Have you ever fleshed out? Do I need to explain about an adult having a temper tantrum? It might not be the kind a two year old throws. However, if we could see into our heart, it might look the same.

Many years ago I heard a speaker who gave a great visual illustration. He had hurried all his children into the car and was waiting for his wife. One of his sons jumped out of the car and raced into the house.

Backdrop. He had been very diligent to train his children how to respond instead of react when their goals were blocked. In that situation they were already late in leaving for their destination. In anger he got out of the car and yelled at his son to get back into the car. His daughter said, “What’s the matter daddy, did someone block your goals?” He said that it instantly humbled him, but his heart rejoiced because she understood what he had been teaching them.

Our flesh reacts when our goals are blocked. That is the key to why we are fleshing out. Psalm 62:5 is a great verse to train our heart with. All our expectations need to be on the Lord—not people or things which we have no control over. It says, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.”

Proverbs 25:19 says, “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.” If you have had either, you know that they lack support. Proverbs 28:26 Amplified captures it well for us.

It says, “He who leans on, trusts in, and is confident of his own mind and heart is a (self-confident) fool, but he who walks in skillful and godly Wisdom shall be delivered.” Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Moses forfeited the opportunity to go into the promised land because he fleshed out. Joshua was in the crowd watching. Moses struck the rock in anger, instead of obeying God’s word to speak to it. What will you and I forfeit? A moment of angry indignation and fleshing out is not worth it.

Joshua listened to His Leader. Here were God’s instructions to this young man. Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

Our victory over all things was accomplished through Jesus’ death on the cross. When we obey His command, ‘Take up your cross daily,’ we are positioned for the victory He has called us to walk in. Our cross denies our flesh that wants to act independent of God.

1 John 5:4 says, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” How do we increase our faith? Romans 10:17 says that it comes by hearing the word.

Sunday my pastor used a verse that fits in really well right here. Ezra 7:10 says, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.” 

Are you a seeker? I used this verse the other day but it bears repeating. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Did you notice how that faith and seeking are connected? I love David’s words. Psalm 27:8 says, “When You said, Seek My face, my heart said to You, Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Faith words or faith affirmations are without substance unless they come from the heart. 

Ezra prepared his heart to seek the Lord through His word. He wanted to make it part of his life, so that he would be an example for others to follow. Years ago I heard John Maxwell say something like, “If you are supposed to be leading, and no one is following, then you are just taking a walk.

Moses was God’s leader for the children of Israel. In Deuteronomy 4:1-4 he reiterated what he had taught them so that they could live. Verse 5 says, “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me…” Note the chain of command. “…that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess.”

Verse 6 says, “Therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding nation.”

Authentic followers of Jesus walk in obedience to His word. We are not just taking a walk. Everyone in our sphere of life follows us by observing our words and actions which come from our thoughts. Is your faith visible to others?

Ezra 7:10 in the Amplified says, “…had prepared and set his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, (to inquire for it and of it, to require and yearn for it)…” I’m going to James 4:5 to pick up the Greek definition for yearn. It means to intensely crave possession. More on this tomorrow

If you are assailed with the emotional weight of worry, His word has the answer. You simply plant the seed of Matthew 6:25 which has to do with your thoughts. It says, “…do not worry about your life…” In other words, when worry slips into your mind, don’t give it another thought. 

Why? Verses 26-30 explained that we have a heavenly Father Who will totally care for us. Verse 33 is His directive for us to follow. It says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Hebrews 12:1 says that we are in a race. Our progressive sanctification race is one step at a time. It is not a competitive race. There is no sprinting to the finish line at the end to beat out any other racer. We will all cross the finish line when we take our last breath. Jude verse 24 defined that line. It says, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”

Hebrews 12:1 is a warning for us about carrying emotional weights. It says, “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Several years ago the Lord gave me a vivid illustration of my feet being entangled. I was coming back toward the house from my garden. I had reached the end of the grass and had lifted one foot towards the sidewalk that led to the back porch steps. Instantly I was entangled by a very long skinny snake.

For the record, I don’t do snakes! I was high stepping it, and it was desperately trying to disentangle itself. After I recovered, I thought of Hebrews 12:1 in a new light. Emotional weights entangle our steps. They ensnare us. We get stopped in the very tracks that the Lord had already laid out for us to walk on.

Here is a verse I want you to consider. The context was about Israel under God’s judgment. Isaiah 10:25 says, “For yet a very little while and the indignation will cease, as will My anger in their destruction.”

I want you to apply verse 27 to your emotional weights when you cast them down before the Lord. It says, “It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.”

The anointing oil speaks to us of the Holy Spirit. He does the work. When we acknowledge our emotional weight as sin, confess it (that is the intent to lay it aside), then He will take it away. It has nothing to do with us, except we have to be the ones to kneel our heart.

I have been working on increasing my weights to help strengthen my body overall. Did you know that leg exercises increase your brain? My doctor suggested that I do tricep extensions. I had no clue so I looked them up on google. 

I had progressed from doing three reps without weights to 10 reps with 2# weights. I tried 3# and barely made one rep. That is when this title came into my mind. We were not created to carry any emotional weights! (this was typed several days ago-yesterday I did three reps with 3#~hallelujah!)

How would you describe the things that weigh you down emotionally? Burdens, cares, worries, fears, anxieties, phobias, and broken relationships would be a few. Psalm 55:22 is a great verse to memorize and hide in your heart as a reminder that there is One and only one who can help.

It says, “Cast all your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.” All means everything without exception. Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.” Emotional weights are thought driven. Rogue thoughts are undisciplined. 2 Timothy 1:7’s use of a sound mind means disciplined thought patterns.

Strong’s definition for the word commit is: to roll, roll down, roll away, remove. I love the word picture in Hebrew thought. Note from my Bible (my paraphrase because of copyrights). Picture a camel in your mind. It is burdened with a heavy load. When the load is to be removed, the camel kneels down, tilts way over to one side, and the load rolls off.

What a great application for us. We kneel down in our heart before the Lord We cast our cares at His feet. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, the burden rolled off his shoulders at the foot of Jesus’ cross. 

It is that simple. We make it so complex by dialoguing about our emotional weights. Instead we just simply kneel, tilt our weight on the Lord, and He will sustain us through whatever situation we are in.

God’s word is a seed. It will grow and expand to bear fruit when it is established in our thought processes. All of God’s word has a purpose, that IN us, will accomplish what He said. Isiah 55:10 is our promise. More tomorrow.

Heart idols are like a mirage of water in a desert. They cannot deliver anything. They are a stronghold that exists only in our mind. In order to cast them down, we have to change our mindset.

Years ago I had a dream. I saw a city with huge concrete citadels, each with a name in capital letters. They looked strangely familiar. As I observed this one, I noticed it said SELF-PITY. The Lord showed me it was a citadel of ‘poor me’ thoughts that I entertained from time to time. I had no clue. That revelation became chapter seven in my first book, “Freedom! From Past Hurts.”

I remember in 1975 when the Lord revealed my heart idol of noise. I had my radio plugged into the front light switch. When I walked into the door I would flip it on. Why? I did not want to think.

I’ve disclosed two of mine from my past. I hope that it has helped you identify some of yours. Anything or anyone that we turn to instead of the Lord first, would bear the classification of a heart idol. Ezekiel 14:4 says that our heart idols cause us to, “…stumble into iniquity…” Iniquity is doing anything independent of the Lord. 

Oh, yes that was another of my heart idols—independence. How do we cast them down? 2 Corinthians 10:4 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” Heart idols are inner strongholds that war against the Holy Spirit’s instruction.

Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Romans 12:2 says that when we renew our mind it is a metamorphosis experience. The butterfly could not be created until the caterpillar died to its old life.

The Greek word for casting down is demolition. It means: taking down, razing, destroying, and figuratively means extinction. Jeremiah 1:10 says, “…to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down…”

Here is what king Josiah did to the idols. 2 Kings 23:4-15. Let me recap. He had them all taken out of the temple (our body is the temple of the Lord). He burned them. Verse 6 says that he burned them and ground them to ashes.. In verse 15 he broke down an idolatrous altar, he burned it, and crushed it to powder.

We do this by first confessing our heart idol usurped the Lord’s place in our heart. Then we renounce it, and all the lies we believed that were attached to it. It is an enactment of Psalm 18:42 which says, “Then I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind; I cast them out like dirt in the streets.”

Isaiah 30:14 says this is what the Lord does right afterwards. “And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel, which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare. So there shall not be found among its fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water from the cistern.” Hallelujah!

I want to take you to the throne room. It is the scene that John took in as he was caught up in the Spirit. Revelation 4 is a glorious chapter. In 1997 I bought an old mobile. I had the 70’s wall to wall shag carpet replaced with emerald green. I wanted to remember His throne room each time I vacuumed. 

Can you picture verse 3? It says, “And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.” Verse 5 described what was happening.

It says, “And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” Verses 6-8 was the description of the four living creatures.

Here is what they were saying day and night. Verse 8 says, “…Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” They had eyes all around. They beheld His holiness through all dimensions.

We are called with a holy calling according to 2 Timothy 1:9. Peter reminds us that we are to be holy and He is holy. 2 Peter 1:15 says, “…be holy in all your conduct.” Hmm. I can tell you exactly what blocks us—heart idols.

2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

We don’t intentionally set up our heart idols. How do they get there then? They are figments of our fleshly imaginations—thoughts based in pride. I can honestly tell you that I believed that my independent spirit was my asset. I learned to take care of myself. I was single and on my own before I was 20. It seemed natural. 

That summer I had a rude awakening. I was a counselor at our youth camp. In our quiet time the Lord spoke this into my heart: you have not esteemed My words more than your necessary food. It shook me. At the time I didn’t know what I know today.

Heart idols usurp God’s place. Here is a graphic illustration of pagan idols, yet we can make personal applications. Psalm 135:15-18 says that man made idols cannot do anything. Verse 18 says, “Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them.” More tomorrow.

Rejection is universal. It doesn’t seem to matter where you live, how you were raised, or any other factor. Rejection often happens daily in some form. It seems that no one is exempt from this emotionally painful assault. 

Yet there is an essential truth that all believers can stand in. We have God’s stamp of approval. Isaiah 53:3 says, “He is despised and rejected by men…” He was rejected for us. His death changed our identity designations. Chosen. Predestined to adoption. Accepted in the Beloved. Redeemed. Forgiven. Predestined to God’s will. Sealed.

Let me backup these descriptions with the Scriptures. Ephesians 1:4 says, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”

Verse 5 says, “Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”

Verse 6 says, “To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

Verse 7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

Verse 11 says, “…being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

Verse 13 says, “In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

The ideology of our times wants to negate the values that God set His stamp of approval on each one of us. Scripture is full of truth that will keep us from falling into error. Our part is to read His word for understanding, observe it so that we can apply it personally, memorize it so that it is hidden in our heart, and speak truth to ourselves when faced with our enemy’s tantalizing temptations to own our rejections.

Instead of receiving the lying fiery darts, we need to resist them by proclaiming who we are IN Christ. Colossians 3:3 says, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Genesis 1:26 says that we are made in the image of God. 2 Peter 1:3 says that we have received ALL things that pertain to life and godliness. We must brand these truths in our heart to give us inner strength in the face of any kind of rejection. We are accepted  by the only One that matters!

Ephesians 4:23 Amplified says, “And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind (having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude).” We cannot be idle, letting our mind wander into fleshly indulgences.

We must stay our thoughts on the Lord. Inner peace is the opposite of inner distress, turmoil, anguish of spirit, doubt, fear, and unbelief. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”

This verse has two conditions. We must keep our focus on the Lord instead of our circumstances. It requires trust or relying totally on Him and no other fleshly means which cannot profit.

1 Samuel 12:21 says, “And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.” Hosea 10:13 says, “…You have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way…”

The enemy will use our distress to plunder us through his lies. The Lord uses our distress to increase His real estate in our heart. Psalm 118:5 says, “I called on the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.”

Psalm 18:18-20 anchored my heart when I had another brain injury in January 2017. It says of the enemy, “They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.”

Dwelling in His Presence in the midst of the storm is the broadest place we can be—emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Intimate communion knows no barriers. Read this first verse from a new song called Extravagant Oil Of Joy.

I lift my unveiled face to gaze into Your face. Face to face I behold You as You behold me. No veil separates us. No fear of being known. We have intimate communion. Our hearts are knit as one.

Here is verse from a new song called Song of the Altar. In the midst of adversity when trouble surrounds me. I come into Your presence and I build an altar. I remember how You met me time and time again and I bow in worship.

Lifting our heart up in worship sets us in a broad place. We rise above the distress into His glory. Nothing limits us. There are no barriers that can keep us from Him. He is Present within us. We are breathing in His Presence every second. We praise Him with His breath within us because He is worthy.

Distress Default

I had read Exodus 6 and 7. The Holy Spirit took me back to camp on Exodus 6:9. Moses had just told the children of Israel that God was going to bring them out of their distress-filled circumstances. In verse 6 he reiterated God’s words, “…I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.”

Why couldn’t they grasp hold of God’s promises when Moses told them? Verse 9 says, “…but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.” The Hebrew for anguish meant impatience, or shortness. It conveyed several meanings for spirit. One is the mind, another is the seat of emotions such as anger, or dispositions such as troubled, bitter, and discontented.

Let me take you back to what had happened. Before Moses came they had Egyptian taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. Exodus 1:13 says, “…all their service in which they made them serve was in rigor..” Exodus 2:23 says, “…the children of Israel groaned because of their bondage…” God heard their cry and sent Moses.

After Moses came, Pharaoh gave a harsh command. He deduced that because they wanted to go into the wilderness and worship their God, they were resting from their labors and idle. He gave the edict that they were no longer to be given straw. They had to go out and gather stubble. Yet, the quota of bricks was not reduced.

When we are distressed in our heart, we are tempted to default to unbelief. Our flesh rises up to protest through self-pity, self-focus, impatience, or any number of emotional fillers to deflect the pain.

The pain is present, but the promises seem too far away. When we are emotionally hurting, spoken truth hits the inner heart barriers of unbelief. The desire for immediate relief kicks in. I call it the dark night of the soul.

Think of the caterpillar inside the cocoon. It is dark. There is no relief from the transformation that is taking place. The caterpillar had to die to ‘self’ to make room for the butterfly. The caterpillar melts, and God forms the butterfly from its liquid.

The Lord uses our hard trials as His tool to transform our character. Ephesians 4:22-23 says, “That you put off, concerning your former conduct…” That is what the caterpillar has to do.. Its cocoon days abruptly stop the enjoyment of fresh leaves.  Ah, but the butterfly drinks life-giving nectar“…and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

In my book, “Victorious Living: more than a conqueror,” chapter seven is entitled, “Observing Your Life.” What do folks see when they observe your life? All that we do visually and behind doors is observed by others. 

What we think and what we do are intricately connected. They spill out like water being poured from a pitcher. All words come from thoughts. Though our thoughts are private, the fruit of those thoughts can be observed through our actions.

I was grocery shopping this morning. There was a customer two ahead of me waiting for the bagger to finish. The words coming out of their mouth, and the expressions on their face revealed the fruit of an angry inner dialogue.

David had a wise prayer that needs to be hidden in our hearts  as well. Psalm 19:14 says,  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O  Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”

Psalm 107:2 says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy…” Verse  20 says, “He sent His word and healed  them, and delivered them from their destructions.”

Is your life a testimony of being redeemed? David said in Psalm 40:2-3 that, “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay…He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.”

Psalm 104:33-34 says, ”I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord.” I want to draw our attention to the three ‘I will’s’ because that is key.

Saying, ‘I will’ sets our heart in the right direction. Two words that declare purpose and intention. We can take our example from a man’s words in the midst of a deep trial. Habakkuk 3:18 says, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

What do others observe as you go through your hard trials? Here is our mandate for giving preference to our intent with ‘I will’ from Hebrews 13:15. It says, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God,  that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”