The Stony Heart

For a few… God has placed a scripture on my heart not for myself, but to share. But being quite distracted with several unworthy things of late, I have not written about it. For this I am truly sorry and apologize openly to God for disobedience and… to you.

What is it? What is this word? Well… let me just say there are many people, like myself that have at different times retained the false assumption that God, His presence, the Shekinah glory only dwells in this country or that country; or that God only visits this people or that people and His favor does not reside in those other far-away places. But it isn’t true and this assumption is not only wrong but dangerous! It is to the contrary that we have heard the good word of Gods’ holy presence moving around the world and in response, people are turning to Him. This report should not startle, for God told us He would move powerfully among the nations.
“…God says, I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams: Yea and on My servants and on My handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy. … And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2: 28; Acts 2:17-18).
Furthermore, it is also written that God is “revealing the holiness of His great name and gathering people from every country unto Himself” (Ezekiel 36: 23-24).

You may be such a one; longing to know God, but don’t know how to accomplish this, let alone describe or explain it, even to close family or friends. You may be dreaming… dreaming things that do not make sense. Troubled and without understanding, you feel that you are standing at the edge of a precipice, not knowing what to do or where to turn…

If this is you and the place in which you dwell, I have good news, the best of news; the God of creation, the true Higgs Boson, has come to you, making a holy visitation if you will. The greatness and magnificence of God lies in His holiness and He comes to you for one distinct purpose: God desires to make you anew… to give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. God says, I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean instead of unclean. Then I will cleanse you from all your idols and put my Spirit in you (Ezekiel 36: 25-27).

A “new heart” and a “new spirit” are one and the same. God can make you anew with His Presence. He bestows a new will, new purposes and resolutions; new affections and new desires; new delights and joys, as well as new sorrows and troubles; the same which I spoke about in the last post. It is called remaking of the “new man”, and the new creature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4: 24).

Jehovah Rapha, the healing God, can take out our old heart, the heart of stone and give us new heart of flesh and with it, a new spirit. Only Omnipotence can perform this kind of surgical healing. We cannot do it ourselves; nor can this work be accomplished by human flesh, weak, puny and impotent of radical transformation. It is the powerful and efficacious grace of God that gives repentance unto life, working faith within the soul; thereby removing the stony heart and replacing in its stead one that is soft and tender, penitent; through the love and fear of God; a spiritual and sanctified heart; submissive to the will of God; flexible and submissive to the commands of Christ; on which impressions are made by the grace of God; where the laws of God are written, the Gospel of Christ are put; where Christ himself is formed and where are the fear of God is manifested in faith, hope, and love, and every other grace.

For this, is the pathway you have sought and for the explanation that was so allusive. Search no more. Stop reasoning… simply turn. Turn to God in repentance and receive His grace, your portion, a clean new heart; a healing from God’s almighty hand and He will do the rest.