Scripture reading: Jeremiah 17:9-10
The heart is the center of man’s spiritual life. It receives ideas and thoughts from outside sources. Man receives suggestions, instructions, and temptations from the spirit world, but in his mind, emotions, will, and desires (in his soul), he, and he alone must make the decision to do or not to do. The decision process within the human being is the heart.
Ecclesiastes 10:2, “A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart is at his left.”
The right hand here is depicted as the hand of the Spirit and the left hand the place of the flesh. A wise man’s decisions therefore, are made in the Spirit while a fool’s is made in the flesh. No man can lie to others unless he first lies to himself. Self-deception is a common human malady. Facing up to the truth in one’s own heart is in itself a cleansing of the Holy Spirit. It is not of man to search his own heart, but this only becomes possible through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
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 try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
This word suggests that God is the only one who knows the heart and understands the workings thereof. Finally, the truth in one’s heart brings enlightenment to the whole being and truly liberates the whole person. Anyone who is free cannot take his brother prisoner.
(Excerpt from The Omega Message, August 1983)
Thought for today: Self-deception is a common human malady but facing up to the truth in one’s own heart is in itself a cleansing of the Holy Spirit.
Sonlight Devotional 