Spiritual Heart Disease

Transcription

1 Lesson 1 Thinking Through It: 1. What did David recognize as the source of his sin? 2. What did God promise in the Old Testament concerning our heart? 3. How does that which controls our hearts affect our actions? 4. What controlled our hearts before we accepted Christ? 5. What is the condition of the heart of a Christian? 6. How do Christians purify their hearts? 7. Why does the word displace better explain the Holy Spirit s work of sanctification? 8. Why does pride delay the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit? Spiritual Heart Disease 15 Advanced Discipleship 301 Advanced Discipleship 301 a

2 Lesson 1 Preamble My heart is Day 1: Read about life before the flood in Genesis 6:1-8. What did you learn about the heart of man? Day 2: Read the narrative of Solomon, 1 Kings 11:1-13. What did you learn about Solomon s heart? Day 3: Read Matthew 6: What did you learn about the heart of man? Day 4: Read the narrative found in Mark 7:1-23. What did you learn about the heart of man? Day 5: Read Luke 10: What did you learn about man s heart in relationship to God? Day 6: Read the narrative of Simon the Sorcerer, Acts 8:9-25? What was the condition of his heart? Day 7: Read the Romans 1: What is the condition of society s heart today? humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1Pe.5:6) God promises us that if we humble ourselves, He will lift us up when we need it. The Bible teaches us that sometimes it will not come right away, but it will come: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Mt.5:6) It is when we begin to accept the fact that we will never be righteous before God on our own that we are not only humbled but that we reach out for God s righteousness. As long as we are proud in our selfsufficiency, we will remain in our sin: When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. (Pr.11:2) When we come to the place of realizing that we will never achieve true holiness on our own, we must humble ourselves and ask God: The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor. (Pr.15:33) If God granted us the holiness while we were proud, then we might claim that it was we who accomplished it on our own. Ergo, pride is counter-productive to holiness: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Lk.18:14) Before being saved, our hearts were proud, swelled up by our own selfreliance. But when we come to the place of brokenness, then God can lift us up. For only then is He assured of the glory for His holiness: Before his downfall a man s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor. (Pr.18:12) Before Christ, our hearts were not only wicked but full of pride look at what I did; look at what I am; look at I. Since being proud prevents us from receiving God s grace, it not only prevents us from achieving holiness but bars us from Heaven: The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. (Pr.16:5) Therefore, let us not just come to God for a pure heart but also for a heart that is humble as we daily seek God s strength in our lives, submiting to Him and giving Him all the glory for what we have become. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (Ja.1:21-22) Memory verse: God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Acts 15:8-9 1 Advanced Discipleship 301 Advanced Discipleship

3 Lesson 1 us to live holy lives. There was nothing we could do that would enable us to live a life that would have been acceptable to God: The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Ro.8:6-8) As long as we remain defiant, God will let us continue on our own apart from His grace. It is only when we submit to Christ, totally yielded, that He will help us overcome sin in our lives. Jesus calls us to submit to Him using the term yoke. A yoke was used to plow fields with a pair of oxen. The older, well-trained ox would be yoked together with a younger, more inexperienced ox. The trained, mature ox outweighed the young ox so it would not only do more of the pulling but would also be a guiding force, training the young ox to listen to the commands of the farmer: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Mt.11:28-30) Jesus is asking for us to humble ourselves and be yoked with Him, submitting to His commands. For when we receive a new heart, it is a heart that is controlled by Christ, making the Christian life a humble life: Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Eph.4:2) We must be completely humble if God is to take control of our lives. Until we come to the point of brokenness, humbling ourselves, submitting unto God, we will not have victory over sins. Humility and submission is required for us to receive the grace that will equip us to overcome our sin: But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Ja.4:6-7) We have a choice. Either we humble ourselves, submitting to God and resisting Satan, or we can in pride resist God and continue to submit to Satan. If we humble ourselves, asking God to help us overcome, then He will lift us up: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (Ja.4:10) You can try to overcome your sin in the pride of your all-sufficiency or you can humbly come before God, asking Him for the grace to stand against all Satan s temptations. You can try by your own resolve, which you know will fail; or you can humble yourself before God, asking Him to cleanse you waiting on Him to do as He promised: All of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the 13 Advanced Discipleship 301 On the Waiting List When a person goes to the doctor, they tell him the symptoms through which the doctor makes a diagnosis as to the cause. In our spiritual condition, sin is merely a symptom of a much greater problem. It was no coincidence that Christ said: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Lk.5:31) The point of the matter is that all mankind is suffering from a hereditary disease to which there is a cure. That cure is found in Christ: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1Pe.2:24) We have been healed of the disease which causes our sin. Have you ever had to fill a health form that asks all kinds of questions about your parents and grandparents? One of the questions is usually about heart disease. I often am tempted to write Yes, my family has had a long history of spiritual heart disease. It all started with my forefather Adam and his wife Eve. My heart was deceitfully wicked: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer.17:9) In the Old Testament, there was no cure for a wicked and deceitful heart. King David was said to have a heart that sought after God: After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concern ing him: I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do. (Ac.13:22) David did seek after God, but he too suffered from spiritual heart disease as he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then killed Uriah her husband. David recognized his sickness as he cries out: Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Ps.51:3-5) King David recognized that just as a baby inherits AIDS from it s mother at birth, he too suffered from a hereditary disease. It was David's realization that his heart was wicked that he writes in the same Psalm: Advanced Discipleship 301 2

4 Lesson 1 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Ps.51:10) When diagnosed with any disease one usually asks: How bad is it? God described the heart of man at the time of the great flood when we read: The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. (Ge.6:5-6) The diagnosis was not good; our hearts were so far gone that every inclination was only evil all the time. Even in Israel s day, it was not that Israel did not serve God; for they did worship Him in His temple. The problem was that even though they said the words, their hearts were not in them: The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. (Isa.29:13) Israel had an unrepentant heart. Even though the word repentance means to have a new mind and the word repent means to change one s mind, it was our hearts that controlled our mind s direction. In this way, before we could repent of our mind, we needed to repent in the heart as we turned from sin to God: Go to this people and say, "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving." For this people s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. (Ac.28:26-27) The Jews could not understand with their hearts, for they remained unmoved and unchanged: But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. (Ro.2:5) Since Israel s heart was unrepentant, He needed to deal first with their heart and then with their mind: Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. (Ja.4:8) God answers David and other Old Testament people's cries for a clean heart by promising that one day He would cleanse their hearts: I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I 3 Advanced Discipleship 301 now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Co ) We need to know what is our responsibility and what is God s promise in the transformation of sinner to saint. The Scriptures do make it explicitly clear that we do not overcome sin by trying to overcome our sinful actions: You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. (Ga.5:4-5) We do not overcome our sin by our own resolve but by waiting on the Holy Spirit, for it is the Spirit Who deals with our sinful actions, putting them to death: For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Ro.8:13-14) We know from our past experience that we cannot overcome our sins on our own. We need to do it by the Spirit. This is an act of God; man s responsibility is to humble himself. We need to humble ourselves, asking God to do what He promised: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1Jn.1:9) If we confess our sins which means to agree with God, then God promises that He will forgive our sins mercy and purify us from all unrighteousness. Mercy is reactive, offering forgiveness which eradicates the action, while grace is proactive, offering cleansing from the desire to commit the act. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (He.4:15-16) Man s responsibility to is humble himself in the acknowledgement that he cannot do it and to call on God for the grace to enable him to do what he cannot do for himself. Confession is an act of humility where we realize our spiritual poverty and reach out to God to accomplish in us that which is needed for us to enter heaven: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Mt.5:3) For this reason, we must be in a constant state of humility; for we know that our hearts were in rebellion to God and that only God can enable Advanced Discipleship

5 Lesson 1 However, now that we belong to Christ, we have been freed from sin and are now under the control of God But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Ro.6:22) To try to overcome the acts of sin in our lives without dealing with the sin that controls us is futile, for it is only through the Spirit that we receive the righteousness for which we hope. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. (Ga.5:4-5) Therefore, whatever has control of our heart has control of our entire being; and thanks be to God that the Spirit controls the life of the person enslaved to righteousness. Preventing a Relapse The greatest problem in living the spiritual life is that men do not know the truth. The truth is the vehicle by which we are set free: To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."...jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin....so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (Jn.8:31-36) Jesus has set us free, but before it is realized in our life, we must believe this and other truths of what God has done for us. It is good to know that the Holy Spirit will enable us to overcome our sin: So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Ga.5:16) Yet how do I live by the Holy Spirit and how is this going to enable me to overcome my sin? While it is true that I died to the law, the principles of this world, sin, the sinful nature, our old self and the world, how do I practically walk in holiness? After all, even though we died to all these things, the Scriptures still command: For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. (Co.3:3-6) Even though Christ has freed us from sin, there seems to be a responsibility on man to put to death the individual acts of sin. The previous Scripture is followed by an affirmation that if you are a Christian that is have Christ living in you you have changed: You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But 11 Advanced Discipleship 301 will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Eze.36:25-27) God promised the people of Israel that He would do spiritual heart surgery, that one day He would give them a new heart. Therefore, the most deadly disease that has afflicted man is a diseased, wicked heart in which sin was only a symptom. Exploratory Surgery In the book of Hebrews, we find fulfillment of God s promise to do spiritual heart surgery. It tells us that Christ ushered in a new covenant in which He wrote His laws on our hearts: But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another..this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (He.8:6-7,10) God was promising to write His laws on our hearts, making obedience come from the very core of our being. Stephen refers to Israel's heart as being uncircumcised, the reason why they rebelled against God: You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! (Ac.7:51) The people of Israel had to make circumcision more then a physical, outward sign; for it pointed to the work that God was going to do by His Spirit: A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God. (Ro.2:28-29) The actual ritual of circumcision was the cutting off of the foreskin on male babies when they were eight days old. This was symbolic of the ultimate cutting away of that which controls a person s heart. For whatever controls a person s heart controls his being. For example: you and I can drive identical cars. As you drive past some children, you pass them without incident; however, when I am about to pass them, I swerve into the children killing two of them. The cars were the same; what was different was the drivers. In the same way, what controls our Advanced Discipleship 301 4

6 Lesson 1 hearts controls our actions. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (Lk.6:45) The problem with evil men is that their hearts are evil. To change the actions of man, one must change that which controls his heart. Jesus points to the heart as the problem with sinful man: Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean'. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual im morality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man `unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean'." (Mt.15:17-20) It is because sin controls the heart of man that man continues to sin: See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. (He.3:12) The reason why people do not accept the gospel is not because they are not intelligent, but rather it is the heart that controls the thoughts of man. When Simon offered money to have the gift of bestowing the Holy Spirit with the laying on of hands, Peter responds: You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." (Act.8:21-23) Simon had an evil thought in his heart which proved that his heart was not right with God; it was still captive to sin. Since sin controlled the heart of every man from birth, every person was a prisoner of sin: But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. (Ga.3:22) Before Christ, sin controlled every person s heart, causing us to desire sin: Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. (Ro.1:24) All mankind, which includes you, had their hearts controlled by sin: What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become 5 Advanced Discipleship 301 spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (He.4:12) The evidence of our hearts having been purified is the change of our actions, thoughts and attitudes. We are not saved by changing behavior; rather, our behavior is changed by the Holy Spirit living in us. In this way, we will be judged by our behavior; for it is a true indication of the circumcision of our hearts: Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (1Co.4:5) Christ has purified our hearts. Unless we have a pure heart, we will not see God: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Mt.5:8) The change between the old and new covenant is clearly seen by the fact that rather then cry to God to create a clean heart in us, we as Christians call unto God out of a pure heart: Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2Ti.2:22) In this way, there are only two types of people: those with new hearts controlled by the Spirit and those who still have wicked hearts controlled by the sinful nature from physical birth: Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (Ro.8:8-9) Our hearts are either controlled by sin or are controlled by the Spirit of Christ. In either case, we are slaves to that which controls our heart: Don t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. (Ro.6:16-17) The point is that there are only two possibilities as to what controls the heart. Romans 6 clearly brings this out when we read: When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. (Ro.6:20) You are either a slave of sin and free from the control of righteousness, or you have been set free from sin and are a slave of righteousness: You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Ro.6:18) Advanced Discipleship

7 A Heart Transplant In today s age of medicine, it is not uncommon to have a diseased heart removed and a new heart transplanted. In essence, this is what God accomplished through Christ: In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. (Co.2:11-12) It was impossible for the Holy Spirit to live in a wicked and sinful heart that was controlled by the sinful nature. For this reason, our hearts had to be purified before the Holy Spirit could live in us: Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." (Mt.9:17) We were born with a bad heart a wicked heart; but when we became Christians, our hearts were purified by faith: God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. (Ac.15:8-9) Purifying our hearts does not save us; it only prepares a place where the Holy Spirit can dwell. It is His indwelling that saves us. For to purify our hearts without the indwelling of the Spirit is futile: "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, `I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. (Mt.12:43-45) It is because our hearts had a change of ownership that the sinful nature which used to control our hearts was displaced by the Spirit that our actions were altered. We now love because we have a pure heart: The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1Ti.1:5) Our love is generated by a change of resident in our hearts. For actions are just one facet of our heart; our thoughts and attitudes must also change: For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double -edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and 9 Advanced Discipleship 301 Lesson 1 worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Ro.3:9-12) Sin is not just actions which we do; it is a power that controls us. For when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, he did not merely commit sin. Rather sin, as a power, came into the world: Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned for before the law was given, sin was in the world. (Ro.5:12) Sin is a power that controls every man, reigning in their hearts: The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Ro 5:20-21) Since sin reigned in our hearts, it seized us whenever it wanted, producing in us actions that are referred to as sins: But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. (Ro.7:8; Ro 7:11) Sin controlled our hearts and thereby controlled our lives. The Bible clearly teaches that even when we wanted to do what was right, we could not; for we were a slave to sin: We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. (Ro.7:14-17) It was the fact that sin lived in us controlling our hearts, that caused us to be a slave of sin: Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (Jn.8:34-36) Christ set us free from our slavery to sin. Therefore, Christ came to free us from our slavery to sin dethroning sin with the presence of His Spirit. Spiritual Bypass Surgery A friend of mine once had a heart attack and had to have open heart surgery to correct the problem. Since the heart was the problem, it was the heart that needed to be operated on. They could have tried dealing with the symptoms through medication; however, sooner or later, my friend would have died from heart failure. In the same way, since sin controlled our hearts, our hearts became wicked, Jesus said: Advanced Discipleship 301 6

8 Lesson 1 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. (Mt.5:29-30) The truth is that it is not the eye or the hand that causes us to sin; it is only the part of the body through which we committed sin. It was sin living in our hearts that made our eyes and hands commit sins. Hence, it had to be cut out and die: Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Ro.6:1-2) Sin, the power that controlled man, lived in man and kept us from accepting Christ. God,,therefore, had to perform heart surgery in order for us to accept Him: When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" (Ac.2:37) When the Jews heard Peter s sermon, they felt the Spirit working in their hearts, convicting them of sin. In the Old Testament, the prophets prophesied about the spiritual heart surgery that God promised to perform one day: I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Eze.36:25-27) You do not overcome sin by trying harder but by God performing spiritual heart surgery, removing the sin that used to control us, and replacing it with His Spirit. The truth is that it is not something man does, but rather it is something that God does in us: One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. (Ac.16:14-15) Lydia responded to Paul s message because the Lord opened her heart. It is important to realize that God does not just cut out sin from our hearts, but He continues to direct our hearts throughout the rest of our lives: But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May 7 Advanced Discipleship 301 the Lord direct your hearts into God s love and Christ s perseverance. (2Th.3:3-5) Our confidence is not in our zeal or self-determination. Our confidence is in the Lord to continue the work He has begun in our hearts: In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Php.1:4-6) This is all part of the new covenant God changing the hearts of people from the least to the greatest: This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (He.8:10-11) God wrote His laws on our hearts so that obedience would come from the inside outward, unlike the law which came from the outside inward. It is not our determination but rather God s provision that strengthens our hearts: May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (1Th.3:12-13) Just as sin used to control our hearts for evil, so now God controls our hearts for holiness. We must take the focus off ourselves, realizing it is Christ who is working in our hearts, doing His good work. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. (2Th.2:16-17) There are so many books, all telling us how to achieve this, that, or the other in our spirituality. One denomination suggests that what we eat has spiritual significance in our lives. The truth is that our hearts are made holy solely by grace: Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. (He.13:9) Therefore, the reason why we have to turn from sin to the living God is because He is the one who performs spiritual heart surgery, removing our hardened hearts, replacing it with a heart of flesh one that is soft and responsive to His leading. Advanced Discipleship 301 8