in the plague of locusts against Pharaoh. God caused another wind from the opposite direction to blow the same locusts back to the sea.

The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided for Israel to make a final exit out of Egypt.

Exodus 15:10 Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.

The same wind that delivered Israel destroyed the armies of Egypt.

When the wind of the Holy Spirit blows, how does it affect you? Am I spiritual enough to understand why the wind blows or even discern when the wind of God is blowing?

The carnal man will always get busy and very uneasy at this time. He wants to take charge and tries to control, thinking his help will cause the wind to cease. I have learned that when the wind of God blows, we hold still and see the salvation of the Lord do its work.

It was the wind from the Lord that brought the quail from the sea to feed the millions in an unproductive desert.
David says, He rides upon the wings of the wind. Elijah witnessed the three extreme demonstrations of wind before he could hear the still small voice of God.
It was Ezekiel that prophesied to the four winds concerning the valley full of dry bones. The wind blew and the bones connected and there was a huge army that arose to their feet, filled with the life power of the Spirit!

It was in the upper room of unity of the Spirit that the Holy Spirit came with the sound from heaven, which was mighty and rushing and it filled the house and all the people with heavenly power!

This sound of heaven is the same sound that powered the New Covenant Church. It is the power of the true bride of Jesus!

The power of the bride of Christ is not run by strategies or formulas that make busy the activity-craving soul of the day. The wind of the Holy Spirit is not repaired nor can it ever be replaced. It is a sovereign move that God blesses His surrendered people with.

When the wind came in the upper room, they were sitting. They were resigned, longing for the promise of God. They were not demanding nor were they planning how this will be. They were waiting.

I have always found that the blowing of the wind tangles with anything that can be tossed about.  A lot of dry dust irritates the eye. When the darkening clouds of despair become highly visible and give a look of danger to the common eye, it is here that we can expect a sudden cleansing in the hearts of the true seekers.

It is here that the Passover of the blood of Jesus will do his work in full array. The Passover has to fully come before a sound from Heaven rushes and fills the room.

I notice Four Specific Things in particular before the sound from heaven filled the room:

1. The day of Passover had fully come.

2. They were all gathered in one accord.

3. They were all in one place.

4. They were all waiting for the promise of the Father.

It is here that the sound of Heaven occurs and with great expectation of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit! May I ask you to consider the wind that is whirling around your life at present?

What do you discern it to be? May God open the eyes of understanding so that we do not focus on circumstances that look beyond hope.

Let us never forget how it was before that great heavenly visitation of the Holy Spirit. There are still many who need baptized with the Holy Spirit.

May this renew our vision to see as God sees.