Hi everyone. It’s Lara Gboyega Adedeji once again. In this piece, I want to share with us on something that I believe is important for you and I to consider. It has been titled: The Heart That Serves the Will of God. We are going to be reading a lot of so that words that we are reading, examining, and meditating on will truly change and transform us. We are going to start our observation from Isaiah 66:1-2. I am going to read from the NKJV version and I am also going to read it in the message translation. “Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest.” God was asking a question here. When God ask a question, it is not about ignorance or lack of answer, it is because He wants to pull our attention to something He is saying.
God said: where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of my rest? Verse 2 says: “for all those things my hand has made and all those exist.” So, what is God talking about that exist? What are those things that He said His hands has already made? Says the Lord; It says but on this one; all these things my hands have made, all these things exist but on this one will I look; of him that is poor and of a contrite Spirit. And who trembles at my word. I want to read it in the Message Translation Isaiah 66:1-2. “This is God’s message, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool, what sort of house could you build for me? What holiday spot reserved for me? I made all this! I own all this!” God’s Decree. “But there is something I’m looking for: a person simple and plain, reverently responsive to what I say.”
There is something that I am looking for; meaning that if it’s available, I will not be searching for it. If it is common place, it will not be something that is far away that I will be looking for. In psalms the Bible says; God looks down from heaven looking for a man, a man that would do His will. Isaiah 66:2, God said; God said on this one. I am looking for a person, and the person I am looking for is that one that is simple and plain, the one who reverently is responsive to what I say. What does this mean? Why is God looking for a man? Why is God looking for such a person who is poor and of a contrite Spirit, that trembles at His word? It is the heart that serves the will of God.
God is not looking for human beings, because He said all these things my hand has made, all these things exist. We know from Genesis chapter 2, that God created man in His image and His likeness. So, human beings are a lot on the earth, but God said I am looking for a person. This one I will look at; this one I will give my attention, this one will have my place. Where is the place of my rest? Where is the house that you will build for me? Now, this question that God posed in Isaiah 66 is the focus of this conversation. The heart that serves the will of God. The heart that serves the will of God is the place of God’s rest. The heart that serves the will of God is the house that God wants you and I to build. How can we build that house? How can we become the place of God’s rest? That’s the focus of our conversation. We are going to go to Jeremiah 17:9-10. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
I want us to see that place very well because, when we are talking about the heart, it is not a joke. God said the heart is deceitful. This is our Lord, your Lord and my Lord speaking. The heart is deceitful above all things. So, there are other things that are deceitful but the heart is deceitful above all things. This is what God said; and desperately wicked, who can know it. The heart is such a mystery. The heart is a spiritual mystery, God said; who can know it? “I the Lord search the heart. This is what I do, this is what I am concerned with; I don’t search your body, I search the heart, I test the mind. Meaning that the testing of the mind is key to searching the heart. “Even to give.”
The reason why I search the heart is so that I can give every man according to his ways. I want us to break this down. What is God saying here? I the Lord, I search the heart; to what end? Why do I search the heart? Why am I not searching the act? Why is it the heart I am searching and not the acts? It said the because the acts come from the heart. “I search the mind” the reason why I do these things is to give every man according to his ways. Meaning the ways of a man is linked to his heart. According to the fruits of his doings; meaning if he is going to do anything, it must start from his heart. I want us to see Proverbs 27, I said we are going to read a lot of Scriptures because that is the emphasis of the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 27:19says: “As in water face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man.”
I am sure we are familiar with this, right? If you look into the water, you will see the reflection of your face in it. It said; so, a man’s heart reveals the man. As in water face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man. So, your heart is a mirror of you. Your heart mirrors your life. What does this mean? The heart of a man reflects the man. Your heart is a reflection of you; that’s why God said I search the heart. God was speaking in 1 Samuel 7, when he was speaking to prophet Samuel, He said; men look at the out ward appearance, they judge the outward appearance, but I God looks at the heart. Because, the heart is the major deal. The heart is the place where the activity actually works.
I want us to see why God is emphasizing on our hearts. Jesus speaking in Matthew 5, He made a bold statement that we must look at. Matthew 5:27-28. It says: “You have heard that it was said [i]to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” That’s a bold statement. Jesus said it is not the performance that God will judge, God will not focus on the performance, God is going to judge the rehearsal. A man that looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. I want us to read that translation in the Message Translation. It says: “You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those ogling looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.”
This is the assertions of Jesus. He said your heart is the place of rehearsal. But God is so concerned about the rehearsal because God knows that what you rehearse you will perform. God is not looking forward at your performance, God is looking out for your rehearsals. Because the things you rehearse you will eventually perform. That’s the statement of Jesus. That’s what Jesus was asserting here. So, as a believer, as a child of God, growing into maturity, it is not about the acts, it is about the heart, it’s not about performance, it is about the rehearsals. What is going on in your heart? That’s why the Bible says in that proverb chapter 4 verse 23. It said; guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it proceeds the issues of life. Guard the affection of your heart, guard the things that go on in your heart, because whatever you rehearse in your heart, will become a performance in your life. That’s why God is zeroing in on it, because it’s so important.
In Matthew 22:37, Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ In the order of priority what comes first is your heart. Because if your heart can love God, your soul will love Him. If your heart can love God, it will drag your soul in alignment. Then it will drag your mind in alignment. Jesus said; love the Lord your God. Why is this important? The heart that serves the will of God is the heart that loves God with the whole; everything. When all is involved, it means nothing is excluded. Love the Lord with All your heart. No wonder God said I have found David a man, after my heart. In the heart of David, there is no space for anyone else. David so rehearsed God, that he performed Him. And that is why it is important for us to understand the will of God. It is not a heart that has just a portion for God, it is a heart that has God in it, hundred percent. There is no room for another.
What is that heart that serves the will of God? Proverbs 3:5-6 shows us. It says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…” not a portion of it. If you love Him with all your heart you will trust Him with all your heart. The heart that serves the will of God is the heart that loves God with all. Then will you also trust in the Lord with all. And what will happen as a result? You will lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways; what will that give birth to? You will acknowledge Him. So, you will be able to retain the knowledge of God in your heart and He shall direct your path. Where is the house that you will build for me? Where is the place of my rest? On this one I will not look away from, that one that trembles at my word. Simple and plain.
You are not holding anything back from God. God has you hundred percent. That’s a heart that God is looking for. Joel 2:13. The Heart that God is seeking for; number one we have mentioned that the heart that loves God, love God with all your heart. Number two; the heart that trust in God with all. How do you make sure that your heart, the heart that God is building in you is the one that serves His will, how can we identify the heart that serves His will? Joel 2, let me read from verse 12; “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” It says turn to me with all, not some of your heart. “So, rend your heart, and not your garments…” when you rend your heart, people will not see it, when you rend your garment people will see it. So, God is after your heart and not your acts. God deals with the heart in secret. When God wants to do a heart work in you, it doesn’t usually happen in the open. God breaks men down in the secret. A broken and a contrite spirit is not for show, God does not do it in the public.
When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, and He was sweating and the drip of His sweat was like blood, it was not happening when He was preaching the beatitude, it happened when He was alone with God. God said; rend your heart, not your garment. A heart that will serve the will of God is one that can be rend in the secret. To rend your heart means that you tear it apart, its broken, that’s what God was talking about in Isaiah 66. A rended heart is a surrendered heart. A rended heart is a heart that is broken. God said break your heart just like the woman that broke the alabaster box. The alabaster box was a symbol of her heart. She broke her heart. Do you know how costly the heart is? You can’t afford to cause the heart to stop beating, it will cost your life.
So, when you rend your heart, it will cost you. The heart that serves the will of God is the heart that gives up so much that cost you. A life that is poured out like an offering. That’s why apostle Paul said his life has been poured out like an offering. The heart that serves the will of God, how God identifies it is that it is He a rended heart. Number one; it is a heart that is full of love, number two; it is a heart that trust completely, number three; it is a rended heart, a broken heart. Number Four is what we read in Proverbs 4:23. It is a guarded heart. The heart that will serve the will of God is a heart that loves Him without reservation. A heart that trusts Him with total abandonment. A heart that is rended, broken, rent and a heart that is guarded. If you have a treasure, you will guard it.
I want us to see Matthew 6:19-21. Jesus spoke about something that is very emphatic there. He said something so strong, and this is how you know one whose heart will serve the will of God. Matthew 6:19-21. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures. [Laying up means storing up] Lay-up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Who is your treasure? Where is your treasure? Where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be. A heart that will serve the will of God is a guarded heart, because in that heart is stored-up treasures, God! God must become the treasure that you seek, that you store up. Store God in your heart, lay up God in your heart and you will guard it. Until we learn to lay up and tore up in our heart God and guard it, God knows you are not ready, you are not ready to serve His will. A heart that will serve the will of God is a heart that is guarded, that takes God as a treasure. It says; where is the holiday spot, the holiday reserve for me? Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.
If you lay up for yourself treasure on the earth, your heart will be there. O my house, O my car, O my children; if something happens, that’s the first trigger. But when do we come to that point when we say O my God I must not hurt Him. Joseph said how will I do this wicked thing. God was so much a treasure to Joseph that he left his garment, nothing in the world matter, naked I came to the world, naked will I return. Have the cloth, give me my God. He was our case study yesterday on understanding placement and destiny fulfilment. He had a heart that serves the will of God, no wonder God was with him. See what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 8. Because seeing it in the pages of the Scripture you will understand that God does not contradict Himself.
Matthew 5:8. “blessed are the pure in heart” you can’t be pure in heart if there is no purity in your heart. And the one you can have that is pure is God. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. If you see God, will God be absent in your life? No! He will be presently present. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So, without fasting and prayer, the easiest way to see God is to have a pure heart, a simple heart. God said on this one I will look; He wasn’t joking when He was saying it. On this one I will give my attention, there is a person I am looking for, when God is looking for a person, He will find the person don’t you think so? The God that said the very hair on your head is numbered, how much your entire being.
But there is something God is looking for. He said that person, that one that has a poor and contrite Spirit, that trembles at my word, that store up my word in his heart. David said; your word have I hidden in my heart, so that I do not sin against you. What is in your heart? What is the preoccupation of your heart? The heart that will serve the will of God is a heart that is sold out to God completely. When something is sold out, what can you buy again? That means there are no copies left. Purchase can no longer happen. Until we become men and women that are sold out, we cannot serve the will of God.
Psalm 119 verse 2. “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, you will see that everything we have been reading have been solidifying the position of God. In Isaiah 66 verse 1 and 2. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!” You don’t seek God half- heartedly and find Him. You must seek Him with the whole of your heart, nothing reserved. That’s the heart that will serve the will of God. And God is looking for this heart in our generation. So, how do we posture? I want to read Proverbs 4:23 in the passion translation. “So, above all, guard the affections of your heart, because your heart has affections.” There is always an affinity that your heart wants to have. For example, if you like something the likeness you have for that thing is not in your body, it’s in your heart.
When you look at something you like, where the affection is coming from is not from your body, it’s not from your spirit, it’s from your heart. That’s why the Bible says don’t love God with your spirit, love Him with your heart. Because that’s where your affection is drawn from. Guard the affections of your heart for they affect all that you are. Guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Solidifying the points that Jesus made in Mathew He said; if a man will look at a woman lustfully, the affections of his heart; he will become an adulterer. Because his heart has already been corrupted. Because, to look at a woman lustfully, understand the statement of Jesus, He did not say a man that looks at a woman, we have said Jesus we all look at women.
But He qualified it; “lustfully!” It’s a kind of looking. There is a kind of affection, the affection is called lust. When that kind of affection is in display in the heart, the act has already been accomplished. That’s what Jesus said. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being. Pay attention, guard it. Thoughts will fly, don’t let them perch. Things will happen; you can mistakenly scroll while you are browsing and see a sight on advert. Seeing what you have seen on advert is not the problem, it is staying there. You are now lusting after. So, the Bible says; pay attention to the welfare, the wellbeing, the health of your innermost being. For from there flows the well spring of your life. You cannot serve God if you don’t retain Him in your heart.
You cannot do the things of God if God is not retained in your heart. That’s why the word of God that we read must be meditated upon for it to become a performance. So, God is so concerned about rehearsals. Before David became king, he rehearsed being king. We must understand that God is God. What He said in Jeremiah is so true, He searches the heart, even though God found David a man after His heart, He was still testing His mind. Was it the day he was anointed king that he became king? No! God said you will go the cave of Adullam, I will test your mind, I have found you, you have a heart, when I found you, you have a heart that pants after me, but I want to see how long your heart can pant after me. So, God test the mind. So, when David was there, there are several opportunities for David to kill Saul, he didn’t take it.
God said alright, that’s good, I am watching, I am testing. The Bible says God brought men that were discontented. Because God knew the people of Israel, when the Bible says; and God raised a king for them called David, He knew what He was doing? God actually raised him. Is a child raised in a day? God raised him. David rose through the ranks of his heart to become the act that can serve the will of God on the throne of Israel. God brought discontented people and He said let me see what he will do with this lots, they don’t amount to much but let me see your faithfulness. Because what the Bible says in Galatians 5:22 is true to the test of how God judges our heart. What is God looking for in our heart?
Galatians 5:22, I want us to go to that Scripture. What is God looking for in your heart when God is searching the heart, what is He looking to find in your heart when He is searching? “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” When God is searching the heart, what is He looking to find? He is looking to find love, He is looking to find joy; when you are in that position, when God brings you discontented people, people that look at you and say what is there about you and God said this person you must raise this person. I have put this person in your life at such a time as this to be able to test your mind. Do you give up or you are able to draw from the well of salvation? What is God looking at when He is looking at your heart when He is searching it? God is looking for long-suffering; can you suffer long? Because those were the things God was searching for in the heart of David.
Will he give up and say how can I be anointed and be wondering in caves? God take your anointing and leave me. How can I be so anointed and it’s just a few people I am ministering to? Can’t you give me millions and billions? Even those that are not as eloquent and God is searching, how can you suffer long? Even though Joseph was in prison, and in the prison the Bible says God was with him. Joseph could have remembered his dream and say God why did you show me those useless dreams if you know it will not come to pass? When God is searching your heart, what is He looking for? Can you suffer long? Are you kind? A man in prison interpreting the dreams of other prisoners.
God is searching for kindness. When you have your own problems and you are still praying for other people. God is searching that heart. A heart that can be burdened and still carry other peoples burden. They carried David’s children and his entire household and that of his men, they all cried, they were all in the same situation, and the man carried an ephod and said God, the Bible said and David encouraged Himself in the Lord. He didn’t say see this ungrateful people, when I picked them, do they have family? Now they have carried their family they want to stone me. If you read that Scripture, these men were so angry that they wanted to kill David. That you brought this upon us. If you didn’t send us to that useless war, this will not happen.
And instead of him to be angry, he encouraged himself in the Lord. He said Lord should I pursue? And God said pursue without fail you will overtake them and recover all. So, when God is searching your heart what is He looking for? Kindness, goodness. Will you be good even though people are bad? Will you still portray the attributes of God? Faithfulness, will you be steadfast? Will you remain faithful to God? Like Job? Or will you listen to the advice of your wife; curse God and die, why should you be faithful to God? A God that ruined you in one day. Will you be faithful? That’s what God is searching for in your heart. Will you be gentle; will you have self-control? Will you be able to restrain yourself even though you are legitimately angered?
Will you be able? This is the heart that can serve the will of God. This is the heart that God is looking for. Don’t have an unbelieving heart. An unbelieving heart is a heart that does not treasure God, that cannot trust God. God wants you to believe, even though you cannot see what you are believing, like Abraham. The Bible says that Abraham hoped against hope. Meaning one hope is exhausted, He started another one. It said He judged him faithful that called him. Even though what he was experiencing does not look like the promise, He judged him faithful. He was not unbelieving, he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Don’t have an unbelieving heart. In Romans chapter 5 verse 5, the Bible says the love of God has been shared abroad in our hearts. Because you must have affection for God. To be able to love Him and trust Him.
God is not ignorant about how He created us. He knows the seat of our affection, He knows where we draw it from. How comes it’s when you believe God and receive the Holy Spirit that you don’t just know, you become a reckless lover of God. You can’t do it in your strength. A heart that serves God is a heart that is supernaturally helped by God. You can’t do it in your strength. It is not by power nor by might but by My Spirit says the Lord of host. Romans 5:5, the love of God has been shared abroad in our hearts. An unbeliever cannot love God. How can you love somebody you don’t see? It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t appeal. You have to have affection for what you can see. So when you start having affection for what you cannot see, you understand that it transcends the human realm. That’s why the Bible says the love of God is shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Do you want to have that heart that serves the will of God?
Do you want to pant after God? Do you want your desires and affections to be for Him? It is time to ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Say “Lord help me I can’t do it in my strength. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. Strengthen me by your spirit Lord, I ask for grace to love you. Holy Spirit, let the love of God be shared abroad in my heart.”
Amen!
