Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23 NKJV
Let’s continue our discussion on the inner man and how to maximize your spiritual growth. The Bible tells us in this Proverb to guard (keep) our hearts with all effort available to us. If there is a commandment to protect or guard something, then there is an assumption that the thing you need to guard is currently open for infiltration. No one puts a guard where there is already protection in place. The heart is something that must be guarded at all times. We must be intentional about ensuring that nothing enters our heart, which is where our spirit lives, without being filtered by the Word of God. Our spiritual enemy, the devil, is busy and wants to infiltrate our hearts and minds with lies, deceit, and sin. He does this by planting seeds in our hearts that lead to a harvest that we would not want to reap.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.
Mark 7:21-23 NKJV
Jesus tells us that the heart is the place from where all fruit is produced. The only way you get a harvest of any kind is to plant the seed that you want. The scriptures tell us that both evil and good treasures come out of the heart of men. It is up to us to determine which of those two is produced in our lives. Before Christ comes and lives within us, we have no power over the fruit being produced. The sin nature simply will not allow us to produce anything good. However, once the Holy Spirit enters our lives, He empowers us to bear good fruit. We have a responsibility to equip our spirits to bring forth that which is good.
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45 NKJV
The Bible tells us here that out of the abundance of the heart the man’s mouth will speak. If you want to know what is in the heart of a man listen to the words of his mouth. If you are in need of changing the things that are coming out of your mouth, you start with your heart. The Word of God is the key to equipping your spirit to speak the words that God speaks. Once you confess Christ Jesus as Lord, now starts the journey to renewing your mind, which also fills your heart with the good treasure of God‘s Word. You don’t just change the way you speak because you confessed Christ one day. It is by the washing of the water of the Word (Ephesians 5:26) that now you begin to speak differently. What you hear continually is what gets into your heart, so we must immediately begin the process of sanctification after salvation. Sanctification simply means consecration, purification, and separation unto God. Whatever doesn’t align with your new nature in Christ will now be separated from you because you now belong to Him.
But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth
2 Thessalonians 2:13 NKJV
The Bible says here that God chose us for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth. You cannot believe a truth that you don’t know. The Word of God is truth, therefore, you must start the journey of putting the Word of God in you so that you can know the truth to believe. The more Word you put in your heart, the more you equip your spirit to be guarded from the schemes of the devil. Notice that Jesus defeated Satan in the wilderness by the Word of God (See Matthew 4). The Bible calls the Word of God, the Sword of the spirit. In other words, if you don’t have the Word, you are without a weapon in the spirit realm, which also means there’s nothing to guard your heart.
Begin today to meditate on the scriptures, especially the New Testament, so that you allow the Word of God to sanctify (purify) your heart. It has the power to break every sinful habit, addiction, and mindset if given enough attention and time to get planted in your heart and produce the fruit that it bears. The Word of God doesn’t return void (Isaiah 55:11), meaning it will always produce a harvest wherever it is given opportunity to be heard. This is also why the devil fights so hard to keep God’s word from being declared. If you are listening to things that don’t align with God’s word, you must make the decision to lay it aside so that it doesn’t become a hindrance to your spiritual life.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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
Hebrews 12:1 NKJV
The Bible tells us to lay aside weights and sins that take us off course. Now that Christ has set us free from the bondage of sin, we now have the power to lay it aside. That grace is available to all of us, and the Word of God is like a sword or hammer that breaks the chains of the devil that he puts on man through sin. Once the sin has been dealt with, now you can rise up and overcome everything that once had you bound. There are many benefits that Christ has given us, but let’s look at another benefit of the Word of God being put in our hearts.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
John 15:7 NKJV
We have many more things to say about prayer, but this is the first key to an effective prayer life. You must allow the Word of God to abide in you, which means that it must remain in you. We have all been in a classroom setting where the teacher stood up and taught an entire lesson on a particular subject. When the lesson is over, the test is distributed to the students. Those who forgot the lesson or did not allow it to abide (remain) in them, did not pass the test. The words were spoken and heard by all of the students, however, it was the students who meditated on what was taught by rehearsing it, writing it, and possibly even listening to it again are the students who put it in their heart. When the test was given, they simply recalled it from their heart and applied it.
This is what Jesus means when He says for His Words to abide in us. Don’t just read it once and check the box. Allow His Words to saturate your inner man and become part of you. The promise in doing so is that you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. The reason is not because you simply remembered His Words, but rather that His Words entered your heart and produced a harvest of faith that causes all things to become possible for you because you believed what God said about your situation. Prayer then turns from a desperate hope for God to hear, to a faith filled expectation that He already has. We will dig further into this subject of prayer in The Inner Man Part 3.
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