Chapter 1: Our Lover, the King

Chapter 1: Our Lover, the King

     The chapters of this book were written to convey the depth of the meaning of the purity of the hearts of those who are justified in the heavenly realms by the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This purity extends beyond the outward virginity of the undefiled and unmarried woman, and reaches into the recesses of the seat of the woman’s heart. For such a woman who displays purity of the heart is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit (1 Cor 7:34) Those who love this purity of the heart will have the King of kings as their friend (Prov 22:11). They commend themselves as servants of God in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, and in genuine love by setting an example among the believers in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity (2 Cor 6:6, 1 Tim 4:12). May God protect us from being deceived and having our minds led astray from this simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ (2 Cor 11:3).

The Conviction of Impurity

     "Hagneia", the Greek word for purity, refers to a sinlessness of heart. For those who have been regenerated through the Word and Spirit of God, in the heavenly Father’s eyes, we are perfect. Christ’s robe of righteousness has covered us. Indeed, He has bestowed to us His garments of salvation and the mantle of His beauty. But here in this world, if we have claimed Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are to be like Him in His perfect humility and purity. When Christ was in the world, every temptation known to man was given to Him and yet He resisted at every point (Heb 4:15). God is calling us as professing Christians to examine our hearts to see that the meditations of our hearts are pleasing to Him in every way. The truth, as we will understand in this book Lord-willing, is that none of us have been absolutely pure in the meditations of our hearts. And for many professing Christians, the meditations of the heart reflect a different lord than the Lord Jesus Christ, the only true and saving Lord. If we do not feel that we contain impurity in our hearts to any degree, we have deceived ourselves and the Truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). As we go on, I believe that the Spirit will convict us all of the many ways in which we have fallen short of the purity of the heart that God desires from us. This conviction may be painful and fearsome to us, but may we never run from it. For this is like the plowing of the ground of the soil of our hearts (Hos 10:12). This process is untidy and painful. And yet, when our hearts have been plowed, the Word of God, the seed, will produce roots that go deep into the soil and produce large and fruitful plants all to the glory of our King.

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8

Default Sensuality

     We must first of all realize that apart from Christ, all of us have erred greatly in every way. We were not born innocent and pure. Rather we were "conceived in sin" and our sin gave birth to death. God tells us that "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" and that our feet rush into evil (Gen 6:5). He asks us "Who can understand it [the heart]?" for the heart is desperately wicked beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer 17:9)

     We have often misunderstood our own hearts to the point where we do not see our own impurity and rather we glory in our shame and find deep inward pleasure in our sensuality. Everything that has been taught to our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies concerning their feminine purposes by the world around us is contrary to the Word of God. These teaching come from the prince of the power of the air who now works in the sons of disobedience and works through secular media, the pressure of the pride of life around us, and the wrong perspectives of success and pleasure presented to us apart from our fellowship with the Spirit and His Word. These teachings are not only external to us. They are our default way of living, that is, apart from God we will naturally resort to such immoral ways that are taught to us by the world. In fact, there is a sense in which our own evil hearts had taught sensuality to us until we are regenerated by the Spirit and continue to walk by the Spirit. Such a walk in the Spirit results in the destruction of the default engraining of sensuality and a placing within us of a pure and Christ-exalting heart. Even in an environment of chastity and purity, we would be prone to falter and follow the winding path of lewdness. There are numerous stories of seemingly religious people committing spontaneous acts of immorality preceded by a long and tortuous path of self-idolatry and lusts of the flesh within the heart. Such people had a form of Godliness, but denied its power (2 Tim 3:5). Thus, because impurity is our default heart condition, any of us who seek to follow and know Christ work against this default condition with the divine weapons of the Word of God and prayer. We are called to pursue to holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

      Our default condition can be characterized by the word “sensuality”.  The Greek word for sensuality is "aselgeia", meaning unbridled lust, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence, or wantonness. Sensuality refers to the lusts of the eyes, the cravings of sinful man, and the boasting of what we have and do.

¹⁵ Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. ¹⁷ The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.I John 2

     God teaches us that it is the devotion of the inward man that will dictate our behaviors. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks and as we live by the Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Luke 6:45, Gal 5:16). Where our hearts are, there our treasure will be also (Matt 6:21). Impurity is a result of inordinate affections of the heart. When we follow the greatest command to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, we cannot be impure. Love for God washes impurity away.

² Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. ³ And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.I  John 3

     At the beginning of our Spiritual journey, we found that our mortal bodies were defiled and corrupted. We had all come from a different path of godlessness. Some were classified as godless by their own choices of immorality. Some were made to be defiled by the corruption of others. We were all sinful from the time of conception. Even our mortal flesh was disgraceful and the very inmost parts of our being were drenched in moral filth of every kind. Surely our deceptive hearts had hidden this truth from us so that we did not see our own unrighteousness.

There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes,
Yet is not washed from his filthiness. Prov 30

     Many of our godless attitudes were a result of our inward attempt to hide our shame and defilement. But we only became more corrupted. Our guilt was ever increasing with our hearts' contemplation and words.

⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
⁶ Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Ps 51:5-6

     Our bodies were unclean and there was no hope of coming near to the Presence of the Living God. Our souls cried out in fear for the "rocks to cover us" rather than to fall under the due condemnation of God the Father. We were far from Him for He could not look upon our wickedness in His holiness. 

Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,
And You can not look on wickedness with favor.. Hab 1

     The God whom we so earnestly dreaded and needed for our salvation is righteous and holy in all of His ways. He alone dwells in inapproachable light. His temple is filled with glory, majesty and power. Countless heavenly beings worship before His throne day and night crying out "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come " (Rev 4:18). Not one man could stand before Him in his sin and live. For even a the smallest hint of impurity within us represented a complete rejection of the Law of God and rendered us worthy of only damnation.

      His perfect justice required that we be completely destroyed. For our very bodies which He had created to be the temple for His own Spirit were destroyed. We had destroyed them. We had deliberately rejected His laws and hopelessly destroyed the bodies that He had given us by our impurity. If we were to foresee our deserved destiny, our eyes would behold the complete destruction of our bodies and the torment of our souls in the place from which no one can escape...separation from God forever in hell. We would behold the destruction of the inmost parts of our bodies in the fire. Surely the beast and all who worship him will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The Gospel’s Power

      As we acknowledge the great Love of Christ as He bore our sin on the cross, we are filled by His Spirit with gratitude and love for Him. As Jesus said about the immoral woman who gave her perfume in worship of her Savior “He who is forgiven little loves little" (Luke 7:47). Our default sensuality and the rest of our vast wickedness were placed on the perfect Lamb of God who became sin in our place. As His blood and life were poured out onto death, His Father’s just and righteous wrath against our wickedness was poured on the Son. The Father turned His face away for the first time from His only begotten Son, beloved from the foundation of the world, the One who has shared in His glory for all eternity. Christ went through the worst agony ever experienced as He drunk the cup of God’s combined wrath towards the cumulative sins of our earthly existence. When Christ’s work on the cross was finished He gave up His Spirit and the curtain in the temple tore in two from top to bottom to signify that we could now approach the holy God on the basis of Christ’s blood, the blood of the Covenant. The Father raised the Son to life on the third day. Because Christ is the resurrection and the life, death could have no power over Him. He is victorious over the grave, and with His victory comes victory for all of His people over sin and death. We are rescued from hell, and we are rescued from the snaring enslavement of our default sensuality. For the remainder of our lives His purpose is to conform us to the image of His Son, so that He may be our firstborn elder Brother. He is making us holy now in our character. When we falter and struggle, He is disciplining us and refining us through His Word and judgments so that we may continue in our repentance and faith until the end. He will not allow us to remain astray from Himself, for He is faithful to the glory of His Name and to His promises towards His people to make them into a royal priesthood, zealous for good works, loving as Christ loves, and obeying the Father with joy and gratefulness. He will put Word of His Testimony and His praise on our lips. We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony. 

     The seed of the enduring, flourishing, and beautiful purity of the heart is the knowledge of the love of Christ. Those who have been born again receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit pours the love of the Father into our hearts. A description of the love of God cannot do justice. As Paul says, "I count all things to be a loss in view of the surpassing view of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for who I have suffered the loss of all things" (Phil 3:8). There is a great reason for which Paul prays for the Ephesians that they being rooted and grounded in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and high and long and deep in the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that they may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph 3:17-19). There is a love of God that is able to us bind our hearts to Him and captivate us such that we never turn away from Him. 

The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. Deut 30

     The love of God is life-changing and full of light and truth. It is able to inspire the most willing whole-hearted obedience within us. It able to cause us to run from the idols of our hearts and run to Him without looking back and without hesitation, doubt, fear, or reluctance. The force with which God's love draws His people's hearts to Him is undeniably strong and irresistibly compelling.

The Pearl: His Indwelling

     From the very beginning, He has chosen for His people to be consecrated and set apart to proclaim His praises and bring Him glory. He adopted as sons and daughters, men and women from every nation, language, people, and tribe. He consecrated them to be a Kingdom and Priesthood to serve the Living God.

Even the bodies of these chosen ones were not fit to be inhabited by the Living God, but by His great salvation, He removes our sin and guilt, and chooses to dwell within us.

     We know that our Father has provided the way for our purification. For the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, has made atonement for our impurity. The living water has cleansed us daily from our moral filth. Unless we let the Master wash our feet, we have no part in Him. He has poured out the indwelling of His Spirit on His sons and daughters.
The Work of the Spirit

     The growth of the kingdom of God occurs through the work of His own Holy Spirit whom He sent as the Counselor, the Convicter, and the Comforter. His kingdom grows through the work of His Word amd Spirit. And the work of the Holy Spirit is precisely to build the kingdom of God among His people. God wants us to understand the work of His Spirit. He wants us to have discernment to know what is the work of the Spirit and what comes from the flesh, the world, and the evil spirits present around us.

⁸ And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; ⁹ concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me [Jesus Christ]; ¹⁰ and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; ¹¹ and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. John 16

Jesus is clearly telling us how to distinguish the work of the Spirit which is to convict the world of guilt in regard to:

1. SIN, because men do not believe in Jesus

     Since men did not believe in Jesus, who is the revelation of the perfection of the Father, they could not see the true extent of their own sin. They tolerated perversion and impurity because their eyes were not yet opened to see how short they had fallen from the glory of God. The Holy Spirit convicted the people of the world of sin. He opened their eyes to see that they had "missed the mark". Until the people of the world believe and receive Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior, their guilt consumes them and culminates in their deep fear of death and judgment. In their blindness, some did not even acknowledge that their every breath was filled with fear and hatred towards God. The Spirit’s conviction of guilt with regard to sin deepens our understand of our need for redemption.

2. RIGHTEOUSNESS, because Jesus went to the Father, where we could see Him no longer

     After Jesus arose from the dead, was seen by His disciples and many others, and ascended into heaven, we could not see this God-man. The Holy Spirit was sent to reveal the righteousness of the Father shown through Jesus Christ. He shows us the grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, justice, power, authority, and Sovereignty of the Father in heaven. Indeed we had no eyes to see this glory of the Father apart from the Holy Spirit's work. The Spirit opens the eyes of men to behold and acknowledge God and to give Him glory. 

3. JUDGMENT, because the prince of this world now stands condemned

     Though in our former wickedness, we did not contemplate or understand our deserved eternal destiny of judgment and separation from God, the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of men to see the true and right judgment of God for their deeds. We could not have perceived it apart from Him. But for us who are in Him, the judgment of God against His enemies means victory and salvation. For God's enemies are those evil forces that had deceived us: Satan, demons, death, Hades, sin itself. If we had not understood that the prince of this world is condemned, even the elect would be deceived into worshiping Mammon and the lusts and pleasures of this world. But the Holy Spirit has opened the eyes of the people of God to see the eternal fate of the world and all who live according to its principles. With the Holy Spirit's given knowledge of the outcome of the prince of the world, the people of God put their faith in the eternal living God who has saved them  by His own Life in Christ. Their understanding of God's judgment gives her power and victory over their flesh. Their view of the coming judgment gives them a holy fear to proclaim the Gospel and persevere in faith until the end.

     Where is the work of the Spirit? His work is wherever we see the conviction of guilt in the human soul with regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment. Look around, dear saint, where do you see the Spirit working?

The Spirit's Purging of our Bodies

¹⁶ Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? ¹⁷ If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. I Cor 3

     The Spirit has come and circumcised the hearts of God's people through the work described above that their souls may be forever clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He has worked the message of the Gospel into the hearts of His people and cleaned them. He has entered into our bodies, even to our inmost parts, and cleansed each part by the "washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit" (Tit 3:5).

     Let us consider those defiled, contaminated, impure parts of our bodies before the Spirit had cleansed us. Was there even one of us who would call themselves free from the prostitution of heart that came from our moral blindness? Could even a virgin by name be called a virgin? Could even those who the world viewed as righteous be anything other than a filthy dwelling place for the holy God? And yet, the living God has chosen to purify us through His own Spirit!

     Jesus has undergone the baptism of the cross, whereby our moral filth and impurity was placed on Him. Surely death could not hold Him down and the Father has raised Him to life so that we all may live in Him and so that He will live in us.

⁶ Then I heard one speaking to me from the house, while a man was standing beside me. ⁷ He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die, Ez 43

     God's temple is the place where He chooses to dwell. God has chosen to live in the bodies of His people individually and collectively.

¹⁶ Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,

“I will dwell in them and walk among them;
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
¹⁷ “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.
“And do not touch what is unclean;
And I will welcome you.
¹⁸ “And I will be a father to you,
And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”
Says the Lord Almighty. 2 Cor 6

      God is calling us to cleanse ourselves from "all defilement of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor 7:1). Let us think of those defiled parts of our bodies, and remember that we have been cleansed and washed. Now the Holy Spirit dwells in our bodies. He has chosen to make our bodies as His dwelling place. He is intimately close to us for the Father's lavished love is so very great!

     We have grieved Him so very often by allowing the satisfaction of the flesh rather than to "in humility receive the Word implanted, which is able to save [our] souls" (James 1:21). He is calling us to pursue Him, the Pearl of greatest price, and to forcefully and zealously put the world aside and to live by the indwelling of God in us and among His people, His temple.

²⁰ In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. ²¹ If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 2 Tim 2

His Blessing of Life to our Mortal Bodies

     The flesh of the mortal body is fading and will soon be laid aside. And yet through the Spirit, our mortal bodies are given life. We are no longer subject to the slavery to the flesh. Apart from God, humanists have classified men as being controlled exclusively by their fleshly desire for pleasure, physical survival, and reproduction. But the Spiritual man is not subject to such slaveries of the flesh. Rather the Spiritual man is given power to control his flesh and to use His flesh to acquire heavenly prosperity. A Spiritual nobility enters into even his countenance and physical frame. This nobility is a result of the physical body's subjection to the living spirit of the man walking in faith and love: walking by the Spirit.

     When we pursue the Pearl of greatest price, we find Jesus. As we walk and live in love as Jesus did through faith, the indwelling  Spirit leads and guides us, and we are no longer slaves to the mortal flesh. Your flesh is a slave to you as you walk in His Spirit. In this way, you were made in the image of God and not the other living creatures.

⁹ However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. ¹⁰ If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Rom 8

I’ve found the Pearl of greatest price,
My heart doth sing for joy;
And sing I must, for Christ is mine;
Christ shall my song employ.

Christ is my Prophet, Priest and King;
A Prophet full of light,
My great High Priest before the throne,
My King of heav’nly might.

For He indeed is Lord of lords,
And He the King of kings;
He is the Sun of righteousness,
With healing in His wings.

Christ is my Peace; He died for me,
For me He gave His blood;
And as my wondrous Sacrifice,
Offered Himself to God.

Christ Jesus is my All in all,
My Comfort and my Love,
My Life below, and He shall be
My Joy and Crown above.

author: John Mason, 1683

 The Heart of a Woman

     The heart of the woman is made in such a way that her heart is drawn to her true and passionate lover. Many women may purpose in their hearts that they are attracted to handsome, charismatic, understanding, trustworthy, lucrative, brilliant,

compassionate, etc. men. But when all things are at stable levels, a woman desires the love of a man more than anything. Her husband can have all of these characteristics, but if he cannot touch her heart and convince her soul that his love for her is true and sincere, she cannot and will not be satisfied. Many men have given up their lives to impress their beloved women only to find that the only action that acted in his favor was the conveying of his love to her.

     Once the desired love of the man is established in the woman's mind, she will, without previous contemplation, start to format her life around him. This tendency is stronger than any other in most or perhaps all women. She will speak to please him. She will strive to follow his lead in every realm where he seeks to lead her. She will even change her wardrobe, learn new skills, give up old habits...to please him. Once he has captured her heart, she will worship him. He will be her highest joy. No longer is the love of her female companions sufficient for her soul. She needs a word from him, a lingering look in the eye, a command from him, something, anything to let her know each day that his heart is hers.

Becoming What She Worships

    There are very profound reasons for which God tells us to watch over our hearts with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life (Prov 4:23). One truth that we must understand is that we become like the very one or thing whom we worship. Because the woman will worship what has captured her heart, that is, where our treasure is, there her heart will be also (Matt 6:21), her character will conform to that very person or thing whom she worships. As God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, there was no injustice to be found in God, and yet the people had went far from Him, worshipped emptiness and thus became empty (Jer 2:5). When we worship the things of the world, we become exactly as useless, vain, futile, empty, and worthless as those things. For we know that the world will be destroyed in the fire and everything material will be burned up. The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of the man’s hands. They have mouths but do not speak. They have eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear. There is no breath at all in their mouths. Those who make or trust in them will be like them. (Ps 135:15-18)

     Such idols may come in form of material things such as the idolatry of money, clothes, jewelry, or earthly beauty. These idols often come in the form of men. And for those men who have not been raised to life by the Gospel, there is no life of the Holy Spirit in them, and they are still dead in trespasses and sin. To worship such men would be to worship a spiritually dead person. And the manner of the development of our character, purpose, devotion, and affection cannot extend beyond the very person who has captured our heart. This is why it is so important for a woman to watch over her heart with all diligence. For when a woman worships her Lord Jesus Christ, she is a true child of God, and God progressively transforms her into the image of Christ as she beholds His unveiled glory (2 Cor 3:18). But when a woman worships anything or anyone other than Christ, her spiritual development is greatly limited. For she will conform in her character and behavior to the object of her adoration. In the heavenly realms, God has created man as a leader. The woman will naturally be led by the one whom she adores. When she glories in Christ, she will be led by, that is, she will obey Christ. But when she adores a man, she will be led by whatever carnality drives that man. The purposes, aspirations, goals, and mannerisms of the man will become hers to the degree to which she worships him. The worship of the carnal man and her conformance into the same carnal image are inescapably tied together.

You must keep your memory clean and pure, as it were a wedlock chamber, from all strange thoughts, fancies and imaginations, and it must be trimmed and adorned with holy meditations and virtues of Christ's holy crucified life and passion: That God may continually and ever rest therein. –Robert Leighton

     If the object of her affection [outside of the marriage vow] is a believing man, that is, a spiritually alive person, she still goes astray in her idolatry. And the faith of the man does not justify her idolatry of him. For idolatry is the worship of something other than Christ; it is the breaking of God’s command to put no God before Him and to love Him with all of the heart, soul, mind, and strength. When the woman’s affection is outside of the marriage vow, the idolatry of her heart surely trespasses the boundaries that God has placed in her life. Her heart’s inordinacy is a sin against her Lord Jesus Christ and against her father. And if the object of her devotion is truly Christ, her affection cannot be for a man apart from the marriage vow, even if the man is a believer. God’s will for his daughters is good, acceptable, and perfect (Rom 12:2) and no desire that is inspired by God within her can break any part of the whole counsel of His Law.

They that would keep themselves pure must have their bodies in subjection, and that may require, in some cases, a holy violence. –Thomas Boston

     In due time, when God and His instituted authorities [i.e. parents, church leaders] bring a man to pursue and possess the woman as His wife, if the woman desires nothing more than to live her life for Christ, it must be that the man has the single life ambition to bring honor to his heavenly Father and to become like His elder Brother, Christ. For if this man has any less of a desire, the woman will be draw away from Christ, or undergo a great struggle of disunity in purpose with her husband. In the best case, through her chaste and respectable behavior, the hidden person of the heart, and the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, the man could be won over to Christ. (1 Pet 3:1-6) The essential point is that the heart of a woman must worship Christ and her husband’s heart must worship Christ. In this manner, both are together conformed into the image of Christ. But when the woman has inordinate and idolatrous affections for men and worldly things, this conformance is greatly limited and perhaps absent for the time of her unfaithfulness to Christ.

She that hath a wise husband must entice him to an eternal dearness by the veil of modesty and the grave robes of chastity, the ornament of meekness, and the jewels of faith and charity. She must have no painting but blushings; her brightness must be purity, and she must shine round about with sweetness and friendship; and she shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies. -- Jeremy Taylor

¹⁶ Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,

“I will dwell in them and walk among them;
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
¹⁷ “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.
“And do not touch what is unclean;
and I will welcome you.
¹⁸ “And I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”
says the Lord Almighty. 2 Cor 6

Her Captured Heart

     The question, then, for us women is: Who has captured our heart? Have we been bewitched by worldly men, by faltering men of God, by ideals of feminism, by imaginary dreams....Have we been bewitched by the devil and demons?

     Or has the true King and Messiah betrothed us to His love forever? Have we been broken and bound to Him through His death and resurrection? Has His Holy Spirit given us such water from His fountain and such bread of His Words that we worship Him day and night. Nothing else can satisfy us. Unless we have a Word from Him, a hand of compassion, a tender gaze, something, anything from our Master, we will not survive. We obey Him in all areas because He is our King. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST HAS CAPTURED OUR HEART.

     Most of us have not had our hearts captured entirely by the King of love. The extent to which we would expend our conscious thoughts on anything other than Him reveals who has captured our heart. When our heart is captured, all we can think, dream, act, and speak upon is Him. Love for the Master affects every moment of our lives. We cannot live without Him. We know that whatever little love we have for Him is because He first loved us.

¹³ You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’ Jer 29:13-14

     If we are on the side of Truth, on the side of pure, true, unfailing, and unconditional love, if we have believed the Gospel, we will seek Him with all of our hearts and He will let Himself be found by us. Our only hope of obeying Him is loving Him. Our only hope of loving Him is to know His love. The only hope of knowing His love is to be drawn by Him to seek Him with all of our heart. We must trust in His grace and the power of His Holy Spirit to reveal to us the love of the Father.

Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” Luke 6:38

You will obey the one who has captured your heart, whoever he may be.

So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus *said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?”He *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He *said to him, “Tend My lambs.” John 21:15  

     With regard to purity, Jesus asks us, "Do you love Me more than your earthly life, earthly longing, your own beauty, and the desires of your sinful nature?” When the apostle Paul gave instruction to Timothy on how the church ought to provide for widows, he had particular words with regard to younger widows. Younger widows were not to be put on the list of widows who would receive help from the church. The reason was that many of them felt sensual desires in disregard of Christ. These desires overpowered their desire for Christ. They were not longer keeping Christ has the Lord of their lives. The result was that they learned to be idle, went around from house to house like gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to say. Paul commanded younger widows to marry, have children, and keep their homes, and not give the enemy an occasion for reproach. Many of the younger widows had turned aside to follow Satan. (1 Tim 5:11-14) When such forsaking of devotion to Christ is prolonged, the heart is progressively hardened. For those who are not true sheep, this hardening has a point of no return.

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Cor 7:1

    Above all else, we are to guard our hearts, for from them flows the springs of life (Prov 4:23). If our heart are filled are evil desires, then the outpouring of this heart will be words and acts of damnation. But when the heart of flesh has been implanted anew by the Word and Spirit of God, streams of living Water flow from within us (John 4:14).The one who sows to please the Spirit will reap eternal life through Christ (Gal 6:8).