FROM YOUR HEART - PART 5

SATURDAY 10 AUGUST 2024

Reference: Proverbs 4:23 New International Version (NIV)

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

I define the two-sided segmentation of the above versified reference as follows:

1. Above all else (wisdom is beyond, and its about to give an instructive insight).

2. Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it (Make your heart the ground base of spiritual reality that braces and fosters your spiritual understanding, physical success, your dealings in the material world, and the right actions that lead to noble existence).

A guarded heart is pure medicine that reveals the non-ordinary reality in human dealings - within the sphere of earthly activities, and it grants us the empirical spiritual experiences, which means, not just experiences created by ordinary human minds, but experiences based on our direct relational indulgence with the person of the Holy Spirit. When you guard your heart with all diligence, things don't just happen as a fortuity. Not at all! You'll never function in a state of being controlled - by leaving things to chance or easily remain at mercy of outside force, because you are absolutely in charge. Since no one can guard your heart for you, think about it carefully! To guard something that precious, denotes that you are the commander in chief of your life's operative insights. That means, you have the governing authority over what goes on within you, which matters in regard to influencing your style of living.

From a guarded heart, you can stretch out your inner eyes to see over the horizon and understand the dynamics that decide and influence your actions, as well as how to participate in creating viable solutions when any problem arises in your world. A guarded heart is a verified emblem of "Many powerful" operable understandings. Moreover, I especially like the fact that such heart knows how to remain tenable with judicious flow of a strong focus majored on filtering and eradicating the wrong thoughts and perceptions, thereby encouraging the vision of superlative possibilities.

One of the easiest weapons or methodologies the enemy employs to keep people's heart unguarded is his devilish condemnation, and if you paid apposite attention to the previous article, you'd notice that I listed it as the "number one" factor that wields or exercises his negative influences in the human heart. Therefore, to ensure that you guard your heart against devilish condemnation with the right knowledge, Pauline epistolary instruction reads, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1 KJV). In addition, Johannine literature numbered as 1st John 3:19-20 reads, "This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything" (NIV).

Question: As a born again Christian, have you gained the fixed cognizance that you belong to the truth? Have you fully set your heart at rest in His presence? These two questions are of paramount importance because giving both of them a positive affirmation implies that you have guarded your heart against any possible condemnation.

For those powerful Christians who know that they belong to the truth and have firmly set their hearts at rest in the presence of the Most High, if at all, their hearts experience any form of condemnation, they must swiftly extinguish the condemning effects by being God-minded, which should be observed on a consistent basis; an activated response that is greater than such hearts. Stay tuned for part 6. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Proverbs 14:30; Matthew 15:18-19; Jeremiah 17:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:5.

Exuberant Declaration:

Jesus paid the redemptive price for my salvation; therefore my heart belongs to Christ, and it is preserved inviolate from all manner of evil-inspired influences, by the wisdom of the Spirit. Praise God!