This morning in my communion time with the Holy Spirit, He wants me to share further on the concept and reality of guarding our hearts with all diligence. This is to give you some practical steps and thought patterns to adopt with your heart which will aid you in being able to effectively come away from being judgemental and prejudiced to just obeying and following the pattern of the Lord. Let me first give you a scriptural basis for what the Holy Spirit wants to equip you to do. In John.2:23 & 24 we read these words : Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. 24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, 25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.
Now firstly Jesus did not do any miracles for the people to gain popularity or acceptance from them that He was great and wanted a name for Himself. His actions for doing the miracles were obedience to the will of His father who assigned for Him to minister those good deeds to people regardless of how they would respond to Him. He was only interested in being in oneness with His fathers will and having no other desire but pleasing the Father. John.5:30 : I have not ever acted, and will not in the future act, on My own. I listen to the directions of the One who sent Me and act on these divine instructions. For this reason, My judgment is always fair and never self-serving. I’m committed to pursuing God’s agenda and not My own. (The Passion translation)
I can’t do a thing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is right; because I don’t seek my own desire, but the desire of the one who sent me. (The complete Jewish Bible). What we see here is that Jesus had no hidden agenda or desire in His mind as He obeyed the Father so He was completely free from being wounded in heart because He was satisfied with His obedience, and not the reaction of the people. For that reason Jesus would not commit Himself to them but stayed committed to His Father. We miss it in guarding our hearts because we feel people will be grateful for what we have done for them and because they express gratitude and kind words that indicate they will do good to us.
We hurriedly commit our hearts to continuing helping them and being available to them without asking the Lord. This means we become bitter and lose our position in the Lord because we become offended with the Lord because of their behavior. This means we enter a downward spiral and our hearts are unable to connect with the Holy Spirit so our results start to dwindle and our communion with the Holy Spirit becomes more and more extinct.
In order to deal with this the Holy Spirit taught me not to respond to what people said about me no matter the size of the miracle God did for them and become confident that they would be faithful, so I would commit to their prosperity and availability to continue in the Lord. They only want a miracle, get it but are not willing to do what it takes to remain in covenant with the Lord and would even hand you over to an enemy because they want something else. This is why we should guard our hearts so that we only commit them to those the Holy Spirit says we should that are committed to Him.
I recall in Botswana the afternoon I had given to a lady to minister to her to help her process deliverance and when I arrived home, after giving her that time. There was another lady waiting for me to get back so I could help her. The lady I had ministered to was saying they should not put such pressure on me and demand or want so much at odd hours. The Holy Spirit however said to me to go ahead and minister to her because she would be a blessing to me. So I just ignored what that lady defending me said and went on to minister to the lady who went on to have a great deliverance and became the true blessing to me, my ministry work and my personal life for years as the Holy Spirit had said.
This other lady, though wealthy, never did anything for me, but continued to take what she could from my ministry but was not a blessing to me. It is so important only to commit your heart to those God says to and stay aloof from what just seeks to take from you. In John.6:64-66 we read these words : “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” 66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
You see that although they had been following Jesus for a time Jesus had not committed His heart to them because they were to leave Him when the requirements of discipleship became too demanding.This is because the Father had not drawn them in the first place to Jesus, but rather the miracles which they wanted and to be a part of the great things happening in the life of Jesus;s ministry.
I am sharing these things with you so you can guard your hearts against hurt because you too quickly commit to people’s success without asking the Holy Spirit who and what spirit do they carry. Did Jesus send them or did satan send them to infiltrate your space and poison your God cleansed space? Though they look eager and willing to learn and take from you did the Lord send them or is it a trap to lure your heart away from the Lord.
I will conclude this post here with this scripture from Acts.8 on the behavior of simon the sorcerer : Moreover, Shim‘on himself came to believe; and after being immersed, he attached himself closely to Philip; and he was amazed as he saw the miraculous signs and great works of power that kept taking place.
You will notice that although every other believer in Samaria believed in Jesus and listened to the teachings of Philip and obeyed them and gained life in Jesus through them. The only person who attached to Philip which is wrong anyway, as only leeches attach to sap your strength and life.
You will find that only he did not get freed and delivered and Peter explains the condition of his heart though he seemed so eager to learn specially from the Lord by attaching to Philip Acts.8:20-23 : 20 But Kefa said to him, “Your silver go to ruin — and you with it, for thinking the free gift of God can be bought! 21 You have no part at all in this matter; because in the eyes of God, your heart is crooked. 22 So repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord. Perhaps you will yet be forgiven for holding such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are extremely bitter and completely under the control of sin!”
Don’t be fooled by excitement that people want to hear you and you commit yourself prematurely to what will destroy you, but guard your heart and weigh all events by the Holy Spirit
As you hear these words today let the grace supplied in them enable you not to walk with a simon and commit your heart to what destroys you. May you find the discernment in the Spirit that Peter walked in to expose evil intent to ruin the harvest and guard your hearts from losing out on the Lord’s best for your lives in Jesus name.
My prayer for you is that you find peace in guarding your hearts with all diligence and walking in the freedom of what the Holy Spirit has designed and purposed for you in this season of your life in the destiny granted you by Jesus. Amen.