For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.” (John 12:39-40 NIV)
The words Jesus quotes were spoken many centuries earlier by both Moses and Isaiah. Jesus gives a fuller explanation of them in Matthew 13 where he explains to his disciples that they are able to hear and receive what he is teaching because their hearts are open. What we are seeing is the consequence of a hard heart. The inability to receive and live in the truth. The words of life Jesus is speaking are not having any effect on the people because of the hardness of their hearts. They are blinded to the truth of the gospel. As we open our heart we are able to receive truth. That truth will change us and lead us into the fullness of life promised by Jesus, it will cause streams of living water to rise up within us and flow out to a hurting and broken world. In opening our heart we need to recognise how sensitive it is. It is easily wounded and therefore we must take steps to protect or guard it. Solomon highlights this for us - “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). A guarded heart is very different to a closed heart. I see a closed heart as one that keeps love out and the stuff of life in. A guarded heart is one that keeps the love in and the rubbish out! Spending time with our Heavenly Father, the lover of our soul, is the best way to foster a guarded heart. It will enable us to live from our heart and in doing so we discover the joy of walking in relationship with him. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5 NIV)
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:10 NIV) We have seen over the past few weeks how the heart is not only central to who we are, it's where all our important relationships live. We relate to our husband or wife from the heart, we relate to our children from the heart, we relate to our close friends from the heart. Whilst I have a genuine care for the clients in my accountancy practice, our relationship is much more one of the mind as they are paying for me to impart my knowledge to them. Life-giving relationships are all rooted in the heart. There are things we understand with our mind and that is good and right. But we do not relate to God with our mind, we have a heart to heart connection with him. Too often we admit to knowing the love of God in our mind and wonder when it will drop from there into our heart. It’s a question I’m often asked and I now believe it is the wrong question. God pours his love directly into our heart not into our mind in the hope that one day it might find its way into the heart. Many of us have learned to believe with our mind which leads to us rationalising everything. When we believe with our heart we will be transformed. Opening our heart requires faith as we learn to trust our Father’s goodness and kindness towards us. As we open our heart we find that he puts his finger on some blockages or hindrances to receiving which he wants to remove. Opening our heart and seeking to keep it open is a doorway for us to go through as we seek to live in love. An open heart is a container for his love, the more open it is the bigger the container will become. As we open our heart to his love we will start to live differently. We create a new wineskin that he fills with his love. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV)
Jesus offered life (John 10:10), he offered streams of living water (John 4:14) that would be life-changing and life-giving to those who could receive it. He was not necessarily showing people how to live properly by doing the right things, he was showing people how an encounter with him would change their heart for ever. Our heart is central to everything. Our heart is deeper than our soul which comprises of our mind, will and emotions. Our heart is akin to our spirit, it is the place where the Father makes his home and it is the deep place that defines who we really are. Our soul (mind, will and emotions) belong to us but they do not define who we are. That’s done at a deeper level, in our heart. It’s when we seek him in the deep place of our heart that we can begin to discover the plans he has for us. They are good plans, they give us hope for our future. At the same time though, we know we live in a fallen world which often tarnishes and confronts his plans for us. Yet, we can take heart knowing that he is always good. The journey we are called to take is one of the heart. It is not one of reason or emotion but a deep longing inside of us to discover the heart of our Father and then to pursue it with all our soul. It is our heart joining with his heart and through that we discover his ways. So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. (Ephesians 4:17-19 NIV)
Last week I talked about the importance of allowing the eyes of our heart to be opened to the truth of who God really is and who we are. To see these truths requires a revelation which comes as a gift from our Father. It is with the eyes of our heart that we see the truth. This week we look briefly at the opposite. The futility of our own understanding. The picture Paul paints is not very attractive: we don’t see clearly, we are separated from the life of God, we lose a sensitive heart and end up with a hard heart. How different to what we read last week. The trouble is we like to boast in our own wisdom and understanding, it draws attention to us and makes us look good. Paul only has one word to describe this: futile. When we see with the eyes of our mind we see what God does and so may miss who he is, our Glorious Father. When we see with the eyes of our mind we focus on what Jesus does rather than allowing him to lead us to the Father. When we see with the eyes of our heart we see who God is, the glorious Father. When we see with the eyes of our heart we allow ourselves to be led to the Father. We focus on relationship rather than on activity. As the eyes of our heart are opened, I believe it is inevitable that the eyes of our mind will begin to close and we lose our hard heart and regain a sensitive heart tuned into the heart of the Father. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. (Ephesians 1:15-18 NIV)
In Paul’s prayer, he is praying for two specific things which he longs would be the experience of each and every Christian. The only way we can receive these is through the gift of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and it is the Father who gives us this gift. We will not experience these things through our own wisdom or knowledge but through an encounter with our Heavenly Father. What then does Paul want us to receive? Firstly, he wants us to know God better. It is truly amazing that the Father gives us the very gift we need in order to really know who he is. He is so keen for us to discover the truth that he gives us the spirit of revelation so our eyes might behold who he really is. We are given a clear pointer to who God really is by Paul himself; he introduces his prayer by telling us who he is talking to: the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and if there is any doubt, this God is the Glorious Father. Secondly, he wants us to know who we are, “the hope to which we have been called”. Paul wants us to know our true inheritance which is to live as sons and daughters to our Heavenly Father. These two factors are fundamental. The only way we can see them is when the eyes of our heart are opened. We can’t understand them with our own (limited) understanding but we need a divine revelation, given to us by the Father and one which finds its home in our heart. I pray today, that the eyes of heart may be more fully open to these amazing truths. |
Weekly SignpostA Father to YOU is a signpost to the heart of the Perfect Father. When we became Christians we were given the right to become children of God (John 1:12). Sadly, many of us fail to take up that right and instead continue to live as slaves or orphans. But our true destiny is being sons and daughters who have a permanent place in the Father's family. This blog is an encouragement to help you know who God really is and who you really are. Click here to subscribe. |