Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!

The subject of HARDNESS OF HEART is still our main focus and this week we want to better understand how this condition actually manifests in the lives of Believers. As we resume the discussion, some folks may need to be reminded why we're studying this subject in so much detail. As we've previously pointed out, Scripture shows us that it was important to Jesus; so to my thinking, anything that's important to Jesus should be important to us.

In the first place, keep in mind that this series is about recognizing that the WORD OF GOD is intended to be a SOURCE of GREAT power in the lives of Believers in Christ. God has set up His Kingdom that way. It's NOT His intention that Believers live weak lives in tribulation and defeat all the time, so He has given us His WORD as a RESOURCE that makes available real POWER that can produce VICTORY in every area of life: spirit, soul and body. Therefore, we want to be alert to anything that could come along and diminish the working of that POWER.

It starts with knowing that the key that unlocks the POWER is our UNDERSTANDING: we have to UNDERSTAND the WORD OF GOD so we can use it with direction and purpose to: 1) overcome the never-ending trials of life, and 2) participate in expanding the Kingdom of God on the earth. The WORD is ALIVE (Hebrews 4:12) and it needs to connect with a living person in order to release its POWER. UNDERSTANDING it then requires that we spend time reading and studying and meditating the WORD. Indeed, UNDERSTANDING is a process, and the fact is we've have been INSTRUCTED to involve ourselves in that process which Scripture calls TRANSFORMATION (Romans 12:2). Unfortunately MOST Christians are too busy and/or too negligent/lazy to make the effort that it takes to progress through the process, so they pretty much diminish the POWER and remain weak and defeated.

Why We Need to Deal with It  

Now in considering this reminder, here are a few statements that will help illustrate the importance of recognizing and dealing with the condition the Bible calls HARDNESS OF HEART:  

1. This subject was important enough to Jesus that He REBUKED His handpicked disciples on more than one occasion for their HARDNESS OF HEART (Mark 8:17, 16:14).

2. HARDNESS OF HEART (or dullness) is mentioned specifically more than 15 times in the New Testament and is discussed extensively in the book of Hebrews in Chapters 3 and 4 as a condition that provoked God to anger. Do you love God or you enjoy provoking Him?

3. HARDNESS OF HEART impedes the Word of God from renewing our MINDS which is the process of TRANSFORMATION that every Believer must go through one way or another (Romans 12:2). You can be smart and voluntarily study the Word or you can be transformed by allowing your trials and tribulations to drag you to the Word.

4. HARDNESS OF HEART restricts the strengthening and growth of our FAITH because it springs in part from UNBELIEF (Hebrews 3:12, 19). Without FAITH it's impossible to connect to New Testament GRACE which is the FAVOR AND EMPOWERMENT we're looking for.

Now over the past several weeks I've been discussing this subject from several different angles and hopefully we're all acquiring a new awareness of an important aspect of Christian life that many were overlooking. This week we want to summarize the various ways this condition can manifest in our lives before moving on next week to discuss what we can do about overcoming HARDNESS OF HEART. Keep in mind today several basic important points we've already discussed:

> All Believers suffer from some degree of HARDNESS OF HEART. It's part of our spiritual DNA.

> The Greek word translated HEART means our way of THINKING. So, this condition is MIND-related.

> HARDNESS OF HEART doesn't come from God but from our own lack of attention to the things of

   God.

The Symptoms of Hardness of Heart

> Lack of sensitivity to the things of God: we fail to take note of many, maybe even most of the things God is doing all around us on a constant basis. Many people even fail to notice answered prayer and we forget to seek God before we embark on new ideas and activities. Are you going through a time when it seems like God has failed to show up for a while?

> Limited to the five physical senses: we pursue life evaluating the events we encounter only by our natural, carnal senses (hear, see, feel, smell and taste). We fail to move into the supernatural and operate by FAITH relying on the Word of God instead of on our physical senses. Has it been a while since you received direction from the Lord?

> Flesh led instead of Spirit led: we walk by the flesh instead of by the Spirit because we have confidence in the natural but are suspicious of and insensitive to the supernatural where the Holy Spirit operates. The Bible says the sons of God are to be Spirit-led but HARDNESS OF HEART interferes with that process keeping in mind that the flesh will ALWAYS lead us to destruction. Has it been a while since you consulted with the Lord BEFORE making your choices and decisions?

> Ingratitude: Believers suffering from HARDNESS OF HEART usually manifest that they're generally UNGRATEFUL in life. They're ungrateful to God in particular but they also show lack of gratitude to their fellow human beings. They tend to focus on the bad things in life instead of the good and wind up manifesting ingratitude. Often they believe they DESERVE something better from both God and other folks in recognition for their suffering even though none of us actually DESERVES anything from anybody. And they almost ALWAYS lose sight of what God has ALREADY done for them. Has it been a while since you remembered to seriously look for and CONSIDER the things God and others have done for you?

> Inability to perceive spiritual things: to PERCEIVE something in the spiritual realm means to UNDERSTAND spiritual concepts and events in a way that's sufficient to change our lives. The disciples saw Jesus feed 4,000 people but failed to PERCEIVE with their spiritual senses that He was therefore fully capable of supernaturally providing for their needs as well (Mark 8:16-17). Are you having trouble UNDERSTANDING the Word and how it all fits together?

> Inability to remember the Word of God: one of the biggest problems caused by HARDNESS OF HEART is that it makes us forget the Word. And we know that the enemy is quick to come and steal it away (Mark 4:4, 15) if we don't take steps to defend ourselves and REMEMBER what we hear. Most people who attend their local church on Sunday have forgotten by Monday morning between 80 and 90 percent of what they heard just a few hours earlier. And it can't be recalled because it's been stolen. By the way, things that we don't UNDERSTAND are more easily forgotten than the parts we did get some UNDERSTANDING from. How well are you UNDERSTANDING and REMEMBERING the Word that you hear or read?

> Unbelief regarding the supernatural: when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water and calming the storm, they were astonished (Mark 6:51-52) even though they had just seen Him feed more than 15,000 people earlier that day (Mark 6:33-44). Virtually EVERYTHING God does is miraculous because it occurs beyond the natural, i.e. in the supernatural. We're astonished to see those things because we've been focusing on the natural too much instead of on the things of God. We should come to the point where it doesn't astonish us to see God use His power. In other words, we should come to expect it, and welcome it. TRADITION says that miracles don't happen anymore but I don't see that in the Word. Are you expecting God to show up in your life to help you overcome your trials and tribulations?

> Studying the Word of God fails to change us: some people read the Word every day, a certain number of pages or chapters but it doesn't penetrate. They're just reading, maybe even memorizing scriptures, but their lives aren't changed and they continue to walk in defeat. Millions of Christians have scarcely matured spiritually since the day they were born again simply because of the HARDNESS OF HEART they haven't dealt with yet. Are you reading the Word everyday but not making much progress in overcoming your difficulties?

These are some of the main symptoms that can show up when we've become overly DULL OF HEART. If your self-analysis detects any of these symptoms, you'll want to take corrective action because Jesus is saying to His DISCIPLES today just as He was two thousand years ago that something needs to be done, change needs to happen. We cannot be effective Kingdom builders with these symptoms. They must be addressed because complacency isn't an option. Indeed, the Holy Spirit will TEACH us what to do one way or the other. We have the ability to respond to and correct this condition ourselves once we recognize it for what it is. Or, we can major in trials and tribulations and let them drag us to the Word in desperation. Next week we'll look at what we can do on our own to overcome the condition called HARDNESS OF HEART.

Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on March 22. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), compelling you to PROSPER in every area of life!

Sinners' Prayer

If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:

Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.

If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:

Romans 10:9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 2:8

Prayer Requests

If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx 

Donations

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