05/08/2017
The fullness of the blessing Pt. 1:
Paul talks about the fullness of the blessing of Christ. He said "And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." (Romans 15:29).
It's amazing to know that there's a fullness in the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. The Lord taught me how to move in the fullness of the blessing. I'm talking about the totality of the blessing of Christ.
The Lord told me that in order to walk in the fullness of the blessing, there must be complete obedience. That means your obedience must be complete (2 Corinthians 10).
Complete obedience means you have a soft heart toward God. This is a heart of flesh, not of stone. Many of God's children have hardened their hearts toward God. A brother in our church sent me a message telling me how greatful he is of my ministry. As I saw that I said this brother is really considerate of my ministry and service. This is a sign of a soft heart toward God.
I used to think people with hard hearts were God-haters or, at the least, people in rebellion to Him. But it goes beyond that.
I was reading about the story of Jesus walking to His disciples on the water, recorded in Mark 6:45-52. They were in a great storm. After nine hours they were still only halfway across the Sea of Galilee, normally a two-hour trip. They were in trouble and fighting for their lives. Yet here came Jesus walking on top of the very thing that was trying to kill them. He was totally in control.
I continued reading in Mark 6:51 and saw that the disciples had a particular reaction to the miracle they saw. The latter part of that scripture says, "They were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered." They were shocked and amazed at the miraculous power of God. Then I read the next verse:
“For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened” (Mark 6:52).
It was just like someone slapped me in the face. For the first time, I realized that being shocked, amazed, or surprised at a miracle was an indication of a hard heart. WOW! Or another way of saying it is, relating to the natural more than the supernatural is an indication of a hard heart.
I wanted to know what a hard heart really was, what caused it, and how to cure it. This has turned out to be one of the most important things the Lord has ever shown me.
The dictionary defines hardened as cold, insensitive, unfeeling, and unyielding. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll have to agree that there have been or are certain areas of your life where you have a hard heart toward God.
God made us so that we can harden our hearts and literally shut out unwanted influences. It was meant to be a positive thing, but because we haven’t understood this, what God meant for good has actually worked against us.
One of the best examples of hardheartedness is found in the book of Exodus. Pharaoh refused to let the children of Israel leave the land of Egypt as God had commanded. Fifteen times in Exodus, the Scriptures mention Pharaoh’s heart being hardened. This is the only explanation to Pharaoh’s persistence in resisting God, when it was so evident he was no match for Him. A hardened heart dulls a person’s ability to perceive and understand. It is the equivalent of spiritual retardation.
In Mark 8:17, Jesus spoke to His disciples about the characteristics of a hard heart: the Bible says “And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?” (Mark 8:17-18).
In these verses, Jesus gave us symptoms that are descriptive of a hard heart:
(1) unable to perceive,
(2) unable to understand,
(3) unable to see,
(4) unable to hear, and
(5) unable to remember.
These are all speaking of inabilities in the spiritual realm.
A hard heart is characterized by an inability to perceive spiritually. And when spiritual things are perceived, a hard heart will keep a person from understanding the few things they can perceive. They might see what the Lord is trying to show them, but they can’t get a hold of it in a way that they can apply it to their life.
When people are hardhearted toward God, it’s like they are spiritually blind and deaf, they just can’t see spiritual truth or hear the Lord speak to them. And they can’t remember. Not remembering is a major indication of the condition of their hearts.
People often tell me that they just don’t have the ability to remember Scripture the way I do. They imply that I must have a photographic memory. But these same people can tell me who won the Soweto Darby last year or last decade, the Major League batting averages of all the famous soccer players, or the names of all the actors in a movie.
Here are some of the major things I’ve learned that determine the sensitivity of your heart. First, whatever you consider, your heart becomes softened toward. Conversely, whatever you fail to consider, your heart becomes hardened to. That’s what Mark 6:52 reveals.
Again, that verse says, “For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.”
The word consider means “to study, ponder, deliberate, examine, or think upon.” The scriptural term that would relate to “consider” would be the word “meditate.” Or we could substitute the word “focus” for “consider.” So the disciples’ hearts were hard, since they didn’t “focus” on the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000.
