Saturday, 5 March 2005 8:44 AM
by Pastor Bob Beverley
During 20 years of research throughout the 1960's & 70's John & Beatrice Lacey observed that the heart appeared to be sending meaningful messages to the brain that it not only understood but obeyed. Even more intriguing it looked as though these messages could affect a person's behaviour. ...
One of the early pioneers in neuro cardiology, Dr J Andrew Armour, introduced the concept of a functional 'heart brain' in 1991. His work revealed that the heart has a complex intrinsic nervous system that is sufficiently sophisticated to qualify as a 'little brain' in its own right. Its elaborate circuitry of neurons, neurotransmitters, proteins and support cells enables it to act independently of the cranial brain - to learn, remember, and even feel and sense....
Numerous experiments have demonstrated that the messages the heart sends the brain affect our perceptions, mental processes, feeling states and performance in profound ways, and research suggests that the heart communicates information relative to emotional state to the cardiac centre of the brain stem..
Coherent heart rhythm patterns tend to be experienced as heightened mental clarity, improved decision making and increased creativity and to facilitate the experience of positive feeling states.... http://www.heartmath.org/
The scriptures are full of references to the heart (and there are comparatively few about the mind). Why does the Bible keep talking about the heart, and is God more interested in our heart than our mind? Haven't we always felt that there is something more than intellect at work in our decision making processes ('if only I had listened to my heart!'). Can our heart reason, be wise, gain understanding or are these just expressions to describe emotion?
Consider these scriptures:
Proverbs 2:2 'incline your ear unto wisdom and apply your heart to understanding'
Proverbs 23:15 'if your heart be wise my heart shall rejoice'
Luke 5:22 'what do you reason in your hearts?'
Jeremiah 17:9,10 'the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?
Proverbs 23:7 'for as he thinks in his heart, so is he'
Ezekial 11:19 'and I will give them one heart'
Let's make the reasonable assumption that God, who designed our heart, gave us directions to specifically follow, not in our mind, but in our heart.
Matthew 22:37 'you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind' (first and foremost 'with all your heart')
Psalm 4:4 'commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still'
Proverbs 4:21 'keep my sayings in the midst of your heart'
Proverbs 4:23 'keep your heart with all diligence - out of it are the issues of life'
This can actually happen by focusing on our heart when we pray, and every day as we go about our daily tasks, believing 'this is who I am - the Word of God in my heart is the core of my existence, not my education, my job or anything else I do.'
God's Word directs our attitudes too -
Hebrews: 3:8 'harden not your hearts'
Phillipians 4:6,7 'be anxious for nothing . the peace of God shall keep (phroureo: keep with a military guard) your hearts and minds.
If you study all the scriptures the Bible contains relating to the heart, you will see that they apply to every aspect of our life, and it gives us great joy to consider that by the infilling of the Holy Spirit God 'takes away our heart of stone' and that He 'writes his laws in our hearts'.
Pastor Bob Beverley (ref. Pr Peter Miller, Lismore)
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Monday, 28 February 2005 1:16 PM
By Pastor Michael Nagy
How do we find fulfilment in the Lord? The answer to this question was given by Jesus in John 15:10-11 where he says "If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.and your joy might be full'.
We can fulfil the 'commandments' of the Lord by being faithful, living righteous lives, understanding God's mercy and love for us. All these qualities will bring the joy of the Lord.
Fulfilling the Great Commission by preaching, talking and speaking about Jesus Christ and the power of the holy ghost will also bring great joy into our life. To be able to share the gospel with the unsaved and see their lives changed forever. This is very fulfilling. Jesus said in Mark 16:15 ".go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature". This is our calling and commission.
1 Cor 9:16 says '..woe unto me if I preach not the gospel'. This isn't a statement of punishment and judgement by the Lord. It is saying that we are missing out if we don't spread the good news. Woe unto me because I'm missing the blessing of speaking to the lost.
And what happens when people don't come. Are we doing something wrong? The answer to this is in 1 Cor 3:6 "I have planted, Apollos watered, but GOD gave the increase". We simply open our mouths and speak, but it is God who does the converting. The seed of the word of God is planted in peoples hearts, another saint may water and God produces growth in that seed and we see the increase in the church. He is the one who brings them to the church. Jesus said 'for without me you can do nothing'.
The Lord spoke to Paul in a vision (Acts 18:9-10) and said '. don't be afraid but speak, and be not silent. For I AM WITH YOU.for I have many people in this city.' There are still many people to be saved in Canberra; people with broken and shattered lives. There may be an external façade of having it all together, but underneath they are crying for answers.
Paul spoke to King Agrippa. Paul was a Pharisee to the Pharisee's. He knew the law and could of quoted out of Exodus, Daniel and Isaiah that Jesus was the Messiah. Instead he chose his testimony. This is our most effective and simple tool to bring conviction into peoples hearts. How that the Lord has changed us through the power of the holy ghost and his love and mercy upon us.
Hold not your peace but speak for this is the Great Calling and Great Commission of the son or daughter of God. And this will be great joy into our life by seeing others saved and changed.
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Friday, 28 January 2005 9:40 AM
By Pastor Dave Sunderland
What confirms us as Christ's church? Is it preaching that we must repent, be baptised in water and baptised in the Spirit? Is it that when we're filled with the Holy Spirit we speak in tongues? Is it that we love camping and fellowshipping together? Is it our style of worship and singing? Is it our understanding of the prophetic scriptures that outline the history of the nations and the imminent return of Christ? Is it our expectations about our behaviour and modesty?
All these things help to define us, but at the end of the day it is Christ that confirms that we are His church by the miracles that happen among us. (Mark 16:20).
And miracles need faith before they can happen. It was lack of faith among the people of Nazareth that hindered even Christ working miracles there (Mark 6:3-6). It was lack of sufficient faith that prevented the disciples healing the lame man (Mark 9:17-29).
So what is this faith?
Faith.defined
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don't yet see. (Heb 11:1). Together with perfect love, it is what distinguishes God's people from all others. We are motivated by love. We are enabled by faith. Faith is a powerful knowledge that despite whatever the current circumstances, God is greater than the need, and can heal, restore or provide as required.
Faith is not an emotion. Emotions fade and change. Faith is knowing that the power of God's Word is independent of how we are feeling, or of what we are having to deal with at that moment. Faith is not just head-knowledge, but heart-understanding.
Faith.is required
God demands that His saints are faithful people (Heb 11:6), and we need faith without wavering to receive anything from Him (James 1:6-7). So maybe we should be diligent about growing our faith from that initial portion that caused us to be saved when we believed in Christ (Gal 3:2)!
Faith.grows
Faith is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22) and is given to us as a seed when we are filled with the Spirit. It is then up to us to feed and water it so that it grows. In fact not just grows, but flourishes - bursting into wonderful fruit.
We say this so often it can lose its impact, but we need to have a healthy prayer life and study the Word (Rom 10:17, Jude 20) to be full-of-faith saints. Without prayer we have no connection to God. Without knowing the Word we are without a weapon.
When Joshua led the Children of Israel into the promised land, they had to prepare themselves for victory by meditating on the Word day and night. We need to prepare for our victories in exactly the same way.
But of course we don't need an education to be saved - being able to read is not a prerequisite for being a saint. But knowing the Word of God is a prerequisite. That's why we share the Word, listen to the Word being preached, share testimonies and study the Word together. It takes effort, but God is not going to leave us without the tool that He says is vital.
It's important for chickens to have to break themselves out of their eggshells to grow their strength. Breaking through our problems and trials will also work to increase our faith (1 Pet 1:6-9).
Faith formulas: Prayer * Word = Faith; (Faith + Perseverance) * God's will = Result
Faith.can be disarmed
So why don't we get answers sometimes? Because we can stop God working in our lives. We can't stop Him loving us, but we can prevent Him reaching us and working for us. The three biggest obstacles to seeing faith work for us are:
- Giving up on the tough ones (James 5:16; Mark 9:29)
- Not forgiving someone - holding a grudge (Mark 11:26)
- Asking with the wrong motives or for something that is really only about our pleasure (James 4:3)
Jesus was frustrated with His disciples in Mark 9 because they couldn't heal the dumb man. But He did not reject them. Rather He continued to teach them and encourage them to pray so that their faith would grow. It is easy to feel condemned when we haven't received a healing for which we've been seeking, but that isn't what the scriptures tell us to do. Instead they encourage us to be more diligent, to call for elders and people of faith to help us through those times, and to hear the Word of God.
Faith.is not natural
Faith doesn't come naturally. Most of us find it easy to believe that God can do miracles. We can even believe that God will work 'at some point'. But it can be much harder to believe that God will work NOW! How many of us can identify with cry of the man in Mark 9 - 'Lord I do believe; help my unbelief'. It's the cry of a man that has seen wonderful miracles, but needs another one - while struggling with a human nature that can make us too afraid to believe.
Faith is not natural, it's supernatural. Our five senses can't prepare us for faith - only the Holy Spirit working within us can do that. Faith is not us 'making ourselves believe', but is a supernatural fruit that is amazingly stirred and encouraged as we realise that the faith that Christ exercised, is the faith we can exercise (John 14:12-14).
Faith.is doing
Faith is much more than just passively believing. Faith makes things happen. And it's not just about God doing things for us, but also about us doing things for God.
It's through faith that we serve God, praying for miracles, exercising the gifts, sharing the gospel with our friends and relatives, and preaching deliverance.
Christ's church is a faithful church where miracles happen. We are His church when we are full-of-faith people.
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