My Heart's Desire

And, saints do not get me wrong. This is not an indictment against the church; it is just a statement of reality. The church needs resuscitation because its members are in need CPR. More and more people are coming to God with broken and destroyed hearts. And I am not referring to a heart of humility that David talks about. No I’m talking about distraught hearts that have been trampled on by all forms of abuse and misuse; lonely hearts disappointed by divorce and death of love-ones; sick hearts suffering from AIDS, cancer, and sickle cell anemia; hearts suffering from the trauma of addiction, unemployment, and homeless. The church is filled with broken-hearted people who are functioning in society by living a substandard menial existence because we do not know how to allow God to mend our broken hearts.

And our problem is that we often try to mend our own hearts by taking matters into our own hands. We get into self-help programs, empowerment tapes, and listen to motivational speakers and attend conferences trying to get our selves together and when it is all over we are still broken. We try to fix our selves up, get a new hair-do, buy a new outfit, and maybe even move to a new location but our hearts are still empty.

What we need is filling-up, a bubbling of God’s spiritual power in our life. We need something that is not only concrete and tangible, but something we can aspire to. And I don’t know about you but I am ready to move this church from Cardiac Care Unit. I am ready for CLLC to get off the critical condition list. But I also, realize that the only way that our medical discharge will take place, is not only for us to have might move of God but for us to open up our hearts to his movement. You see, God is moving. He is moving all around us. But he desires to move inside of us. When he is inside of us then God will use us to move this community. The key is getting him inside of our hearts.

Paul tells us, how this process begins. He reveals to us why God is moving in every other community but those of his own Jewish people.

What Paul reveals to us is that God desires to move throughout our lives like the flow of blood moves throughout each chamber of the human heart. The word, the logos, the Christ desires to flow in and out the four chambers of our hearts giving life to our total being. And once God is completely flowing throughout every aspect of our life like blood flows through our heart, we will witness supernatural moves of God in our lives.

To understand this process, we must understand the operation of the human heart. To clearly understand how we are let god mend our hearts, we must look into the biological operations of the major component of the circulatory system. You see the heart is only the size of a small fist composed of two halves and each half divided into two chambers. It used to be my understanding that blood flowed into the heart only once. But after careful research, I soon learned that blood actually flows through our heart twice. The first time, blood enters into the right chamber (atrium). The blood is fill with carbon dioxide and other impurities and it is very low in oxygen. At this stage the blood is not pure. It is not perfect, yet but it is necessary. Paul states that when God first comes into our lives he comes through a messenger. The messenger is imperfect, flawed, and human but he is still necessary for the process. Here is where many of us, already have a problem. It is right here in the first stage of the process where many people are setting themselves up for heart failure. You see heart failure can occurs when deposits of fat and dead material build up on the inner walls of arteries leading to the heart. Too much build up stops the flow of blood. Many of us have build up in our hearts hindering us from receiving God’s messenger. We have wrong ideas, stereotypes, misconceptions, and prejudices. “All preachers either womanizers, greedy, or gay.” Many are still using Jim Jones, Jim Baker, Jim Swaggert, and David Koresh, as excuses for not trusting God’s messenger. Many of us, have lost powerful messages from God, because we could not see beyond the messenger’s gender, race, and culture. “He’s too young. He’s too black. He’s too fat. He’s not tall enough. He’s not married. He’s not Lutheran.” I mean there are saints in our midst missing out on the move of God because they will receive me as there pastor. Been coming to this church for years but won’t make commitment. They call me pastor. But I’m not their pastor. Others have not received me as a messenger because of what a former pastor did or say to them. But in order for god to begin moving in us, you must receive his messenger. You may not agree with him or her, but still receive him. If God call him, you must respect him or Her as God’s chosen vessel. The prophet wrote, “how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news.’ It was understood that when a servant of God came to one’s town, community, or house, he was bringing good news. He was bringing the covering of God’s glory to the houses he visited. Brother Lot knew this when he took in God’s angels and defended them from an angry mob. Rahab the harlot knew this when she took in Joshua’s two spies in the city of Jericho. The widow of Zarephath understood this when she received the prophet Elijah into her home and gave him her last morsel of bread, yet her meal barrel remain full. Mary and Martha knew this when they took in Jesus of Nazareth, and when they needed most during the death of their brother Lazarus; he came as the resurrection and the Life. The first step in witnessing a move of God in your life is to receive his messenger. God sends his messenger to the door of your heart and once you can receive him you can begin to hear God’s message.