For some weeks now we've been discussing a spiritual condition called HARDNESS OF HEART. As you know, when the New Testament talks about the HEART, it's actually referring to the MIND and to the THINKING that emanates from there. Contrary to what some believe, the HEART the Bible is talking about isn't a physical organ and neither is the MIND. The brain is a physical organ but the MIND is the manner of THINKING that the brain expresses according to our will and emotions and choices and decisions.
And so, the bible expression HARDNESS OF HEART describes a condition when believers have become insensitive to the things of God and His Kingdom. Another way to say it is that people with HARDNESS OF HEART are afflicted with limited PERCEPTION of spiritual things which forces them to depend on the five physical senses for direction in life instead of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said they have spiritual ears but they cannot hear and they have spiritual eyes but they cannot see (Matthew 13:14-15). People so afflicted have to walk out their lives in the FLESH instead of by the Spirit and it always follows that weakness of FAITH is associated with perception difficulties.
Power to Change the World
Perception problems almost always trace back to insufficient attention to the Word of God. By way of illustration, during the Middle Ages the Word of God was pretty much locked up out of sight by the leaders of the traditional church. Regular folks were even executed if they were found in possession of a Bible and the only knowledge of the Word they had was what church leaders told them about it. All the bibles of that time were written in Latin as a matter of Church Decree and of course only the church leaders understood Latin. Even so, the Latin-language Bibles had been corrupted in meaning almost beyond recognition when they were compared during the Reformation to the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.
The result of all this was profound spiritual ignorance among the general population of Europe which produced the Dark Ages. Indeed, the Bible confirms that God's people are destroyed when there's no knowledge (Hosea 4:6) which was amply demonstrated during that unfortunate period in history. Finally in the late 14th century John Wycliffe produced a hand-written a bible in the English language and in the next century the Gutenberg press was "invented" so that bibles could be mass-produced. It's interesting that the technological equivalent of the Gutenberg press had already been invented in eastern Asia 700 years earlier but no one in Europe knew about it because when there's no Word, ignorance prevails and creativity is "postponed."
The point of this brief history lesson is this: when finally the Word of God was released in mass and in understandable languages in the 15th to 16th centuries, as the people again had access to the TRUE knowledge of the Word, IT CHANGED THE WORLD. The Word of God is the most powerful force on the earth and is more than able of itself to bring about change. With words, God created the Universe and with words the Dark Ages came to a relatively abrupt end ushering in a new era of enlightenment and creativity. Friend, if the Word of God is so powerful it created the universe and brought the world out of the Dark Ages, can't we put our FAITH to the belief that it's powerful enough to correct our thinking, destroy our HARDNESS OF HEART and change our lives?
Power to Change our Circumstances
Most Christians do whatever they can to avoid spending time in the Word. It seems like almost everything in life is a higher priority because we're so very busy with all the other things that occupy our time that there's nothing left over for things like studying and meditating on the Word. But what if the Word of God's the absolute LITERAL truth in everything it says? This is a key question that Christians have to deal with at some point in their spiritual development considering that there are whole church denominations these days teaching that the Bible is just some fairly good literature written down centuries ago by imperfect scholars primarily for the people of that time and that it has to be INTERPRETED by trained clerics to have any relevance in today's environment. Sounds like the déjà vu Dark Ages all over again!
But friend, the Bible itself teaches that it's God Himself who's caused His Words to be written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so that we can come to KNOW Him as no other people have ever known Him. There aren't any scriptures telling us that after the time of the early Apostles we should disregard all their hard work to write down what THEY themselves said had been done under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What happens when we don't receive the Word completely and literally is that men begin to build up their own religion made up of manmade traditions. Here is what Jesus said about manmade traditions: The POWER of the Word of God is nullified when men try to replace it with their TRADITIONS (Mark 7:13).
If we really desire the POWER of the Word of God working to change not only our way of thinking but our circumstances in life, we have to make the decision to receive the Word LITERALLY the way it's written and then we can purpose to be diligent to do what it says. It should go without saying that we have to LEARN what it says in order to DO what it says but a lot of Christians haven't made this connection yet and that's why so many avoid studying it. But once we do make that connection, the power of the Word can be released to change our way of thinking as well as our circumstances.
There're some great verses from 2 Peter 1:2-11 that bear on this question and we suggest that you meditate on them until the full meaning penetrates your thinking. To summarize, these verses tell us that EVERYTHING we need pertaining to life (including spiritual perception) and righteous living comes to us by the KNOWLEDGE of God and of Jesus Christ. How is that knowledge made available? It comes by the Word of God as it is taught to us by the Holy Spirit. If we want the Word to change our circumstances, we have to know God and Jesus Christ through the Word. It's a simple concept but apparently hard for most of us to do. Even when we know what the Word says about some subject, we'll still try to find ways to circumvent it if it doesn't fit with what we want to do. That's just the enemy working through our FLESH but he'll flee if we resist him because we're serious about changing our THINKING.
Following are a few other scriptures to meditate on about the power of the Word to change our circumstances through changed thinking:
Joshua 1:8 - Meditate on the Word day and night so you can make your way prosperous and successful.
Psalm 107:20 - The Lord sent His WORD and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Proverbs 4:20-22 - Give attention to My words, for they are life to those who find them and health to all their body.
John 8:31-32 - If you live according to the words of Jesus, you will come to know the Truth and it will set you free.
Hebrews 4:12 - The Word of God is alive and full or power and sharper than any two edged sword.
The limited space for this little Newsletter restricts us from showing you all the MANY scriptures that confirm the power of God's Word that's available to bring change in our lives. Study it for yourself and the Truth will set you free. The power of God to change our spiritual perception and through that change our circumstances has been made available but it can only be received by knowing and using it by FAITH. And that requires that we finally decide to make increasing our knowledge of the Word our highest priority. It takes time and it takes effort; but each of us must decide if we want to continue in defeat and HARDNESS OF HEART or take hold of the opportunity of working for the victory. Study the Word and show yourself approved and blessed in Jesus name!
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on September 4. 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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