The Implanted Word Part Two

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
The Implanted Word Part Two
 
The word ’embedded’ floods my mind with two childhood memories. My friend’s father had a big motorcycle. He laid it over one time in a gravel patch. He had pieces of gravel embedded in his forehead, arms, and legs. Another was a car accident. The man was thrown from his car and his legs were embedded in the soft dirt.
 
Our hearts are creatively designed for God’s word to be embedded into the fabric of our thought processes. Here is one verse. Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” When that verse is embedded, it will be like an alerting sentinel each time a fiery dart of impurity is sent.
 
The embedded word is like a governor. In my school years, school buses had a governor. It could not go over 45 mph. How many verses have you embedded that govern your thoughts and actions?
 
Action plan: think of your areas of weakness, ingrained bad habits, not Christ-like behavior, or destructive thought patterns. Take the word that addresses that issue. Embed it through memorizing the verses and meditating on them. Once they become part of your thought processes, they will enable you to overcome. Why? Faith comes by hearing the word. All temptations to evil are an attack against our faith.
 
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.”

The Implanted Word

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
The Implanted Word
 
James 1:21 says that it is the implanted word that saves our soul. Ephesians 1:13 illustrates this. “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 seed of the word that you heard was received into your heart. It was planted in fertile soil. James 1:25 helps us understand how that seed of salvation grows. It says, “…and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
 
Memorizing and meditating in God’s word is spiritual looping that increases our brain connections. The neuroscientists say that the things that wire together stay together.
 
As a child I filled my heart reservoir with lots of verses. I learned whole chapters, and many of the Psalms. They are still there. When I would teach Bible studies, they bubbled up as I was speaking. They were my ready-reference that the Holy Spirit drew from to form my thoughts. They are there when I am writing this post, and in my books. Why? They were implanted.
 
That is why we must take every thought captive. A fiery-dart negative thought can easily become implanted IF we receive it, rehearse and replay it over and over. Negative looping or replaying is satan’s counterfeit. He will do anything to capture our mind. He wants to grove it with destructive thoughts that will affect every aspect of our lives. If he can get us to believe a lie, he will use it to control our lives.

Our True Design Part Two

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
We have such an amazing body. Understatement! The Lord has everything in place for our bodies to live, adapt, and thrive. This morning I want to focus on our digestive system, and relate it spiritually.
 
When we are in fight or flight because of danger, our digestion system diminishes or shuts down in order to allow our body to concentrate on the need at the moment. Our heart rate and our breathing increases.
 
Thoughts of fear, worry, or anxiety still create the fight or flight reaction even though there is no danger. As we continue to entertain, rehearse, and loop these negative emotions, we are compromising our digestion. Our gut is the seat of our emotions. Have you ever had a gut feeling? Have you ever had a stomach ache when you were tense with fear, anxiety, or worry?
 
Now let’s connect our physical digestion with our spiritual. Poor digestion can result in malabsorption issues. Here is a paragraph in a book I’m working on: Victorious Living.
 
The digesting begins with the chewing. In the spiritual, we begin to digest His word as we meditate on it. We carefully chew each thought until we have a better understanding. As we begin, the Holy Spirit empowers. It is not our effort, it is His working the word that will transform our way of thinking.
 
Malabsorption occurs when the food we eat is not digested. The nutrients, enzymes, vitamins, etc. are not absorbed and processed as God designed our body to function.
 
Spiritual malabsorption is described in James 1:21-25. Verse 21 uses the word ‘implanted’ to help us understand the other verses. Verse 23 says, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer…” He used the picture of a man who looked into a mirror but did not discern who he really was.
 
Verse 25 says, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it…” That is the key to absorbing the transforming power of God’s word.

Our True Design

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
We are made in the image of God. We have a spirit, and we live in a body that has a mind, will, and emotions. We commune with the Lord through our spirit.
 
Of course, satan will seek to counterfeit all that the Lord has designed in order to capture and control our thoughts. That is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that we are to bring every thought captive.
 
I learned in 1993 that not every thought I have is of my own origin. It radically changed my life. Remember, it is God’s word that discerns our thoughts and intentions.
 
Therefore, not every thought, emotion, feeling, or impression is from us. The enemy sends fiery dart-lies through each of the above. Always they are in the first person, or felt as though personal.
 
Let’s take fear for instance. We know from 2 Timothy 1:7 that we are not given the spirit of fear. All of a sudden we have a feeling or emotional reaction of fear. Yet, there is no danger. That is a lie! We need to capture it and render it null and void by NOT giving it another thought. Our next thought must be truth to counteract the lie.
 
Back to ‘looping’ or rehearsing. Here is our design. The Holy Spirit gives us a rich insight. At that moment our spirit man rises up. It is like a spiritual kaleidoscope. Verses come to mind that surround the insight. The Holy Spirit draws them from the reservoir in our heart. We see them with new eyes. They illuminate our heart with broader understanding.
 
1 Corinthians 2:13 says, “These things we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” That is spiritual looping. As we loop the verses together, they are forming new strong connections in our brain. Verse 14 says that the natural man cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned.

Heart-Husbandry Tools Part Two

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
Colossians 2:11 says, “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.”
 
Thorns thrive in fallow ground. Jeremiah 4:3-4 says, “…Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts…”
 
The scar tissue (fallow ground) in our hearts protects the buried emotional pain. It diminishes our capacity by taking up room in our hearts. It is like debris swept into the corner and left.
 
As we submit to the Lord’s scalpel (His word), He will divinely orchestrate a heart-circumcision made without hands. It is a deep work of the Holy Spirit that cannot be accomplished by man. Our part is to yield.
 
Last night I read a chapter in a book about brain function that was the catalyst for my circumcision made without hands. I humbled myself before the Lord and repented. He is doing the work.
 
The book is copyrighted so I can’t quote it, but these are my words. When we rehearse our emotional traumas, we are ‘looping’ or replaying every detail. ‘Looping’ has been a hidden sin in my life. It is not who I am nor how I was designed.
 
Negative dialogue causes caustic chemicals to drip onto our myriad brain connectors and eat them away. It causes good gut bacteria to die off, leaving a weakened immune system.
 
(The book is “Create A Better Brain through Neuroplasticity” by Debi Pearl. It starts in the womb. Last night I reached the 20-25 year old part. Debi’s book had me riveted from the first page.)
 
Our heart is designed as a reservoir to hold God’s word. We sin against the Lord when we use it to store all manner of hidden emotional pain. Our fleshly self-preservation creates scar tissue to protect it. All we do is leave debris to rot in a corner. It diminishes our capacity to enjoy the Lord through intimate communion.

Heart-Husbandry Tools

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
I had a dream last night. There was a large crowd of people. The speaker didn’t show up and I was asked to speak. As I took the mic, the Holy Spirit brought Hebrews 4:12 into my mind. As I began to quote it, some of the crowd left. I said something like: “The word of God is the essential tool that brings healing to wounded hearts. It is His word only”…more people left.
 
There was a group of folks huddled in the back of the building cringing from fear. Then someone came up and grabbed the mic to divert what I was saying. Someone else grabbed the mic from them and again sought to divert the people.
 
The key heart-husbandry tool is God’s word. It is a scalpel that penetrates deep into the heart to pierce through the emotional scar tissue.
 
Picture this. The Surgeon is the Lord. His word is His operating table. Our heart is the patient. There is no surgery without the patient on the operating table.
 
Joshua 1:8 says that we are to observe to do. We read it daily and make personal application from what we have read. I finished the book of Proverbs last night. I would encourage you to read a chapter a day according to the date on the calendar.
 
Today is the 4th. Proverbs 4 is great. There are many verses that speak about the heart. Verse 23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” As you read the verse, ask yourself: Am I guarding my heart, or am I hiding emotional pain instead of releasing it? Am I allowing God’s word to pierce into my heart or am I resisting His work through His word?
 
Psalm 119:5-7 says, “Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed, when I look into all Your commandments. I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments.”

Heart-Husbandry Part Three

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
When a child is traumatized, they have no grid to process that emotional pain. Often it is stuffed and buried in their heart. It is sealed off so that nothing can penetrate it in the natural. In the spiritual sense, that area would be considered uncultivated. Emotional scar tissue is fallow ground.
 
God’s word is a healing scalpel that can pierce through our emotional scar tissue. The truth of God’s word is like oil that penetrates into those dark crevices. As the Holy Spirit opens that area, light floods in to dispel the fears, trauma, shame, guilt, and the lies.
 
Hosea 10:12-14 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
 
You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way…”
 
Here is an interesting verse. Joel 1:17 says, “The seed shrivels under the clods…” When a farmer plows fallow ground, he prepares it to receive seed. The soil has to be broken up so the seeds have no restriction in their growth.
 
Plowing uncultivated ground in our hearts, opens the wounded areas to receive the seed of God’s word. It is His word alone that will bring deep healing. That is why Jesus came, died, was buried, and rose again. It is the gospel that sets captives free!
 

Heart-Husbandry Part Two

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
In Song of Solomon 1:6 the Shulamite woman says, “…but my own vineyard I have not kept.”
Are you keeping your heart-vineyard? Here is another explanation of neglecting to remove the thorns that choke out His word. Luke 8:14 says, “…choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
Diligent heart-husbandry is essential for fruit bearing. John 15:8 says, “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear MUCH fruit; so you will be My disciples.” We bear fruit as we abide. Anything that keeps us from spending quiet time with the Lord will diminish our fruit.
Verse 5 says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit…” Verse 7 says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you…” It is being (intimate communion) and not doing (service) that bears fruit.
Heart-husbandry is also monitoring our thoughts. John 15:2 is our example. It says, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away…” Pruning is essential for the health of a vineyard. The husbandman must know how to prune.
We ‘prune’ our thoughts when we take them captive. We cut off the negative ones the moment they come into our mind. How? We don’t give them another thought. Negative dialogues bear no fruit for His glory.
Engaging in a mind-only negative dialogue is futile. That means: empty, fruitless, and worthless. There is nothing redemptive about it. All it does is sow weed-seeds into our thought processes. Beware! One weed seed that goes into the soil of your heart will bear multiple weed-seeds. Look at any uncultivated land as a vivid example.

Heart-Husbandry

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
Proverbs 24:30-34 is a warning for all us. Verse 30 says, “I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding.” Here is what it looked like:
 
overgrown with thorns
covered with nettles
stone wall was broken down
 
We are the keepers of our heart. Proverbs 4:23 says that we need to do it with diligence, not neglecting our role as the husbandman.
 
Our heart is our belief center. It requires diligence to maintain our core beliefs, lest some fiery dart lie penetrates to undermine our faith.
 
We know from Mark 4:18-19 what happens when thorns are allowed to remain in the soil of our heart. They choke out the word:
 
cares of this world
deceitfulness of riches
desire for other things
 
Nettles are those little irritations that we ignore until they become full-blown expressions of our flesh.
 
Without a hedge around our heart, all manner of things creep in. Song of Solomon 2:15 says, “Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes.” The ‘little foxes’ take away our potential fruit. Colossians 2:8 says, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”
 

What Do You Believe? Part Three

~ jma47 ~ Leave a comment
Jesus stated a core belief to Martha. Then He asked her if she believed it? John 11:26 says, “And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Scriptural core beliefs are non negotiable. They are hills that we will die for. Many have given their lives because they refused to renounce their belief in Jesus. Acts 4:11 says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
The Bible is relevant no matter what culture you are in or what period in history. What we believe affects every aspect of our lives.
Proverbs 22:28 says, “Do not remove the ancient landmark, which are fathers have set.” Does this sound relevant to today’s reality in our nation? Deuteronomy 27:17 says, “Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s landmark…” (different setting but the principle remains)
Our core beliefs will come under attack. It is important that we rehearse them in our hearts. What we believe we speak. The enemy of our soul is always seeking ways to undermine our faith.
Jeremiah 6:16 says, “Thus says the Lord: Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it.”
It is time for us to pray for our nation and the world as never before. We have an election coming up. One party opposes all that the Lord stands for. They will sway many who also oppose Him. Yet our country was founded on core beliefs.
Negative thoughts, which are satan’s inside weapons, are not our portion! Don’t engage! Our thoughts, purpose, and actions are always being conformed to His will through our trials. Strength comes through unity. Let us unitedly stand and together petition the only One who is in control of all things at all times.