God does not see things the way we see them. One of the consequences of sin is that it actually distorts our ability to see. Simply put, sin makes us foolish. Sin blinds us and takes away our capacity to perceive. We see, but we don’t see. Having eyes, we see not; having ears, we hear not. That raises a simple question, and I believe a profound one: how do you know what is actually going on in your own heart?
See, Hear, Perceive
One of my favourite verses in the whole Bible is found in Ezekiel. As written in Ezekiel 40:4, “Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears, and fix your mind on everything I show you.” I often summarise it this way: see with your eyes, hear with your ears, perceive with your heart, set your heart on the things God shows you, and then go and proclaim them.
A lot of people take hold of the teaching on confession, on speaking the Word of God, and they try to speak God’s Word. Yet they have never taken the time to see it. They have never really taken the time to hear it. They have never taken the time to perceive it in their hearts. We see with the eye, but we perceive with the heart.
Something Comes Out of the Deep
I believe one of the challenges of walking here on the earth is that we are, I don’t want to say incapable, but really not very good at judging what is going on in our own hearts. Most of us have had the experience, and I have too, of walking merrily along, thinking everything is great. Then suddenly something happens. It doesn’t come out of the blue; it comes out of the deep. We find ourselves saying something, doing something, reacting to a situation, and part of us asks, “Where did that come from? I didn’t even know that was in me.”
It is an interesting concept, but sin doesn’t come from the outside. It comes from the inside. I have said this many times to men with anger problems. Somebody tells me, “My wife makes me angry.” I answer, “No, she doesn’t.” They insist, “Oh yes, she really does.” Here is what is going on: you have anger in you. You’re fine when you’re on your own, but around your wife she presses a button that is already there, and the anger that is in you comes out. If you had no anger in you, she couldn’t make you angry.
Think of it this way. If somebody has a problem with greed, expensive things are not the problem; the greed inside them is. If you have a problem with lust, you could cover every woman from head to toe and you still wouldn’t solve it, because lust is not external. It is internal. Jesus spoke of the one who looks at a woman to lust for her as having already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9–10, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart.” I believe the emphasis there is less “you have a big, terrible, wicked heart” and more “it is really hard to know your heart.” God searches the heart. The Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Only God perfectly knows our hearts.
Here is the problem. If I have beliefs settled in my heart that I am unaware of, then when I come into circumstances I will see and perceive them through the lens, the grid, of what is actually in my heart, not through what I think I see around me. I will not see what I don’t see. So how can we recognise what is in our hearts? Let me give you a few keys.
Listen to Your Own Words
Number one, what are the words that come out of your mouth? As written in Matthew 12:34, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” I sometimes say, jokingly of course, that if I want to know what is in your heart, I’ll just stamp on your toe. You can be very spiritual, praising the Lord in church, floating around in worship. Then somebody steps on your toe, figuratively speaking. Somebody doesn’t give you the respect you think you are due, or somebody offends you. Straight away, what is going on in your heart shows up in your mouth.
What comes out is what was in there in the first place. Have you ever found yourself in a heated exchange and suddenly unleashed all those things you said? Every one of them was already in your heart. The guards and filters simply came down. That is one reason people struggle in close relationships like marriage: by definition we drop the filters. The social niceties that protect a regular conversation aren’t there in the same way.
Watch Your Reactions to Life
Number two, ask the Lord to show you your heart. That is the best way of all. Number three, watch your reactions to the circumstances of life. I believe God brings us into contexts and situations, whether we like it or not. He knew what was in our hearts before He ever brought us into them, before He ever created us, but He wants us to learn what is really there.
As written in Deuteronomy 8:2, “The Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart.” God already knew what was in their hearts. The problem was that they didn’t. Here is the cycle we go through. We think we are doing well, serving the Lord. Then something comes that we didn’t see coming, that we weren’t prepared for (inattendu, as the French say) and suddenly we are making a golden calf. What is really going on in our hearts is being revealed.
Hebrews 3 speaks of Israel in the desert. Ask most people where the children of Israel wandered for forty years and they would say, “In the wilderness, in the Sinai, in that space between Egypt and the Promised Land.” God saw it very differently. As written in Hebrews 3:10, “They always go astray in their heart.” They wandered in their hearts.
Responding Correctly
So God puts us into a context and all the mess comes out. What He then wants is for us to respond correctly. The answer is not to despair and say, “I’m so bad. What a terrible person I am.” The right response is, “Lord, I didn’t know that was even in me, but it was. I turn from it, and I look to You.”
I believe that if we respond correctly, the test can be shortened. As written in Deuteronomy 1:2, “It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.” I could make a case that God wanted to test Israel for something like eleven days, not forty years. It is a test we can fast-track by responding appropriately.
How do we respond appropriately? We see it. We repent. We allow the Holy Spirit to take something out of our hearts. More importantly, we don’t try to go neutral. We don’t become Switzerland. We allow the Holy Spirit to displace the wrong thing in our hearts with the right thing He wants to put there.
If you are struggling with anger, lust or greed, the answer is not merely to try to get rid of it. You need to allow the fruit of the Spirit, the opposite of those things, into your heart. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace. When you are overflowing with those things, there is no room for the others.
I don’t mean to be inappropriate, but it is not wrong to have strong desire. The question is what you desire. Learn to long after God. If that sounds uncomfortable to a religious mind, think carefully about what I am saying. God wants us to bring our desire to Him and to pull on the things of heaven. As written in Psalm 107:9, “For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” There is something in God that will satisfy every part of you, spirit, soul and body.
Think of the woman at the well, moving from one relationship to another. Jesus told her, in effect, “You need living water.” Learn to thirst for living water. Come to Him not saying, “Oh God, I wish You would visit me,” but, “God, You have visited me.” Then establish those things in your heart. See with your eyes, hear with your ears, perceive with your heart, set your heart on what God shows you, and then speak it out of your mouth: I am free. I am who God says I am. That is how a new pattern is established in the heart.
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Scriptures for Study
Ezekiel 40:4, Matthew 13:13–15, Mark 8:18, Jeremiah 17:9–10, Hebrews 4:12, Matthew 12:34–35, Luke 6:45, Matthew 15:18–19, Matthew 5:28, James 1:14–15, James 3:2–10, Psalm 139:23–24, Deuteronomy 8:2, Deuteronomy 1:2, Exodus 32:1–4, Hebrews 3:7–11, Psalm 95:10, 1 John 1:9, Galatians 5:22–23, Romans 12:21, Psalm 107:9, Psalm 42:1–2, John 4:10–14, Romans 10:8–10, Proverbs 4:23
10 Questions for Reflection
- When did something “come out of the deep” in you that surprised you?
- Who or what do you blame for “making” you react a certain way?
- What do your words in unguarded moments reveal about your heart?
- How do you respond when someone “steps on your toe”?
- Which relationships cause your filters to drop, and what comes out?
- What recent circumstance might God be using to show you what is in your heart?
- Where might you be “wandering in your heart” rather than simply in your circumstances?
- How can you respond to what is revealed with repentance rather than despair?
- Which fruit of the Spirit do you most need to fill the space where something wrong used to be?
- What has God shown you that you now need to set your heart on and speak out?
