Proverbs 27:19 NLT

As a face is reflected in water, SO THE HEART REFLECTS THE REAL PERSON.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 ESV

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, TESTING YOU TO KNOW WHAT WAS IN YOUR HEART, WHETHER YOU WOULD KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS OR NOT. And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, BUT MAN LIVES BY EVERY WORD THAT COMES FROM THE MOUTH OF THE LORD.

Deuteronomy 5:29 NKJV

Oh, that they had such A HEART in them that THEY WOULD FEAR ME and ALWAYS KEEP ALL MY COMMANDMENTS, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

Matthew 6:21 NKJV

For where your TREASURE is, there your HEART will be also.

Luke 6:45 NKJV

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Acts 13:22-23 NIV

“I HAVE FOUND DAVID SON OF JESSE, A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART; HE WILL DO EVERYTHING I WANT HIM TO DO.” From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as He promised.

1 Samuel 16:4-13 NKJV

So Samuel did what the LORD said, and went to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice. So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him!” But the LORD said to Samuel,

“DO NOT LOOK at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I HAVE REFUSED HIM. For the LORD does not see as man sees; FOR MAN LOOKS AT THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE, BUT THE LORD LOOKS AT THE HEART.” So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “THE LORD HAS NOT CHOSEN THESE.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all the young men here?” Then he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here.” So he sent and brought him in… And the LORD said, “ARISE, ANOINT HIM; FOR THIS IS THE ONE!” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and ANOINTED HIM in the midst of his brothers; and THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAME UPON DAVID FROM THAT DAY FORWARD.

Deuteronomy 10:12-21 NKJV

What does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?…Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer… You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. HE IS YOUR PRAISE, AND HE IS YOUR GOD.

Psalm 19:14 ESV

Let the words of my mouth and the MEDITATION OF MY HEART BE ACCEPTABLE IN YOUR SIGHT, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Psalm 51:1-17 NKJV

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. FOR I ACKNOWLEDGE MY TRANSGRESSIONS, and my sin is always before me. AGAINST YOU, YOU ONLY, HAVE I SINNED, AND DONE THIS EVIL IN YOUR SIGHT—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. BEHOLD, YOU DESIRE TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS, AND IN THE HIDDEN PART YOU WILL MAKE ME TO KNOW WISDOM. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD, AND RENEW A STEADFAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. FOR YOU DO NOT DESIRE SACRIFICE, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. THE SACRIFICES OF GOD ARE A BROKEN SPIRIT, A BROKEN AND A CONTRITE HEART—THESE, O GOD, YOU WILL NOT DESPISE.

Isaiah 57:15 ESV

I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Exhortation: Consecrated Heart—Making His Mandate My Mission

Our Heart Matters Foremost to God

In any relationship, the heart is of foremost importance, so it is in our relationship with God. To live in audacious faith that His mandate is our mission, we must have a heart completely consecrated to Him. Consecration is a heart matter. Jim George wrote in his book A Man After God’s Own Heart, “The heart is the place where our life gets its direction.” Throughout the Bible, the Lord speaks of His passion for the hearts of His people to love, serve, and obey Him. He seeks the complete devotion of our hearts that He is our first love, priority, passion, and pursuit. In Acts 13:22-23 NIV, Paul spoke of David being such a man:

After removing Saul, He made David their king. God testified concerning him: “I HAVE FOUND DAVID SON OF JESSE, A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART; HE WILL DO EVERYTHING I WANT HIM TO DO.” From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as He promised.

The Holy Spirit is constantly working on our hearts that we become people after God’s own heart like David and will do everything He wants us to do. When God was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt to the promised land, He tested their hearts with trials and hardships to reveal their hearts and to train them to obey all His commandments. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 ESV speaks of this:

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, TESTING YOU TO KNOW WHAT WAS IN YOUR HEART, WHETHER YOU WOULD KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS OR NOT. And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but MAN LIVES BY EVERY WORD THAT COMES FROM THE MOUTH OF THE LORD.

Consecration is a Heart Matter

Proverbs 27:19 NLT says, “As a face is reflected in water, so THE HEART REFLECTS THE REAL PERSON.” Consecration does not begin with outward acts of reverence but with the INWARD WORK OF THE HEART in setting it apart as holy unto God and for His purpose. Consecration of the heart is the consecration of the whole person.

Man’s heart has always been God’s priority in His relationship with His people. God has not changed. He is still seeking out a man or woman whose heart is wholly consecrated—set apart unto Him—to do His will, making His mandate their mission. David was such a person, and God testified of him as a man after His own heart, one who would do everything God wanted of him. Acts 13:22 NKJV says that when God removed Saul as king, “He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID, son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART, WHO WILL DO ALL MY WILL.’”

David’s heart was consecrated to make God’s mandate his mission. When Israel clamored for a king, God chose Saul as their first king. Saul’s heart began well but became corrupted by self-will and rebellion. He began doing his own desires rather than God’s. The Lord was grieved and rejected and removed Saul as king. In 1 Samuel 13:13-14 NKJV, the prophet Samuel strongly rebuked Saul, saying,

You have NOT KEPT the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. THE LORD HAS SOUGHT FOR HIMSELF A MAN AFTER HIS OWN HEART, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT KEPT WHAT THE LORD COMMANDED YOU.

When the heart is radically consecrated to God, we become radical people who are not afraid to obey God to the extreme. By the power of His Holy Spirit, we begin to have audacious faith, live in extreme obedience, and believe that we can do outrageous, impossible, and inconceivable things as His obedient followers. William Booth once said, “God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible.”

Consecrated and Chosen to Make God’s Mandate My Mission

The Lord looks at consecrated and holy hearts when choosing people to use for His purposes. He seeks those with audacious faith to make His mandate their mission. When Samuel was instructed to go to Jesse’s house to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be the next king, God rejected all the seven sons Jesse brought before Samuel. In fact, when Eliab, the first son, was brought forward, Samuel looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him!” However, the LORD said to Samuel, “DO NOT LOOK at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I HAVE REFUSED HIM. FOR THE LORD DOES NOT SEE AS MAN SEES; for man looks at the outward appearance, BUT THE LORD LOOKS AT THE HEART” 1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV. When Jesse presented his seven sons before Samuel, each time it was recorded that “the Lord had refused him,” “the Lord has not chosen this one,” or “the Lord has not chosen them” because they all had heart issues that disqualified them in God’s eyes.

Finally, when Samuel asked if these were all the sons, Jesse admitted that the youngest son was keeping the sheep. Samuel instructed for David to be brought before him. In 1 Samuel 16:12-13 NKJV, when David appeared, the Lord declared to Samuel, “ARISE, ANOINT HIM; FOR THIS IS THE ONE!” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and ANOINTED HIM in the midst of his brothers; and THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAME UPON DAVID FROM THAT DAY FORWARD. What was it about David’s heart that so drew the approval, trust, and pleasure of God that God pointed David out to Samuel, saying that he was the one? God commanded Samuel to arise and anoint David, for he was the Lord’s chosen. God testified that David was a man after His own heart, and He had chosen him to be the anointed king. The Holy Spirit’s power and grace came upon David, filling him with audacious faith to make God’s mandate his mission as king over Israel. It was through David’s lineage that Jesus came as the Son of God to be the Savior of Israel and the whole world.

The Church must return to the understanding that God does not see as man sees concerning His call, vision and ministry. Passion, giftings, training, skills, knowledge, and experiences are all important in the kingdom of God as we serve Him, but God still prioritizes searching out our hearts to see if He could declare over us, “Anoint him, for he is the one!” Are we like Eliab, Abinadab, Shammah, and the rest of Jesse’s seven sons whom God refused, rejected, and did not choose because of the condition of their hearts? Are we like David, whose heart was consecrated wholly to love, honor, and serve God in everything God says?

When we bring a sacrifice before God, He is not looking at the sacrifice in our hands. He is looking at what is in our hearts. In the world of Christendom today, many things have been made priorities that are not God’s priorities, although with the great intention of serving God and bringing in the harvest. May we, as followers of God, purpose to know God and His heart by seeking Him, praying, and living His Word with total dependency on the Holy Spirit. We must strive to make God’s priority our priority in our relationship with Him. HE IS SEEKING FOR PEOPLE AFTER HIS OWN HEART. May our aspirations and excellent efforts for church growth, advancement, programs, and methods be birthed from being people after God’s own heart to do all that He tells us according to His ways. We thank God for the many great books, programs, and ministries that are of tremendous help to the body of Christ. Yet, these are not substitutes for personally seeking God, dwelling in deep intimacy with Him, hearing Him, learning from Him, and being directed by Him. The five-fold ministries are essential to the Church, but we must not forget the Greatest of All, Jesus Christ. He is the One we must seek to know and love in intimacy to the utmost. All ministries and services rendered to God must reveal and glorify Jesus Christ as Lord overall.

Repentance is a Heart Matter

Just as consecration is a heart matter, so is repentance. In repentance, OUR HEART IS TOTALLY UNDONE, broken and contrite, because of being CONFRONTED by Truth and CONVICTED by the Holy Spirit concerning our sins. In God’s mercy, He confronts us and exposes our sins in the light of a revelation of Himself that He is holy. In Isaiah 6:3 NKJV, the prophet saw the Lord Almighty seated on His throne, high and lifted up in the temple. The seraphim surrounding Him worshipped and cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” Isaiah saw his own undone state and spiritual ruin in the brilliant presence of the holy God. In verse 5, he earnestly called out to God, “WOE IS ME, FOR I AM UNDONE! BECAUSE I AM A MAN OF UNCLEAN LIPS, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; FOR MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE KING, THE LORD OF HOSTS.”

In Psalm 51, David also demonstrated true repentance for his sins against God. His heart was shattered by the revelation that he had profoundly offended and grieved God, the Lord of hosts. He, too, cried out for God’s mercy in Psalm 51:3-4 NKJV:

For I ACKNOWLEDGE MY TRANSGRESSIONS, and my sin is always before me. AGAINST YOU, YOU ONLY, HAVE I SINNED, and DONE THIS EVIL IN YOUR SIGHT—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.

In deep remorse and godly sorrow, he repented before God with a broken spirit and contrite heart for all the sins he had committed against God concerning his adultery with Bathsheba. He was deeply cut as he understood that all sins were ultimately sins against God—committing personal evil against the Lord Himself. He pled for God’s mercy that in His lovingkindness, He would forgive him and blot out all his heinous offenses against the person of God—His holiness, righteousness, and ways. David had willfully trespassed who God was. He willfully traded his priceless relationship with the holy God for the profane indulgence of evil. In his repentance, David was a broken man filled with godly sorrow, weeping and seeking forgiveness and the restoration of his relationship with God. He sought the Lord to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within himself. He was exposed, convicted, and wrecked by the Truth. Gripped by a desperation for God’s forgiveness, cleansing and restoration, he begged that he be purged with hyssop so that he would be clean, washed and made whiter than snow.

He cried out to be restored to holiness, righteousness, and a right relationship with God. He returned to the knowledge of God and yearned for the restoration of God’s Truth and intimacy, praying in Psalm 51 NKJV, “BEHOLD, YOU DESIRE TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS, AND IN THE HIDDEN PART YOU WILL MAKE ME TO KNOW WISDOM.” His heart burned again with a fire to be one with God as he sought the Lord: “DO NOT CAST ME AWAY FROM YOUR PRESENCE, AND DO NOT TAKE YOUR HOLY SPIRIT FROM ME. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” He pursued God crying out, “CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, OH GOD, AND RENEW A STEADFAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME.”

Ultimately, his understanding of the heart of God concerning His people was restored to him as he prayed in verses 16-17,

FOR YOU DO NOT DESIRE SACRIFICE, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. THE SACRIFICES OF GOD ARE A BROKEN SPIRIT, A BROKEN AND A CONTRITE HEART—THESE, O GOD, YOU WILL NOT DESPISE.

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 7:8-11 NLT, wrote in his letter to the Corinthian church concerning repentance with godly sorrow,

I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while. Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. IT WAS THE KIND OF SORROW GOD WANTS HIS PEOPLE TO HAVE, so you were not harmed by us in any way. FOR THE KIND OF SORROW GOD WANTS US TO EXPERIENCE LEADS US AWAY FROM SIN AND RESULTS IN SALVATION. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. JUST SEE WHAT THIS GODLY SORROW PRODUCED IN YOU! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.

For the Church to live with a holy and consecrated heart, we must know repentance as David did. We strive for holiness, but we still stumble. We are being perfected in Christ but not perfect yet. How do we view our trespasses against God? Do we understand that every sin we commit is a sin against God personally? Has repentance been marginalized in today’s Christianity? Is repentance, as some say, only a “change of the mind?” Is it truly just a change of the mind? Where is the godly sorrow, brokenness of spirit, and contrition of heart as the Holy Spirit convicts of sins, of which the Bible speaks of? Are we undone like Isaiah and David? Have we, in trying to contextualize the Bible in today’s culture, unwittingly been guilty of distorting the eternal truths of the Word of God? Have we been guilty of trying to conform the Word of God to the audiences’ worldviews and value systems to make our preaching and teaching palatable and acceptable to them? Has genuine repentance through the work of the Holy Spirit been marginalized and reduced in importance in the Christian faith? Has the humanistic desire to “heal and help” by making people feel good caused the Church to compromise on repentance? Have we veered from speaking the Truth in love to speaking soothing words to cater to the flesh? Would we rather offend God than man where repentance from sin is concerned? Have we reduced God’s love to be inclusive of practices of sin that God hates? The Church is not called to be hardliners on personal interpretations of God’s Word, but we are called to know the Truth, live the Truth, and teach the Truth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! We cannot put personalities, charisma, giftings, and popularity over the priority of having a consecrated heart that God approves and accepts.

In repentance, it is necessary to ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and reveal all hidden matters so that we can see our hearts through His eyes and know our hearts as He knows. In Psalm 139:23-24 ESV, David cried out to God, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

We must repent in the spirit of repentance of Psalm 51 with the brokenness of spirit and contrition in heart, crying out to God for His tender mercies and His forgiveness, for we have offended His Person. We must repent of the inward contaminations of the heart, not just the outward deeds of sins. These inward contaminations we have allowed to sneak into our hearts and corrupt us with thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and decisions are offensive to God. Mere confessions of the lips without true heart repentance do not guarantee the cleansing of the defilement of the heart. The power of true repentance is that it leads us to be wholly separated unto God in holiness. Let us live in the holy consecration and fear of God and give no room for compromise, making His mandate our mission.