The Heart of a King - Perserverence to Maturity

The heart of a King perseveres to maturity. Luke 8:15 says ‘but the seed on good soil stands for those with a good and noble heart, who hear the Word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.’ Leadership in business, family or ministry requires perseverance to bring forth the harvest of what was planted. In our quick and easy culture we have a mindset of quick and easy harvest, i.e. plant today at 2pm, harvest tomorrow at 9am. That’s our culture but that’s not God’s kingdom.

I recall my last post, planting seeds of grain on the prairie. The seed stays covered, sprouts, and grows beneath the surface for a time before it emerges to reveal the potential of a harvest. It emerges as small green stalks and must then grow for a season to mature, ripen and fill out the head of grain, then, and only then, will it produce a full harvest. As leaders we can learn from the lessons of farming.

Many leaders give up on themselves or on people they lead long before the emergence of the green stalk above the soil, i.e. before the visible potential of a coming harvest. They don’t see anything happening so they dig up the soil looking to see if the seed is still alive and, in the process, uproot and expose it to the elements. They were impatient in ‘retaining’ the seed. They chose to farm by sight rather than farm by faith thus exposing the seed to the wind and the birds through their impatience.

Other leaders are patient while the seed is invisible but get very impatient after the growth is visible, i.e. the visible maturing process for all to see. A stalk of wheat 10 days old looks nothing like a stalk of wheat 90 days old. At 10 days it is short, green like grass and immature. It has some nutrient value but doesn’t have the growth, height and maturity of a full stalk ready for harvest. I’ve seen farmers turn an immature field of short green wheat over to the cattle because they didn’t think there would be adequate growth for a harvest. The cattle go in, eat the green stalks, ending its growth and life. The result is no harvest, not even a minimal harvest because perseverance had not finished its work.

However, some leaders persevere from seed to sprout, from green stalk to mature stalk and from a small seed head to a full head of grain bringing in a harvest of the full potential.

The heart of a King not only desires a harvest from their sowing, but perseveres through stages of growth that bring forth the harvest. I know a lot of people who desire a harvest, but not many who will persevere through the maturing of the grain. Many hearts are filled with impatience, faux faith, cultural time perspectives, inconsistent living, and lack of commitment to the harvest. They desire but don’t persevere. Such hearts have not been transformed and never rule with the heart of a King.

If you find yourself impatient with persevering through the growth process, there’s good news…….The Father is not done with you yet! He is faithful to finish the work of grace in your heart IF you let Him. Impatience turns to perseverance, faux faith turns to fighting faith, and inconsistent lives become consistent lives, lack of commitment turns to passionate pursuit. IF… you LET HIM CHANGE YOU.

Let’s pray…..Father, I thank you that each person reading these words open their heart to your finishing work in their hearts. Father, I pray that those who have ears to hear do not harden their hearts, but soften them to your grace to persevere through the growing process, And, Father, I thank you that you are faithful as each person opens themselves to your finishing work Your grace is sufficient to persevere through any season that leads to maturity and harvest.

The Heart of a King - A Heart That Retains the Word of God

The heart of a king retains the Word. In Luke 8:15 Jesus said ‘but the seed on good soil stands for those with a good and noble heart, who hear the word, retain it’.

When I was a youth I helped my Dad in the farming business. I learned there were two critical aspects to farming….sowing the seed, and harvesting the grain. I loved to sow, however my Dad seldom let me do that aspect of farming because it required great care. Sowing was not simply getting the seed into the ground. It included proper depth and protection of the seed. We used a mechanical seed drill that inserted seed a few inches into the ground. The mechanical drill had a storage box on top filled with seed. As we drove across the plowed fields the seed dropped through tubes into the soil. This was followed by narrow wheels that rolled over the seed packing and sealing the seed under the topsoil. The seed had to be deep enough to be protected. If the tubes were not properly adjusted for depth the seed would stay on the surface and be blown away or eaten by birds. If the wheels didn’t firmly pack the soil over the seed it would be exposed and lost. The seed had to go deep and be protected to produce a harvest in due season.

As ministry leaders, we receive the Word of God into our hearts, but do we let it go deeply into prepared soil and do we protect it? We must guard our heart for it is the wellspring of life.(Prov. 4:23) We must protect, remember, and meditate upon the Word. The heart of a king is a heart that protects the seed of the Word. Whether it’s the prophetic word, written word, word of counsel, word of wisdom, word of teaching, the heart of a king attentively retains that word. For what purpose? To produce a harvest!

Many leaders wonder why they don’t see fruit in their lives and ministries. Could it be they never let the seed of the word go deeply into their heart? Could it be they’ve not covered or retained the Word that was sown? Some leaders give superficial acknowledgment to the Word. They can speak and preach it, but it never sprouts, becomes rooted, and produces within their heart. I encourage you to be attentive to protect and retain the Word that is sown in you. Then you will see fruit in your harvest.

The Heart of a King - A Heart That Hears

The heart of a King is a good and noble heart. The heart of a king is filled with and overflows with the qualities of goodness and nobility. Goodness is, well, goodness. It is everything that is good in the sight of God the Father. Nobility speaks of high character and excellence; having the rank and lineage of the ruling class within you.

Therefore, if we have the heart of a King we have a heart filled with good thoughts and motives, grounded in strength of character and integrity, carrying confidence of Father’s authority, and ruling with excellence in our sphere of influence. Wow! Makes you want to have the heart of a king; the reflection of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Jesus said that those who believed in Him would have His ‘kingdom within them’. (Luke 17:20, 21) The good and noble heart condition begins with establishing His kingdom within you.

In Luke 8 Jesus ministered truth through the parable of the sower. In verse 15 He gives us 4 steps to creating the heart of a king; ‘But the seed on good soil stands for those with a good and noble heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop’.

First, we must hear the Word of God. He’s not talking about physical hearing so much as hearing with your spiritual ears. This is a deeper place of really HEARING and perceiving what the Father is saying through His written Word, the prophetic word, Godly counsel from leaders and ministers, teaching of the Word, and direct words from the Holy Spirit. A noble heart hears and perceives the Father! Hearing with the heart is an active, not passive, activity.

Three times in the New Testament Isaiah 6:9 and 10 is quoted ‘you will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ This scripture reminds us that we must truly hear and perceive at a deeper level in our heart to understand. The Word of God is NOT background noise! It is not frivolous words to be mixed with all the flood of digital information pouring into our minds from laptops, video streaming, ipods, email, cellphones, etc. It is not truly heard and perceived unless it is deliberately pondered and considered in your heart. You must mull it over!

If you truly desire to have the heart of a King, open your heart to hearing and perceiving at a deeper level. Listen to and ponder intently what the Holy Spirit is saying via the written word. Consider carefully the prophetic word spoken to you. Meditate on teaching that challenges you to a deeper level. Take in small doses of scripture, but study the depth and breadth of meaning. As you hear and perceive the Word will take root in the soil of your heart.
I’ll continue with the next steps to a good and noble heart in the next post.

The Heart of a King

We speak, we act, and we live our lives out of the overflow of our hearts. The heart of is key to the spiritual lives of men and women in the Body of Christ. It’s where we live!!! With this post I am starting a new series on ‘The Heart of a King’ that will transform your understanding of your heart.

The heart is the most powerful force in our daily walk. It is the decision hub of life. Some of you may think, ‘I thought the born-again spirit was the most powerful force’. Our born-again spirit is completely righteous and holy because of our believing in Jesus, but it only influences our decisions as we allow it. The Bible is clear that we have free will and choice in life. We can believe or doubt with our heart (Rom. 10:9, 10; Mk.11:23; Heb.3:12). We can forgive or not forgive from the heart (Matt. 18:35). We can understand or remain ignorant (Acts 28:27; Eph. 1:18). We can love or hate (Matt.22:37; Luke 10:27; 1 Pet. 1:22). We can ponder or ignore (Luke 2:19). And, we can open or close, harden or soften the heart (2 Cor. 6:11, 13; Acts 16:24; Matt. 19:8). It is the place where we choose to be victim or victor, a giver or a taker, a serf or king.

The powers listed above all come from the New Testament as a sampling of those found throughout scripture. I used New Testament examples because the Heavenly Father relates to us differently under the New Covenant than under the Old Covenant. Under the Old Covenant the Father related to people through the soul and the heart. Man’s spirit was not born-again before Jesus. The Father primarily used external, tangible means (fire, miracles, audible words, words of prophets, etc.) that could be received by the 5 senses and considered by the heart of man. While the Spirit of God could be ON a man or woman, it was not IN a man or woman. He would choose one man or woman to whom He would speak, direct, and guide as leader of His people.

Under the New Covenant of faith and grace with Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, the Father primarily relates to us by way of the Holy Spirit. That is, He speaks to us spirit to spirit. The New Testament makes it clear that we are a 3-part being; spirit, soul, and body. He made our spirit-man perfectly righteous and holy when we received Jesus as savior, redeemer, and Lord. Therefore our spirit is in direct communication with the Father. We have His written revealed Word to deposit within us and to discern as Truth. We have direct access, to and from, the throne room of the Father by way of the Spirit of God.

While we have direct access as often and as much as we desire, we do not necessarily make our decisions based upon that relationship. Sometimes we make decisions based primarily upon our intellectual understanding (soul), or primarily with our emotions (soul), or primarily based upon physical condition, e.g. pain (body). At other times we acted based upon our spirit in communication with the Holy Spirit e.g. obey a Word from the Lord, sing in a spiritual language, and apply for different employment. But WHERE do we make that decision? We make it in the heart, that undefined intersection of soul and spirit where core beliefs, values, priorities, and character are established. It is seat of the will of man. The heart is the axis of adjudication, the pivot point of power, and the center of conclusion. It is out of the heart that the issues of life flow.
Join me in these next weeks as we consider ‘The Heart of a King’.