A New Heart
I know I’m not alone in feeling as if the sanctification process through Christ can come off as a bit hurtful. It is possible that physically all you see with your eyes is loss. Loss of friendships, loss of trust in loved ones, loss of time, loss of resources, etc. Yet, in turn, believe me when I say, internally we experience so much gain.
Salvation, true freedom, true forgiveness, and peace of mind when things are confusing knowing the God you serve is omniscient. It’s sometimes hard to accept this truth because though we are spiritual beings, we still are very much apart of this human experience. Nevertheless, I’m here to remind you that if you’ve experienced loss while in Christ, rest assured knowing that He will restore all.
Though you may not understand why you’ve had to experience such loss, trust that God is in full control of your situation. I understand now why the Bible tells us to keep our eyes on that which is up above because while living in Christ, all that occurs below within our lives is submitted to His will, therefore ALL things good or bad occurring throughout must work together for our good. Looking up above is leaning into this truth, and there’s a peace that falls on those who truly trust in the Lord.
I want to share a dream with you all…
Dream:
As I lay down in bed, there was this hand that reached out to the middle of my chest. It yanked out my heart, and with some type of surgical tool, it began to do something to my heart, then it placed the heart back into my chest. Believe it or not, I felt physical pain throughout this dream, and I gasped for air.
Explanation:
As I grow in Christ I find myself becoming more mindful of what I pray. Some prayers are pretty “dangerous” as some may say, yet beneficial to our overall spiritual growth. Don’t take the word “dangerous” here as something negative. Prayers that I would refer to as “dangerous”, are not to be avoided, they are to be leaned into because in my opinion, they yield the greatest results spiritually speaking.
“Dangerous” prayers would be those prayers that make way for the Lord to do a new thing within our lives by any means necessary. It’s probably best we all pray in such a way because after all, it does give the Lord full control, and shows our complete trust in His will and His way regarding our lives. Nevertheless, such prayers are not referred to as “dangerous”, without good reason.
If you ask the Lord to remove all that is not bearing good fruit in your life, trust me, He will. This would be considered a “dangerous” prayer because although we shouldn’t want to be connected to anything unfruitful, the fulfillment of this prayer may look like loved ones walking out of your life.
I began praying for the Lord to create within me a new heart, and I understood truly what this prayer meant and would lead to in my life for the most part. Like most of the world, when the song “Refiner” by Maverick City was extremely popular, I began singing for the Lord to refine me with His all consuming fire, and let me tell you, He surely did. I began to experience the burn of sanctification through Christ in my life. That’s when I truly learned by experience, that God will quite literally do what you ask of Him when it’s in alignment with His will, which in my case, was for me to become a new creation.
Being that every day is a process, and I’m trying to become more like Christ each day, there’s still a lot of impurities in my heart that I recognize, so I’ve been praying that God creates within me a new heart. To be transparent, as always, things haven’t been so easy, especially lately, spiritually I have been faced with a lot of opposition. This dream reminded me of this prayer I have been praying consistently over the past month or so.
I come here to share this dream, and this message, just to remind you all that the process will not always feel so great. I stated that I experienced physical pain when I felt this hand rip my heart from my chest. I believe the Lord is trying to get me and you all to understand that in order to create within us something new, He must strip away the old. That would be considered a loss. Death to the old man, and life to the new man.
This physical representation in this dream, allowed me to understand that this process will sometimes be painful. It may even sometimes quite literally take your breath away (some of the things that you may have to experience while on this journey with Christ). But here’s the good news, this dream also highlighted that there will be restoration, in one way or another, of all that has been taken, or stripped away from you while on this journey.
Physical loss builds a resilience within the heart, a strength that must arise for the sake of survival of which would not have been present otherwise. We ask for strength, yet grow angry at what the Lord sends to strengthen us. We ask for faith, yet shun circumstances that arise in our lives that require us to trust God above all else. God is doing something new within, and it takes His allowance of certain things to occur in this physical realm that will internally trigger a need for change or growth spiritually.
Scripture to reflect on:
Psalms 51:10-12
10) Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11) Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12) Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me
