Purity of Heart: The Key to Revival - Part 2 - David Mitts

Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?

And who may stand in His holy place?

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood

And has not sworn deceitfully.

5 He shall receive a blessing from the LORD 

And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

6 This is the generation of those who seek Him,

Who seek Your face—even Jacob. Selah.

 (Psalms 24:3-6 (NASB))

Last week we began looking at and pressing in for a breakthrough in the condition of our hearts that bring us into the Presence of the Lord.

We spoke about “lifting up our soul to falsehoods”.  I want to plunge a little deeper into this topic.  The Hebrew word translated as “lifting up” is “nasah”.  This is an ancient Hebrew word root that has been translated as many things from “to bear”, “To be married”, to carry, etc.  The word picture is of a seed and a thorn.  The idea in the word picture is of a generational thorn or wound, an iniquity.  This gives the impression that we carry falsehoods in our souls that we have inherited from our seed bearers. 

There are many “family secrets” that are falsehoods that we carry in our souls.

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The “sworn deceitfully” is also very revealing.  To swear is to “Sheva” or to “7”.  It is a covenant or oath.  Deceitfully, refers to a high place, or a false authority.  The Hebrew word is “mirmah” which is derived from the root “ram” which means to betray or to shoot with an arrow.  So their is an oath of betrayal, a Judas factor.

These are the opposite of clean hands and a pure heart.  So, we can see a secret, hidden type of being, a whisperer of deception, one who makes secret covenants based on lies and half-truths.  This is the Judas factor that claims intimacy with the Lord, but refuses the honest self-examination that allows us to enter into the Presence of the Lord.  Judas was one of the 12.  He was a chosen vessel for the anointing.  Yet he struggled with a falsehood in his soul which caused him to betray the anointed one.  We may not be in the position to betray Yeshua's Himself but we can betray, those He gave to us to shepherd His anointing.

Ephesians 4:11-13 (NASB)

[11] And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, [12] for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 

We have learned over the years that many falsehoods have come into our being with trauma.  Some of the trauma still contains a lingering pain that is kept in place by falsehoods or lies.  These in turn reinforce themselves with pride.  Pride is the need to protect myself.  “I am responsible for me” is the decision of pride.  It breeds an inner need for perfectionism and to be in control.  It also breeds an independence and an isolation spirit. 

When we get hurt, this whole mechanism clicks into place.  We feel a pull to isolate and take care of business on our own.  The problem is that our “solution” of isolation puts up a wall to others and ultimately to God.

In this place of hurt and withdrawing, we often feel misunderstood and climb into the victim’s seat easily.  The tears flow or worse, the anger takes over and resentment builds.

Why am I spending so much time on this, you ask?!?  The reason is because we are a community committed to healing.  The challenge is healing requires vision for the healed.  We have a cultural bias towards sickness.  We have trained ourselves in sickness management, NOT in healing.  Even if we get prayer for our sickness and God touches us, we just want the miracle to be the removal of the sickness.  BUT what we don't ask is what does God want??

We all know this verse:

(3Jn 2)

[2] Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. 

The question or the qualifier is prosperity of soul.  Well let’s continue with the chapter and see if the scripture will interpret itself.

[3] For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth. [4] I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.(3Jn 3-4)

So now we see a contrast.  Soul prosperity involves walking in the truth and soul falsehoods then must be the opposite of soul prosperity.   In other words our health is affected by what we believe to be true.  So, if we are a healing ministry then we must be vigilant about coming into agreement with lies that arise out of our pain.  Remembering that we cannot amend into God’s Presence if we lift up our soul to falsehoods or make a covenant, vows with deception.  

Now, we can understand how our tendency to protect ourselves by stuffing our hurts and remaining in self-sufficiency, code words for pride, how it literally keeps us from God and from health and well-being of soul.  Let’s look one step further in John’s writing here:

[5] Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; [6] and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. [7] For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. [8] Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.(3Jn 5-8).

When we are attacked in our soul, we will see it affecting our desire to give.  Because we are hurt we stop acting faithfully with those God has put in our charge.  Oh we might send money off to a foreign land, but what about the family of God we are connected with.  Well because we are wounded and believe lies we don't want to.  Can you feel the pull of isolation?  How ungodly it is.

You what is really at stake here is God’s image.  God is community, Father-Son-Spirit.  He is oneness.  He created us in His image as community.

[26] Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” [27] God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. [28] God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Ge 1:26-28)

So we were created for community.  When we isolate, we generate sickness in our soul.  We don't realize that our isolation, our self-protection, is actually self-destruction.  We try to numb our pain by withdrawing, but all that we really have done is cut-off life.

Now, we are going to reply open this up.  What draws man to repentance??  

[4] Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Ro 2:4)

It is God’s goodness, or His essential character, His Glory.  So, what would draw us away from repentance and humility?  Well you answer correctly “pride”.  But the Bible is specific about what anti-goodness is for man:

[18] And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Ge 2:18).

So, we see that isolation is anti-Christ.  This is why offense and self-protection is a strategy of satan.  

[23] But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”(Mt 16:23).

So there is a battle for our mindfulness, where we put our thoughts.  Peter was telling Yeshua that giving His life for the restoration of the world was not OK.  He was proclaiming self-protection!!  What did Yeshua respond after identifying self-protection as satan’s strategy:

[24] Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. [25] “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. [26] “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? [27] “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. (Mt 16:24-27)

You see, satan’s strategy is offense and self protection because forgives and healing is the way of the cross.  It is the restoration of the image of God.  It is losing the self life for the community life.

One final thought and then we will pray:

When man was created, he was create self aware.  Man, as Adam was instructed to eat or be nourished by life.  He was instructed to avoid the tree of death, which came through judgment, the “knowledge of good and evil”.  Life comes though connection and healing death comes through judgment and self protection.  Let’s repent of our judgments and be healed.

[15] And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. [16] Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.  (Jas 5:15-16)

The word is trespasses.  A trespass is a violation of boundaries.  Judgments violate boundaries and make us the victim and sick. God is the creator of boundaries, territories of responsibility or stewardship.  When we judge we become a god and transgress and trespass on what God has appointed. Peter thought that the cross was not for Yeshua'. Yeshua rebuked Him for evaluating actions through His own idol of self-protection, which we know he had because he denied the Lord to save himself.

Ask the Lord. What idol of self protection is causing me to judge others?  Whose destiny am I resisting because like Peter I may have to give up my pride? Where have I denied the Lord and what He is doing because it doesn't fit my ideas? 

Living into Our Destiny-II - David Mitts

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue (abide) in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32)

And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" And he answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." And He said to him, "You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE." But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. "And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. "Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. "But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. "On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.' "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."

(Luke 10:25-37)

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In order to live as a disciple of the Lord, we have to abide in His Word.  His Word is His truth.  It becomes a house that we live inside of.

Our heart is where the beliefs exist that shape our lives.  What we believe to be true in our hearts is where act out of.

But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Rom 10:8-10).

Our salvation is based on a belief transformation in our hearts.  We are justified before God on the basis of heart-belief.  This is NOT the same as our minds agreeing with the Word.  No, there is a totally different process that occurs in the heart.  We can be convinced in our minds of a truth and still not embrace it in our heart.

"'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; (Mat 15:8).

Repentance is not a mind change but a heart transformation, an actual change of belief. 

1. Shame entered into mankind because of a heart-believed lie.

“Genesis 3:5 - “God knows that in the day you eat of it – eyes opened – be like God”.

· Adam believed lies: God is not good; God can’t be trusted to meet my needs; I must act on my own behalf to establish my own identity!”

“· When Adam sinned – guilt, shame, fear, ‘hiding’ all entered.

· Adam experienced: 1) Loss of identity (mask) 2) Loss of intimacy”

2. God’s Provision for Shame:

a) In the Garden – Skins.

· Genesis 3:21 - “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them”.

· God demonstrated His kindness and goodness to Adam.

1. Innocent animal slain by God.
2. Skins to cover were provided by God.
3. Adam had to remove his own covering.
4. Adam had to receive and put on God’s covering.”

b) At the Atonement on the execution stake, the cross – Righteousness.

and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

(Php 3:9)

· Matthew 27:50-54 - “God accepted Jesus as the offering for sin”.

And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit. And at once the curtain of the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep in death were raised [to life]; And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus observed the earthquake and all that was happening, they were terribly frightened and filled with awe, and said, Truly this was God's Son! (Mat 27:50-54)

Significance:

(1) Veil of the temple rent – All may have access to God. Hebrews 4:16

(2) Earth shook, rocks split - The devil’s power over creation broken.

· Earth = the entire earth, all of the land, entire creation shook in violent response to the shedding of the Savior’s Blood.

· Shook = to agitate, tremble, come in cosmic disturbance, throw into tremor.

· Rocks split = to divide, rend, tear, split apart.

· A power confrontation in the spirit realm – Colossians 2:14-15 - cause of the devil to loose his hold on creation. “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through The cross. (Col 2:14-15)

(3) Bodies arose from the dead - Jesus offering accepted, consequence of sin overcome.

· Romans 3:21-26:

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Rom 3:21-26)

God’s provision for Shame is to clothe us with righteousness and put His Spirit (His Glory) back within us.

Now, knowing this in your mind will not probably erase shame because it lives in our heart.  No.  We need a different kind of “knowing” this truth for us to become free of shame.  This kind of knowing is called: “Yada” knowing. This is an intimacy birthed out of transparency.  There is a dropping of our own covering and exposing our heart to the truth, knowing that we will lose something in the process.  As much as we want to be free of shame and its bondages, there is a fear that is generated along with it that makes us hesitate even at the gate of liberty!!  This hesitation factor is the sign that shame has infected our heart.  We are so afraid to fail that we hesitate even at the opportunity for freedom.

David knew this torment of heart.  Most of the Psalms display the conflict between the voice of shame and its lies which perpetuates iniquity from generation to generation, corrupting the image of God, His Glory and the breakthroughs of truth and light that bring us into our true identity.  In the psalms this is laid out.  Like Genesis, Chapter 1 is more than the first chapter.  Psalms 1 is actually the key to the whole revelation. Let’s look at it:

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. (Psalms 1:1-3).

At first this looks like a question of what people we listen to.  But the thing to notice is there are voices, wicked voices who counsel or direct a person.  These are the lies of the enemy and are designed to produce shame and drive us off course in our lives into paths that are of sin.  Sin, or chet means to miss the target.  Sin is a measurement of being off base.  It means that a voice has deceived us into a heart-belief that is causing us to be inauthentic, to be less than ourselves, to wear a fig leaf, a deception to cover our shame.  The seat of scoffers is the authority of satan.  When we sit in his seat, we are driving his vehicle.  We have yielded to his paths and his methods.  This is what Yeshua described when He said:

"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. "These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man." (Mat 15:18-20).

Now, returning to Psalm 1, the solution is to delight ourselves in the Torah of God, or Word of God.  Delighting is a receiving of pleasure from the Word.  The key to this is meditation.  The Hebrew word for meditation is “hagah” which means to ponder, or murmur something over and over, or even to sing it softly.  Included in this an intense focus on the object of meditation.

Meditation begins with receiving a Godly truth into our mind.  Then begins the process of transferring or embedding the truth into our heart.  This is a little trickier and requires some work on our part and the grace of God, which he releases into our humility. 

John 6:63 (NASB)

[63] “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

The pattern is given to us in Deuteronomy 6:4-6

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. (Deu 6:4-6)

This is meditation explained:

1.    Hear the Word of the Lord as the Words of our God, who alone is God.

2.    Love the Lord, become one with the Word of the Lord.

3.    Then the Words are “on our hearts”.

Now some key truths which when embedded onto our hearts with transform our relationship to shame and thus to God and our fellow man:

“i) God loves me - “I am loved!”

· 1 John 4:7-10

· The major remedy for shame is to know the love of the Father.

· God loves you passionately and desires connection with you.

ii) God has made me righteous in Christ - “I am accepted!”

· Ephesians 1:3-6

· Because of what Christ did I am totally accepted.

· Acceptance becomes reality as I trust and lean on truth.

iii) God is good and can be trusted - “I am a child of God!”

· Exodus 33:6

· Romans 8:15-17

iv) God has made me a unique ambassador - “I am an ambassador of Christ!”

· 2 Corinthians 5:17,20

· Shame causes us to focus on self.

· Now – new focus = God – representing Him, serving people.”

OK Let’s practice the first one, God loves me.  Receive this truth first as a hearing.  Hearing, opening our ears to the truth begins the process of embedding, of faith.  Now, let’s open the eys of our heart to the truth.  Ephesians 1:18  tells us: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,.  The eyes of our heart is our imagination sanctified by opening up to the Lord.  This is the “love” piece.  The object of our imaginations is our love object.   So, now close your eyes and imagine Yeshua looking at you with eyes of love.  feel His Presence and drink of how special you are to Him,  This is living water that flows from Him.  As you open up more and more to His flow you become more and more unashamed, accepted as His Beloved.  Allow His Word, He who is the Word to love your heart.

Practice His Presence this way each day.

 Printable Meditations to Eliminate Shame

This weeks offering teaching: Living in the "Grace of Giving" 

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For additional study about abiding in His love in the times we live in, obtain and read the book "Love versus Law, or BOTH!" by David Mitts.

Repentance is a Process - David Mitts

 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. (2 Corinthians 3:16)

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