Physical and Spiritual Detoxification – Session Fifteen

Essential Benefits of Spiritual Detox:

Renewing the Wicked Heart –

The word heart is used in different ways all the way through the Scriptures. When God looks at a person, He doesn’t look to see the color of one’s skin. He doesn’t look to see the kind of clothes you are wearing, nor does He consider one’s social background or status. The Bible says that God looks upon the heart to see what you are on the inside—the thoughts, motives and intents of the heart. “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 Samuel 16:7(NKJV).

The Bible indicates a great deal about the condition of the average person’s heart. In Proverbs 6:18, the Bible states of a “a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil.” In other words, the Bible says that your heart is full of sinful plots and schemes that is derived from the wicked imagination of the individuals. According to Jeremiah 17:9, “the heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Your heart is deceitful. You can’t trust it, if you’re outside of Jesus Christ, or not following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Your heart’s true nature, which houses the real you are taken up with the things of this world. You have very little time in private for God. You spend far more time watching television shows, such as Reality Shows and Soap Operas, than you do reading the Bible. You spend far more time reading the drama filled news feed on Facebook and reading novels than you do in prayer. You don’t have time for God, and your heart is a long way from God during your daily living or make Him a part of your lifestyle. Man’s efforts to redeem himself bring to fruition only “vanity and vexation”. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” Ezekiel 36:26–27 (NKJV).

God is the God of clean and renewed hearts. He does not look only at the exterior of a person, or even the things a person does, and judge the individual by that criterion. Man judges the flesh, but God judges the heart. Yes, it’ possible to do good works and still have a wrong heart attitude. It is also possible to do some things wrong but still have a right heart on the inside. God is much more inclined to use a person with a good heart and a few problems than He is to use a person who seems to have it all together but who has a wicked heart. Believers who have been given over to debased minds are individuals who are disobediently and stubbornly determined to pursue the lusts of their deceitful hearts. Like most Christians, who partook in great excess to what the world had to offer, and many found it to be severely lacking of anything of substance or eternal worth. It was only when I decided to listen to wise, godly counsel that I discovered the purpose the Father had planned for my life. However, it is very important that we get in touch with our inner life and our heart attitude, the way we feel and think about things (what the Bible calls the hidden man of the heart), if we want to hear from God and live in close relationship with Him.“Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God” 1 Peter 3:3 (NKJV). When God seeks to promote someone, He chooses a person after His own heart. Only God can change a heart.

The Bible says that our hearts are dark. Romans 1:21, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” The Bible teaches that your heart is dark because your spiritual eyes have been blinded by the god of this age. Let Him open the eyes of your heart. More people stay out of the Kingdom of God because they’re proud than any other reason. We don’t like to humble ourselves and come to the cross of Christ, and say, “Yes, Lord, I’m a sinner and I need Your saving grace.” And the Bible teaches that your heart can be hardened. And it’s possible for you to harden your heart by delay not receiving Christ until it is so hard that, when God speaks, you no longer hear Him or discern His voice. The Bible says He knows the condition of the heart,“Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart” Psalm 44:21 (NKJV). He knows all your secrets, you can’t hide anything from God. He knows every single thing that goes on within our secret thoughts, impure words and malicious deeds. The Bible says that He searches the heart. The great God of Heaven searching your heart. He’s in there searching and probing. Then the Bible says that God ponders the heart.“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2). You can justify that the way you’re living and the way you’re doing is all right. But the Bible says God doesn’t take your evaluation and your judgment. The Bible says that God ponders your heart by meditating on it, and evaluating it for its actions according to the Scripture. And the Bible says God weighs the heart. He weighs you by the law of conscience, also the times your conscience spoke to you, and the times you rejected the voice of your conscience. He also weighs you by the life of Christ. The Bible says that God also prepares your heart by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” And in Ezekiel 36, the Bible says,“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”Change the whole direction of your living. Change your whole moral life. Change your affections. Surrender your life to Christ and have Him give you a new heart. It’s called regeneration. It means that God will give you a new life, in addition to a new direction to your life, new thoughts, new energies, new ambitions, new directions. You’re not saved by living a good moral life. You’re saved only because of the grace of God in Christ. And you must commit yourself to Christ as your only Savior.