Hearts Desires?
Trust your heart?
The Bible does not say "The Lord will give you the desires of your heart" as a statement by itself. In full context of scripture the Bible says, "delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." In otherwords "Delight in the desires of the Heart of the Lord (first and foremost), and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
And if we truly Delight in the Lord then our desires will be much different than they would be if we demanded that God give us the desire of fleshly, rebellious, unsubmitted hearts. Many also say, "you have not because you ask not." But what the Word of God actually says in James 4 is this.
"What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is the source not your pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder(hate). And you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. 'You do not have because you do not ask.' You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures (wrongful heart desires). You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ~James 4:1-4~
As Jeremiah 17:9 says, "“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
When your heart steers your spiritual life it will become your god and you will begin to demand that God bow down to your own heart and that unless He does then He is an unloving God who does not understand His people.
But the truth is that our carnal heart has a strong will, and that is why when we see somebody fighting really hard for something they want we say, "wow that guy has a lot of heart" What we are really saying is, that guy has a really strong will.
Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemne? His "will" was separate from God's will. As I say that some folks will think I am blaspheming, but remember Jesus prayer. "Father if possible take this cup from me, BUT not my will (heart) but your will be done."
Wow! That might seem intense, but Jesus did not sin in His request because He submitted His heart to God's will and did what the Father wanted to do. Was the cross the desire of Jesus heart while He was praying in the Garden? In Hebrews 12:2 the Bible says that "for the joy set before Him Jesus endured the cross" it does not say that cross was a joy. Jesus had to fully surrender Himself to God's plan, and its a good thing He did or the world would have been lost without the Blood of Jesus to atone for the sins of all who would believe and follow Him.
And even in Matthew 16 when Jesus told His Disciples of Gods will that Jesus go to the cross...Peter rebuked Jesus with all the love in his 'Heart" and in response Jesus rebuked Peter and his heart calling Peter "satan" because Peter had mans desires at "Heart," and not Gods heart desires.
My encouragement today is that we submit our hearts to the Lord, and put Him first in everything, to obey the commandments of Jesus which is to "First and formost (above everything, numero uno), Love the Lord with all your Heart, wiith all your mind, and with all your strength...and then Love yur brother as yourself"
And so that it is said, the second commandment isn't even truly possible without the first.
The last thing I want to add is Proverbs 16:1-7
The plans of the heart belong to a person, But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a person are clean in his own sight, But the Lord examines the motives. Commit your works to the Lord, And your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord;Be assured, he will not go unpunished. By mercy and truth atonement is made for wrongdoing, And by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil.When a person’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He even makes his enemies to be at peace with him.
~Proverbs 16:1-7~
Your Brother in Christ,
Daniel Paul
(BTW…This is free so here goes..lol. I am speaking by way of prophecy that in the last days, one of the slogans of the One World Religion will be, “God is love and therefore love is God.” They will use the heart of fallen men to perpetuate the greatest deception ever perpetuated on mankind)