How then shall we live?
D’barim (Deuteronomy) 30:19-20
p 162
“I call the shamayim and the earth to record this yom against
you, that I have set before you chayim and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose chayim, that both you and
your zera may live:
20 That you may love YHUH your Alohiym, and that you may obey
His voice, and that you may cleave to Him: for He is your chayim, and the
length of your days: that you may dwell
int he land which YHUH’s swore to your ahvot, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to
Yaakov, to give them.”
How then shall we live?
Two weeks ago we talked about being an overcomer...
I’d like to go deeper in this...
Mattityahu (Matthew)
6:25 p 682
In Matityahu 5 -
Yahusha took his talmidim (disciples) up a mountain to get away form the
multitudes...and began to teach them...
This is known as “The sermon on the mount”....
In Mattityahu 6 it is still going on...
This is the longest teaching we have by Yahusha...
He is teaching them how to live....
Mattityahu 6:25 p 682
Therefore I say to you, Take no thought for your chayim, what
you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall
put on. Is not chayim more than food,
and the body more than clothing?
Mattityahu 6:27
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his
height?
Mattityahu 6:28
And why do you fixate with your clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow; they toil not neither do they spin:
Mattityahu 6:31
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what
shall we drink? Or what shall we be clothed?
Mattityahu 6:34
Take therefore no thought for tomorrow; for tomorrow shall
take thought for the things of its own;
Sufficient for one day is the evil of that day.
There is seems to be a theme in these instructions....
But let’s look at the word for taking thought/worrying/fixating.
This was the Greek word merimnao = Strong’s G3309 =
anxious, troubled, with cares, to care for, look out for, seek to promote one’s
own interests.
Isn’t this interesting... because in our world.. we are
taught to be cautious and “take care.”
Well, what if this isn’t YHUH’s advice?
Mattityahu 10:19 p 685
But when they seize you, take no thought how, or what you
shall speak: for it shall be given to you in that same hour what you shall
speak.
thought = merimnao
NOTICE ... Yahusha is telling His disciples
NOT to have
merimnao....
NOT to be anxious, or troubled with cares or to look be
focused on themselves...
Don’t worry!
Don’t be anxious!
Don’t be troubled with cares!
Don’t be focused on yourselves!
Maybe we could say this is being fearless.
Who did this in Scripture?
Yahushua (Joshua) - facing 31 hostile empires
Yahushua (Joshua) 1-24 p 167
David - I Samuel 17 when he faced Goliath
Caleb - Numbers 14:24
3 Sons of Anek
Benaniah - marched and killed a lion
Shaul - stoned and then marched straight back in to do what
he came for!
1 guy - 300 philistines
John Hyde - prayer warrior ... prayed and prayed for the
people of India... to the point where he had physical troubles... and doctors
found out his heart actually moved from the left side of his chest to the
right....
YHUH never commands us to be careful....
He is saying...
“I am bigger than anything you will face - look at ME!”
He says “Go GET it!”
Does He command us to have merimnao?
Yes - there are two things we are to have
Qorintyah Alef (I Corinthians) 7:32 p
856
Shaul writes:
“But I would have you without worldly cares”...
Okay - that is no merimnao of the world.
read on:
“He that is unmarried cares (merimnao) for things that belong
to YHUH, how he may (merimnao) please YHUH.”
So we are supposed to have Cares about - the things that
belong to YHUH and about pleasing YHUH!
How do we please YHUH?
What does Yahusha say?
Yochanan (John) 14:15 p 770
“If you love Me, keep My mitzvoth (Torah obedience or
commands).”
Yochanan 14:23 p 770
Yahusha answered and said to him If a man loves Me, he will
guard My words: and My Abba will love him, and We will come to him, and make
Our stay with Him.”
YHUH is not governed by worry and anxiety.
He sent His son without a scrap of merimnao!
He pulled off the greatest rescue mission the world will ever
see...
He is not governed by FEAR - and that is what it is you
know...just do it!
But we have been taught to be careful - to take care of our
own skin.
Instead of fighting for the glory of YHUH!
Fear and anxiety and worry is the ultimate enemy,
But when we use the same word... and consider it - taking
care of... guarding... toward the things
of YHUH, THEN it is okay!
You see, there are two kinds of fuel sources....
1.
That says.. you better
be careful... move slowly.... be watchful....
Take care, be cautious,
This is about self sustainment/self preservation... looking
to protect our skin opposed to fighting for the glory of YHUH.
2.
A belief in what YHUH says... being focused on Him.....Being
concerned to keep His Word and His Instruction. Always seek to protect the Torah. - Always carry a care for his Word!
Be anxious
only that YHUH receive His due....
This is my
care...
Not the 31
empires or the difficulties I am facing!
No merimnao -
No self preservation...
Just stick your neck out for the Glory of YHUH!
Everything that follows - YHUH will take care of!... These
are not mine to worry about.
His GLORY is my care!
If the things of YHUH are under attack - we better be carrying
a burden full on - constant focus and attention.
This is overcoming!
not worrying about my stuff ! - Yah will take care of that -
but worrying about/ praying about/ constantly bringing before Him - His stuff!!
Carry merimnao for others... for the body of believers/
Yisrael, for the orphans and the widows and the weak and the lost.
The lost - those who have not yet done teshuvah - repented and returned to His Instructions!
So we are not to worry about issues about our lives...but we are supposed to be set on fire with a passion to
pursue keeping His instruction and bringing Him Glory - keeping his Torah!
So what do we do?
Mishle (Proverbs) 4:20-23 p 551
My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my
sayings.
21 Let them not depart from your eyes; guard them in the
midst of your heart
22 For they are chayim to those that find them, and the
health of all their flesh.
23 Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it are the
issues of chayim.
“Guard your heart” ...
How do we do that?
I want to use “Heart Made Whole” by Christa Black Gifford and
talk about “The Undivided Heart”
In Mattityahu 17 when the disciples couldn’t get the demon
out of the epileptic boy...
she says... “they didn’t form a new theology around their
failure... deciding it was God’s will to heal some and not others. Rather, they brought the boy to Yahusha, and
he was instantly healed.”
There are three parts of our hearts according
to Christa...
1.
Emotional heart
2. Guardian heart
3.
Function heart
The Emotional Heart
-
This is the place you feel amazing joy - like when you fall
in love
-
and tremendous pain if/when you are rejected.
-
“You know your emotional heart extremely well because it’s
the part of you most closely connected to your pain.”
-
“As you walk through life in a hurtful world with imperfect
people, it’s impossible for your heart to stay completely safe and unaffected
emotionally in some sort of negative way.
And when trauma comes like a big school bully who continues to slam you
up against the locker, it’s normal for your heart to ache terrible. If that ache becomes too great, however,
eventually the emotional heart will shut down completely, growing cold in order
to survive.”
I think we see this -
when in troubled kids... they have one thing they know/feel = anger. It is always easier to be angry than feel the
pain of loss, disappointment and rejection.
In a moment of rejection, “your emotional heart has been so
influenced by your unhealed pain that you have formed belief systems around
it.”
“One of the greatest and inaccurate belief systems that I’ve
observed in today’s Christian culture is that the emotional heart is so
untrustworthy and evil that it must be ignored, crucified, or silenced.”
“Many of us have been taught that the heart of the flesh are
the same thing, but they’re not.”
“Even when emotions are negative, they’re still valid because
they’re real, and God wants you to bring them TO HIM.”
“Your feelings don’t just pop out of thin air - there’s aways
a reason behind them.”
All human action is motivated!
Fear is a byproduct of a life that has proven to be
unsafe.
She wrote : “My feeling of insecurity was the result of a
heart smashed by rejection. My emotion
of shame made sense to a heart still dealing with the wounds of sexual abuse.”
She goes on to say:
“When you condemn your emotional heart for the normal
feelings it produces, both good and bad, instead of trying to understand WHY it
feels that way, an essential part of your heart gets stifled and shamed eventually
shutting down to cope.”
“However, your emotional heart was created to be fully alive
with (Yahusha)!”
So when the emotional heart gets hurt/ beat up... or we could
say
-
our feelings get hurt... then our heart switches its focus to
being the....
Guardian Heart
Again, let me remind you of
Mishle (Proverbs) 4:20-23 p 551
My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my
sayings.
21 Let them not depart from your eyes; guard them in the
midst of your heart
22 For they are chayim to those that find them, and the
health ot all their flesh.
23 Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it are the
issues of chayim.
I need to point out that guarding your heart as in Proverbs -
is an instruction from YHUH....
The “guardian” part in this heart teaching is not a positive
thing you want to keep!
Christa writes:
“Like an armed guard stationed outside the door of your heart,
your inner guardian has been given the task of protecting you, so it lives on
high alert looking for enemies - especially if life has proven to have many of
them.”
“Its sole purpose is to keep you safe, so your guardian heart
will do whatever it needs to accomplish this task.”
“It believes more than anything that your pain must stay
separated from your consciousness or you will be too overwhelmed to keep
functioning.”
Let me repeat this last bit....
“Its sole purpose is to keep you safe, so your guardian heart
will do whatever it needs to accomplish this task.”
“It believes more than anything that your pain must stay
separated from your consciousness or you will be too overwhelmed to keep
functioning.”
The “inner guardian has one goal - to avoid more trauma.”
So it learns how to do what you have to do to fit in and not
get “beat up”....
you know..
gossip when you need to, be a great student when you need to. Go to church and reach your Bible... and have
all the right answers...
“Whatever was needed to stay accepted or avoid more pain”
Although I have to add - that some of us just withdraw and
stay out of as much mess of people as we can!
The guardian heart is “always trying to protect itself from
rejection.”
Christa writes:
“If you have a wounded emotional heart that stays slashed
open, then you will always have a well-developed guardian heart that’s working
tirelessly to keep you safe from more trauma.
But the thing is, when this guardian is not securely connected to
(Yahusha), it’s always exhausted from trying to defend you from further
damage.”
The Function Heart
This is “the part of your will that propels you through
life...
making decisions” on how to live... like paying bills on
time, get groceries, make meals, go to work, do your laundry... how you spend
your time...
So this is really important!
Christa writes:
“When this part of your heart is alive whole and connected to
(Yahusha), the works of your hands flourish in abundance from a place of
relationship.”
“But when your function heart stays disconnected from YHUH -
the result is almost always striving slaving performance, and
perfectionism.”
And let me read you what she adds ... because so many many of
us have been in this place:
“For most of my life as a believer, I had a very
“Christianized” function heart. Every
day was spent suppressing my REAL emotions, shielding them from God in shame as
I kept busy with good deeds. I would
read my Bible out of religious duty, beating myself up if i missed a day. I would serve tirelessly at church, feeling
guilty if I ever skipped a meeting or service.
When I struggled with addiction, depression or cycles of sin I would
stuff down my inner self-hatred to work harder, worship longer, and disciple
more people....... My emotional heart was such a tangled ball of wounds that in
order to survive the embarrassment of what was going on inside, I ran in the
opposite direction so that I could function at a very high, very productive
level.”
“But Father didn’t want a slave -- He wanted a daughter.”
This is like the denial .... of “I can’t talk about this
now.” / “Done talking about this.” / “I can’t deal with this”... and the
“staying busy to deal by not dealing.”
“The soul goal of our function heart is to keep us moving forward,
when it’s disconnected from Messiah, it’s best friend and helper is a word we
know well: DENIAL.”
“We know what we must do in order to keep us going in spite
of our pain.”
and we say
something like... I already said....
“Oh, I can’t think / talk about this now....”
“Self-hatred at its core, is simply a product of the parts of
our heart at war with one another.”
“My function heart hated my emotions because they always rose
up to interfere with my achievement -- and achievement was where I gained my
identity and acceptance. My emotional
heart also hated my function heart for ignoring it over the years. When I finally got every part of my heart
into the hands of (Yahusha), asking Him to sync them together a miracle
happened.... I signed a cease-fire within, allowing my heart to move from
constant war, into deep rest.
The Undivided Heart
When trauma, loss, rejection, emotional injury happen... we
have a choice...
If we don’t connect deeply with our heart, it will most
definitely grow cold in order to survive the excruciating pain of death.”
“As long as parts of your heart are at war with one another,
the peace you long for will remain beyond your reach. As long as you despise your negative
emotions, they can never change. As long
as you condemn your old wounds they will never heal. As long as you stay in denial, you can never
uncover truth and be made whole. The
only way for your heart to live in unity with YHUH is if you’re also living in
unity with yourself. This can happen
only if you call in a skilled mediator
Yahusha, who sits with all the parts of your heart, bot wounded and whole, and
begins a safe, truthful inner conversation in which everything is brought to
light and laid out on the table.”
“It’s time you start to realize... Yahusha never condemns you
for being broken. (you) must learn to speak freely, knowing it will be heard by
LOVE.”
Some questions.... “Open Heart Surgery”
1.
“What state is your
emotional heart in? What does it look
like? Does it feel out of control with
feelings, or shut down and cold in order to survive? Is it wounded, bitter, angry, or full of joy,
peace and hope? Have you hated this part
of your heart for being wounded? What
are the normal emotions that this part of your heart produces (e.g.
fear shame, insecurity, anger, or peace, joy, love, acceptance?)”
2.
“Check in with the
inner guardian that YHUH gave you to protect your heart. Is this part connected to Yahusha, guarding
your intimacy with Him, or has it felt as if it needed to protect you from more
pain? Have you guarded your pain so you
could continue functioning in your life?
Have you guarded your heart from Yahusha in anger or disappointment? Take a minute and as Ruach HaKodesh to show
you a picture of the guardian portion of your heart. What state is this guardian in? What would it take to keep this part of you
connected to Yahusha?”
3.
“Check in with the property manger of your heart - the
Functional part that makes decisions and gets things done. Is this part of your heart on autopilot,
getting things done out of duty and necessity, or is it connected to YHUH so
that you come alive doing what you were created to do? How much of your faith life is lived out of
function and duty, and how much of your relationship with Yah involves all of
your heart, including your emotions? Ask
the Ruach HaKodesh to show you a picture
of this part of your heart that gets things done. What does it look like what condition is
it in, and how can it stay connected to Yahusha?”
4. “When every part of
your heart is connected to the YHUH who lives inside, abiding in harmony with
each other, then your heart will experience deep peace, joy and abundant
life. But if parts of your heart are at
war with one another, you will never know peace. Ask the Ruach HaKodesh once again, to show you a picture of your
whole heart. Is your heart at war
within? Do you hate your emotions for
sabotaging your life, or are your emotions angry for being neglected, silenced,
and forgotten? But if parts of your heart are at war with one another, you will
never know peace. Ask the Ruach
HaKodesh, once again, to show you a picture of your whole heart. Is your heart at war within? Do you hate your emotions for sabotaging your
life, or are your emotions angry for being neglected, silenced, and
forgotten? Take a moment and check in
with your whole heart sitting with the Mediator Yahusha to have a truthful
inner dialogue. When every part of your
heart is connected and working together with Yahusha, whole hearted living is
he result.”
Language of your Heart
“Every day your heart is speaking rather loudly to you, but
until you learn its languages and begin to listen, you will find yourself
living with a foreigner unable to understand a thing.”
“When our hearts are screaming and we try everything we can
to get them to shut up eventually giving up and avoiding the annoyance
altogether, we never find out why they’re crying in the first place.”
and just like a baby has a reason for crying...
“The heart always has a very valid reason” as well.
Here’s the important reality in this:
When we try and cover up the real problem... we won’t find a permanent solution!
Luka (Luke) 8:8 p 734 - in the parable
of the sower
“And some fell on tov ground, and sprang up, and produced
fruit a hundredfold. And when He has
said these things, He cried, He that has ears to hear let him hear.
Another translations says it very interestingly:
“(Yahusha) said, ‘Listen with your heart and you will
understand!”
Oh but we tend to force our screaming hearts into being
quiet...
Christa writes:
“Culture,
religion, and tradition had encouraged me to ignore the screams as they came
spilling out from within, teaching me to bind and gag my inner voices and take
care of the annoyance before anyone noticed.
I was taught to shame my heart like a loud kid in an uptight church
service, hating anything negative that came out.”
“But if you ever want to understand yourself and restore your
original design - living as the person YHUH crated you to be - then you’re
going to need to learn to translate a few languages to find out the truth that
your heart has been longing to tell you.”
Christa explains that
“As believers, every one of us should live with a central
goal for our heart to think, speak, feel, and act in the fluent language of
YHUH , which is the language of love.
But until every part of our heart is flying the unified flag of love
above all pain, trauma, bitterness, and offense, it will continue to spew out
all sorts of things we would rather it didn’t.”
Languages:
1.
The language of
THOUGHTS
Psalm 139:2
p 546 “You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thoughts
from far off.”
I might know
all sorts of Scripture Truth - but ... “my brain is filled with anything but
loving thoughts - especially towards myself... In fact, the thoughts tumbling
relentlessly through my head were in a brutal war, pitting what i had learned
to be true against the reality of what i had experienced to be true.”
“I was afraid I was too dirty to ever be clean.... my wounded
heart believed I was a victim - so I thought like a victim.”
“My head might KNOW, but it’s the heart that BELIEVES.”
BUT - Shaul tells us to fight.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 p 870
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
through our YHUH to the pulling down of strongholds; 5 Casting down
imaginations, and every high human matter that exalts itself against the da’at
of YHUH, taking captive every thought to be obedient to Moshiach.”
The language of thoughts is all about being able to identify
lies... and stop believing them... and believing truth.
But instead of beating ourselves up about believing lies...
what if we’d just give all the lies to Yahusha... being honest with Him about how
we think.
2.
The language of WORDS
Luke 6:45
p 732 “A tov man out of the tov treasure
of his lev brings forth that which is tov; and an evil man out of the evil
treasure of his lev brings forth that which is evil: for out of the abundance
of the lev his mouth speaks.”
This is all
about the power words have!
What if “you
start paying attention to your words without shame and condemnation, under the
kind tutelage of a counseling Ruach HaKodesh, you can pretty much pinpoint all
sorts of secret rooms that Yahusha needs invited into. And instead of focusing solely on muzzling your mouth or striving
tirelessly to alter your bad speech, you find that YHUH has been waiting to heal
the hurt behind the words, gently pulling out old lies and replacing them with
truth.”
“Whenever I’m late for an event and start to get snappy and
bossy around my family during the final house roundup, I stop, take a deep
breath, and confess the truth: “Yah my
frustrated words are revealing my true heart.”
Then instead of condemning myself, I end up thanking my heart for
telling me that I still have sounds of fear that make me want to control the
uncontrollable.”
“All negative speech, points to a deeper need for the heart
to be sanctified. So instead of being
cruel to your heart for its brutal honesty, take a moment and express
gratitude, thanking it for speaking so loudly.
At it’s core, it’s still a beautiful work in progress, in need of a
miracle-working Savior.”
3.
The language of
EMOTIONS/ FEELINGS
Proverbs
17:22 p 558 “A lev of simcha
(rejoicing) does tov like medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones.”
When emotions/feelings come up.... we need to recognize
them...
Just like the burned hand in the warm dish-water... the
reaction will be too big!
So instead of beating yourself up because the reaction is too
big... look at the feelings... what is
really going on? What is the cause of
it...
and take it to Yahusha.
4.
The language of
ACTIONS
Psalm 141:4
p 546 “Let not my lev be inclined to any evil thing, to practice wicked
works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their delicacies.”
Addictions fit
in here...
“Addictions and compulsions are never about just behaviors or
substances. They’re about a broken heart
that can’t handle any more pain.”
Unless “the core pain that caused the addiction was
acknowledged, we don’t find freedom by simply controlling my behavior!”
Christa was addicted to food.. and she writes:
“I can tell you what happened when I shifted my focus from
the problem to the solution -- handing my master key to an able healer named
Yahusha. Basically, I turned my eyes
away from the food and put my focus on Yahusha -- the Bread of Life. As I committed to letting Him walk into every
shameful room inside to nourish purify, and heal the actions growing out of my
woundedness began to change naturally from acting out to remaining stable as I
faced my heart pain.”
We can aim at our symptoms... but we can’t heal that way...
We have to go after the problems in the heart.
“No matter how dedicated you are, how hard you strive, or how
strong you become, you will never possess the power to heal, cleans and purify
the brokenness inside your heart because this has never been you job. Your role in life is to be a much loved
child, receiving all that Father offers through salvation, and letting Him
complete His work in you through an exchange of supernatural power and
relationship.”
“Start to pay attention to your heart through the filter of
the counseling - and never condemning - Ruach HaKodesh!”
“Listen to the heart YHUH gave you today, beautiful
friend. Listen with grace like He does,
and you will understand. Watch to see what kinds of thoughts, words, emotions
and actions are residing in your heart.
And instead of swinging an axe at your sin and struggling in the name of
devotion to YHUH, instead why don’t you had the axe over to Him and see what He
wants to do?”
So what if we can begin to see the “problems” in our lives...the “over - reactions” in our lives... as communication from
our heart that all is not well and we need healing?
“Ask the Ruach HaKodesh to begin tracking negative
thoughts back to specific wounds in your
heart, giving you an encounter with His presence that heals the wound inside.”
“Out of the overflow of your heart - your mouth speaks. So what are you saying that reveals your
heart, removing the self-condemnation.
Find five things you consistently say that you wish you didn’t, and ask the
Ruach to trace those words or phrases back into your broken heart, revealing
the source. Now stop and ask Yah for an
encounter with Him within that
situation, binding up your broken heart so free speech can flow.”
And do the same with Feelings and Actions.... ask Yah to take
them back to your broken heart and reveal the source!
And give him the situation and ask Him to heal it!
Why?
well to be free...
Yes to be free
but more than that - to be able to no longer be all about the
cares of this world... Merimnao ...
So, how then shall we live?
With only merimnao of the things of YHUH.
And be whole enough to stand up and have cares relating to
YHUH.
Merimnao of the things HE is calling us to...
Be that overcomer...
Evaluate what is in your heart... just ask him to show you...
and get it done/ cleaned up!
because it feels so amazing to be clean and free...
Praise YHUH!
Sh’ma Yisra’el
Amein.
