Three Bible passages makes it expedient for anyone to hand over his/her OLD STONY HEART to Jesus Christ for a NEW FLESHY HEART:
Jeremiah 17:9- ‘The heart is DECEITFUL above all things, and DESPERATELY WICKED; who can know it?’
Proverbs 4:23- ‘Keep your heart with all diligence, for OUT OF IT springs the issues of life’
Matthew 15:19- ‘For OUT OF THE HEART procede evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies’
A person’s heart is DESPERATE to oppose the Lord and also destroy that person, people around him/her and the earth. The heart is CONTRARY by default. It always desires the opposite of what it is instructed. This is what Apostle Paul said in Romans 7:8, ‘But SIN (Stony Heart) living in me taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of EVIL DESIRES. For apart from the law the sin nature in me was dead’. So Law + Sinful Heart = Sin leading to death. NO ONE can control the heart by self efforts.
The ONLY ONE who TRANSFORM the human heart is the LORD JESUS CHRIST. He turns a CONTRARY heart to an OBEDIENT heart that lives a life of love, leace, unity and joy without struggles. This transformation of the human heart by the Spirit of the Lord is the LIFE-CHANGING PROMISE God had for humanity from eternity long:
Ezekiel 36:26, 27- ‘I will give them a NEW HEART and put a NEW SPIRIT within you; I will take the HEART OF STONE out of you and give you a HEART OF FLESH. I will put My SPIRIT within you and CAUSE you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them’
Romans 7:19, 20, 24- ‘For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I PRACTICE. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but SIN (Stony Heart) that dwells in me…O wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?!’ (Brackets mine)
Written By: Rev. Fianko Larbi
Jeremiah 17:9- ‘The heart is DECEITFUL above all things, and DESPERATELY WICKED; who can know it?’
Proverbs 4:23- ‘Keep your heart with all diligence, for OUT OF IT springs the issues of life’
Matthew 15:19- ‘For OUT OF THE HEART procede evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies’
A person’s heart is DESPERATE to oppose the Lord and also destroy that person, people around him/her and the earth. The heart is CONTRARY by default. It always desires the opposite of what it is instructed. This is what Apostle Paul said in Romans 7:8, ‘But SIN (Stony Heart) living in me taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of EVIL DESIRES. For apart from the law the sin nature in me was dead’. So Law + Sinful Heart = Sin leading to death. NO ONE can control the heart by self efforts.
ALL THE ISSUES AND PROBLEMS the world is facing COMES FROM DESPERATE
HUMAN HEARTS. We may advance technology in our attempts to solve
problems caused by human hearts but there is NO TECHNOLOGY that can tame
or TRANSFORM these desperate human hearts. The best we can do is to
IMPRISON or MURDER criminals. But for how long will we keep putting
people behind bars? For how long will we keep killing criminals? For how
long will we continue to use motivational messages to temporarily tame
desperate human hearts?
The ONLY ONE who TRANSFORM the human heart is the LORD JESUS CHRIST. He turns a CONTRARY heart to an OBEDIENT heart that lives a life of love, leace, unity and joy without struggles. This transformation of the human heart by the Spirit of the Lord is the LIFE-CHANGING PROMISE God had for humanity from eternity long:
Ezekiel 36:26, 27- ‘I will give them a NEW HEART and put a NEW SPIRIT within you; I will take the HEART OF STONE out of you and give you a HEART OF FLESH. I will put My SPIRIT within you and CAUSE you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them’
This transformation is what is termed BORN AGAIN. By accepting the
Lordship of Jesus Christ over your life, you receive a NEW HEART and the
HOLY SPIRIT. It is from this moment that your soul and body can rest
from the VANITY and FRUSTRATIONS of a desperate heart. He who has been
born again has received LIFE because he/she is NO LONGER under a life of
stress, frustration and death caused by the previous stony heart. No
matter how RELIGIOUS (eg Islam, JW, Judaism etc) you want to be, without
a new heart your self effort is futile. Who told you those who smoke do
not know that smoking is destructive? But why cant they stop? The
simlle answer is that they lack the RESURRECTION POWER that transform.
The best they can do is to engage is BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION but the
stony heart in them will still frustrate them. This is will always be
the song of UNREGENERATE (Unborn again) people :
Romans 7:19, 20, 24- ‘For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I PRACTICE. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but SIN (Stony Heart) that dwells in me…O wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?!’ (Brackets mine)
This is the way forward: one needs the NEW HEART and the SPIRIT OF
GOD. The veil of the STONY HEART in removed ONLY in Christ so that a
person can be liberated from the DESPERATIONS of the old heart to behold
the GLORIOUS LIFE in the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Corinthians 3:14-17 ‘But their minds were blinded. For until THIS DAY
the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament,
because the veil is taken away IN CHRIST. But even to this day, when the
Law is read, a veil lies ON THEIR HEART. Nevertheless when ONE TURNS TO
THE LORD, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and WHERE
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY’
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| Rev. Fianko Larbi |
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