Part 1
Our hearts are the center of our values.
The only way that our hearts can align with the will and purposes of God is to transform your mind. Adjust our thoughts.
Why?
Because our mindset influences the condition of our hearts.
EXAMPLE: A broken heart is formed by broken thoughts. Maybe years of abuse by men as a child. You mentally build a mindset that all men are horrible so you never fully embrace any kind of love from a man and in that your heart becomes broken and from the heart flows the stronghold that has been built from those thoughts.
How can we know if our minds are in need of a transformation?
a. You have a tendency to allow people to influence your thought patterns. You harbor someone’s words or actions and allow those things to dwell in you without lovingly addressing it then it becomes an hindrance to your anointing!
a. You justify gossip because you think it won’t go outside this conversation. You feel like you just have to get it off your chest so you speak to familiar people instead of the person directly.
a. Trust is something you must strive for instead of resting in.
a. You become introverted and allow the thoughts of others to hinder you from fully surrendering to God in corporate settings.
a. Everything is first approached by humanistic emotions and tactics instead of standing on the word of God. The Bible is an afterthought.
That is the inability to hear and respond to the Holy Sprit. Not in everything but in something’s.
I think you get the gist of it.
There so many other things too.
A unrenewed mind is also👇
When you allow thoughts to take precedence over your true identity hidden in Christ.
Our job is to see from God’s perspective .
When we will see from a distorted perspective (anything opposite of God’s) we walk in error to the true plans and purposes for our lives.
Proverbs 4:23 NIV
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
If everything we do flows from our hearts then it is vitally important that we guard what we are allowing in and out.
Sometimes the things that happen to us we just simply are unable to avoid.
Like being in an abusive relationship, having an abusive parent growing up and so on.👇
This kind of brokenness of heart needs to be healed through the authenticity of love and in that reflecting the truth to replace those thought-strongholds with the truth.
How we transform our minds is so important because it affects your heart to shift the affections on what once was hostile towards God to wanting to become His righteousness.
(And most of the time it’s not a purposeful action of your heart. It through years of grooming, indoctrination and abuse that has caused this brokenness to consume your character and distort your vision.)
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Part 2
Faith
So when our minds are transformed it produces something in the heart that is the one thing that pleases God. “FAITH”
Romans 10:10 NIV
“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
True faith must stem from the heart, it cannot be forced or strive to believe and try to force yourself into believing something.
It is a mind that is transformed.
By the renewing of the mind you influence the heart and when your heart can absolutely trust someone or something you believe with no effort because it’s your heart that is secure in knowing that thing will be taken care of.
It’s a level of resolve.
You have resolved to the fact that God is who He says He is!
It’s when your mind comes to that absolute conclusion and completely accepts that, that is absolute truth and you can live in that truth 100% of the time.
It is really like creating a culture in your mind that affects your heart.
(Explain Culture)
So It’s what is allowed then checking everything first before it’s is allowed to enter.
If I am with someone and I have learned that this person is absolutely trustworthy by actions, deeds, words and examples then I have a better chance of believing them when they say something that requires me to trust what they are saying or doing.
If I am unfamiliar with that person or thing then If I am put in a position where I have to believe in it’s integrity then I am going to struggle with the idea they will actually do what they say they would.
Faith from the heart is a yielding to that thing with the full mental confidence it will be exactly like it is said it will be.
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Part 3
Your starting point
Everyone has a starting point, everyone! No one is born with absolute faith.
God has given to everyone a measure of faith and we are to invest into that measure given to us to build it into something pleasing to God.
It’s the muscle example. You will never develop big muscles unless you exercise that muscle.
See God is constantly looking for those who can demonstrate His nature on this planet.
He is searching for the mind that has chosen to be transformed so it changes the heart because it’s the heart that God looks at not your outward appearance.
Faith is what can properly demonstrate God!
It is absolute trust in something unseen. Something that seems impossible and something that will confound the wise.
This is where we start👇
Romans 10:17 NKJV
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
What’s important to understand when we read Romans 10:17 is the context in which Paul is stating here.
Faith comes by hearing! It doesn’t say faith comes from having heard!
If you look up the Grammar, that verse is written in a present tense form.
That means it is meant to be understood as, “faith comes by hearing God today.”
It’s a freshly spoken word that produces faith, whether it’s fresh from heaven or fresh from the Bible.
This goes for your identity in Christ!
It’s like if God told you that “you are an apple tree” and you believed it when He said that, then all of a sudden in October you start blooming apples, thousands of apples. But all of a sudden January comes and you don’t have any apples growing anymore.
Do you start doubting that your an apple tree?
No! If God said it, that’s who you are and it now becomes evident that your faith is weak so how do you build back the faith that made you believe you were an apple tree?
Speak what God said originally. Speak it out loud so you can hear it!
I will explain…..
We see in👇
John 1:1-2 NKJV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”
Then in
John 1:14 NKJV
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
So we have Jesus who is God and was Spirit becoming flesh.
The Jesus makes this incredibly important statement that is so powerful!
John 6:62-63 NKJV
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
And now we have Jesus who was spirit but now is flesh yet saying when I speak it is spirit and within those words that are spirit they bring life.
So when Jesus spoke, His words became presence.
The definition of “spirit” in the Bible is presence.
So this brings me to the conclusion that if I repeat the same words Jesus spoke with the same understanding Jesus had about them, then I am thus bringing presence and life as well when repeated, enabling me to do that very thing I have repeated thus bringing life to that word. God’s words never die!!!
Because in those words that contain life also contains within them the ability to fulfill themselves.
It’s the seed or the sperma.
That word never loses its ability to reproduce and become what it is intended to be.
A apple seed has within it the ability to produce apple trees that produce a bunch of apples.
That goes for any seed of any kind.
Every word of God contains within it the ability to produce something greater than just words spoken.
So when that revelation is mentally absorbed and then transferred to your heart you begin to understand what Paul was saying in👇
Romans 10:17 NKJV
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
You hear that word of God either Biblical or freshly spoken and now you understand when you speak it out it contains the ability to produce things that are humanly impossible but fully possible with God.
This is why Jesus could do what He did.
He was basically mirroring everything the Father did which made everything Jesus did possible.
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Part 4
Investment into eternity
When we see through God’s perspective it changes everything. It causes us to see beyond what is right in front of us and see how this will affect not just your future and future generations but eternity.
I really don’t think most people understand the concept of eternity.
Eternity is not us floating on clouds in white robes with halo’s over our heads.
My choices here (key word HERE) are the results of what I obtain in eternity.
Everything I gain on earth that is earthly and materialistic will be eaten and burned.
We are in but a sliver of time, a slight interruption in eternity.
James 4:14 NIV
“Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
So my decision to renew my mind on a constant basis is me choosing to influence my heart to the point I begin to administer the reality of the kingdom of heaven on earth. It’s the revelation of eternity NOW that burdens me to bring it into the present.
It’s that yielded heart that becomes the center of your thoughts and from your thoughts you respond in action to what your heart is conditioned for.
Look👇👇👇
Psalm 84:5 AMPC
“Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.”
ZION: is the holy place or kingdom of Heaven.
HIGHWAY: is a road that provides a quicker way to reach a destination.
So what the Psalmist is saying is, when God becomes your dependency in life your heart becomes a quicker way to access heavens reality. When the affections of your heart are after God.
II Corinthians 6:12 NKJV
“You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.”
See teaching this might come across as, “the sooner you get your act together the sooner you’ll be able to experience the things of God.”
But No it’s the journey in the closer you get to Him the purer your heart becomes and the clearer your vision gets when you look to God.
It’s a transfer from mind to heart then heart to mind.
Here is our process 👇
Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
To👇
Psalm 139:23 AMPC
“Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!”
Ephesians 4:23 AMPC
“And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude],”
To👇
Matthew 5:8 KJV
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
You see the process!!!???
So if we look at this verse again 👇
Proverbs 4:23 NKJV
“Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.”
This is saying, we must very diligently watch over the condition of our hearts because everything in your life is connected to the condition of your heart.
So if we believe this to be true?! Yes?
Then who do you think believes that as well? Satan!
And he is going to attack that one thing in which we can have so pure it allows us to see the face of God.
His character, His nature, His love, and His heart in which we can graft into it.
👇👇👇
Matthew 5:8 KJV
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
So in the beginning of this teaching I was talking about the transformation of the mind will influence the heart’s condition.
So this isn’t private information, the devil knows this too and if the devil can affect your life into causing your thoughts to blur your perception then you lose focus and that misplaced perception infects the hearts condition and leads to mistrust, doubt, worry, fear, pride, offense and so on.
Jesus puts it like this, very black and white!👇👇👇
Matthew 12:33-35 NKJV
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”
The phrase, “Hurt people Hurt people.”
Is exactly true.
A broken heart with produce brokenness. It will spew out brokenness, it will focus on hurt and brokenness and it will flow from your heart to your mind to your mouth and will corrupt those in your circle of influence.
A healthy heart will do the exact opposite.
It will speak of joy, faith, grace, love, healing, and wholeness. It go from your pure heart to your renewed mind to you mouth that will speak life into those in your circle of influence.
We must understand that everything in my life flows from the condition of my heart.
If I am easily offended, something needs healed in my heart.
If I have a hard time trusting, something needs healed in my heart.
If I have a hard time forgiving, something needs healed in my heart.
If I need others to puff me up and speak words of flattery meaning I need a lot of attention, something needs healed in my heart!
There is an identity crisis which will cause your thoughts to be unclean in which will cause your heart to be broken and bruised.
And this principle goes for everything you struggle with in your life!
Something that the Lord has and still is dealing with me about is this.
👇
Never masquerade a dysfunction or matter of the heart with, “oh that’s just my personality and my unique character.”
Your heart will never want you to be healed so it will try and reason things to bring some sort of feeling of approval in you.
But when you acknowledge those things as corrupt and that they need to be properly dealt with then you start with repentance, then renew your thoughts on that thing, readjust your mentality on that matter and then you will see that it’s not your personality, it’s not your true identity, it was a place of brokenness in your heart that went undetected and was reasoned into thinking it was okay.
It’s that saying, “One bad fish destroys the whole pond” or “One bad apple destroys the bunch.”
It’s that stinky decay of death and spoil that infects and kills everything around it.
The same goes for the mind that is directly connected to the heart. One bad thing that isn’t associated with God will infect and destroy everything else.
Everything comes from the heart.
So How is your heart!?
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Part 4
Measure
My next question is this.
Can we measure the condition of one’s heart?
I believe we can.
It’s measured by what can cause the affections of your heart to distract you from the Father’s perspective of what holiness is?
If we interpret what Jesus said, “the pure in heart will see God to what Hebrews said in,
Hebrews 12:14
“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:”
Holiness is necessary to see God, then our measurements must be taken against those two things.
So if something measures out more than purity and holiness then we have some work to do.
And obtaining purity and holiness has nothing to do with legalism.
It’s got nothing to do with, Well I must read and pray more. Maybe if I fast more often or tell someone about Jesus.
Obtaining purity and holiness has nothing to do with works. It’s obtained by complete surrender.
We surrender to the One whom we completely trust, love, live in, is the center of everything in my life.
Last time I spoke on a Wednesday night I spoke on eagerly desire spiritual gifts and the gift I focused on was discerning of spirits.
You will always struggle to discern properly without a properly aligned heart.
God takes the condition of one’s heart so serious He says this,👇
Romans 3:4 NKJV
“Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.”
That means if any influence is even entertained at all your heart can be infected.
God is the only source of truth!
So if there is confusion in your life something other than God is being entertained.
That goes with fear, worry, doubt, unbelief, Unforgivness, jealousy, and so on!
Are you struggling with something?
What are you entertaining other than God?
Say your a lamp and your source of working is electricity you want to stay plugged in because when you unplug from your power source you’ve disengaged yourself from the very thing that makes you alive and of any worth.
When you unplug yourself from your source, you are pretty much useless.
Listen we cannot afford to have a thought about me that God doesn’t have about me.
Pastor Jerry Siler Jr.