The Day of New Beginnings

The Turning of Our Hearts

 

Mal. 4:
5  "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.
6  "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."
 
Luke 1:
13  But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.
14  "You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
15  "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.
16  "And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.
17  "It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
 
These passages in Luke are about John the Baptist, of course. We want to focus of verses 16-17. They were first spoken by Malachi the prophet. Prophecy has a way of being fulfilled on many levels. For example, Jesus made it clear in Mat. 11:14 that John the Baptist was Elijah. John denied it, however, saying he was only a voice crying in the wilderness (Jn. 1:21-23).  John did not recognize himself as being of any importance other than a channel raised up to speak God’s word. The spirit of Elijah is manifesting itself today as well. Even among God’s elect it’s not so easily recognized. It is coming to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the fathers to the children. What does this mean?
 
There is more than one interpretation to this prophecy. The interpretation that matters in this message is that mystically “the fathers” is the Lord Himself. There is a turning of the hearts of the children back to the Lord. “Oh,” one might say, “You mean lost sinners coming to accept Jesus as their Savior.” No, that is not it all. It goes much deeper. This prophecy speaks to those who are already His. There must be a turning of the heart in each us. This is applied to Christians. Jeremiah spoke, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” Even after we come to the Lord and His Spirit resides in us, a conflict of heart remains. There is that part in each of our hearts that couldn’t care less about God, and would be quite content if it never heard His name again. “Oh, no,” you might say, “Not me, my heart is wholly set on God.” But is it? To the degree we find ourselves content without a conscious awareness of God, to that degree we need our hearts turned. 
 
The Adamic nature is corrupt beyond understanding. It is deceitful beyond measure. We can’t know ourselves without the light of the Lord shining in us. His light in us reveals what we are and makes a way for His nature to displace who we are in Adam. We want to be a people whose hearts are truly set upon the Lord. 
 
Let’s read some passages from James.
 
James 1:
5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6  But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7  For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8  being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9  But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position;
10  and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.
11  For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.
12  Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
13 ¶  Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
14  But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
15  Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
16  Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17  Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
18  In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
 
We are going to look beyond the surface information here and look to see what God is mystically saying to us about the turning of the heart. Verses 6-7 speak of asking in faith and not doubting. Doubters are like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Verse eight nails it down. The doubter is a double minded man, unstable in all his way. The Greek word for double minded is dipsuchos. It is from the two Greek words, dece, which means twice, which is itself from another Greek word, doo’-o, from which we get the word “duo”.  The other word is psoo-khay’, from which we get the word soul. Double minded just doesn’t give us the full impact of what is being conveyed here. It’s not about how we think, which double minded conveys, but rather what we are in our souls. It’s the duplicity of the soul life that is the issue here.
 
Now, let’s look at verses 9-10. Who is the brother of humble circumstances and who is the rich man?  The “rich man” is the Adamic nature which glories in the self life apart from God. Remember that in the letter to the church in Laodicea in Rev. 3, it says they considered themselves rich and wealthy, and in need of nothing. But here God says the rich man is to glory in his humiliation. Why? Because God is releasing us from the duplicity of heart. Verse 10 says like flowering grass he (the rich man) will fade away. He is turning our hearts back to Himself. How He does this, however, is not much to our liking. That’s why He says let the rich man glory in his humiliation. 
 
Verse 11 is the means by which our hearts are turned to the Lord. By the way, in Hos. 7-8 the prophet says, “Ephraim mixes himself with the nations; Ephraim has become a cake not turned.” Spiritually, mixing oneself with the nations implies that mixture of soul and spirit, the Adamic nature still intertwined with Christ’s nature being formed in us. Thus Ephraim becomes a “cake not turned.” 
 
Now, let’s read verse 11 again: “For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.” It’s the sun rising within us, which is Christ, that does in the rich man. Notice the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass. It’s that scorching wind that isn’t much to our liking. But the scorching heat is what causes the flowers, or rather the fruit of the old nature, to die. The beauty of its appearance is destroyed. In the midst of the Adamic nature’s pursuits, he will fade away. This tells us that as we go along, in the very midst of living our lives as those around us do, we find the old drives and motivations of our Adamic soul-lives fading away. 
 
This exactly what verse 12 says. “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” 
 
Verses 13-16 speak of how the duplicity within us causes us to walk in death. Death is just another way of expressing a life apart from the conscious awareness of the Lord’s presence. Now, let’s look at verse 17: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” Every good thing and perfect gift is from above. It’s from God’s realm, the realm of His nature. Notice how they come down from the Father of lights. This is the turning the heart of the fathers to the children that we read earlier. It’s interesting that when that prophecy is spoken by Malachi, it says, "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” But when it’s spoken in Luke 1 about John the Baptist, it says, “And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. "It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."  It just says here “to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children,” with no mention of the part about the hearts of the children to the fathers. Was this a misquote by Luke? Not hardly. It’s indicative of a time in which God initiates a move to bring a people into oneness with Himself. It points to a dispensational unfolding. We are in that time now. God is initiating a “turning” of His own heart toward His people in a unique way. He is sending the scorching wind upon them that they might be a people prepared for the Lord. 
 
In verse 17 where it speaks of the Father with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow, the literal reads, no shadow of turning. This is not a contradiction to God turning His heart toward us in a unique way. It means His heart is without the duplicity found in the Adamic nature. There is no shadow in the divine nature, it is steadfast in its focus. This is the nature He desires to bring forth in us.
 
Mat. 18:
1 ¶  At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
2  And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,
3  and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
 
The phrase, , unless you are converted and become like children, reads literally, unless you turn and become like children. The Greek word here for converted is stref’-o. It means to turn. It’s the turning of our hearts that enables us to enter the kingdom of God. 
 
This message came as the result of a lot of crying out to God for a greater revelation of Him and a closer walk with Him. What’s ironic is that I had been feeling for weeks that if I didn’t get hold of God in a greater way I was going to explode. God turns our hearts not through great mountain top experiences which we always seem to look for, but through the scorching winds of seeming neglect. He makes us desperate to find Him. It like the bride in the Song of Solomon, “Draw me and I will run after thee.” God solidifies and turns our hearts through the hunger He creates in us for Himself. He makes our lives not worth living apart from Him. It turns out (no pun intended!) its the brother of humble circumstances from verse nine in James, who is indicative of Christ’s nature formed in us. He is to glory in his high position. That high position is the result of the humble circumstances which crush the dualistic nature within him.