Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Proverbs 4:23

Our thoughts are what determine our success.  It is our thoughts which determine our behaviors, but more than that, it is our thoughts which determine how we feel, and our values.

Beyond the natural, it is also in the realm of our thoughts in which our faith is founded.  We have faith in God’s Word.  Faith in His promise to heal.  And, it is in keeping the realm of our thoughts rooted and grounded in God’s Word that we are able to keep our hearts from doubting what He has told us.  So important are our thoughts that they are, indeed, the realm of our salvation, as it is written, if we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Romanbs 10:9).  Our thoughts are what make our lives.

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[The following is a letter I wrote to a friend, with a few edits for privacy]

Let me say this:  I appreciate your position, and I am not particularly in most of the camps that you might expect.

Summing it up, I hear about four main statements in your email.

First, there have been many different positions and view regarding holiness..  Which you cataloged quite well.

Second, you really don’t care which one is most doctrinally correct, but are sick of the compromise in your own heart and unless it can help with that, you’re not satisfied.   You said, “All I know right now is that I’m bound to sin and I don’t know how to get out”.

Third, You’re sick of the crap (scripturally, “dung”).  You want to know the experiential love, experiential forgiveness, and experiential cleanness of heart.  No more hypocrisy from yourself or others.  You want the real deal.

And, finally, the question of how to know anything arises.  “The only way I will know or anyone on this earth will know is if God shows us personally.”

I think some of these questions are proper place of a heart for your condition.  Let me remind you, however, truth is a person.

Let me present my Gospel, if you will…

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There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips.  Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.  Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways,  and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Romans 3:10-18 (except leading phrase)

Jesus came to show us His way, the way of peace.  Peace is peace with God, with men, and within ourselves.  The peace of Christ surpasses all knowledge throughout all time and is the force that calms the storm.

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Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.  “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

John 14:23-24

What are the teachings of Jesus?  What are the lessons that He gave us?

Have you ever stopped to consider the parables?  Do you know what they mean?

Christianity today has done a good job with the main parts.  Jesus is the Way, there is no other.  No one comes to the Father, but by Him…   But, what of the rest?

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The cry of a generation, to cleave wholly to the Lord.

They are sick of compromise, and a church that is irrelevant.  They are confused over a teaching that on one side talks about power, but on the other hand, can’t get out of its own politics and powerlessness.

Jesus said that would know us by our love, and yet they know us by our cliches.

We have traded faith for doctrinal statements.  We have traded true understanding for a listening to sermons we really don’t believe down in the depths of our heart–not enough to be changed.

Some are sincere, but they lack tools to apply.  Many want to teach and help others out of the mire, but they fail to understand how to reach in.

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The Dream

Daniel 7:1-3

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.

Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.

This is understood as the parallel to Daniel 2.  Daniel 2 was Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, this is Daniel’s.  While Nebuchadnezzar saw the kingdoms, Daniel apparently sees the spirits of the kingdoms.  The four winds church the great sea, and four distinct beasts came up out of it.

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This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Galatians 5:16

This verse is Paul’s advice on how to avoid sin.  This is the simple solution to the issue plaguing the church today.

I call it the Million Dollar Question, that is, why are new testament believers not living according to their new creation nature?  We know why the world does, because it’s in ’em.  But, why does a Christian?

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“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Jeremiah 31:33

We are under the New Covenant.  We are not under the old, and we are not looking for another.  Jesus died for us, not only for our actual sins committed, but to remove our sinful nature.  As the prophet writes, to remove the heart of stone, and replace it with a heart of flesh.

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