Whole Heart Engagement by John Belt

Breakthroughs

1 Chronicles 14:11-12
So they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, "God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water." Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim. 12 And when they left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire.

The Lord is bringing breakthroughs to us as we commit to Him with the whole heart. Things will begin to come together quicker and easier than ever before. The Lord is calling us to a fresh uncompromising commitment to His inner courts. He wants us to turn toward Him. Our commitment is to Him and Him alone. Everything else is negotiable. He is the King. We have One Lord, One Spirit. Everything in our lives hinges on our being yielded to Him. He wants us to be connected with Him in the deepest way. Everything else is peripheral. We see God giving David the breakthrough. We also see David's follow through in destorying the idols with fire. This reveals the uncompromising firery commitment of David's heart to the Lord..

Fresh Faith

To find the place of constant connect with Him is to find a never-ending source of strength, power and anointing. It affects our faith in the most direct way. Faith was the utmost concern of Jesus. Would He find faith on the earth when He returns? Without faith it is impossible to please God. Why? It is not about what can be done through faith. It is the fact that our lack of faith has to do with our lack of connectedness with Him and who He really is. The absence of faith points to the absence of true relationship. This means that our time with Him is shallow. When our time with Him is deep then the reality of Him, the experience of Him, the knowing of Him will be equally deep. Out of this depth of relationship our faith will spring up like gushings of fresh water from with us.

John 15:7-9
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

As we abide in Him we will believe and our prayers will have effect. We will not be like a double-minded man, but will receive the petitions that we ask from the abiding place.

Joy is a product of being with Him. The Lord is the One who makes us joyful. There is joy in our obedience to Him. His joy is what enables us to live life to the full for Him and His desires.

Isaiah 56:7
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
Will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations."

His goodness to us is not based on what we do, but because of who He is. He is not like us. That is good news! If the Lord were as hard on us as we are on ourselves we would already be dead and on the way to the abyss! But His love is an everlasting love. That means it does not run out. Where our love fails, His love begins. His love is great! It is incredible! A humble heart can receive this love. So as our hearts are drawn into Him like a magnet draws the metal, so we are intimately connected and drink in the revelation of His love for us. God is love. His forgiveness to completely perfect. This is really frustrating to the devil. The devil really can't stand the fact that God is this good. The righteous fall seven times and rise, but not so with the wicked. This is the grace of God. The Lord is for us. We are His children. As a father helps his child to get up and walk again, so our Father continues to help us. He desires us to have that childlike dependency. This childlike dependency is necessary for us to live the Kingdom life prepared for us.

The Lord continues to inspect the chambers of our heart. He knocks on the many doors within us to see if we will open. He is looking to get our whole heart. As we release our hold in the areas He opens our eyes to, He comes in to dine with us, to have communion with us in these rooms. Then out of that place of communion He pours more and more of Himself into us. He will increase, we will decrease.

The Lord is calling us to run as with the strength of Joshua, a picture and type of Jesus. The Lord is moving the church out of the up and down cycle reflected in the Book of Judges where things shifted back and forth in inconsistent commitment to the Lord. He is bringing the Body of Christ to a place of having lives like that of Joshua who lived in a consistent commitment the Lord without compromise and toleration of sin, who knew victory at every turn and was quick and resolute to deal with sin and inquity. So let us run with Him!

His Love is Everlasting,