The Steadfast Heart - David Mitts

"Praise the LORD! How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who greatly delights in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious and compassionate and righteous. It is well with the man who is gracious and lends; He will maintain his cause in judgment. For he will never be shaken; The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is upheld, he will not fear, until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries."  Psa 112:1-8 (NASB)

Click here to listen to "The Steadfast Heart"

As evil tidings run amok in our world, there is a response that the Lord makes available to us which is called the steadfast or established heart. Yeshua spoke of the opposite, the troubled heart:

"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me."  Joh 14:1 (NASB)

We are all familiar with what the troubled heart feels like.What is not so obvious is how to walk in the established heart, the steadfast heart.

The goal, in this chapter is to reveal what the steadfast, established heart is and to activate ourselves purposefully into this condition of heart.

Let’s first go through our foundation scripture that leads us to the steadfast heart. It begins with a declaration of praise.  The word declaration here is “halal”.  Halal is a prophetic war cry. Imagine two armies aligned across from each other about to do battle and the army of God wants to invoke the name and power of God.  To do this they cry out with the halal. What they declare is the Name of God. In the case of the psalm of David, the cry is Yah!

Next, the verse tells us that the result of the war cry is the blessing.  This word for blessing here is NOT the usual word, baruch. No this is the word ashrei. Ashrei is the same word used in the beatitudes. It is the word picture of “esh” which means fire and rosh, which is head. So, it speaks of the fire of God consuming the offering of the warrior’s heart devotion.  This word is also the root where we get the word “shir” in Hebrew which means song.  So, this is also the song that gives us power in our heart, our warrior song.

The verse continues to tell us that we delight in the commands of Yahweh.  This is beyond obedience into delighting.  Delights is a descriptor of extreme pleasure, the kind that can only come from a place of oneness and openness of heart, mind, body, spirit.  To delight oneself with the commandments of God, we have to completely trust in the goodness of God. 

The result is that our descendants are mighty. Wealth and riches are in our home and eternal righteousness. 

Light arises in darkness. In this hour where much darkness abounds, full of fear and confusion, we are called to be the light.  Arising is the picture of the new day, of the dawning of a new light.  In this hour we are called to arise with the light of the new day. How do we do this? With our words and deeds.  We need to speak encouragement and healing. 

He is gracious and compassionate and righteous. It is well with the man who is gracious and lends; He will maintain his cause in judgment

We need to speak words of grace, compassion and righteousness.  Rather than hoarding and stockpiling, we need to look for opportunities to be a lender to bring help to those who are terrified and don’t know who their God is.  This is our righteous cause in this hour of judgment.  

Is this the judgment of God? I don’t truly know but I know that God alone is the creator.  When we corrupt nature with our gmo’s and other perversions of nature to try to control life, we bring the judgments of our own making on ourselves.  There is no question in my mind that the diseases and pestilences that are loose on the world exist because we have violated the wisdom of God.

Genetic manipulations are dangerous. There is a balance to ecosystems.  Like antibiotics which impact the inner terrain of our bodies, we have also engineered viruses that are violating immune system ecological balance.  In addition, we have completely disrespected God’s instructions on clean and unclean eating, believing erroneously that there are no foods that are unclean.  

So, we have people eating bats, pigs, snakes etc..  The more bizarre the more it seems to stroke our human ego.

Enter the deadly pestilences.  God isn’t the source of the pestilence. No we are because we ignore the counsel of God.

Let’s finish our verse:

For he will never be shaken; The righteous will be remembered forever.  We need to develop a legacy vision.  What do we want to be remembered for? It is an important and powerful question.  We will die someday.  People will gather and say things about us.  They will be as positive as possible.  What do we want to be said?

Let’s call this exercise, losing our life.  If we lose our life for His namesake, what life do we want to lose?

"He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it."  Mat 10:39 (NASB)

I know there are several ways to view this verse. I want to add one to the mix. Think in terms of your memorial service. What will people say about you?  Now ask the question, prayerfully, what values does this say I have?

This will bring us to the point of living as if dying.  You see for the most part we have lived this scripture with respect to the past that we have “died” to. BUT death has another purpose. It doesn’t just kill the past; death also clarifies our life. When we “lose” our life for His sake, we live in the knowledge that we will die one day and what will remain is the love we have lived.

I am reminded of Lisa’s song “I am convinced”. What remains when all has faded is love. Love is not an abstract or emotional experience; Love is purpose fulfilled.  God’s love is beyond our identity. He loves us with a destiny blazingly fulfilled!

"'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'"  Jer 29:11-14 (NASB)

God’s restoration love act of the cross was bigger than salvation from sin. He also saved us to live lives of purpose and destiny.

The established heart is a heart with a sense of vision and destiny. When you live with death as the process of bringing forth your destiny, which is called living in Christ, you live a life that can be established. 

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."  Php 1:21 (NASB)

Now, let’s look at Hebrew for the established or steadfast heart. The word is:

H3559   (Strong)

כּוּן

kûn

koon

A primitive root; properly to be erect (that is, stand perpendicular);. hence (causatively) to set up, in a great variety of applications, whether literal (establish, fix, prepare, apply), or figurative (appoint, render sure, proper or prosperous): - certain (-ty), confirm, direct, faithfulness, fashion, fasten, firm, be fitted, be fixed, frame, be meet, ordain, order, perfect, (make) preparation, prepare (self), provide, make provision, (be, make) ready, right, set (aright, fast, forth), be stable, (e-) stablish, stand, tarry, X very deed.

Kun, is a derivate of Ken. Ken, as you remember is the word yes.  Yes is the condition of the heart that brings forth peace and destiny and establishes our heart. Yes is the point of agreement.  It is the place of alignment with the voice of God. It is the place of the amen, the “so be it”!

"For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us."  2Co 1:20 (NKJV)

Notice that it is in the yes and the amen that the glory of God comes through us! Remember that is by yes, agreement that things are established. 

"But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY WORD MAY BE ESTABLISHED.'"  Mat 18:16 (NKJV)

We need the “yes” in our inner conversation, in agreement with the inner witness of the Holy Spirit and the external witness of other Believers who also have the same inner witness.

This is the place of establishing our heart. Yeshua said it this way:

""Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."  Joh 14:1 (NKJV)

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do, I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  Joh 14:26-27 (NKJV)

Activation: The established heart is the heart that says yes to the voice of God. What do we say yes about? Let’s determine that from the finished product. Let’s prayerfully see our lives complete. Let’s write our own eulogy, now. What do you want to be said about you in your eulogy? Why? Who is Christ in you? What Yeshua do you want people to speak about that expresses your life?