THE HEART OF GOD

WHAT IT MEANS BY THE HEART OF GOD?

The heart of God is His perfect will for us, His divine purpose for each one of us. God’s heart is the essence of who He is and that desire to live a life worthy of His calling and purpose for us here on earth. By understanding God formed the earth, and through His knowledge He made everything good and beautiful and His heart desire was that we enjoy the beauty of His creation and live according to His standards but we missed it, and it did grieve Him beyond measure. God is not a man that looks at the outer appearance but He looks at the heart, sees it and only Him knows what the heart entails. He was pleased to have found David a man after His own heart. As we all know David was not that perfect in his ways but he did try as much as he could to live according to the standards of God. He would sin but afterwards poured his heart out to God in repentance and let the Lord to search his heart, and to purge him from any iniquity that he may have committed (Acts 13:22) “And afterward they asked for a king; So God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave a testimony and said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” Beloved, when Jesus comes back today, what impact, mark or legacy will He found to testify of what we have done here on earth? God’s heart is that we do His will. Allow me to say this, when God chose Saul, He may have looked a little bit according to his outer appearance according to the Scriptures (1 Sam. 1-2) “There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechoreth, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.”  And when Saul disappointed Him, He did learn His lesson and dwelt more on the heart rather than the outside when choosing the second king for His people the children of Israel. Here, beloved, it was Samuel the prophet who was in the physical when he was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint the next king. He was impressed and pleased with the first sons of Jesse according to their appearance but God had already done His selection in the Spiritual by looking at the heart.

 (1 Sam. 16:1) “Now the Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over  Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.” (V. 6-13) “So it was when they came that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lords anointed is before him!” But the Lord said to Samuel. “Do not look at his appearance or at his Physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as a man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all the young men here?” Then he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here.” So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.” God saw the heart of David, his willingness and the obedience heart; though he was only a young man, that did not bother Him but He raised Him, nurtured him and allow him go through some tests, which made him to be elevated, approved by God, became loyal to Him and became the best king in history with essential and everlasting testimony, “A man after God’s own heart.” For more about Saul’s disobedience, Please check my blog post “THE COST OF DISOBEDIENCE.”   God is looking for such today, who will not harden their hearts but obey His voice, live by His standard and to worship Him in truth and in Spirit (John 4:23-24) “But the hour is coming, and now it is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.”

GOD IS HURT BY OUR ACTIONS

Probably few of us have ever considered the effect of unbelief on God, the one who is being rejected. We are told, and learn of what happen to the unbeliever- the one who says, “I don’t believe God,” but what of God Himself? What of the one who is told, “I don’t belief in You,” or, “I don’t belief Your Word”?  For second brethren, just put yourself in God’s shoes, “What would you have done when your own children, the ones you have labored for, in their entire lives despise you, reject you and spite on your face?  (More of unbelief, please on my blog posts about the “THE SIN OF UNBELIEF), and the Scripture how we hurt God (Eze. 6:8-10) “Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous which had departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlots after their idols; they will loath themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. And they shall know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.” Ezekiel the prophet was told to tell God’s people that they would live to abhor themselves for what they did- for their “adultery” with false gods. He also gave some of God’s own response to unbelief. He is hurt by His people’s actions. He had watched their hearts turn from Him- the Sovereign of all- to love images that do not have life or death or power. Their hearts, once filled with love for Him, were now turned to adultery. May we always bring joy to the heart of God, and the blessing of His approval to us, by our trust in Him “who first loved us” (1 John 4:19). And again, “To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74, 75). My beloved brethren, it’s not in vain serving the Lord. Prophet Isaiah affirms this to us (Isa. 45:19) “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Seek Me in vain’; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.”  Apostle Paul to the Galatians says thus, “And let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Gal. 6:9).  If we follow God’s heart by living a holy and righteous lives and are obedient to God, beloved, I assure us, that, we shall  indeed eat the good of the land” (Isa. 1:19). This is the heart of our God beloved (Isa. 59:1-3) “Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue has muttered perversity.

DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEART

Let us not harden our hearts brethren for God is calling us to return to Him that He may embrace us back to Himself. This is my plea as Grace Favor from deep down my heart, together with the Apostle Paul, Jeremiah, the preacher and his father, the son of Jesse; a man after God’s own heart (Ps. 95:6-11) ”Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice; “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your father tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.’ So I swear in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.’”  The psalmist started by a call to worship and bow down before our Maker , but because of hardened hearts, there was wrath and the good news is that God delivers the righteous from His wrath (For a deeper enlightenment about these and in case you haven’t read the previous posts , please check; how  and why “GOD PRONOUNCES JUDGMENT”, there is part 1 and 2; then” DELIVERENCE FROM GOD’S WRATH” how He preserved His elect amidst His anger and wrath and also how He offers His mercy “GOD OFFERS MERCY”.  The Holy Spirit through apostle Paul spoke the same words as the son of Jesse in his Hebrew epistle(Heb.3:7-19) I will not write the whole Scripture but I like the way the Holy Spirit ends it from verse 16 with questions and answers; “For who, having heard rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey. So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. (More about this’ “THE SIN OF UNBELIEF” and check also, “THE GREAT APOSTASY” on my previous posts.

The son of David is not left behind in admonishing and exhorting thus, “Happy is the man who is always reverent. But he who hardens his heart will fall into captivity” (Prov. 28:14). I can affirm and testify of this that just  few months ago I came back to Kenya and purpose to obey God’s voice and revere Him, I have found the peace that I had thought to myself can only be found from other nations. Just like Jonah, I have been getting into airplanes after another running away from the task and the call. And as I had noted on “HISTORY’S FULFILLMENT” there is a price to be paid when one decides to go down to Tar shish instead of Nineveh.  The Spirit of the Lord spoke through Jeremiah the prophet saying, “”Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty glory in his might, let not the rich glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that He understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, excising loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth. For this I delight says the Lord” (Jer. 9:23-24).

“Grace to you and Favor from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen and Amen and Amen.”