The Heart Change

There was a time in my early years of ministry that I was so naive. I believed everyone, especially Christians who would spin a tale of the great exploits of God and make everything sound so spiritual and true.  Come to learn in later years that you have to be careful on what is spin and what is truth. Now, I will be the first to say, God is still the God of the Bible, full of miracles and signs and wonders, but the miracles must be God doing it, and not the invention or prefabrication of people. Faith filled people can place God in a awkward position at times where He is expected to perform, when its not His will or purpose to do so. Faith in God doesn't place God at our feet, we are always at His, never losing control over to our desires, or requests.  Sometimes we want God to respond to us because it says that we can ask anything in His name and He will do it.  Here are a couple of verses to explain this:

John 14:13 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 16:26  26In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; These verses coincide with people asking God with the right kind of heart, a heart that has been changed by God.  It is the only way these verses can be lived out in a manner and purpose for which they were spoken.  To demand of God anything is preposterous, and arrogant, and to live in a state of mind that I can get from God anything I want without His filter on it, is wishful thinking at best.  The one thing God wants above all things is a changed heart. He wants us to love Him, and worship Him, and live for Him, in a manner that is becoming to Him. This is the one area I write about all the time.  Many Christians do not have a good concept of what God expects or wants from us.  We are always in the mode to asking Him, but what does He ask from us?  Micah 6:8 helps us to define what God expects from us: Micah 6:8 8He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? This describes the kind of heart change that is at the top of His priority list in developing a relationship with us.  It is through these characteristics that God best operates in our lives, and it is in this kind environment where He is best seen through our lives.  When you ask people about developing a relationship with God, it has to start with the heart, because without a heart change, there is no lasting change.  Change the heart, you change the person.  Do you have a heart change?  Have you allowed God access to all areas of your life, starting with the core of who you are?   The church will continue to slide into apostasy without such a change, so the same principle can be applied to the corporate body of believers as it is to the indiividual.  Change the heart, you will change the Church.  Keeping it honest and truthful......K