Having a Heart after the LORD

1. a seminarian graduate (they are a dime a dozen), or
2. a humble disciple with a heart after the LORD?

SATAN created the system where people feel like they’ve sought God because they attended Sunday morning church service. Not. So, they coast all week, backsliding more each day for lack of the presence of God filling their lives via daily seeking Him. By biblical definition, foolish virgins are those who were once saved, espoused to the Bridegroom of Heaven, and yet have since fallen away from intimacy with Him and will be shut out of His eternal bridal chamber if they don’t repent and return to Jesus as “first love.” (Matthew 25:1-13; Revelation 2:4-5)

Jesus promised that those of His people who die lukewarm will be spued from His holy mouth, rejected.

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16

Those who pretend to serve God, those who read His Word and fellowship in prayer with Him only when they feel like it, when crisis hits, when it’s convenient to their own self-serving, self-worshiping, self-idolatrous life, are backslidden and hell bound. Repent now, lay down your life and obey God. The fires of eternal damnation are going to forever feed upon your helpless, conscious soul if you don’t repent and return to Jesus as the “first love” of your life (Revelation 2:4-5).

Personally, I am constantly aware of the danger of the danger of the dehydration of the body and therefore continue to militantly force water into my body hourly. In the same way, and much more importantly with eternal consequence, we must be disciplined followers of Christ, empowered by His truth, the warning, and the Holy Spirit to “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) “Men ought ALWAYS to pray and not to faint.” (Luke 18:1) Those who don’t drink lots of fresh water will have physical problems and those who don’t drink from the well of the LORD in prayer without ceasing, will suffer defeat here and eternally (Matthew 26:41) | Pray without Ceasing

Talking to God in prayer is more important than our speaking to men about God (ministering). The greatest temptation we face is rejecting Christ, denying Him the “first love” place in our lives which includes time, our hearts, our lives in the temporal world (Revelation 2:4-5). Those who do not commune with the LORD in prayer, simply will not be imbued with His divine anointing to effectively, powerfully minister to others.

“Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach, only how to pray. To know how to speak to God is more than knowing how to speak to people. Power with God is the first thing, not power with people. Christ loves to teach us how to pray.” Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, p. xxiii-xxiv The disciples asked Jesus “Teach us to pray” and not “teach us to preach.”

Those not delighting in the LORD daily have self as their idol.

“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Psalms 37:4

Are you lukewarm, fallen away, or are you one “that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee (the LORD)“? (Isaiah 64:7)

Those not delighting in the LORD daily have self as their idol.

Beware of the Pitfalls

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 1 Corinthians 13:5

Ultimately we shall all stand before the LORD to give account and yet, that’s not all the Bible says. Many isolate themselves from God’s people and His Word spoken through His people (Acts 2:42; Colossians 3:16). They hide in darkness with the attitude that “God will judge me so leave me alone” because they are not accountable to Christ and therefore want no self-examination or the help of the body of Christ. David said: “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head.” (Psalms 141:5)

The Word of God carries the judgments of God in order that we might know Him and be prepared to meet Him (Psalm 119). The Judge of our eternal souls has spoken and thank God it’s an open book test we can pass if we truly repent, lay down our lives in this world, put our faith in Christ, and say with John the Baptist – “He must increase but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

“Reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” Proverbs 6:23b

Life in Christ involves continual learning, a never ending classroom of divine instruction and correction, of learning to lay down our lives, to abandon ourselves to Christ – crucified with Him, dead and buried, and raised up by Him! (2 Corinthians 4:10-12)

We know when our lives are not practically dead and buried with Christ when the works of the flesh are raising their ugly head! (Galatians 5:16-24) So, we know then to get back to the cross, right? | The Crucified Life

“Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.” Hosea 4:11

SIN takes away the heart. In other words, the reason some aren’t full of holy conviction, fervent in spirit, full of the love and zeal of the LORD, is due to their own choice not to repent, be sanctified, and follow Jesus. Self and sin rule their lives, not Christ.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

Greed is a soul damning sin. Read 1 Timothy 6:6-17.

SUCCESS is not money. No, it’s an abiding oneness, relationship with Jesus! Jn 15, 17

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4

“But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29

“Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity…” Jeremiah 29:12-14

“If thou seek him, he will be found of thee.” 1 Chronicles 28:9