Focus of the Heart

When David took on Goliath as recorded in Samuel 17 what set him apart from the other Israelites was not his experience in battle. He had never fought a man before let alone a 9 foot giant. This was a shepherd boy. However, what made him different was the focus of his heart. The focus of our heart is what motivates us. Saul, one of the tallest and largest Israelites, was the logical man to fight Goliath, however he was afraid. {1 Samuel 17:11 When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.} Why was he afraid? Because he was self centered. His heart looked at himself and concluded that he could not win that battle and would die. He was afraid of failure and death. Then along comes David, a boy not yet full grown, probably the smallest one on the battlefield that day. Yet his response was completely different. {1 Samuel 17:36 Your servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.} David was seeing the situation from Father's perspective. Here was a pagan man who worshipped false gods taking on Israel who worshipped and served the only Living God, Yahweh. Yahweh's honor was at stake. This is not even a contest and David knew it. His heart was not focused on himself at least not completely. {1 Samuel 17:26 And David spoke to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?} David did want something for himself, but he did see the battle from Yahweh's perspective. In spite of David's divided heart, Father did honor David's desire, after all he was just a boy. In the long term we see that David never did overcome his divided heart. The Bathsheba and Shimei incidents illustrate that.

What separates the Moses, Elijahs, Elishas, Samuels, and Enochs from the crowd is the state of their hearts. If you want the Lord to uses you in power then you have to have the right heart. {2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein you hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth you shall have wars.} A perfect heart is one that has died to man's desires and wants, and is alive to Father's. A while back the Lord showed me the condition of my heart using a dream. I was treating His work in this world as a game, not a life and death struggle. I would obey His words to me and he would do a supernatural (not always supernatural) work to help someone, but i did not have His heart for the person He was touching, so i was not fully engaged. My heart is not necessarily self centered (i don't think). i was not looking for something for me but i was not WHOLE heartedly serving Him. My heart is divided. I've got my things and i have His things in my heart.

There is a something of a step by step walk from self centered to Father centered. We start as a new believer totally self centered. {Psalms 10:3 For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, and blesses the covetous, whom the LORD abhors. Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?} We make the decision to accept His Salvation because we need His help. {Jeremiah 4:14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within thee?} We recognize that He has something that we need or want and we respond. We become aware of our sins and our need of a Savior.

Once we've accepted His salvation, and we begin to grow in Him, He transforms our heart from wickedness to righteousness, from self centeredness to Yeshua centeredness. The focus of our heart moves from ourselves to others to Him. The problem of course is that we are unqualified to judge our own heart because we judge with our heart. It is like the coal miner judging the cleanliness of the other coal miners if he has never seem someone outside of the mine. We start out our walk judging ourselves against our friends who have not converted and we give ourselves credit for our choice. Once we have been around other more mature believers we judge ourselves against them. As we discover the Scriptures we then begin to judge ourselves against our understanding of them, and then someone else's understanding. As we mature in our faith we begin to interact with Yeshua and He begins to reveal Himself to us, then we have the Truth to compare ourselves to. Now we are on the road to maturity of Faith. Our heart's focus has gone through the stages of ourselves, to others, to Scriptures, to Yeshua (not necessarily in that order).

Now the problem is that even though we have come to the point of focusing on Yeshua we are still not whole heartedly His. Self still is in the heart and we have a divided heart. As our relationship with Yeshua deepens and He reveals more of Himself to us the self has to yield and die to make room for His presence in our heart. He has a way of revealing our hearts to us. {Jeremiah 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.} This verse gives us a clue as to how to determine the condition of our heart. {Matthew 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.} This give us another clue. All you have to do is listen to the causal conversations of those around you. Then listen to the arguments. We defend what our heart loves. Then look at the life style.

A believer with immature Faith is debating about what is sin and what is not. Their conversations center around what they like and how they like to spend their time. Their circle of Love is small, usually someone of the opposite sex and maybe a brother or sister or parent. Their lifestyles and problems reflect the curse of sin in them. They try to gather others to "enjoy" what they enjoy.

As their Faith in Him grows their heart changes focus as their conversations indicate. Their conversations begin to have Christian themes and they begin to act "Christian". This is usually more behavior modification than transformation. The conversations are still about them and their problems. They are looking for the Lord to take care of their inadequacies. This heart has not changed much. Some believers spend their entire life in this state.

The Lord will begin to refocus their heart upon others. They begin to have "burdens" for others. They want to help them, usually using their own strength and asking for the Lord's help. Their conversations become more about others than themselves and their lifestyle reflects the change of heart in that they spend their time helping others when they can. They usually have, by this time, resolved most of their problems with friends and family. Their circle of Love has grown to include some brothers and sisters in the Lord. This is the state of most "pastors" in the organized churches. They have a heart for others. This is a dangerous position because the temptation is to stop here, thinking that they have arrived. However, if the believer does stop here they usually become humanistic. Salvation is for the sake of those receiving it instead of for the sake of the One giving it. Their focus is centered on mankind not on Yeshua.

As the Lord continues on with His discipling He reveals more of Himself to us and in turn more of our self centered heart is exposed. He brings the fire of trials to expose our hearts to us (and then later to expose our hearts to others). Somewhere in here we begin to see the condition of our heart and realize that in man dwells no good thing. This is when the heart purification begins in earnest. Here we realize that we cannot trust our hearts and we cry out for a new heart, longing for purity of heart and purpose. This is the foundation of the Elijahs and Moses of the Kingdom. This is where the balance begins to tip from self to Yeshua. Our circle of Love has now increased to include Yeshua above men. Our conversation now reflects a desire to see the King and Kingdom of God to be exalted. Our lifestyle switches from doing things for ourselves and others to throwing away the stuff of the world to spend our energies knowing and serving Him.

He alone becomes our passion and He gets out the sieve to sift us link fine flour. Every trace of self and sin must be identified and removed. There must be a recognition that even the smallest morsel of self/sin will contaminate the service and Love of the Lord. Early on we searched the knowledge of men and later the knowledge of the Scriptures now we search the heart of God, not satisfied with knowing about Him. We MUST KNOW Him because we LOVE Him! Singleness of purpose begins to form in the heart. Every person you meet throughout the day maybe the next one Father wants to touch through you. Your circle of friends grows smaller but your circle of Love increases to include people you do not even know. You long to hear His voice. You will drop whatever you are doing when you sense His presence or call and you do not want to return. You eat because you must. You sleep because those are the times of sweet revelations. The times He reveals the most precious things. You Love because it is easy for Him to pour out His Love through you. You are now getting close to 2 Chronicles 16:9 and you no longer care because He has you and you have Him and that is all that counts.

Then He calls you to pour out all of the Pure Precious Presence that you have so longed to contain, to people, to sick, fallen and evil people who NEED IT TO TASTE HIS LOVE and for you to take their burdens upon yourself. This is where the rubber hits the road. If you still have self in your heart you will hesitate and resist even slightly. Self cries out what, is in it for ME! Father answers, nothing. It's not for you its for My Son, Who gave His all for them, His Creation and He deserves His just reward. This is the life of death, where i only do what i see my Father do. Perfect meekness and submission. Our circle of Love is near completion, with Yeshua square in the center, His creation all around and self no where in sight. Now the work begins.