Spiritual warfare is a popular topic. We discuss the tactics and spiritual weapons we will need to challenge hell’s aggression against people, churches, and the affairs of nations. What we don’t talk much about is another battle, a personal one that takes place within the larger spiritual conflict. It’s a battle against what causes our hearts to become hardened. If we fail that inner battle, we will be of no use on the battlefield of the larger spiritual conflict taking between light and darkness, truth and deception.
When Jesus was preparing to heal a crippled man on the Sabbath, something forbidden by the Pharisees, the Lord ignored their warning and healed the man anyway. Just before the healing took place “He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts” (Mark 3:5). After the man was healed, the Pharisees made plans to kill Jesus.
The word “hard” used to describe the condition of the Pharisee’s hearts is a pictorial translation. It is the image of a callous that had been developed over time. As the callous thickened, it dulled their perception. The Pharisees couldn’t feel what Jesus was feeling because of the calloused nature of their hearts. The callousness and its resulting dulling effect led to a very specific translation of the word “hard” in Mark 3:5. It created stubbornness. The Pharisees had become so stubborn they were unable to see the deeper issue taking place that day. Their calloused insensitivity created a stubborn expression of dead religion thinking they were doing God’s bidding, when in fact, they stood in opposition to the Lord Himself.
As believers, we have been embedded in all aspects of society. That embedded position will bring us into unique confrontations with evil based on our life assignment. To remain usable to the Lord in those conflicts requires that we check the condition of our heart moment-by-moment so that no hardness begins to form turning us into calloused, insensitive, and stubborn representatives of God’s Kingdom. If our hearts harden, we will begin to sound and act like the very thing we were called to fight against.
on point.
Another Holy Spirit inspired message for all bearers of His Light and Truth! As we speak, there are “earthquakes in divers places” hapening
all across the planet. I get daily updates from the USGS. We are in Revelations people. The Lord chose us specifically to be born for These
Days. Days unlike any other in human history. “Wars and rumors of wars” are occuring. The chessboard is being set for the final battle between Truth and Deceptions. Between Good and Evil! Hold fast and true to the light that is within you! Make your Father in heaven proud
that you stood by Truth in these final days of deception! Look around you at the transgressions against children! I weep for them.