THE HEART IS THE THING – How to Become a Good Hearted Person

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no   more can ye, except ye abide in me."  John 15:4 (KJV)

As I indicated from the last post, the goal of this series is to show us the roadmap to the ultimate, which is becoming a FRUITFUL BELIEVER. If you track back to the various posts of this series you will notice the various snippets of the roadmap to becoming a fruitful believer or A GOOD (FERTILE) HEARTED PERSON. Becoming a fruitful and productive person is one of God’s main expectations of the human race according to  Genesis 1:28  “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” 

and Jesus Christ reiterated the need for anybody who follows him to be fruitful in John 15:2  “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” so becoming a fruit bearing follower of Jesus Christ is mandatory, we cannot negotiate our way out of it. In the light of this understanding let us look into the details of becoming the ultimate. We must understand that we cannot reach this destination without having Jesus Christ in our boats, in other words one must accept Jesus Christ as Lord and personal savior. 

He is the one who will make us fruitful, we cannot become fruitful by our own strength according to John 15:5(KJV) “ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” From the narrative in Luke 8:4 -15 the only category among the four that is not born again is the wayside hearted person as stated “Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”  Luke 8:12 (KJV). 

So if one finds himself in this category he or she must first of all believe in his heart and confess with his mouth, then he is saved according to Romans 10:9 (KJV) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Once you have done this, then you, together with the other three categories have a level playing field to grow into fruitfulness, because you all have the grace (the divine empowerment) to grow, 

According to Titus 2:11-12(KJV) says “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”. We must also take note that although we are born again, we cannot achieve the ultimate if we rely on our human strength and self-righteousness; surrendering to the Lord totally is the game changer, if we do not, it does not matter how long we have been in the faith, we will become miserable and frustrated in our bid to become a good (fertile) hearted person.

Jesus Christ said we cannot become a good (fertile) hearted person until we abide in him according to John 15:4(KJV) “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” Abiding in Jesus Christ is the surest way to becoming a good (fertile) hearted person, and to abide means to steadfastly and permanently depend on somebody; it also means to dwell or to reside in a place. So what abiding in Jesus Christ invariably means is to be under his presence and roof continually; it also means to die to oneself and allow Christ to live in our lives. In order to Abide 

(1) We must totally trust in the Lord – The bible says “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.”  According Jeremiah 17:7 (KJV). We must bring all our struggles before the Lord and spread it before Him and just trust that God will sort us out. We must never doubt the capabilities of our God. If we are struggling with a particular sin, we must be sincere with ourselves and ask for help; we must ask for God’s grace in our hour of need “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 (KJV). 

We must first of all ask God to help us and then seek the counsel of a matured believer. Some of the nagging sins we are struggling with demands certain affirmative action from us. Let me give an example- If Kodjo is struggling with lustful thought as a result of watching movies and reading stuff that stimulate his sexual current, all he needs to do is desist from every appearance of evil such us pornographic movies and materials as well as sever his ties with friends who are immoral. The bible says in 1 Thessalonians_5:22 (KJV) “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”  And 1 Corinthians_15:33 “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” 

If Kodjo is struggling to do that, then he must seek the help of a pastor or spiritual person who can take him through intensive fasting and prayers (deliverance) because some of this negative habits have deep spiritual roots and must be uprooted through this method as stated by Jesus Mathew_17:21 (KJV) “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” If after been prompted by the Holy Spirit about our spiritual state and we choose to ignore the help He is offering us then it just means that we are proud and we cannot trust Him. Not trusting the Lord will bring disaster, isolation, guilt, spiritual and sometimes natural blindness to us and we will be incapable of recognizing the good or the blessings of God when it comes our way.

      
      (2) Intentionally make time to study God’s word – The word of God is the most potent creative force in the world. The only challenge is to figure out how to unleash this potent force in the word of God and the only way to do that is to spend time reading, memorizing, analyzing, meditating and then applying the word of God to our lives so as to experience this unlimited power of God. Let’s look at a character in the scripture that was able to unleash this potent force, he is called Joshua. Interestingly, in preparing Joshua for war with the ruthless enemy, 

    God’s major command to him was in Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” Joshua was just instructed by God to assimilate the word of God, that was the main thing he needed, any other exercise was just supplementary to this. Let us carefully study Joshua 1:8- the first part of the scripture he was asked to not let this book of the law depart from his mouth, which means he should memorize it and be able to quote it (mental accent of the scriptures), 

    then he was further instructed to meditate upon it, which simply means “ As he reads the bible, he must frequently pause so as to understand the meaning of what he is reading. He must assimilate the word into his system by dwelling on it, pondering on it, going over it again and again in his mind, considering from different angels, until it becomes part of him “ – Nancy Demoss Wolgemut. And it is the memorization that will imprint the word on the tablet of his heart and once that is achieved it will unleash the grace (power) to do (obey). 

    

     Hebrew 8:10-11(KJV) says “Now, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. None of them will have to teach their friends or tell their neighbors, 'Know the Lord.' For they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.” It is at the point of doing (obedience) that the most potent power of God can be exhibited in our lives. Martin Luther King Jnr through his Civil Right Movement used this potent force by choosing not to be physical, but was able to subdue the most potent racial climate in the USA. 

(3) Create time to pray – The bible says in Luke 18:1  “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint” A prayer or prayer life that is predicated on God’s word is a sign that a believer is humble and depends on God for his daily survival. He understands that without prayer, a Christian has no strength to do anything. The prayer I want to emphasis here is personal prayer time, not the corporate prayer where all believers meet at church to pray. Although going for Church all night and prayer meeting is good, 

    this should not replace one’s time of personal prayer, making time alone to pray is what makes the difference here. That is where we can get personal and in details with God. It was recorded of Jesus as his custom was in Mark_1:35 (KJV) “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” , Mathew_14:23 (GNB) “After sending the people away, he went up a hill by himself to pray. When evening came, Jesus was there alone”,  Mathew_26:36 (GNB) “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 

     Luke_6:12 (GNB) “At that time Jesus went up a hill to pray and spent the whole night there praying to God.”  No wonder Christ disciples said in Act 6:4 (KJV) “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” Remember, Hannah had a breakthrough in the place of personal prayer, Moses spent time alone with God, and Elijah travail in prayer alone with God, the list is unending. My fellow let your prayer life go beyond the church building and prayer meetings, create time alone with God.

    (4) Make Time to fellowship – Watch your association, they are sometimes an indication of your growing route. Hang around good Christians and stop avoiding the assembly of Christians no matter how you are offended “Hebrews_10:25(KJV) “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Avoiding spending time with those who will not help know God Psalm 1:1 (KJV) “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” 1^ST Corinthians_15:33 (KJV) “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” 

(5) Share your faith the lost – The most important gift God has given the Human race is our faith as Christians, Our faith if allowed to express its fullest potential in us will resolve all the crisis of this unstable world. We are privileged to be part of the household of faith, we must unreservedly and unselfishly share it with the lost in our relational space. We must make His last command, our first concern - Mat 28:19-20(KJV) “ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

We have come to the end of this voyage called – “THE HEART IS THE THING”, please watch out for a new series called “THE TWO SIDES OF THE CROSS”

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