Just as a sharp object is required to circumcise the male reproductive organ, so also does the new testament circumcision, require our spiritual hearts to be circumcised with God’s word, the sword of the Spirit, which is sharper than any two edged sword and discerns the soul and spirit, exposing our innermost thoughts and desires to us in the light of God’s word (Hebrews 4).

Could it not be the case that the reason why a change is often not seen in the lifestyles of many who profess to be Christians, and who may even have actually accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, is probably because many of us do not allow the Word of God to prune our lives?

We stated earlier, that the circumcision of the male sexual organ, according to experts, not only shapes the organ, but also prevents it from attracting diseases.  Similarly, once we allow the Word of God to trim our hearts, and we align our thoughts, emotions, will power and decisions with God’s Word, we become more like Christ in character and ultimately become more fruitful in our walk with the Lord.  Indeed Christ Himself taught his followers extensively that his true disciples will be recognized by their fruits. (John 15)

You will recognize them by their fruits….. So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Matt 7:16-19 ESV

A holistic study of the Scriptures show that the manifestation of this fruit in our lives is evidenced in how we relate with one another and in how we react to the issues and trials that confront us in our individual lives. (1 Pet 1:22)

God’s intent for man is to be fruitful and multiply, and a productive heart yields the fruit of the Spirit outlined below:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Gal 5:22-23 NKJV

This is only possible when by the Spirit of God, we subdue the works of the flesh.   As we regularly examine ourselves carefully in the mirror of God’s Word, our weaknesses and flaws are exposed to us.  Our thoughts and desires, actions, inactions and motives among others that mar and taint us in God’s sight, are revealed to us, by the power of His Word. The more exposed we are to God’s word, the more our individual attitudes and actions that conflict with His word are laid bare before us.

It is important therefore, for every child of God to routinely submit him or herself to pruning by the spiritual sword – God’s Word.  This process may sometimes hurt our pride, and at other times make us seem foolish, in the eyes of others; nonetheless as we persevere in pleasing God in all our ways, a transformation in our lifestyles is seen by all.

For example, in the books of Romans and Hebrews, we read:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Rom 12:18

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Heb 12:14 ESV

When we are awakened to our weaknesses in the light of these Scriptures, and learn that our holiness before God is linked to our relationships with one another; we will, in seeking to please God, choose not to insist on our individual rights, whenever we find ourselves in a potentially contentious situation, but rather submit to the other party’s notion or alternative, for the purpose of avoiding conflicts and animosity, so long as it would not be harmful to any of the persons concerned.

As we continually seek to please God and allow His word to shape us, we will gradually be transformed in our thoughts and actions to become more Christ-like.  We will realize that with time, our actions are subsequently not motivated by self-interest, but rather by an earnest desire to consider the interests of others above ours. (Philipp. 2)

Similarly, the joy of the Lord will bubble from within us at all times, as we take delight in fulfilling God’s will for our lives.

Peace floods our hearts as we trust God with the issues in our lives; and we become more patient as we take inspiration from the trials and triumphs of the heroes of faith (Rom 15:4).

All this however begins when you believe with your heart that Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for your sin and confess Him as the Lord and Saviour of your life (John 3:16-18).  If you have not done this, I encourage you to do so.  Only when this is done, can our hearts be circumcised with the spiritual sword of God’ Sword, and we become more like Christ.  For He says:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  John 15:1-3   NKJV

God richly bless you!

The post The Heart As A Reproductive Organ – 2 appeared first on Fragrance of Love.

We concluded from our study that the biblical heart is the intangible part of man, comprising our minds, emotions, will power, decisions we take and our thoughts; and it is what is referred to as “the hidden man of the heart” (1 Pet 3:4).  In effect, our speech and everything we do, stems from our heart. Our biblical heart therefore, is the lens through which our Creator, God Almighty identifies who we really are.

The choice of the word heart, as earlier stated, is to better enable us relate to it as humans, and understand that, the condition of our spiritual heart is just as important for the sustenance of our faith in God, as the condition of our physical heart is, to the sustenance of our lives here on earth.  In today’s blog, we will examine the heart as the reproductive organ of our spiritual life and begin with God’s covenant with Abraham.

Abraham is the father of promise.  God divinely elected him and determined that through Abraham, He would establish His promise with mankind.  So that when God manifested Himself in human form through Christ Jesus, He made sure that our Saviour was born from the lineage of Abraham.  (Matt 1:1)

We read from the book of Genesis that God first appeared to Abraham and promised to bless him, make him “exceedingly fruitful”, make nations out of him, and ensure that through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed. God again appeared to Abraham when the latter was 99 years old, not only re-echoing the earlier blessing pronounced but also establishing a covenant of blessing with him.

Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations…. and I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Gen 17:3-5;7-8 NKJV

This is the promise, that every believer in Christ Jesus has become a partaker of, by virtue of God’s grace.  In this same discourse with Abraham, God continued by stating clearly what the sign of that covenant between Him and Abraham’s descendants thereafter would be: the circumcision of every male child of his.

This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. Gen 17:10-12 Emphasis mine NKJV

So in the Israelite culture and many other cultures in the world to date, circumcision is widely practised. Circumcision is the cutting of the foreskin of the male sexual organ with a sharp object. This male sexual organ is also part of the reproductive organs of a man, and experts say that the cutting of the foreskin not only shapes that organ, but also prevents it from attracting diseases.

Fruitfulness and productivity come from the reproductive organ.  A productive sexual organ is able to produce the life of another human being.

In our study of Scripture, it is important for us to understand that the Old Testament is a shadow of the New Testament. (Col 2:17) Everything we read in the Old Testament, is thus a pointer to the new covenant we have with God through Christ Jesus, and which is revealed in the New Testament.  Consequently, every believer in Christ Jesus, is a partaker of the promises made to Abraham.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus ….and if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Gal 3:26-27; 29 NKJV

No doubt, Abraham’s promises are ours.

….that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, Eph 3:6

If the sign of the covenant God made with Abraham of which we are partakers, is one of circumcision, how does that translate into the New Testament covenant that we have with God through Christ Jesus, in this era of Grace?

Well, it is interesting to note that circumcision is also mentioned in the New Testament as a sign of our covenant with God.

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.  Romans 2:28-29 NKJV Emphasis mine

This time around, as born again believers, the organ to be circumcised for fruitfulness in our walk with the Lord, is not the male sexual organ, but the heart, our spiritual heart – the ruling centre of our whole being. Indeed, New Testament circumcision has to do with the heart.   Why?  Because the heart is the productive organ of the spirit, “out of it are the issues of life”.  (Prov 4:23)

The sign of our covenant with God, as beneficiaries of His grace, is therefore the circumcision of our hearts!  Just as the act of circumcision in the old covenant involves a sharp object which is used to trim the reproductive organ, so also is provision made in the new covenant for the heart to be trimmed with a sharp spiritual weapon – the Word of God!

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.  Heb 4:12-13 NLT

God’s intent for man is to be fruitful and multiply, and the heart is the spiritual reproductive organ of our spirit man.  It is only when this heart is circumcised with the sword of the Spirit – God’s word, that we can bear fruit as children of God. (Gal 5: 22-23)

To be continued in the next blog.

God bless you!

The post The Heart As A Reproductive Organ – 1 appeared first on Fragrance of Love.

In the Scriptures we see several mentions of some parts of our human bodies so to speak, in the exercise of our faith in God.  Are these mere analogies? Why is the mention of these organs replete in Scripture?  I have identified two of such organs, which the Scriptures portray as integral in our Christian walk: the heart and the mouth; and in the next few weeks God willing, we will be studying tit bits under what I have captioned as the Organs of our Faith. 

In this first blog, we will look at a few Scriptural references where the heart of man is portrayed as an important organ of our faith in God and then explain what the Bible refers to as the heart of man.

It is important to note that in the realization of the salvation that God Himself has worked out for mankind through His Son Jesus Christ, these two organs of faith are involved: the heart and the mouth. In other words, you and I can only become partakers of God’s gift of Salvation to us by engaging our hearts and our mouths: by believing in our hearts, Christ’s redemptive work for us, and by confessing with our mouths, Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Saviour.

…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  Rom 10:9-10 NKJV

We also read from (Genesis 6), that what compelled God to destroy mankind and indeed the whole earth in the lifetime of Noah, was when He saw the wickedness that was continually conceived in the heart of man.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. Gen 6:5-7 NKJV Emphasis mine

Against the backdrop of this story, and other instances in Scripture where the heart of man is referred to, the saying of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 is very insightful:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8)

One of the most profound stories in the Bible where we see God’s consideration of the state of the heart of man, as His focus of attention, has to do with His election of David as a replacement for king Saul.  When God rejected Saul as king (1 Samuel 16), He sent the prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons as His chosen king:

So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!”  But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  1 Sam 16:6-7 NKJV Emphasis mine

It is interesting to note that the prophet Samuel, was limited in his ability to discern the right person that God had chosen.  Glaringly, even though he was a prophet and could sometimes speak the mind of God, he was unable to see beyond the outward appearance of Eliab to discern his heart and its intent thereof; for the prophet’s judgement of God’s chosen one was wrong; and but for God’s promptings, prophet Samuel would probably have anointed Eliab as the chosen king.

Just like Samuel, we all, mortal as we are, are unable to see the heart of man and only reckon believers and non-believers alike by what we see of them on the outward.

God however, does not see as man sees; but looks beyond what man looks at.  He looks beyond the physical body and its demeanour, to look at the condition of our hearts. So when God sees us as individuals, He does not consider our physique, beauty or otherwise, our wealth; neither does he consider our level of education, nor even how much knowledge of His word that we may be privy to; but rather, what is within our hearts! When God sees you and me, He sees the intangible person within us – our hearts!

For as water reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals a man. (Proverbs 27:19).

So what does the Bible refer to as the heart?   Surely, the several references to the heart in the Scriptures; do not refer to the organ we know as the heart in the physical body, but rather, to the ruling centre of the whole person, the intangible person, the spiritual man within our physical body!

The choice of the word heart, I believe, is to enable us better relate to it as humans, and to make us better understand that, the condition of our spiritual heart is just as important for the sustenance of our faith in God, as the condition of our physical heart is, to the sustenance of our lives here on earth.  No wonder we are admonished to “guard our hearts with all diligence” since out of it comes the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

Indeed, the heart is the centre of spiritual activity and all the operations of life.  All decisions we take and emotions we display emanate from the heart; and it is that which makes us who we are.  Let us look at some Scriptures to confirm that the heart encompasses all these areas.  We will begin with the words of Jesus.

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.  Matt 15:18-20 NKJV

From this Scripture, we gather that our speech reflects what is harboured in our hearts. Bearing false witness and speaking blasphemies both have to do with utterances a person makes, and Scripture says, all these emanate from the heart.  Similarly everything we think about or do, stems from our hearts. Murder, adultery, fornication and thefts are all actions from the heart.  Once we nurture the thought in our heart, it is tantamount to doing it.

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? Matthew 9:4 NKJV

From this second Scripture, also words from Jesus, we deduce that the biblical heart comprises our thoughts; for we think with our hearts.  If this is so, then it is important for us as believers, to guard our thoughts and imaginations.

Again, from the texts below, we read that the biblical heart also comprises our emotions. Joy is an emotion, likewise sorrow.  So then, the emotions we express, also spring from our hearts.

The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. Psalm 19:8

But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. John 16:6-7 NKJV

Our will power and the decisions we take, also stem from the heart.  We read that:

… Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies,  Dan 1:8  NKJV

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.  2 Cor 9:7  NKJV

The verses above indicate that we decide with our hearts.  Consequently, every decision we take, including our decision to surrender our lives to Christ, emanates from the heart. For we become recipients of God’s salvation, when we believe the Gospel in our hearts and confess Christ, with our mouths.  Similarly, backsliding in the life of the believer, begins from the heart. The biblical heart therefore comprises our will power and the decisions we take.

Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.  Heb 3:13   NKJV

The biblical heart also embraces our conscience. For we read that:

For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 1 John 3:20-21 NKJV

Typically, it is our conscience that condemns us when we err or stray off from doing the right thing.  In the Scripture above however, we read that it is our heart that condemns us.  This implies therefore that our conscience forms part of our biblical heart.

One can deduce from all the above discourse that the biblical heart is intangible.  It is a spirit, comprising our minds, emotions, will power culminating in the decisions we take and our thoughts; and it is what is referred to as “the hidden man of the heart” (1 Pet 3:4).  Our biblical heart, is the lens through which our Creator, God Almighty identifies who we really are.

No doubt, the heart is a vital organ of our faith as children of God; and its health, central to the sustenance of our Christian life!  So the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, seeking hearts that are loyal to Him. (2 Chron 16:9)

Stand by for more tit bits on the organs of faith in our subsequent blogs!

God bless you!

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