The Core of Our Heart

By Ron Wood

"…I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh..." (Ezek. 11:19)

You can believe God even when you can't understand Him. Why? Because trust is a heart issue, not a head issue. I've heard it said that God offends our minds to reveal our hearts. This has certainly been true for me. Trials demonstrate what is inside of us and prove whether our faith is for real.

It is with the heart that we believe. (Rom. 10:10) Our heart is the core of who we are and what we intuit to be true. It is with our heart that we first receive God's word, not with our head. It is with the heart that we first know the Lord, not with our intellect. The Spirit bears witness in our core, in our spirit, then the Word sheds its light into our mind. We know it before we can explain it.

Kingdom truth is embraced and walked out by childlike faith. Kingdom truths don't just inform us- they transform us, if given room to sprout and grow.

Our head can be in a fog while our heart is still seeing clearly. Even Paul the great apostle said he was sometimes perplexed, but thankfully, not in despair. (2 Cor. 4:8) This is a tension common to those pressing ahead in their faith: not knowing, yet still trusting. Do you know what is like to be stymied or stumped, yet still have peace in your heart? It seems like a contradiction.

There are apparent paradoxes pictured in the Bible, seemingly opposite truths. "The first shall be last." "If you humble yourself, you'll be exalted." "If you wish to be great, be a servant to all." These sayings are true from heaven's perspective, but they offend our natural viewpoint, our carnal way of thinking. Apart from humbling our minds (deliberately deciding to distrust our ability to know it all or to figure everything out), we can't receive these kingdom truths.

A veneer of knowledge won’t substitute for transformation. Layers of religious robes can’t change what’s concealed beneath the garments. Being strengthened in the inner man requires attending to core issues in our heart (Eph. 3:16) like righteousness, humility, faith, and devotion. When I hurt my back, the therapist made me do exercises to strengthen my belly. He called it "core training." We can’t neglect our core and be strong in Christ or defeat the devil.

In a story found in Mark 10, Jesus, the master Fisher of Men, released a prize catch. He let a rich young ruler slip away, departing sad but unchanged, still beloved by Jesus but barred from entering His kingdom. If Jesus were a modern pastor, the Church Board would chastise him for letting a valuable new member get away! Why did Jesus do this?

The young candidate was missing something essential, a characteristic that was a fundamental heart issue in God’s kingdom: he was unable to give. "One thing you lack," Jesus said. He was a good man who kept God's commandments from his youth, but who had never felt compassion for the poor, had no treasure stored up in heaven, whose heart was tied to possessions rather than to God's purpose for his life. This one thing kept a man with great potential wasted, outside of Jesus' team, missing the kingdom, oblivious to his purpose and destiny. What a waste, all because of a heart issue uncovered by money.

Many kingdom truths relate to money. "How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God," Jesus said. (Mk. 10:23) Yet, Jesus also promised increased wealth to those who give money away for the kingdom of God's sake! (vs. 29-30) What did Christ mean by this paradox? Jesus meant that when our heart is absorbed with seeking after money purely for profit's sake, we have lowered ourselves into living for greed (which is idolatry). In that state, it is as hard for us to enter the kingdom as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. (Mk. 10:25) The kingdom of God becomes difficult for people, even impossible, if core issues like repentance and faith are skipped over or neglected.

More than words or wishes, more than promises or pledges, our deeds really do count with God. For example, how we use money reveals our heart more than anything else in our life. It is a measurable barometer of how we value what God has said. "If you love me, keep my words," Jesus said. (John 14:23) At some point, observed behavior tops stated intentions. What we do testifies more loudly than what we say.

Let's get real: If we don't put it on the calendar, if we don't budget for it, if we don't plan on it, then we don't really believe in it, do we? This is true for prayer, for time with our family, as well as for giving to God’s work. And since God is an honest and fair judge, He keeps track of what we actually do (not just our stated intentions) and then He renders a verdict based on the tangible evidence. (Colossians 3:23-24; Eph. 2:10)

God keeps good books. God counts (takes note of) our deeds because we count with Him. If He didn't care, He wouldn't bother. Tell me: If someone examined your checking account, would they find enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian?

Jesus spoke a word to the rich young ruler that uncovered the core of his heart. Have you ever had God speak a word to you like that? Spiritual words cut to the core. (see Hebrews 4:12) When that happens to you- and if you are following the Lord it eventually will- it seems like everything is suddenly laid bare for everyone to see.

The reason God does this (lets us see ourselves as He sees us) is so that we can fully realize our desperate condition and then be able to cooperate with His transforming process in our inner man. God doesn't show us our wounded soul to shame us, but to repair us.

This patient repair work requires more experiencing of the cross, more practical application of God's word, and more covenant love expressed to us by Jesus' family on earth. And it needs our willingness to be transformed.

I've known the Lord since my childhood and walked with Him in the power of the Spirit for decades now. Yet the Lord is still renewing areas of my heart. Let me give you an example. When my wife and I returned from Africa, we came home to the States with thousands of dollars of debt due to the failure of funds to arrive for an automobile. Upon our return, we took jobs and sold possessions. The hardest part was selling our wedding rings. Thankfully, in less than a year we were debt free. But the pain of our experience lingered. I kept forgiving those who had let us down, but the memory of the pain and what it had cost us kept coming back up.

Then one day while driving, I saw a billboard advertising a lawyer who handled bankruptcy cases. The Spirit of God spoke to me. "Do you remember years ago when you went through bankruptcy?" "Yes, Lord, I do." (Debts from a failed business had followed me for years until we were drowning under them.)

"Do you remember after the judge discharged your debts that no one could ever charge you again for those things?" "Yes, Lord, that's right. It was as though it had never happened."

Then, seeing in the Spirit, I watched the Lord simply turn, and without another word, look at the people whom I had accused of wrongly withholding my funds.

Suddenly, I realized the Lord, the Righteous Judge, had entered a plea of bankruptcy in their case. He had weighed the evidence, judged it, and issued His verdict. The fact is that the claim I had against them was a debt they could not repay. But a greater fact was that Jesus had already paid their debt on the cross. My guilt of judging them as well as any failure on their part toward me was a debt forever canceled. Therefore, I HAD NO RIGHT to ever bring it up again.

I realized this by revelation in my heart, not just by facts in my head. In that instant of knowing the truth, my heart was healed of the terrible hurt it had carried. I acknowledged the truth from God’s perspective and I repented. We were suddenly free- all of us- thanks to God’s incredible grace! No one owes me anything and I owe nothing to anyone, except to love them.

The state of our heart is the issue. Real ministry springs out of our heart, not off of our notes. God isn't after external obedience (reluctant submission to new laws; being trained to behave while still resenting it; being a hypocrite but adopting a religious disguise) but God desires transformation of our inner man. He wants reality: true Christ-likeness in us without pressure to pretend; godly conduct without stopping to check the rulebook; obedience to His will while not even knowing the biblical references.

These things come in the category listed in Colossians 3: put off the old man; put on the new man. It is one thing to turn away from sin to be saved; it is still something else for God to work on our thinking and our ways so that we live like kingdom citizens. It is inside us that true change first occurs. Transformation comes in steps: from divine revelation, to our thinking, to our words, then finally to our ways. (See Psalms 19:14, 31) Moses prayed, "Show me your ways, O Lord, that I might know you!" Isaiah knew that God’s ways and God’s thoughts were higher than ours. (Isaiah 55:7-9) If we only change our ways, but never change our thought life, then nothing really changes.

Our heart is so sick and so deceitful (Jer. 17:9) that a whitewash won’t do. It must be transformed. If not, it will conceal its wounded parts or its calloused areas and its erroneous images of God and of self and finally it will trip us up when we least expect it, usually with foolish words. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth will (eventually) speak.

When I initially came to Jesus, sin died in me. The will to do wrong was put to death. I wanted to do God’s will! While the desire was now present, I found internal roadblocks (not just stones, but boulders as big as a house) in the road that hindered full faith and obedience. But as I kept pressing into God, to my surprise, my ways of thinking and my emotional motivations and my lifestyle choices gradually experienced death and resurrection in Jesus.

I started being changed inwardly, in the spirit of my mind, even in my unconscious thoughts. This has affected the way I handle money, the way I relate to my wife, the way I perceive my self and my purpose. Indeed, one of the greatest Scriptures the Holy Spirit has made alive to me this year is Colossians 3:3: "For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

Psalms 94:12 says, "Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord, and whom you teach out of Your law; that you may grant him relief from the days of adversity, until a pit is dug for the wicked."

Something is going to be dug up here… either the secrets of your heart, or a pit for your feet. Which will it be? God's living word digs deep into your soul. Like a power shovel, it excavates the jobsite. God uncovers what has been concealed. You are God's building project and site preparation of the soil is underway.

Strongholds of habitual wrong thinking are being dismantled. Snares of unhealthy emotional reactions are being destroyed. Do you sense the churning? Can you feel the earth move? Don’t be afraid… that’s not the devil, it is God at work in you!

Perhaps you thought everything was falling apart in your life. Shaking was everywhere. Maybe you wondered why pressures against you kept increasing. Perplexed? Despairing? Maybe you felt like your faith had quit working and God had stopped blessing you. Not at all! He is working deeper than you realized!

It is a blessing for your Master to dig into your life to remove the stones of offense from your heart and from your mind. These hard stones of offense are what bruise the people whom you love when they try to get close to you. They make you stumble and cause you to doubt yourself when the path ahead of you should be smooth. They weigh you down and keep you from running your race with joy. They are hurled from your hand (by words from your mouth) to strike those who anger you. They bend your back with their load when you should be standing straight, holy before God in joy and confidence.

God goes after everything in our heart that contradicts the image of Christ, or interferes with our intimacy with Father's love, or feeds a failure syndrome of fear and rejection. Allow the Lord to probe deeper. Don't despair when He uncovers heart issues that, if not dealt with ruthlessly, quickly, and thoroughly, would only prevent you from partaking of the fullness of life in Jesus.

The season has shifted. The time is shortened. The anointing is increasing. Emergence of new leadership with a new paradigm is definitely on God’s agenda. Meanwhile, God has His eye on you! But our heart issues are so critical that the Lord will not bypass them or overlook them. Just knowing new information about Christ or the Holy Spirit or about God’s apostolic or prophetic ways is insufficient: we need to be becoming One New Man in Christ Jesus, with both our internal barriers and our external fences broken down.

Increasing integrity on the inside (in our heart) will enable us to integrate more completely with our spouse, our family, our flock, the Body of Christ, or our local ministry team. Integrity means wholeness, soundness of substance, possessing an undivided heart. To integrate means to be committed to, become one, unite with, join up, or become part of something bigger than yourself.

Deconstruction of bitter strongholds is evidence that the Master Architect, Jesus, is reconstructing your life in His image for His kingdom's sake.

Touched by Grace Inc., P. O. Box 12749, Wilmington, NC 28405

Resources are available at www.touchedbygrace.org

Write to the author at Ron@touchedbygrace.org