June 13, 2022
The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9
It is the purpose and goal of the Son of God to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). This work has already begun and will continue until Jesus comes forth from His heavenly dwelling to gather up His bride.
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:1-3
It is not likely that any of us fully comprehends the wickedness of our own heart. But if God’s Son has been truly believed upon, He takes that faith as an invitation to come into our hearts and begin the process of His cleansing work. It is essential to acknowledge our part in allowing Him to enter (see Revelation 3:20). As we respond in repentance and obedience to each revelation from heaven, spiritual growth begins to flourish.
Though I do not know the extent of the enemy’s damage to my heart (thinking and motives), only the faintest glimmer of the love and purity of Jesus is required to see my need of Him. Upon confession of my need, He enters in to begin the re-creation of my heart. He doesn’t reveal to me every defect in my character all at once. He begins with one, saying in essence, “Let Me take that from you. I have something incomparably better to give you!” Then it is my decision whether or not to give Him that flaw in exchange for His righteousness in that particular area of my life.
Beloved, upon inviting Jesus into your heart, you will be surprised and delighted by the power of His presence to cast off the gloom that had imperceptibly made its way into your days. You will gain recognition of the devil’s temptations, one at a time, and exercise your will to resist. As you build spiritual “muscle”, you will encounter another surprise: relics from the old life of sin and rebellion now appear undesirable—even repulsive! He promises to continue His divine work of destroying the works of the devil in you if you remain yoked to Him (see Matthew 11:29).
There is an Old Testament correlation to this cleansing work, visible to the one who discerns that his own heart and mind is vulnerable to being “inhabited” by bad ideas, false doctrines, and every practice that runs counter to God’s word. Such “inhabitants” are too often introduced from babyhood in this corrupted world. They are sometimes very difficult to drive out, but God faithfully provides in His word a pure and wholesome “replacement” for that unoccupied space.
But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Numbers 33:55