Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!
One of the main challenges for Christians living under the New Covenant is to come to grips with the FACT that we're all hindered to one degree or another with a spiritual condition the Bible calls HARDNESS OF HEART. Until we know what it is, the natural tendency for almost any Believer is to say, "I don't have hardness of heart. How could I? I'm a child of God." The truth is though almost all of us have some degree of HARDNESS OF HEART but we don't realize it. And that "condition" is interfering in our ability to PERCEIVE the Word of God so we can enjoy the fullness of God's GRACE under the New Covenant.
Here's a common occurrence on any Sunday in America and in EVERY church in the country: two Believers can be sitting in any given assembly listening to the Pastor's message and one will come away with a rooted understanding while the other just won't get the point. Both Believers received the teaching with their five physical senses and let's assume they both heard the entire message with their physical ears without being distracted. Maybe even both of them took notes. But only one actually PERCEIVED it and was changed by what was heard. Only one was listening with the purpose in MIND of being changed.
Defining Perception
Now when I'm trying to understand something in the Word, I often go to Webster's Dictionary to find out what the World thinks it means. And then I compare that to what God says it is in the Bible. Just making that comparison launches me into acquiring an understanding that I'm less likely to lose down the road because I'll be able to recall what the difference was. One of the approaches that's needed for effective meditation on the Word is to study it from different angles so we don't forget it so easily later on. Many Christians though just quickly gloss over what they read without trying to understand what the words really mean. That's one reason we forget so quickly and let Satan snatch them away (Matthew 13:19).
Well, the dictionary says that the verb PERCEIVE means to "become aware of or take notice of or observe something" directly through the physical senses particularly by seeing and hearing. It means to achieve an UNDERSTANDING of the something we've taken notice of. Keep in mind that the World is limited to the five PHYSICAL senses but the Kingdom of God operates beyond those limitations in the SUPERNATURAL. So, let's see now what the Bible says about PERCEPTION so we can make the comparison.
In Mark 8:17-18 as the disciples were complaining about not having any bread to eat, Jesus quoted the Old Testament as He rebuked them for not understanding the significance of His miracle of feeding the 4,000 just a few hours earlier:
Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet PERCEIVE nor understand? Is your heart (still) hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?
The disciples had certainly seen with their PHYSICAL eyes what Jesus did in performing that miracle and all the others they had seen before that. And they were right there the whole time and heard every word He said with their PHYSICAL ears. Jesus knew all that so the bible definition of PERCEPTION has to be different than the World version that's limited to the PHYSICAL senses. Biblical PERCEPTION is something beyond the five physical senses and has to do with understanding by the SPIRITUAL SENSES. When Jesus said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Mark 4:9), He was talking about UNDERSTANDING on a supernatural level with the SPIRITUAL senses where the Holy Spirit operates.
The ability to PERCEIVE spiritually comes by the renewing of the MIND so that eventually we'll be able to comprehend everything that's good and acceptable and perfect, which is the will of God (Romans 12:2). Renewing the MIND comes by APPLYING the knowledge we've learned from the Word into our lives and as we're renewed we come to know by the spiritual senses what's right and wrong, the choices we ought to make, which direction should go and how the Holy Spirit is leading (Romans 8:14). We CAN hear with spiritual ears and we CAN see with spiritual eyes (Matthew 13:14-17). We "become aware" that our carnal physical senses don't understand what's happening on a spiritual level and we begin to pursue understanding by our spiritual senses so that we can experience the things that are real and ETERNAL (2 Corinthians 4:18).
The Hindrance of a Hardened Heart
Being able to PERCEIVE spiritually is certainly where we want to be. So why are so many Christians not there yet? As we've already seen, even Jesus' disciples had problems with PERCEPTION. Jesus asked them in the foregoing quotation (Mark 8:17-18) if their hearts had become HARDENED. Of course, He already knew the answer: certainly their hearts were HARDENED and that's why they hadn't understood His miracle. That same observation had already come up after a previous miracle in Mark 6:33-44 involving the feeding of the 5,000 men when on the evening of the same day Jesus walked on water. The Bible says the disciples were utterly astonished to see Him walking on the water because their hearts were HARDENED in that they had failed to CONSIDER the significance of the supernatural events earlier in the day. In other words, if they had PERCEIVED the significance of that earlier miracle when 5,000 were fed, they would not have been so astonished to see Jesus doing something else supernatural later that same day.
Now if Jesus' own disciples who He had hand-picked, who He had trained every day in the things of the Kingdom of God and who had seen Him working and healing on multiple occasions, if they had a problem with HARDENED HEARTS, what are the chances that we who have to receive all of these things by FAITH instead of being there physically at Jesus' side could also have a problem with the same hindrance? A hindrance is something that blocks the manifestation of the supernatural or acts as an obstacle to spiritual PERCEPTION. Let's just say then that the chances are about 100 percent: you and I are FREQUENTLY hindered by HARDNESS OF HEART. We don't hear the Holy Spirit as we would like to so we can be led (Romans 8:14) nor can we SEE what He's doing perhaps most of the time.
Probably many of you are asking why this has to be such a problem. You go to church every Sunday and you even remember a lot of what your Pastor teaches. You don't have victory in your life but neither does anybody else so you feel like you're okay. But what if we could identify a particular problem that prevails throughout the Body of Christ that can be largely corrected, that could change your defeat into victory and that could help you understand the profound principles of life in God's Word that up to now you've only been able to grasp superficially? Would you want to make the change? Would you want to kick that HINDRANCE out of your life?
Reversing the Hardened Heart
In the coming weeks we're going to be talking about this subject a lot more looking at it from different angles. Hardness of Heart is reversible and you and I can actually become SENSITIVE to God and the things of God while at the same time becoming HARDENED to the World. If we can understand how Hardness of Heart starts and works as a hindrance in our relationship with God, we can then take steps to stop and reverse it so we can go beyond the PHYSICAL limitations in the natural into the SUPERNATURAL where we can HEAR and SEE the Holy Spirit.
Since renewing of the MIND comes by UNDERSTANDING the Word, let's end the discussion this week with a couple of insights you may not have thought of that confirm the importance of dealing with Hardness of Heart:
1. When the Bible uses the word "heart" it's usually talking about "thinking" and the MIND. So this subject is about HARDNESS in our thinking or HARDNESS in our MINDS. Therefore, the challenge is to change the way we're thinking so we can change who we are (Proverbs 23:7).
2. Renewing the MIND is what helps us disentangle ourselves from the World. Until we do that we just can't fully understand what the will of God is for our lives so we can come into the things that are "good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2). Here's a flash for all of us: understanding the things that are good and acceptable and perfect = personal VICTORY.
3. FAITH comes (or grows) by HEARING the Word (Romans 10:17). But the HEARING is not just physical HEARING. It has to be spiritual hearing which is PERCEPTION. Many Believers have a lot of "head knowledge" and can quote Bible scriptures they've memorized; but they haven't HEARD the Word for the PURPOSE of having their thinking and their lives changed.
Be blessed tonight and let the Word of God transform you into the image of Christ.
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on July 24. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!
Sinners' Prayer
If you've never invited Jesus to be your Lord, you can do so today by believing and saying out loud the following simple prayer:
Jesus, I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and I believe that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven for all time 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, God has already come into your life and you're 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.
When you get a moment have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer and believing what you said:
Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 2:8
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