Life #37- Perfect Hearts and Zōē-Life



taro leaves

The heart is regarded as the sphere of divine influence. When God activates his divine prerogative, the heart becomes an instrument through which he directs humanity to will and to do according to his good purpose (Proverbs 3:5, 6; 2 Thessalonians 3:5; Philippians 2:13). Thus, God may choose to influence the hearts of believers and non-believers alike (1 Kings 10:24; Exodus 4:21).

Proverbs 4:23 informs us that life exits from the heart. Though some of the kings of Israel and Judah had perfect hearts (1 Kings 15:14; 2 Kings 20:3), God looked toward his own people, hoping they would pursue and obtain perfect hearts (1 Kings 8:61). Yet, when he spoke to Moses, he grieved over their slow willingness to do so: 

“Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29 NKJV).

When God sets out to find a perfect heart (1 Samuel 13:14)—whether it beats in the body of a shepherd boy, or in the chest of a humble Son, or in Christians filled up with Christ’s fullness—he finds one. Besides, anyone who accomplishes all of God’s will is known as people “after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22).

Unencumbered by sin’s corruptions and the heart’s deceptive workings, the perfect heart allows zōē-life to freely and abundantly flow.

May God find perfect hearts among his people today—a remnant reserved for this time!

Scripture quotations from the King James Version (KJV) unless otherwise noted; excerpts are taken from our book to be released next year.

Life #36 - Love is the Heart's Guard



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Existing within the heart are two great extremes, love and hate. We’ve just learned in Blog #35 how love can strengthen us in the face of prolonged difficulties; how love, if maintained, neither diminishes with passing time, nor collapses under escalating challenges and stresses. Yet, if left unguarded, the heart, which is a source of power, also has the capacity to hurt!

For practicing Christians, love can be a guard that prevents the heart from deliberately hurting anyone. Still, it will require a lot of effort on our part to continue to love and remain loving. Isn’t it difficult to love someone we don’t like? To try to replace hate with love not only irritates us, it confuses our mind. It even agitates our sin-nature, which treats love as a foreign object, to be thrown far away. However, until we get rid of our hate, we will always fail at love. If we fail at love, then we will also fail at life. That’s why, after we clean the heart, Scripture advises us:

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

Proverbs state that those who keep words of wisdom and understanding within their hearts will find life and health for their bodies. Furthermore, and most important for those who want to remain alive until the Lord’s return, Christians who guard, protect, and maintain their hearts in an environment of love, will enjoy an unending flow of life (Proverbs 4:22, 23 NIV)!

Scripture quotations from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise noted; excerpts are taken from our book to be released next year.

Life #35 - Power of the New Heart

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The Gospel of Mark (9:14-30 NKJV) is preached with the focus on faith. While that is true, we are given an inside look at the heart of a deeply committed father. He did everything to get his son delivered of a mute spirit, which his son had since infancy. Is something deeper being revealed to us concerning the heart's power?

The father’s actions show us the measure of love the heart contains:

Love believed there was a miracle with his son’s name on it. Love helped the father be patient for results. Love kept him humble, being never too proud to ask for help from anybody. Love persevered throughout time, overcame the hardships, and did not count the number of failures. Love protected, trusted, and hoped for his son. Even when Jesus’ own disciples failed to deliver his son, anger had no place in his heart because love never failed him (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13 NIV).

Though love motivated his actions, it remained the father’s responsibility to see that the love for his son never grew cold (Matthew 24:12). He could have given up; thrown a pity-party for himself; become frustrated and abuse his son; or put his son aside and not deal with the problem.

Instead, the father reaped love’s reward when Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and the young man was healed (Mark 9:25, 27 NKJV).

Love, from the power of a new heart, makes an extraordinary difference in ordinary lives. Love always produces a life-giving impact! Always.

Scripture quotations from the King James Version (KJV) unless otherwise noted; excerpts are taken from our book to be released next year.

Life #34 - A New Heart with Washing and Cleansing



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Is there any hope for a depraved heart? Jeremiah, the disillusioned prophet, thought so. He said the heart could be washed of its wickedness (Jeremiah 4:14). Accordingly, Jesus washed us from our sins (Revelation 1:5 NKJV) and continues to wash the church by his word for our perfection.

• “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word…that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:26, 27).

We are not by-standers in our cleansing. For the sake of God’s promises the Scripture urges us to wash ourselves. This washing is from all “filthiness of the flesh and spirit” that we might perfect holiness out of reverence for God (2 Corinthians 7:1 NKJV).

After the heart is cleansed, or made new, it becomes a container for good treasure. The heart is honest, rejoices, and believes. It is steadfast, pure, true, and unblameable. The heart knows God, just as God knows the heart. God’s laws are contained in it, as well as the love of God, the earnest of the Spirit, and the Spirit of his Son. Finally, the peace of God rules there*. More importantly, Jesus dwells in our hearts by faith (Ephesians 3: 17; Galatians 2:20 and 1 John 3:24; Colossians 1:27).

We are to have “hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). Are we washed? Are we holy? The Lord is returning for unblameable hearts.

Scripture quotations from the King James Version (KJV) unless otherwise noted; excerpts are taken from our book to be released next year. *(Matthew 12:35; Luke 8:15; John 16:22; Acts 8:37; 1 Corinthians 7:37; 2 Timothy 2:22; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; Jeremiah 24:7 and Luke 16:15; Hebrews 10:16; Romans 5:5; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Galatians 4:6; Colossians 3:15; respectively).

Life #33 - The Corrupt Heart, an Obstacle to Life

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The prophet Jeremiah wrote a lot about the workings of the heart and it was pretty grim. He said the “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). He questioned if anyone could even know such a heart because of its evil nature. He called the heart revolting and rebellious, filled with pride and haughtiness (Jeremiah 3:17; 5:23; 48:29 KJV).

The apostles in the early church agreed. They wrote that the heart is ineffectual when it doubts, is slow to believe, and is troubled and afraid (Mark 11:23; Luke 24:25; John 14:27 KJV). The heart is full of lusts, is foolish and darkened (Romans 1:24, 21 KJV). Even Jesus revealed the place where adultery is committed—and it was not in the bed—“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28 NIV).

What’s more, the heart is depraved because sin resides there and defiles the whole circuit of our actions. Jesus said, “…those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; These are the things which defile a man…” (Matthew 15: 18-20 KJV).

Yet, worst of all, when Christians harden our hearts (Hebrews 3:15), the resulting unbelief prevents us from entering into any of God’s promises (Hebrews 3:19 KJV)—even the promise of life (John 11: 26 NIV)!

Scripture quotations from New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted; excerpts are taken from our book to be released next year.

Life #32 - The Heart's Emotions, Reason, and Will

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Mature Christians, who follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, have early learned the importance of the human heart in the affairs of God and in his contact with humanity.

According to W. E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary (“Heart, Heartily”), he said that the heart eventually came to stand for humanity’s “entire mental and moral activity”.  In its moral significance in the Hebrew Bible, Vine writes that the heart “includes the emotions, the reason and the will”.

·       The heart’s emotions: “Then Hannah prayed and said: My heart rejoices in the Lord…” (1 Samuel 2:1 NIV).

·       The heart’s reason: “…consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other” (Deuteronomy 4:39).

·       The heart’s will: “Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord: gold, silver, and bronze;” (Exodus 35:5).

Through our heart’s emotions (feelings), reason (working out dissimilar thoughts), and will (a deliberate resolve through strong desire), we understand ourselves as expressive, rational, and determined human beings.

However, the early prophets and apostles did not trust the actions of the heart in its raw state; so they urged us to clean the heart. The cleansed heart then becomes the most versatile and powerful instrument of God’s creations.

Who knew that out of the heart zōē-life would flow and influence our total salvation of spirit, soul, and body? Jesus.

Scripture quotations from New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted; Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testatment Words (1981); excerpts taken from our book to be released next year.

Life #31 - A Clear Sign that the Rapture is Imminent

Recent controversies in the news this year require us to bring clarity to the Rapture. First, the “Rapture” is not a biblical word. The apostle Paul referred to it as “the day of Christ” (2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2 NKJV). Second, this is an event that occurs at Christ’s return, when Christians are seized, caught away, taken (by force) to be with their Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Even the early church at Thessalonica had their difficulties over the timing of the Rapture. They expected “the day of Christ” to occur during their lifetime. It wouldn’t, the apostle Paul informed them. In his second letter to the Thessalonians, he corrected some false ideas about the Lord’s return. Paul also assured those who thought they had missed “the day of Christ” that they hadn’t—because all the signs had not manifested (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 NKJV).

Note that Jesus said all occurrences surrounding his return would complete themselves within the span of one generation (Matt 24:27, 34).

So, although we cannot know the specific “day or hour” of Christ’s return (Matt 24:36), we can know when the Rapture-event will occur:

And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 NKJV).

When we see our dead friends and relatives stand up from their resting places, know that our Rapture is imminent because they join us in the event!

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Scripture quotations from New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted; Greek definitions from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: caught up #726 – harpazō, har-pad’-zo; to seize:—catch (away, up), pluck, take (by force) [like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:2, 4]; rise #450 – anistēmi, an-is’-tay-mee; to stand up:—raise up (again); rise (again); Connected with Blog #6; excerpts from our book to be released next year.