The Hidden Man of the Heart - David Mitts

Do not let your adornment be merely outward--arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel-- rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. (1 Peter 3:3-4 NKJV)

We have been sharing about the inner image we carry and the veils of the flesh, cover-ups.  A veil is in place to protect something precious.  It hides the Glory.

unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. (2 Corinthians 3:13 NKJV)

Moses would speak with the Lord, face to face and impact of that interaction transformed Moses into his true nature which became a confrontation for the carnal man.  In his case, the veil was there to safeguard the people from the holiness of God,

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV)

Listen to The Hidden Man of the Heart

We are granted entrance beyond the veil into the glory of the Lord, or into His true nature which is
Love which then transforms us into vessels of love, from glory to glory by the action of the Spirit of the Lord who is love and heals us by love.

 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, (1 Peter 1:22 NKJV)

We cannot love each other if we have veils that hide the truth of God’s love.  When we obey the truth, or rather behold and allow the truth to transform us then we can love one another as He has loved us.

All of this comes from accessing the true man in our hearts, which is Messiah in us.  This is the hope or promise of Glory, the Life in alignment with God’s promises and our destiny in those promises.

We spoke over the last couple of weeks about the self-protection that veils the truth of the living Word from being effective in our lives.  We sincerely desire the breakthroughs that are promised to us in our salvation, healing, provision, restoration, all of the fullness of the abundant life.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10 NKJV)

The veil that obscures the abundant life is more than a physical veil that was torn in the Temple when Yeshua died.  It is more than a distortion that prevents Israel from knowing the truth as stated in 2 Corinthians 3.  The veil is a strategy for living that is born in iniquity, in a bent away from trusting God in our lives and towards self as god.

The veil is about being in control and it is an approach to life that has as its root, fear.  It is the rooted in the fear of death as expressed as the fear of loss, the fear of rejection, anxiety, worry and a fragile life is constantly trying to defend ourselves. 

Panic is always lurking beneath surface and the strategy of the veil tries vainly to live a life that is adjusted to the panic, but deathly afraid of it. 

The problem that we have in dealing with the veil is that it has become our identity and the way we even interact with the Lord.  When we have conversations with Him, we listen through the veil.  Randi once told me, “you will never prophecy inconsistent with what you believe”.  Another way of saying that is the veil, our approach to life, our experience-based strategy will keep us in a defensive posture even to the will of God for our lives. Yeshua revealed this when He said to take heed how we listen. (Mk. 4:24, Lk 8:18)

Therefore, the greatest commandment is:

Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ‘There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31 NKJV)

I often wondered why it read “Shma Israel, Adonai Eloheynu”. Hear Israel, the Lord is God.  I now realize this was designed to pierce the veil!!  If we can hear from the place that He is Lord and NOT our veil-strategy, then we have hope. 

 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27 NASB)

The surpassing great news, the Gospel, is that in us is the completed work of the torn veil.  In that reality, Christ in us, is the hope or the promise of the “glory” which God has stored in us to fulfill our destiny in Him.  Pause, selah on that for a moment.

Now, we have the possibility of the abundant life!  However, we need to realize what is between us and that is the veil, the life that we call “us”.  This another voice, another “shma”.  It is speaking, hear, o fill in your name, you are in charge, you must stay in charge and you are alone.  The contrast to echad, oneness is isolation, the place of deception.  Remember it is NOT good for man to be alone.  Agreement is the place where true power lives.

How do we then unveil ourselves?  In Christ!  We turn to Him and in Him we live and move and have our being.  The challenge is the “me” that is in Him needs to surrender to the Him that is in me.

How do I do that?  Well I don’t have all the answers but I think we have seen some of them, meditation, profession of truth, recognition of things we do that are keeping us from being who we know we need to be, and spirit activations like Hallal!

Today, I want to identify and activate one more tool. From the parable of the sower, we know that the seed can produce based on the condition of our heart. Mark 4:14-20:

"The sower sows the word. "These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. "In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."(Mark 4:14-20 NASB)

I spoke last week that we can tell the seed that has been sown by the harvest received, corn for corn, wheat for wheat.  If we don’t like our current harvest, one possibility  is that the seed is wrong and that it is just producing its own kind.  Mostly the seed that we are sowing are the thoughts we sow into our heart.  Our lives are a reflection, in part of our thoughts which are seeds that are producing a harvest based on what we are thinking.  This is the reason Paul tells us to renew our minds.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2 NASB).

The other dimension that I want to focus on today is what is behind the thoughts, the condition of the soil or the heart.  It isn’t just the seed that is sown, because we all have access to incorruptible seed in our hearts when we receive the living Torah, Yeshua.  It also is our heart condition, the soil.  The parable speaks of 4 soil realities with the same seed.  We would all want the 30-60-100 fold return on investment.

What determines the yield?  Attitude.  We can know the Word, the promises, but have the wrong attitude and we will NOT harvest the word we know.  The parable is about 4 attitudes.

1.     Adversarial

2.     Shallowness, or all about what feels good

3.     Distracted by worries, mammon, and prestige

4.     Yielded and submitted, thus bold. Living sacrifice.

Adversarial.  This is the place of fighting for my opinion, my experience what I believe about myself and insecurity that causes me to become judgmental quickly and often. This is the place where we operate in judgments. The seed cannot take root because of hardness of heart-soil made that way by judging others in offense. This is the bait of Stan that steals our harvest. Once I have judged you I have really judged myself.  This prideful attitude nullifies the seed. This heart condition is identified with Satan because it exalts itself against the knowledge of God.  It perverts our right to boldly come to the throne of grace by using that privilege to speak judgments against our brothers and sisters and ultimately against ourselves.

Shallowness. This heart condition is rooted in the pursuit of happiness.  I want to be happy. What's wrong with being happy? Nothing except when it is an objective. This heart condition wants the blessings and promises but is unwilling to be uncomfortable.  They are like the fair-weather friend who loves the party and the bandwagon.  When it begins to cost something, they walk away. What is missing is loyalty.  We have seen this so many times.  If the ministry, or the business, or the family has no real challenges, they are there.  But if anything, ever challenges their shallow me-centered perspective, they are gone!  Love and happiness are interpreted as emotions we feel versus the results of commitment and trustworthiness.  This is the state where we can easily take even doing the right things and when it becomes tough or overwhelming, slip into the victim role.

Distracted! This is by far the largest group.  This group is the activity junkies.  They love starting things and having a lot of imaginations.  They start much but not much finishing and thus no fruit. What drives or motivates them, I have been one of these, is a kind of lottery mentality.  They believe in their heart of hearts that if you try “enough” things and “work hard enough” something will work out.  There is a fundamental deception at work.  Yeshua calls it the deceitfulness of riches.  Why is it the deceitfulness?  Because riches are perceived through the veil.  What is the veil of riches? It is the attitude that says in the heart that when I get enough money, everything will be OK.  It is the attitude that disempowers giving and receiving.  It is the heart attitude that is rooted in fear and can’t even truly experience thankfulness and success.  Worry is the constant state.  I worry even when I am blessed that it won’t ever be enough.  This attitude is usually the attitude of the hard worker and disciplined person.  They give lip service to faith but really believe in self-effort.  The key telltale sign is how they respond to blessing.  I found myself not truly celebrating because at the root I couldn’t trust. 

The deception is time-based. God is the I AM.   He is present.  Riches and their pursuit causes us to live inside time, carnally.  We become accumulators.  We justify holding on because we live in time.  We age fast, and we blow out our bodies.  We were created to be eternity minded.  All the promises of God are NOW!  We appropriate them NOW.  They may work out in time but they are eternal seed NOW.

True Faith.  This is the place beyond the veil.  This is the place of surrender to God.  Because He is love and joy is His nature, this place brings a peace and an indescribable joy.  This is the walk of the Spirit, the 30-60-100 fold return.  In this heart space, we live as living sacrifices.  Sacrifice is an anathema to the other groups.  They all love Jesus sacrifice for their sin.  BUT living a life that requires sacrifice is not a life that is about being right, or being happy or even being busy and working hard.  No it is a life of sacrifice.  We don’t mind sacrifice if it makes us look good or be happy or even rich.  But what if sacrifice is just about living for God and for others?

The inner man of the heart that is one Messiah is a sacrificed life.  It is a life that is willing to accountable for the fruit produced.  It is a life that learns holiness through love. The 30-60-100 fold life looks at fruit and realizes that the heart condition must be adjusted for the fruit.  The fruit is revealed in relationships.  In our relationships, we can see the heart attitude we have.  If we have generous friends, then we have generosity.  If we have anger, then we are sowing an attitude of anger.  We realize that if we are to have increase then it is an inside job.  It is NOT about looking out there and finding Him in signs or wonders, it is about learning to live from a heart that at peace, shalom in Him!

Do not let your adornment be merely outward--arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel-- rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. (1 Peter 3:3-4 NKJV)

Activation;

It’s time to ask the Lord to reveal our heart attitudes so we can repent and live in the abundant harvest. Are we a victim? Are we sad?  Are always struggling?  Is our life about doing it right? Or Being right? Time to ask and repent. Now let’s take a moment and see with the eyes of our heart, ourselves as whole in that area, victorious!

Sharing.