HOW Obstacles are Dismantled and Replaced with the Heart of Jesus
Segment I:
Formidable Obstacles to Intimacy with GodSegment II:
How Obstacles are Dismantled and Replaced with the Heart of JesusSegment III:
Life in the Kingdom: Free to Serve Him without Fear (Lu. 1:74)Summary: Four Elements of Our Sin Nature
One
: the shift to knowing by our own faculties, sight primarily and "chiefly in the mind," instead of believing God and recognizing how limited our faculties are compared to His. Genesis 3:5,6Two: is the shift to having our approval and authority resting on man, listening more to each other than to God. Genesis 3:6b, 17
Three: is hiding from God and each other for security, instead of pouring out our heart openly to God, hiding in Him, and being more unconcealed with each other. Genesis 3:8-10
Four: is the confusion of responsibility lines—blaming others for our own choices and/or blaming God, rather than taking responsibility for who we listened to, and letting God convict us of our part and cleanse us. Gen. 3:12,13
Formidable structures that regularly lead us to miss God!
Broken Hearted
The second set of obstacles is the accumulation of wounding and confusion that occur during our life in a fallen world—the close and repeated associations that have broken our heart.
"Lost"— Scriptural perspective on our Condition
Lost – 622 Apollumi, from 575 apo, off, away; and 3639 Olethros- to destroy, ruin, death, destruction. Lost involves not only exclusion from belonging to God, but also destruction and loss of life.
Luke 19:9,10 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house (Zaccheaus), because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Mt. 18:10,11 Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
Mt. 10:6 "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’ "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."
Luke 15:22-24 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." And they began to be merry.
Model: Development of Our Heart Condition
Relational Event Defense against pain Conclusions Behaviors
Feelings
When we are hurt, there is a need for comfort and healing, and perhaps restoration of value. If those are not available, it is likely that we will hide and cover the pain, set up some defenses against it happening again, and conclusions that may or may not be true about others or about ourselves. This is particularly true as events occur in childhood, in continuing patterns that reinforce our defenses and conclusions. These can shape our view of God, too. If He is God and is all-powerful, how come He would let some of these things happen to us? You can see the responsibility line confusion here, as though men are not responsible for their choices and actions, but God is. Moreover, He created us with a will, and does let us exercise it--cautions us, commands us to use it to choose Him for life, but let's us exercise it.
Healing Exchange
There are a couple of other ways we might render this model.
Approval
Relational Event Conclusions Behaviors
Feelings
Guilt
Feelings of guilt can build up as a result of an actual wrong we have done, for which we are responsible and answerable, and in that case we need to humble ourselves and bring it to the Lord. They can also be due to a failure to measure up to someone else's expectations or desire for us. Paul Tournier calls that "false guilt." The truth or falsehood of guilt will need to be determined with the Lord.
Guilt - True or False
Relational Event Defense of Ego Conclusions Behaviors
Feelings
Scriptures that I associate with these models:
Mt. 16:25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Mt. 6: 22,23 The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good (healthy), your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eye is bad (unhealthy or evil), your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
All three conditions are included in Jer. 4:3,4 a Scripture about taking away the foreskins of our hearts, uncovering our heart in order to let the Lord restore us. Being in the process continually, as a more natural way of life with the Lord is one of the faces of abiding with Him (John 15:4).
Abide means to remain or stay in a given place, state, relation, or expectancy. That's the invitation (command). The light and love available when we are abiding in Him enables us to see and let the Lord restore these heart structures that are so clear to Him and so influential in our life with Him and each other.
These drawings reflect the elements of the fall and how they are lodged in our hearts. In all of them there is a picture of how the natural tendency to hide works. They reflect what makes up our "knowing" by our own faculties and how we came to "know" certain things, beliefs we have incorporated due to receiving approval more from each other than from God, and they indicate the confusion we wrestle with as to who is responsible for what.