23.2 Shaping the Human Heart
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Nothing in all the world or in all of the experience of heaven or earth is more important, of greater value, of higher significance, than the shaping of the human heart to contain and to reveal the heart of God Almighty.
God has chosen the foolish things of the world … and … the weak things … and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not (1 Corinthians 1:28). Are we qualified to be recipients of this highest place? We have no sufficiency in ourselves. Yet in all that sharing heart with God means, here is the most significant: “I am meek and lowly of Heart.”
Insignificance
I have watched TV shows recently in which the characters filled their lives with clawing to the top, with being “STRONG,” with never losing, with beating everyone else, with biting and devouring one another so that, for one moment, they might gloat as the “superior ones.” I listened to these characters as they expressed open disdain and mockery for any path in life that might increase one’s heart for others instead of one’s power over the face of others. And I marveled at how tiny, tiny, tiny they were making themselves, so miniscule and insignificant that when all things are seen as they really are, these humans “at the top” will be seen by all as so very, very sad, the smallest of all humans.
Difficult Is the Way
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13-14).
Jesus was not talking about being born again, or about “going to” heaven. He was not talking, even, about living in the wondrous rest of Christ living as us. These things are freely given. How shall God not with Jesus also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32b). Rather, Jesus was talking about sharing heart with God.
Pressed Against
But in this line is a critical word, the Greek “thlibo,” a word mirrored by the path of Adam to the tree of life and by the path of Jesus through the walk of the atonement. The translators chose the word “difficult,” as in “difficult is the way.” But as it is worded, the meaning is not right.
The way by which we are led to life is NOT difficult in any way. There is no darkness in that way nor any obstruction, nor any bend in the road. It is a way that ascends from glory to glory, from rejoicing to all joy, from giving thanks to dancing in the streets.
The word thlibo means “PRESSED AGAINST.”
Pressures Within and Without
A cognate of thlibo is thlipsis, usually translated “tribulation.” These two words the translators seem to use interchangeably for “anguish” and “tribulation.” Yet most of the words miss the critical element for us in these words. A better translation is in Mark 3, when the crowd is pressing and jostling against Jesus as He walked down the road.
Thlibo and thlipsis, all through the New Testament, tribulation, affliction, anguish, persecution, along with a synonym, stenochoria, or distresses, refer to pressures against the way, pressures within and without. Yet NONE of those pressures are ever in the way.
God ALWAYS leads us in triumph, in the path of glory.
My Sufferings for You
Some other verses containing these words will help us to know how God shapes our hearts to contain His heart.
We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:3b-5). – I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church (Colossians 1:24).
That word “sufferings” means sharing your sorrow, carrying your burdens, weeping with your tears.
Able to Comfort
The Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation (2 Corinthians 1:3b-6).
The word “suffering” is the same all the way through; it means, ultimately, sharing with compassion the sorrow of others.
The Same Care
That the members (of the body of Christ) should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it (1 Corinthians 12:25b-26).
Now, I am laying all these verses out for us to see that sharing heart with God is a common and simple part of the gospel message, even though such a thing is utterly profound. Yet God does nothing “to” us, but only together with us, only by our faith, by our explicit invitation. And that is why asking, believing that we have received, and giving thanks for all things, expecting God to work all things for good together with us is so very important.
From Glory to Glory
We must know that there is never a “rapture.” God never zaps. Throughout all the ages to come, everything of God will come to us from glory to glory, from step to step, always by our walk of faith, breathe in giving thanks, breathe out expecting God. God respects us so much that He always engages directly with us, Person inside of person, Heart inside of heart. God never violates our hearts, ever. To God, violating our hearts and violating His heart are the same thing.
Please understand also that I have no idea what I am talking about. I am way beyond myself. This is a God thing we are engaged with, Father Himself in us.
Illustrations
There are so many illustrations God has placed before us to show us how it is that He shapes our hearts that He might place His own Heart into ours. The afflictions of Job, the life of David, the agony of Jesus in Gethsemane, the press against Adam’s way, the press against Jesus’ way, the crying agony of Abraham, walking step by step up Mt. Moriah to offer the son of his heart back to God. The passage of a baby through the birth canal by the pressing of labor, the struggle of a butterfly to cast off the cocoon, the treading of grapes to release the wine, the refining of pure gold. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons … that we may be partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:7a-10b).
Spears Thrown
We must understand, however, that difficulty and tribulation, suffering and sorrow, are common to all and without value. What shapes our hearts to fit God’s heart is our response to God in the midst of everything. I see so many who present themselves as “ministers of Christ,” yet when they are “attacked,” they hit right back. Are they blind? Do they not know God?
The central question presented to us by the life of David, the central question presented to us by God in our lives is this. What do you do when someone throws a spear at you? What you and I do determines the entire course of our future.
God Revealed
Whatever you do to the least of these My brethren, you ARE doing it to Me. This is an incontrovertible truth repeated all through the Bible. How I treat you IS how God must treat me – forever. The shaping of the human heart to fit God.
The real race to the “top,” the real ascendancy of the universe is the shaping of our hearts. If you would be the GREATEST in the kingdom, become the servant of all. God revealed – a Man on His knees to serve, a Man taking little children into His arms that He might bless them.
Church
Now, look through everything I have said in this lesson. Everything can be boiled down to one word. CHURCH. It is in church that God has ordained our symmorphy with Him. – Church. I am not speaking of Sunday once a week; I am speaking of brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, young and old, walking together as a community of believers, loving one another with a pure heart fervently.
How can I love you or serve you, how can I treat you with the highest regard, how can I forgive you willingly when you offend me, unless I interact daily with you in the things of life?
Every Member Supplies
How can I set the course of my future except I walk daily together with you? How can I know God apart from His body, His dwelling place forever? How can I live outside of Church?
But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:15-16).
None of the other things God uses to shape our hearts to contain His can ever replace our experience inside real Church.
How Can I Lay Down My Life for You?
How can I lay down my life for you – when I never see you? The gospel is not pie in the sky; it is not feeling goose bumps from afar. Knowing God is found only in the blood, the sweat, the tears – and the joy, of walking together as a body of believers, as a community of Christ, in the daily grind of everyday life.
Do we live outside of Church right now by the season of God? Or do we live outside of Church because the bottom line for us, what we really want, is good feelings about God and ourselves, not sharing heart with God? I am speaking to myself.
The Set of Our Hearts
I am not speaking of any condemnation. Christ lives as us, as we find ourselves to be right now; He alone directs our steps. We give of ourselves in the only way we are able as we are able. I am speaking of the set and determination of our hearts. Do we have our hearts set on the Church of Jesus Christ, His Bride, the Body of Christ, our brothers and sisters in Jesus, whoever and wherever they might be? Do we weep with compassion over our brethren? Here alone is the shaping of our human hearts to contain and to reveal the heart of Almighty God.
In Gethsemane
In Gethsemane, Jesus took all of me into Himself, all of my sins, all of my failures, all of my joys, all of my griefs, all of my stumblings, all of my hopes, all of my past, all of my future. This is the Cup the Father asked Him to drink – me.
This is what He meant when He said, “Greater Love has no one than this, than to set forth his soul for His friends.” Greater love I do not have than this, to take you, as you are, all of your joys and sorrows, all of your fears and hopes, all of your ways of doing and talking, all of your quirks, all of your offenses, to take all you are into myself, into my heart, into love and there, to bear you as myself before God, that you might be free of all things to arise into all the life of God.
Agony Becoming Joy
Did Jesus grieve in sorrow as He drank all of me into Himself? And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Will it hurt me to carry you? You bet it will. Love suffers long – and is kind.
Yet I can tell you this – there is no deeper joy, no greater delight, no more satisfying way of living than to walk together as a community of believers in love. Jesus thinks that bearing me inside Himself, carrying all that I am every moment is sheer delight, all JOY.
If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem
You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). Do you know what Jesus really means as David spoke the thoughts of His heart? He meant walking together forever as one body with us in the congregation of the righteous, as the temple of Father.
Our hearts are shaped by one thing only – where they are SET.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth—if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy (Psalm 137:5-6).