Having Jesus In Your Heart 26

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.

I have come to set a man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

Your enemies will be right in your own household!’

“If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

“Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the Father who sent me. If you receive a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will be given the same reward as a prophet. And if you receive righteous people because of their righteousness, you will be given a reward like theirs. And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.” Matthew 10:34-42 (NLT)

“Human beings are nothing else than forms receiving life from the Lord. However, people's heredity, and their own actions, condition their form such that they refuse spiritual life coming from the Lord. But once those receptacles have been renounced so completely that they no longer claim any ownership of their freedom, there is total submission.

“The Lord desires any person's total submission so that He can make him blissful and happy. That is, He does not want him to be partly his own man and partly the Lord's, for then there are two masters whom a person cannot serve simultaneously, Matthew 6:24. Total submission is again meant by the Lord's words in Matthew,

Whoever loves father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:37.” Secrets of Heaven §6138

[If a person repeatedly resists and abstains from doing evil deeds] “he finds the pleasures he gets from those evils become, because of the repetition, unpleasant to him, and he ends by consigning them to hell. This is what is meant by the Lord's words: If anyone wants to find his soul, he will lose it, and if anyone loses his soul for my sake, he will find it. Matt. 10:39.” True Christian Religion §532

We begin with the obvious: Jesus can be in your heart only if you and the devil are not taking up all the spiritual space, which is desire and belief. It follows that a person must do some work to make the space. This is an uncomfortable, inconvenient truth. The work to make space in your heart for Jesus is called temptation’s battle. Notice that this is not fighting against yourself to not eat the fattening food. This is a spiritual battle between good and evil and between truth and falsity. This is at the heart of many powerful stories of human failing and then redemption. But more importantly, it is the battle every single human being (that includes you, dear reader!) must engage in or spiritually die. It’s that serious. If you do not participate in the battle between the Lord and the devil, the devil will win because the evil desires and false thoughts are already taking all the space in your heart you leave for them.

War is hell. The Lord did not design the human being with this design. Why it is this way is not our topic today. But it is the way it is. Every human on the planet is being given a chance to be healed, saved and find a home in heaven by this means. Jesus knew this, and used a powerful metaphor to bring it home. (FYI: Jesus never meant this to be taken literally. One of many obvious truths about His intention to bring peace is John 14:27. Check it out).

Do you want to have your way? Sure you do. Do you want your own personal space? Sure you do. You even give to charities to help the homeless. Do you save and go into debt to get the stuff you want? Sure you do. Everybody does it! If you are seeking a spiritual path, you will have noticed times and circumstances when your desires have pushed out other, more noble realities than your wants. You have been uncomfortable. You are in a temptation battle. Before you lay a choice that must be consistently made correctly if you are going to be healed of egotism, selfishness, and materialism. That is the hard part. It takes attention and effort. You have to wake up in the morning and not do that thing or think that thought which you have had on awakening for years.

Do you know the right thing to do? Sure you do. And you tell your employees or coworkers every day. Do you have experience that has taught you the best way to accomplish a task? Sure you do. And your spouse and children are taught and helped every day by your sharing your experience. Did you read the article on the internet and know the facts so that you are right and he or she is wrong? Sure you did. If everybody agreed that world’s problems would be solved. And then it happens: you win an argument and lose a friend. You get no respect at work. Your kids rebel for no good reason, “just because!” However, you are pursuing a spiritual path, and the results of your behavior hit you. And you feel very badly. That is the feeling you have in a temptation battle. So you can change your behavior. Over time, as you consistently act with love, respect and humility, your coworkers, friends and family begin to treat you differently. That long term, consistent behavior change is really hard. Ever try to quit an addiction? Tough work.

This is what Jesus is trying to have us get. There are serious issues in our own spirit that must be confronted. And so He has given us some powerful ideas to use. And He is always present in our hearts, no matter how crowded it is! Our work is to use the truth we get from reliable sources (e.g. the Word) to assess the distinction between evil and good and falsity and truth. And then, appealing to the Lord, accepting our culpability, and accessing the prophet and righteous person that is already in our spirit, we little by little, step by step, make different, intentional choices.

The Lord then takes over! I really love the following powerful description of the process of the healing of my mind.

“Any falsity that the hells introduce is met with a response from the Divine. The falsities that come from hell are thrust into and enter the external or natural man, but the response from the Divine enters the internal or spiritual man. The person is less conscious of this response which comes from the Divine than he is of those falsities. It does not touch his individual thoughts, only his general awareness, yet in such a way that he scarcely comes to be conscious of it except as hope and consequent comfort, which however hold within them countless blessings of which the person has no knowledge. These are such that they are suited to his affection or love, especially his affection for, or love of, truth and goodness, which form his conscience.” Secrets of Heaven n.8159

The Lord wants us to recognize and hold onto that hope and comfort. I can miss it by not paying attention. However, He has designed our being, and implemented a process, that favors our wholeness, peace, serenity and security. He is revealing to us that our task is to lay down the evil desires and false ideas in our mind, which actually make up a very external part of us. We then are receptive to His love and faith, and we “lose” the old faith and its intellectual pride and arrogant will. We find a new life, which is the living soul that the Lord implants in us when we have Jesus in our heart.