F02 The Heart of God
List of the Online Lessons: A B C D E F G H
F02 The Heart of God
The essence of any healthy spiritual movement is focus on the heart of our Heavenly Father, who cannot just look at people living poor or empty lives and going into eternal destruction with no return. Sincere and deep knowledge of God’s heart becomes the engine of transformation. First, transformation of our ATTITUDE! No one can change my attitude but I myself. Nor will your attitude be changed by anyone other than you yourself.
a)
First of all, it is about our attitude towards the Lord Jesus. Jesus is concerned about the state of our nation and Jesus is already at work in our perishing people.
b)
From knowledge of God’s heart transformation of my attitude towards me comes: humbling and obliging acknowledgement that I am a precious son of God whom Jesus has redeemed from eternal destruction at the ultimate price! I am also His ambassador – the Lord has a great mission for me and He is waiting for me to start!
c)
From looking into God’s heart transformation of my attitude toward the people out there comes. It starts with deep understanding that they really need Jesus. Initially, the transformation of our attitude manifests itself in interest and naturalness. Soon it transitions into sensitive, yet clear and bold, sharing about living Jesus.
d)
Many Christians, by knowing the heart of God, experience fundamental transformation in their attitude towards the movement as a whole; primarily in the sense that the idea of a movement comes from the very heart of God. Then the belief comes that a movement is possible in our time, in our country!
„The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that a man has sown in his field. It may be smaller than all the seeds, but when it grows it is bigger than the other garden herbs, it becomes a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and nest in its branches.“ (Matthew 13:31-32)
He told them another parable, „The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened.“ (Matthew 13:33)
Although the Lord Jesus does not use the word movement itself, His parables clearly speaks of a movement. Most importantly, Jesus‘ practice speaks of it, and then the practice of His disciples in many generations, by which they affected the whole of the populated world.
From the insights from India, mentioned last time, I have very significant point. The new believers in Southeast Asia are mostly people who have no Christian nor anti-Christian background. They accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord of their lives. Then what they read in the Bible is simply true for them. And God honors their trust and devotion both by giving them dozens of other people coming to Jesus, and by various powerful deeds. No one has taught them to doubt God’s active operation! That is why they urgently press on God for empowerment and then they see God’s work in their ordinary practice. They know nothing what God cannot do.
To perceive the heart of Jesus or the Father and to be close to Him is a source of inner power, such as we have never experienced before. It reminds me of young David, looking at Goliath, and not understanding, „Why didn’t you behead this uncircumcised man long ago when he dishonors the Lord and His people like this?“ David looks at him with God’s eyes. „Yes, Goliath is many times bigger and stronger than I, but compared to God’s strength he is insignificant, small and weak…“ This is the effect of the closeness to Father’s heart in which David had resided at that time! And it was reflected not only in his beautiful psalms, but especially in David’s courageous actions that changed the life of the entire nation.
You see, I’m not going to convert our people out there! We try to minister to them in a quality and relevant way. However, even the best presentation of the Gospel alone will not bring anyone to Jesus! These people need a direct touch of living Jesus. They need Jesus to open their hearts – as He opened the heart of Lydia in Acts 16, and the hearts of many others. Jesus is ready to touch our people in this way. There are our urgent and persistent prayers behind His spiritual touches! If you know the heart of your heavenly Father, you will not stop asking Him for the things that are on His heart. And by knowing His heart, the willingness to pay any price opens up within us (John 12:24-25). A look into God’s heart answers the question of why we do all this. We are not doing this to increase membership, but because we have been captured by Father’s heart! He sends us to pass on His love to others.
And to know that heart of God, we need to abide in the Word of God.
Lord Jesus, I join the prayer of your servant Moses in Psalm 90: „Teach us to number our days, that we may gain wisdom of heart.“ May we make the most of the days You give us – for Your glory and for salvation of hundreds of thousands of people in our country. (Psalm 90:12)