The Unfiltered Heart- Knowing Who I Am - David Mitts

And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Mat 3:17)

An open and transparent heart full of love and seeing things with God’s eyes and knowing them with God’s heart is at the center of our existence.  We all hunger and thirst to know people and life that way.

Listen to The Unfiltered Heart - Knowing Who I Am

There is in each of us a “God-hunger”.  We desperately need and want to have a life that is filled with His goodness.  This is expressed in 2 key areas, security and significance.  We all need to know that our lives are secure.  This is the first part of our salvation.  We are saved, rescued from being alone, lost and abandoned.

We also have a strong need for significance. Yeshua began His ministry with an open heaven declaration of His significance. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.  Until we truly know who we are and how treasured we are we will always be seeking that need.  We will seek it through whatever god we can find.

Now, I am not talking about bowing to some statue but instead bowing our heart to some ideal, other than the declaration of the Lord that we are His beloved son or daughter.  This can be a job, a relationship, something in our lives that we compare ourselves to determine our worth.

Ultimately the Lord calls this Mammon.  Mammon is more than just wealth or financial success.  Mammon is the works based reality that drives us to find our significance and security on its terms.  Mammon is fear based and steals our true significance, our true uniqueness.

Now fear is normal to our childlike nature.  We learn by fear. Even our relationship with God begins with fear.  Israel saw the awesomeness of God and it produced fear.

Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die." Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin." (Exo 20:19-20)

Fear is the development of right and wrong, good and evil.  Fear is the foundation stone of a childlike relationship with God. It is how we develop survival strategies.  So, in that way fear is a type of security teacher.  We learn certain things in our environment have the potential for harm or the potential for blessing and we adjust accordingly. It is how we learn respect.

The Apostle Paul called this type of learning “partial” knowing.  It is the "knowing" of experience. We “know” certain things because they have either caused us pain or brought us pleasure and we act according to that knowledge.  This knowledge occurs through strong pain/pleasure or through repetition.  Either way, it has the effect of conditioning us, like exercise or diet or any externally applied behavior. Paul describes its effect in 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter.

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. (1Co 13:11-12)

We all have this inner child which has made a bunch of conclusions about life based on pain experienced or pleasure and has developed a childish approach to life which is very self-centered.

Yeshua died to set us free from the child.  For many years I heard, “you need to find your inner child”.  The truth is, we need to grow up!  As we look around our nation, what we see is adults behaving like spoiled children.  They don’t need to become more childlike, they need to grow up!

Now, I know you’re thinking, “But Jesus said we need to become like children to enter the kingdom”.

And said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 18:3-4)

I don’t think He is saying to return to the pain/pleasure orientation of children but to be open and teachable like children.  You see until age 6 most children are in delta and theta brain waves most of the time. Before age 2 they are almost always in delta. These brain waves are the most relaxed and the most receptive to learning.  

So we are to become receptive but not necessarily childish, based on pain/pleasure.

What emotion matches the childish frequency? Fear. Fear brain waves are the same theta frequency as children waves. So when we are in fear, we are thinking and therefore acting like children, in self-protection mode, good and evil, right or wrong.

Love, by contrast, is a heart function. Normally love begins with choosing to love.  Fear is a background emotion.  It is the primary emotion of the flesh. It is the emotion of slavery.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. (Heb 2:14-15)

As an adult, we have to choose to love.  Love is NOT a default emotion.  It is a God emotion.  God is love and if we are to live godly lives, we need to choose to enter into love.

What will keep us from love is fear.  

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. (1Jn 4:18)

We have often heard that fear and faith cannot exist at the same time.  This is partially true.  Faith is NOT the opposite of fear.  What is the opposite of fear is LOVE!  We cannot be in fear and be in love at the same time.  Anytime we NOT operating in love, we can assume that fear is running the show.

So, what is the key? To activate love.  

Fear was learned by experience and repetition.  We learned of the danger and over time became wise to the threat.  Unfortunately, that was not limited to physical danger but included emotional and even spiritual danger.  There are many born again believers who are terrified of their feelings, have anxiety and restlessness in their soul.  Also many walk around afraid of the devil and demonic things.  Fear is ruling them, not love.

Is this God’s picture for His children? NO!

Let’s look at 1 John 4 again beginning with verse 7:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. (1Jn 4:7-21)

Clearly, God’s intent for us is to operate in love.  Why?  Because Love holds the key to the kingdom.

Mathew 16:19 says:

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." (Mat 16:19)

Through the eyes of fear and warfare, this looks like a prescription for taking on demons with our authority. BUT if you go on to Chapter 18 of Matthew : verses 18-20, you see this is about agreement, a choice to love:

"Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. "Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." (Mat 18:18-20)

You see agreement isn’t about me agreeing with you and your choices.  I know it seems like agreement is about that. The problem with that idea is it becomes about right and wrong.  This is fear based reasoning.  No, agreement is about love.  You see, if we have to agree for God to work and it is about having the same opinion, then our opinion is bigger than God.  BUT nothing is bigger than God.  So agreement cannot be about opinion.  It has to be about what is of God, LOVE. Can you see it?  Binding and loosening is just the description of the limitations we put on God through our understanding and opinion.  We make judgments and the judgments tie up heaven on our behalf.  We operate in forgiveness, in love and it releases heaven on our behalf.  It is truly NOT about faith, but about love.

I’m not saying faith and hope are not important, but they are part of love.  Hope is wanting good, faith is trusting it will happen but Love knows the One who releases it into our lives.

OK, now an activation to transform our limited fear based perspective into love.

First, think of something in the future you are afraid will happen.

Second, see it happening.

What will happen? What changes are going to happen in your life if this thing you fear comes to pass?

Now, the most important question.

What will that mean to you about you?

Now, here’s the key. That feeling is already in your heart as a subroutine  It is affecting your thinking every day, every choice you make is being skewed by that feeling.

So, what we want to do is heal that feeling.

How?  By asking the Lord what is the truth about that feeling. If the feeling was I would be a failure, then ask Him: “Am I a failure?”  Let Him show you how He sees you.  The images in your heart control your destiny. Let Him transform your heart through the renewing of your mind so you can possess your inheritance.  God is for you!!