ABC’s of a Man’s Heart
AFFIRMATION:
MEN, you need to know something…maybe you haven’t heard this in a while…maybe you haven’t heard it in years…But your Father and my Father wants to say to you, I love you. You need to hear that.
One of the mightiest men in the Bible. One of Israel’s greatest warriors. One man that is talked about more than any other man in the Bible other than Jesus…that’s David. He lived loved. He knew how to encounter the affections of God. He knew how to live in His embrace…even when he fell into sin or had weaknesses.
His heart ran TO God and not FROM God when he fell. This is one of the reasons why He was a man after God’s own heart…because He knew how to not just love God, but to feel His love in return.
This relationship that we have with God is not one-sided. It’s not conditional. It’s everlasting. There is no beginning to His love and there is certainly no end to His love.
David continually felt affirmed by His Father in Heaven. And today my message from the Father to each and every one of your hearts is that God IS love and He LOVES you! Right now, right where you are at in life.
He’s not waiting for you to get holy enough, smart enough, mature enough. He loves you right now with the full extent of His love and He is holding nothing back from you!
See, we feel that if people had the same knowledge about us that God has (for there is nothing that He does not know), that people would reject us…therefore we put God in that same box. He knows every last little detail about us. The good, the bad and the ugly. And yet, He loves us just the same. Why? Because He is a perfect Father.
And nothing takes God by surprised! He is not saying, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming in his life. I am going to have to take some time on this situation and reevaluate my heart towards him”…no.
You need to live hearing the affirmations of God. This is what He believes about you even though you may not even believe it for yourself. That’s where things get twisted. And the enemy is good at swooping in and taking advantage of our weak hearts.
Our hearts were meant for love. They were made to feel and encounter His love, peace, joy, etc. And when our hearts are confident and satisfied in His love, we will not turn to the affections of this world that will always and I mean ALWAYS pale in comparison to the richness of His love.
We have settled enough for counterfeit affections. And the Father wants to set us free from all that is hindering His love in our lives.
He loves you friends. Even more, He adores you. And you know what? He enjoys you!
Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
He is in your midst…He is ALWAYS in your midst. He promised to never leave you or forsake you and you can draw on His love, peace, joy, presence anywhere and anytime! You are a carrier of the presence of God by the Holy Spirit!
He is the Mighty One…He is strong and He fights for you. You never, ever have to fight a battle alone. Even those things that you have been battling for a while…He fights for your heart to be healed and free.
All through the Psalms we see how much David wrote about how strong, mighty and powerful his God was.
Ps. 18:19, “He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued (delivered my heart and life) me because he delighted (takes pleasure) in me.”
He will rejoice over you with gladness…Hebrew word here for rejoice is “simkhow” which means gleeful, joyful and happy as in religious festival.
Remember Song of Songs 2:4, “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.”
There is always a banquet and party for you in the Kingdom. Jesus gets so excited about you!
He will quiet you with His love…His amazing love! There is nothing you can do or say to make Him love you more. We can’t manipulate Him to love us. We can’t make deals with His heart for us. God if you just love me or just forgive me this one more time, I will never sin again in this area.
Jesus died to bring you back to the Father (everything had been lost and stolen from us in the Garden of Eden) He gave up everything He loved to gain your love!
Whatever perfect love looks and feels like to you…Father loves you eternally more. His love is unlike any earthly love. His love is exhilarating, beautiful and fascinating!
He will rejoice over you with singing…The word here in Hebrew for rejoice is different from the other word rejoice in this verse. It’s “gheel” which means to have such joy that it causes you to spin around! Your Father is dancing over you right now! It is inexpressible what He truly feels about each of us! His emotions for us are so strong that He can hardly take it and He has to dance!
EVERY man, no matter how hard the heart, wants to be loved.
BELIEVE:
It’s not enough to just hear the promises of the Father. We have to believe them.
James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
It is not enough to simply hear the affirmations of the Father (even though that is good), we have to believe that He loves me just as He said He does!
We have to believe that every promise in the Word of God belongs to me…it’s mine! All the healing Scriptures are mine. All the blessing Scriptures are for me. All the Scriptures about who God says that I am and how He made me and what I am to become and where I am going…they are all mine!
You have to make every Scripture personal for you and declare that it’s mine!
Declare His promises every day over your life! Read what David wrote in Ps. 119 and how he described the power, life and joy found in the Word of God.
Believe that you are His wonderful son. You are not an orphan. You don’t live in that orphan spirit anymore.
Romans 8:15 says, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
To believe in His love is to receive His love. If you are not receiving His love…you are not believing like you should.
Believe that He has taken away your shame. Believe that He has taken away your brokenness, your pain and your past. Believe that He is right here with you now. And believe that He has a great future for you!
CONTEND:
You have to fight and keep fighting and keep contending for all that God has for you and all that He wants to do in you and through you. There is a DAILY battle for your heart.
Eph. 6:10-12, “10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[c] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
We have to live strong in the Spirit. Not just for ourselves…we are not just contending and fighting for ourselves but our families and those that we love as well as those who God has called us to reach.
2 Tim. 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
God is the one that gives us the power to contend for our purity, our families, our jobs, our relationships, our ministries, etc.
Eph. 3:16-20, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us”
Filled with God…the ultimate joy. The ultimate prize!