Brokenness ~ Part II

Proverbs 28:14 ~ "BLESSED is the MAN WHO ALWAYS FEARS THE LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble."

Proverbs 29: 1 ~ "A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed ~ without remedy."

Proverbs 2:5 ~ "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed."

Hebrews 3:7-13 ~ "So, as the Holy Spirit says, "TODAY, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried Me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.'

So I declared in My anger, 'They shall never enter My rest.' See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the Living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called TODAY, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."

Sometimes, when we experience trauma, fear enters. Sometimes, anger. Many times we become angry with our loving Father because He isn't doing things our way. How many times have you heard a child scream out to a mother who loves him, "I hate you!" He doesn't. What he hates is not getting his own way. That makes him very angry. And it makes us angry too. But we mustn't allow that anger to harden us.

Hardening our hearts is the first step away from God, Who loves us and gave His own Son for our salvation.

Galatians 2:20 ~ "I am crucified with Christ. I no long live ~ but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me."           Back to top      

When our concerns are always about "me," "mine," "But what about me?" we can know "I" am not dead. If our concerns are me, mine, I, I, I... we can know where our interests are. Remember, when we are truly living the "crucified life," we react "like a dead person." A dead man has no jealousy, no anger, no criticism, etc.

Self-centeredness is a part of the sinful nature. It includes:                    CONTROLLING those around us ~ They must do things our way.                   SELF-PITY ~ "Poor me" ~ "You don't understand" ~ "Let me explain" ~ "You're picking on me" ~ "You're mad at me" ~ "You don't love me, " etc. etc. etc.           It includes ALWAYS PLEASING YOURSELF rather than preferring others. SELF is at the center of your interest ~ How do people feel about ME?

The Christian life of growth is a continuing exposure of MY SIN ~ exposure to the LIGHT ~ so I may repent and be cleansed ~ ever moving from glory to glory.

We harden our hearts every time we refuse the nudging of the Holy Spirit, whether He is quickening in us to love someone when they aggravate us, or to be still when we desperately want to defend ourselves. Any time we know to do good and refuse to do it, it is sin, and takes us a step away from fellowship with Jesus.

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When we focus on the actions of other believers in their sin or weaknesses, instead of keeping our focus on Jesus, we move away from Him. 

When we refuse to respond to His correction, we harden our hearts. When He speaks to us gently to practice self-control and we rebel and choose to do things our own way, we move away from Him. 

When He convicts us of a specific sin and we insist on "explaining" to justify ourselves, we harden our hearts. 

The more we harden our hearts, the larger the space we put between God's Holy Spirit and walking in obedience to Him.

It has been my experience that when I do or say something that grieves the Holy Spirit, I literally suffer His pain within my own spirit. I feel it. The heaviness in my chest is a real, tangible thing. And I know it is His grief and hurt at my actions. We tend to forget that When we receive Jesus, His Spirit comes to live inside us. He then experiences everything along with us. He hears what we hear, sees what we put before Him, watches as we speak or act sinfully. 

The horrible truth is that we make Him a party to our sinful life experiences. Too often we even forget that He is there, listening and observing. 

The Israelites didn't get to go into the Promised Land because of their murmuring and complaining. They just couldn't seem to stop! Nothing God did made them happy. He fed and clothed them supernaturally for 40 years and still.....they murmured. How that must have grieved His loving Spirit. 

Our pastor says because of their murmuring they missed out on the Promised Land. We, in turn, have an opportunity to live in the Land of Promises if we'll but walk in the Spirit, living in such a way as to please the Lord. He honors obedience above sacrifice. 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" [II Thess.5:17 NIV]

He begins immediately to bring conviction of sin. He comes in to clean house! He nudges your heart when you are tempted and you either respond or resist. Each time you respond by resisting the sin and obeying His urging, you grow in the Spirit. When you do not, you harden your heart against Him. 

If gossip has been your sin of choice, you can be sure the Holy Spirit will quicken your conscience at the moment you're tempted to share a little morsel about someone. Learn to obey His voice ~ don't make Him have to repeat Himself! 

If you've had a problem with profanity, you can be sure the Holy Spirit will bring that tender ache when those words attempt to tumble from your lips. Respond or resist.

If you have an addiction (also called sin in the Word), like watching porn, drinking alcohol, partaking of drugs, over indulgence in food, sex, etc., and you can't seem to resist the urge to give in, you may need personal counseling with your pastor. The word to remember is this: Do not turn away from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. He will always bring conviction of sin, but He will not force you to give it up. The more you resist Him, the harder your heart will become and also the easier it will be to give in to the sin and not be "bothered" by His Spirit trying to get your attention.  

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"The Spirit clearly says that in the latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron." [I Tim.4:1,2 NIV] 

We visited a half-way house one time and shared communion with that group of young men. Before partaking, the pastor offered the boys an opportunity to make things right with each other so as to be able to have their hearts clean and pure. Several went to each other and asked forgiveness: "I'm sorry I left the dishes for you to do." "Forgive me for leaving my clothes out for you to pick up." "I'm sorry I was angry with you. Forgive me for my language." 

I was impressed, but the pastor was not. He said, "I appreciate your asking forgiveness of each other, but I am seeing the same ones asking forgiveness for the same things week after week. Repentance means that you stop doing it!" There was a sudden silence. Heads were lowered. I knew something was happening in the Spirit.   

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We do not want to be separated from God for any length of time at all. Yet, when we ignore Him when He tries to correct us, that's exactly what we're doing. 

I continue to try to walk in this revelation: every single day I am exposed to my sinful nature. I am trying to walk out the repentance (to God) and forgiveness (received from Him first, then the one from whom I took offense) as God, in His omnipotent love, exposes the awfulness of my sinful nature. I am again, trying, to accept the crushing and welcome the sweet smelling fragrance brought forth. Remember, the fragrance is called .... Humility. I am so far from there........

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