Do You Have an Evil Heart of Unbelief? What a hard question to ask. No one wants to believe that there is anything evil about one’s own heart. Jeremiah makes it clear however that the heart of man is desperately evil, who can know it. In other words, I take this scripture to mean that the heart of man is wavering or unstable at times to the point where another does not know what to expect from it.
We can start out with a strong heart believing the best of ourselves and God, but when we are placed in certain situations, what is in our hearts will surely come out revealing what is truly there.
What if God allows us to wait on our spouse for so long to stabilize or cleanse our hearts? Ezekiel talks about a heart of stone. A heart of stone is a hardened heart. Nothing can get through to it. David said to create in him a clean heart when he found himself partaking in sin that should not have ever been associated with him because he was a man after God’s own heart.
I believe that every now and then, God has to take his people’s hearts through a re-conditioning process to create in us a clean heart, and also to remove the distractions, and the hardness that sometimes come with doing life as human beings. Sometimes doing life as simple humans causes us to be susceptible to the wrong positioning of our hearts.
Matthew 13 discusses how when God sows a seed (his word) into our hearts, Satan immediately seeks to still the seed.
The heart begins to go through the below processes in response to God’s word spoken:
There is the heart that simply landed on the PATH:
Those on the path don’t clearly understand the value of the word given to them. They don’t even think to tuck it away and protect it, and therefore the seed is immediately eaten up by birds.
There is the STONEY HEART:
The stoney heart was no longer pliable. It was so hard that nothing could take root in it any longer. The stoney heart lacks the ability to endure, and to accommodate the word (seed). This person’s heart becomes shallow. All it takes for this person’s heart to be pulled away is for the season to change. The sun to come up and the plant scorches away until it is no longer recognizable.
There is the THRONY HEART:
The thorny heart is the heart that has endured through the path, the stoney, and has come so far that the only way to get this heart to crumble and to lose the seed is to choke the seed. The seed being the word of God that we are holding on to by faith. This person goes through so much that they finally decide to just give in. They have no more strength left.
Finally there is the GOOD HEART:
The good heart has made it through each of the above mentioned seasons by depending on the Lord, and realizing that nothing good can come of allowing the seed of the word of God to die in this heart. This person has such a disposition of his heart that he goes on and produces fruit.
I believe that God allows us to go through the reconditioning process of setting our heart on him. He sees us bring forth some fruit and he allows the pruning process to take place in us producing more fruit within us. (John 15)
Don’t allow the different temptations in the process to still your seed meaning the Word of God that first produced faith in you for what you are believing God for, but rather depend on the Lord daily for his word and refreshing to keep you through each portion of the process until you make it out and begin to bare more fruit.
Matthew 13:15 really pricks my heart when it points to the one who has gone through this process and has become hardened by it instead of allowing it to produce fruit. When God takes us through the process of allowing his word to be tested in our hearts we have a choice.
Our choice is to hold on to the Word by faith through each season, trial, or testing or to give in and allow ourselves to become hardened.
For this people’s heart has become calloused: they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. -Matthew 13:15 (NIV)
For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing; and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted (changed in their thinking, given new character) and I should heal them. – Matthew 13:15 (KJV)
God wants to change us in the process. He wants to change our hearts, and grow our character in him through the process. Both scriptures speak of a turning or a conversion of the heart. A healing of thinking of sorts.
Convert meaning: Cause to change in form, character, or function. Synonyms: change, turn, transform, metamorphose, transfigure, transmute. (Google definition)
All of those in Christ who bare fruit; God prunes, so that we can bare more fruit. Romans 12 talks about being transformed by the renewing of our minds. Often, during this process, God is erasing away old mindsets, or ways of thinking that do not line up with his word, so that he can elevate us and use us more.
This is so deep. God promises to heal us from the process. One of the ways to know that our hearts have become hardened is to develop a hardness or a lack of wanting to hear the Word of God or to hear the truth. Your eyes become willfully closed even though you have eyes, you cannot see, ears, yet cannot hear.
This is real. A hardened heart results in unbelief for the Word of God spoken over our lives. This goes into tempting God, which God mentions in Hebrews. This is how we forfeit God’s blessing of promise.
Do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. – Hebrews 3:8-9
Gaining a hardened heart is not something limited to singles. Anyone waiting on a promise from God can have a hard heart. Think about those who have become sick, and are waiting for healing from God to manifest. Many sick believers have gotten a hardened heart in that process.
There are many of us including myself who have gotten a word from God, and immediately Satan came to still the seed of that word. Satan would love for us to get caught up in a stoney heart, a thorny heart of worry, or to relax on the path not considering the value of the word, but if we continue to press through and depend on Christ holding on to that word, we will bring forth fruit on a heart of good ground. Keep pressing.
God promises to give us a heart of flesh for a hardened heart in the below scripture:
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 11:19 (NIV)
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