HARDNESS OF THE HEART!

Written by Pastor Jonathan

How important it is to change on the Heart level?  Once you change your Heart inwardly your outward situation will change.

This teaching is of a truth, you need to understand. God loves us regardless of who we are! His love is not depending on what we do; His love is because of who He is. Titus 2: 11-14; tells us; For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

When we sit down to study the word of God and it is difficult to earnestly concentrate. If it feels like you are just going through the motion; it’s evident this is an area of a harden heart. Your heart is hardened towards the understanding of the content. We are all guilty of this at one time or another, and until we get control of this area in our live we are subjecting ourselves to being influence by the enemy. I am brining this to our attention in order for us to work at it, to correct it, because this is an area in which we can easily be sidetracked. Here is a good example. In Matt: 14: 13-21; is the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. The multitude had been with Jesus and His Disciples for days now listening to His teachings, and as it became night His Disciples  said; Master send them away that they may go into the villages and buy food to eat. But Jesus said to them, “they do not need to go away, you give them something to eat.” (Jesus, thinking their hearts is softened and is able to do the task).  And they said we have only five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, bring them here to Me. He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass. He took the loaves and the fishes He looked up to Heaven blessed and broke and gave them to His Disciples and His Disciples gave to the multitude. They all ate and were filled. And they were twelve baskets lelt over. Now this was about five thousand men plus women and children. After seen a miracle like this, you would think there is no doubt in the Disciples mind, no hardness of heart towards His caper ability, and even there’s. He blessed and breaks and gave it to the Disciples and the Disciples gave to the multitudes, which showed, the miracle took place in the Disciples hands. Only the hardness of the heart would cause them not to see that! Jesus sat the multitude down when it was almost evening, and the Disciples entered the boat at evening. So if the Disciples were to be going back to Jesus every time they gave each person a meal they would be there all night. It’s obvious the multiplication of the miracle took place in the Disciples hands. How could they not see that? Their hearts were hardened! But here is what took place right after that. Jesus sent the multitude away and made His Disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side of the sea. And He went up in the mountain to pray. If you look carefully at the command He gave them; (He made them get into the boat! you would see there was some reluctance on the part of the Disciples; as seasoned fishermen they must have noticed the condition of the weather.) Now when evening came, He (Jesus) was alone there. The boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was very high. To cross from one side of the sea to the other is about a two hour boat ride. Now it was the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them walking on the water. (The fourth watch would be between three and six a m} They had only reached half way across the sea; a two hour trip is taking them almost twelve hours. And when the Disciples saw Him walking on the water, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying;” Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” And Peter answered Him and said; Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water. So He said;” Come”. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous (when he lost faith, when he harden his heart) he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out saying; “Lord save me”! And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him; “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat the wind ceased and the boat was transformed to the other side of the sea. The Disciples were not in the area of sin! They were just occupied with the struggle of trying to get across the sea, this hardened their heart! Using their own ability instead of exercising their Spiritual Faith. Remember you can only be tempted by what you think about. So don’t think about anything you don’t to be tempted by. “Hallelujah!” This is a situation in which I myself was guilty of being heart hardened! I received a call one morning from one of the Saints of our prayer meeting, asking me to pray for a young boy who had suddenly fallen ill! The boy had a blood condition and was in a comber. We prayed together for him to receive the healing God promised. Half hour after we prayed she called me back and said; he was awake and talking! I was so excited; I couldn’t believe God had really healed him! I exhibited a state of a hard heart. I should have known better! I should have known God already heal him, it was just for him to receive his healing! God is good all the time. We are never to question the Powers of God! We must know in our heart God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Amen.