To Receive the Desires of Your Heart
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March 26, 2017 |
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 Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
"Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart"(Psalm 37:4).
Each person has their own desires of the heart. It is not difficult for God, who is full of love and grace, to fulfill His children's desires. If we know His heart and please Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts.
1. You Should Have Spiritual Faith That Pleases God
To "delight yourself in the LORD" does not mean rejoicing in human emotion, but it means enjoying God-given joy, which is spiritual joy.
Romans 15:13 says, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." If we please God, He will give us joy in return. That is, spiritual joy will come down upon us from above.
Then, what is God pleased with? In the Bible, God takes delight in those who revere Him and who become righteous. He is pleased with righteousness and justice. He delights in all good deeds, sharing with others, offerings given from the heart, and righteous sacrifices and whole 'burnt offerings'. He is delighted in spreading of the gospel and praising God. What pleases God most is spiritual faith.
Hebrews 11:6 states, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." Our praise, prayer, worship, offerings, and good deeds can please God only when we offer them up with spiritual faith.
If we have this God-pleasing faith, we can receive whatever we ask for (Matthew 17:20; Mark 9:23). Elijah let it rain after three years of drought by prayer, and Daniel was protected in lions' dens. The sea was parted, and the sun and the moon were stopped and wild beasts were defeated. Diseases and infirmities were healed, and even the dead came back to life.
Then what is the reason people profess faith but do not receive an answer? It is because their faith is fleshly faith, that is, faith as knowledge. Only spiritual faith that pleases God is true faith. Abraham, the forefather of faith, obeyed God when He told him to offer up his only son Isaac as a burnt offering because he believed God could revive the dead.
2. You Can Receive Whatever You Ask for with Spiritual Faith
Hebrews 10:22 reads, "Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."
After being forgiven of sins by the Lord's blood, we are given the Holy Spirit as a gift. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, we can discover our sins and evil when we listen to the Word of God. Anger, hatred, greed, the adulterous mind, judgment, condemnation, and minds of deceit are found. As we realize how evil we have been, we pray earnestly to cast them off and be changed by the truth.
To the extent that our heart is cleansed as it is sprinkled clean with pure water, we can achieve a sincere heart void of evil and changing in full assurance of God-given faith. When we attain to such spiritual faith, God will rejoice and love us and give whatever we ask for. He will even prepare what we will need in advance knowing when we need it.
I had been suffering from many diseases for seven years, but was healed by God, and I have looked for the ways to please Him and repay His grace and offered up all my life. My heart could be filled with joy only when I pleased God and revealed His glory. As God told us to cast away every kind of evil, I fought against sins and evil to the point of shedding blood and threw them away. As God rejoices in goodness, righteousness, and light, I filled my heart with only truths. As God is delighted in saving souls, I would not stop fasting and praying in order to lead even one more soul to salvation and evangelized people in season and out of season.
I lived only by faith, God answered every one of my prayers so that I wanted nothing. He answered me as soon as I harbored a wish. Moreover, He prepared for and provided me with what I did not ask for at a right time because He knew that I would need it. My only prayer title was to glorify God all the more greatly and spreading all over the world that Jesus is our only Savior and the Bible is true.
God listened to my prayer and has increased the number of saved people in the world and fulfilled His promises given to me. Even when I was in danger to my life, I could act upon faith because I knew what pleases God and I believed that when I did it He would protect me. And God gave me a present as a proof of His joy, which is power.
3. You Can Bear Abundant Fruit When You Please God with Faith
Joshua witnessed a kind of faith that brought down God's works through Moses. He saw Moses' forgiveness and love for evil and disobedient people, tearful petitions for the kingdom of God, and the prayers that moved the heart of God. Joshua also saw Moses' boldness in war and justice against sin and evil.
In the meantime, he understood the heart of God and learned the way to move God's heart. As he learned faith from Moses, he could lead the second generation of Israelites and conquer and enter the land of Canaan.
If you accept the Lord and receive the Holy Spirit as a gift, you can also learn how to bring down God's works, move God's heart and receive His strength through the biblical incidents and other members' testimonies. Thereby, you can experience the works of God by pleasing Him only with faith in the Holy Spirit's works no matter how complicated your problem may look.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the shortcut to receiving the desires of your heart is obeying the ways to please God that you have learned. I pray in the name of the Lord that you will achieve a sincere heart in full assurance of faith and please God in every matter.
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