FUNDAMENTALS
OF DISCIPLESHIP
A KINGDOM HEART – XXIV
In
last week’s post we made this comment:
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We naturally protect and keep safe our eyes, tongue,
ears, nose and hands. Why is this? It is because by them we are
able to see, taste, hear, smell and feel.
By them we are made aware of and possess knowledge of the physical world
around us. These are our “sense-gates,” receptors specifically designed for
our bodies to receive and interpret data regarding the world in which we
live. Damage or impair but one of these sensory
receptors and our ability to experience, understand, appreciate and respond to
the world around us is diminished. Our ability and capacity for obtaining
knowledge and information is denied us, requiring the remaining senses to attempt
to compensate for the loss.
From the moment we first drew breath we were made
aware of the sights, tastes, sounds, smells and textures of this world. From
that first moment, we began to experience, understand, appreciate and respond
to the world around us. Information began
to cascade into our brains because our sense-gates work 24 hours a day, every single
day; and as long as there is data to be perceived, our sense-gates collect and
transmit that data to our brains. They
never stop receiving and sending information if that information is accessible
by them; or unless we do something to diminish their capacity to receive that
information.
There are two reasons we might intentionally
diminish the capacity of our sense-gates.
One is to aid another sense gate; and the other is to protect a
sense-gate. For example:
- We wear ear plugs in order to facilitate greater
concentration on something other than the sounds around us (or find a place
where there is less sound to distract our attention). This explains why some
would go to a library, or to the solitude of their room to study.
- We wear ear plugs in an environment where the noise is particularly loud, or hold our hands over our ears in order to protect our ability to hear once we are no longer in that environment.
- We close our eyes in order to concentrate on hearing a sound, or to distinguish a smell.
- We wear sunglasses to protect our eyes from bright light. We automatically close our eyes or shield them when a glass shatters or a frying pan of hot grease splatters to prevent injury to our eyes.
- We blow air over a spoonful of hot soup or a fork full of steaming food until it is cool enough to put into our mouth without damaging our tongue in order to preserve our sense of taste.
- We wear ear plugs in an environment where the noise is particularly loud, or hold our hands over our ears in order to protect our ability to hear once we are no longer in that environment.
- We close our eyes in order to concentrate on hearing a sound, or to distinguish a smell.
- We wear sunglasses to protect our eyes from bright light. We automatically close our eyes or shield them when a glass shatters or a frying pan of hot grease splatters to prevent injury to our eyes.
- We blow air over a spoonful of hot soup or a fork full of steaming food until it is cool enough to put into our mouth without damaging our tongue in order to preserve our sense of taste.
- We wear kitchen gloves or use a folded towel in
order to take a dish out of a hot oven in order to protect our hands. We also wear gloves on an icy cold day to keep
our hands warm and preserve our sense of touch.
If we lost our hearing we would never again be able
to enjoy music, or the sounds of nature around us. If we lost our sight, we would never again be
able to enjoy another sunset, a beautiful painting or the face of a friend or loved
one. For reasons like this, we keep our
sense-gates safe and protected in order to preserve their function, and to keep
their function at maximum capacity.
The heart is a sixth sense-gate; but the object of
its perception is not the physical world around us. The heart senses what is in our spirit.
That is an entire world all of its own and the heart serves as our only access
to it. If you will recall last week’s
post I described the heart as a shared wall.
It is where the spirit and soul come together; but it is also what
separates and distinguishes between the soul and spirit. I used the
illustration of a duplex; where you lived on one side and a neighbor on the
other side; and the wall joining and separating your two units was like the
heart. Let’s take this illustration one step further.
When we are born into this world, though we are born
complete with a spirit, soul and body; our spirit is separated from IAUE (the
definition of what it is to be spiritual dead).
Our spirit is empty and disconnected from the world of the spirit. Our souls (mind, will and emotion) are
developed and cultivated exclusively from the data that we receive through the
five physical senses, and from the training we are given regarding that data. There
is no activity in Unit A in our duplex, so the heart, the shared wall, senses
nothing and communicates nothing to Unit B, our soul. It is like living in an apartment where there
is no neighbor living next to you. The
adjacent apartment to you is vacant.
There are no noises coming from there, because there is no one there to
generate noise. (If you have ever lived in an apartment complex, you know how
easy it is to hear the sounds coming from the people living on the other side
of your shared wall.)
When IAUE reveals His son to us, and we recognize
and acknowledge that Yahushua is our risen Master, and we bow our knee in
submission to him, we experience the “new birth.” We become a “new creature” in Messiah. We become alive in our spirit, connected to
IAUE. It is like having a neighbor
finally move into the vacant apartment. The
lights are turned on in Unit A, and all of a sudden the shared wall senses a
lot of activity in Unit A and begins to transmit that to Unit B.
Do you remember what it was like the first week or
two after you were born of the Spirit?
There was an excitement and joy and enthusiasm that filled you because
you were, for the first time in your life, connected to IAUE and you were
extremely sensitive to the new source of data being communicated to your
brain. For the first time in your life,
your sixth sense gate, the heart, was transmitting signals to you; and life was
completely new and different and wonderful. There was a virtual overload of new
sensory input. For most of us, however, after a couple of weeks, the wonder and
the novelty of this new sensory input wore off, having lost its glamour through
over-familiarity and/or by resistance to the data it was transmitting. We also had no one to teach us what was
actually happening to us; and we did not know that we were “to keep our heart with all diligence; for out of it are
the issues of life.” We did not
take care of our heart; and we allowed it to lose its sensitivity to our
spirit.
This loss of sensitivity of the heart blinds us to
the glory of the Son of IAUE and of His Kingdom. It blinds us to
the Light of Truth. It cuts us off from divine guidance and from the knowledge
of the will of Elohim. What a terrible loss, and yet, we CHOOSE to suffer
that loss out of ignorance and/or pride; and we do so on a daily basis.
In Psalm 106, the Psalmist provides a summarized
version of the history of the Hebrew people with respect to their relationship
with their Elohim. In the chapter's 48 verses, David recounts over and over
again, the times that IAUE did great things for the children of Israel only to
find them rebelling against Him. He would bring judgment to them.
They would cry out to Him, and He would restore them...only to have to go
through it all over again.
Psalm
106:43 Many times did he deliver them;
but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their
iniquity.
44 Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:
44 Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:
These were the covenant people of IAUE. Unto
them belonged the promises of IAUE and the Kingdom of IAUE; but like so many
men and women today who profess to be partakers of the New Covenant in Yahushua
Messiah, they paid little attention to IAUE's authority to rule in their lives,
and they went about doing their own thing. The transition
from faithfulness to prideful living is described for us in this passage of
scripture.
Psalm
106:12 Then believed they his words;
they sang his praise.
13 They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:
14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted Elohim in the desert.
13 They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:
14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted Elohim in the desert.
When the arm of IAUE was revealed to them in
deliverance, they were turned by His Word. "They
sang His praise." IAUE rescued them, and they rejoiced and
acknowledged that it was Elohim who was their deliverer. This didn't last
long, however, as "they soon forgat his works."
I have had the privilege of ministering to people in
miraculous ways. Legs have been lengthened, arms have been lengthened,
deaf ears have been opened, broken bones have been mended, prophetic words
revealing supernaturally given knowledge of personal issues in peoples’ lives
have been spoken...and you would be amazed at how quickly people can forget
what happened. Both the observer and the one receiving ministry can
rationalize away the miraculous in mere minutes, despite the evidence to the
contrary. Miracles do not hold the heart of man. Faith borne on the
wings of repentance does.
"…they waited not
for his counsel." After
they had been delivered from their miserable circumstances, the Hebrews (like
we have often done) forgot Elohim's work in their lives and they no longer
attended to His wisdom. They no longer sought the counsel of His
Word. Why should they? They were now free...delivered...in a better
place. The "God-card" had been played and they were now back in
lush green fields of success and prosperity. The Word of Elohim went back
to collecting dust on the coffee table.
"But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and
tempted Elohim in the desert." Having become quite comfortable in their divinely-provided
freedom, they took their ease to pursue their own lusts. Such behavior taunted
the Holy One who had delivered them. IAUE does not deliver man merely
to provide opportunity for him to continue living as he pleases. No, He
delivers man to enable him to obey His will.
What was IAUE's response to this development?
By now, we know quite well that IAUE resists the proud; but He gives grace to
the humble.
Psalm
106:15 And he gave them their request; but
sent leanness into their soul.
The Hebrews chose their own lusts rather than the
counsel of IAUE. IAUE allowed it, despite the fact that His counsel would
serve them far better; but He "sent leanness
into their soul." What
exactly does this mean? The Hebrew word for “leanness” (razown; pronounced "raw-zone') carries
two ideas with it.
1.
leanness, as from wasting away - Picture a healthy robust man who is made to go without food of
any kind over a period of many days. Add to that heavy manual labor, day
in and day out. That healthy robust man would slowly become gaunt, weak,
his natural color would begin to turn ashen.
He would become lean.
2.
scantiness, as from reducing measure - Picture a typical carton of milk, full to the brim with milk. Now...squeeze
that carton tightly in the middle with your hand. What happens?
Much of the milk runs out over the top. Why? It is because the
volume of the container became diminished as the sides of the container are
drawn closer to each other. It is because the carton had become
"leaner."
When we pursue our own lusts, forgetting the works
and the words of IAUE, we may enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season; but the
result is our soul becomes lean. The faculties of our mind, will and
emotions are diminished. Now, we are not speaking about the outward
direction of the soul toward the body and the physical world; but rather the
inward capacity of the soul to discern the signals the heart is trying to
communicate from what it is sensing from the spirit. It isn't our intellectual prowess (the mind)
that suffers. It isn't our ability to think and make decisions (the will)
that suffers. It isn't the capacity for enjoyment of the world around us (emotions)
that suffers. It is the soul's capacity for interpreting the signals
coming to it from the heart, which have been passed through it by the spirit.
If we continue to picture the heart as a sensory
gate (like the ear is to hearing, and like the eye is to seeing), then the
heart is a transmitter and the soul a receiver. Our verse for today
reveals that if we forsake the renewing of the mind, if we forsake the counsel
of IAUE's Word in order to pursue our own will; then we reduce the capabilities
of the "receiver" as well as tune it to a different frequency than
the one in which the spirit transmits through the heart. The result is a
soul that cannot tell when IAUE is speaking, a soul that cannot discern the
Truth from the Lie, or good from evil; a soul that relies on his/her own
judgment and intellect for life's decisions.
A disciple of Yahushua might as well pluck out an
eye or cut off a hand as to choose a pattern of behavior that satisfies his/her
own lusts. The loss of an eye or a hand only eliminates the sensory input
of sight or touch. The willful loss or
undermining of the sensory input from the heart is to choose to disconnect from
IAUE, Himself. The consequences are much more severe than the loss of a body
part.
Matthew
5:29 And if thy right eye offend
thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that
one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast
into hell.
30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
Kingdom heart: a
heart that offers no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.
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