His Heart, My Home

I truly believe this next series of posts are inspired, crafted, and offered to us by Holy Spirit to reveal the Father’s awesome love-filled heart.

You may be a new believer, or a wandering prodigal returning to the Father’s house, or a mature Christian, feeling worn-out and weary, and needing a refreshing drink of the Living Water. Whatever your status, and whatever your need, Holy Spirit is ready to take you inside the Father’s heart, for a fresh experience of His love, and a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him.

Some mistakenly believe that God just wants to play hide-and-seek with people, hiding Himself, and then challenging us to find Him. Not so! God wants us to know Him!

Psalm 103:7 says “He (Jehovah) made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel.”

An online dictionary defines”deeds” as “actions, feats, or exploits.” The people of Israel had a front-row seat for the spectacular, miraculous deeds that God performed. But they were just spectators, with no real understanding of what Jehovah was doing or why.

Moses, on the other hand, had a backstage pass and an invitation to dinner after the show! Israel saw God’s actions, but God revealed “ways” – His “plans, strategies, and methods of doing things” to Moses. Moses had the awareness, the insight, and the comprehension, not only to know what was happening, but he also knew Who was making it all happen, and how, and why!

Moses sure was lucky to be picked by God for the inside scoop. Right? Wait a minute! We never said anything about Moses being lucky, or having a four-leaf clover in the pocket of his robe, or a rabbit’s foot on a chain around his neck, or holding a horseshoe and his staff in one hand, and heaven’s winning Lottery ticket in the other!

You see, God is no respector of persons. He has no favorites. We see people as chosen, but don’t understand how or why. The reality is : People aren’t chosen by God because they are special. People are special because they have been chosen by God.

God chooses a person by pre-screening them, and He does that by looking into a person’s heart, and seeing the hunger they have to know Him, the thirst they have for His love, and the passionate longing they have for Him. Moses got really thirsty for God in those 40 years of his desert-exile. I can relate… to the thirst… and the exile… thankfully, not to the 40 years!

Let’s get back to Moses. What was it about him? Why was he chosen to lead God’s covenant people? The short answer is this: Moses had a heart, that was always longing for more of the heart of God. We are told that Moses and Jehovah enjoyed a special kind of intimacy in their relationship. Exodus 33:11 says “So the Lord spoke to Moses *face-to-face*, as a man speaks to his friend…”

[*Note: The Hebrew word translated as “face” in this verse is “paniym” which also means “presence”. So there is no contradiction with Exodus 33:20, where God says, “… no man shall see my face and live.]

But Moses knew there was more, much more of God’s heart to know. And he wanted that “more” of God, to see and experience His glory.
(Exodus 33:18)

He spent so much time in communion with Jehovah that he became saturated with and reflected God’s glory! (Exodus 34:29-35)

Can you see Moses’ spiritual hunger for God? No wonder God was able to confide in Moses as His close friend, and why Moses had such a deep insight into God’ plans, motives, and methods.

Our Father-God wants us to become fully acquainted with His thoughts, His ways, His desires, His plans, His purposes, His personality, His voice, His deeds, and above all His heart. He longs for us to know Him intimately, and to experience His deep and abiding love for us.
(Isaiah 55:8-11 and Jeremiah 31:33, 34)

For us, in the New Covenant, the way to really know God is through His Son. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. (John 14:6)

Jesus revealed the Father’s love, grace, and mercy through His life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection. Everything He said, and everything He did was to show us the Father’s loving heart. He said in John 14:9, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Intimately knowing the heart of our Father and our Savior-Lord is the essence of eternal life, its whole meaning and purpose. Eternal life was defined by Jesus this way, “eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ as the Son whom you have sent”.
(John 17:3, The Passion Bible)

The Voice Translation of John 17:3 says, “…all who receive me will experience everlasting life, a new intimate relationship with you, the one true God, and Jesus, the anointed one you have sent”.

Jesus came in the flesh so we could know the love of the Father, and live in His heart of hearts. (John 17:26)

1 Chronicles 6:11 in the Knox Translation gives us a window into the heart of God. It reads, “To the Lord, to the Lord’s strength have recourse;
evermore court His presence.”

I’m old enough to understand what it means to “court” the person you love, but the whole concept of “courtship” may be completely unknown, or seem strangely old-fashioned to many readers. To court someone is to pursue them romantically, spending quality time with them, and expressing your love for them in both your words and your actions.

My wife, Grace, and I met online. Physically, we were separated by an ocean, with almost 10,000 miles and a twelve-hour time zone difference between us. We quickly realized that God had brought our hearts together as one. But since we couldn’t date in the traditional way (restaurants, movies, walks in the park holding hands, etc.) we just devoted hours and hours and hours to talking to each other online, exploring each other’s hearts in the most intimate way. By the time we finally met in person, we felt as if we had known each other all our lives.

Our love was built on a foundation of sharing, communicating, respecting and understanding each other deeply. And that hasn’t changed in our almost 18 years of marriage, except to grow stronger. We really enjoy being together, so we go almost everywhere, and do almost everything together. It’s not a duty, an obligation, or a chore for me to spend time with Grace. I love her! I love everything about her! Therefore, I love spending time with her! And so our relationship is ever-deepening, and ever more intimate. We often think the exact same thoughts, and speak the same words. Sometimes I think we know each other better than we know ourselves. We really are one flesh, one mind, and one spirit.

The Bible says we are to love the Lord our God with the totality of our heart, soul, mind and strength. (Mark 12:30) But we don’t instantly achieve a state of total love and devotion to God, right after our new birth, just because we’ve been commanded to do so.

Loving God starts with knowing Him. Knowing Him is the result of spending time with Him. We love Him because He first loved us, even when we were still sinners. (1 John 4:19 and Romans 5:8)

As we read His love-letter to us (the Bible) our heart is opened to the passionate love He displayed in giving His Son for us. We then express the love we have for Him through praise and worship. We spend quality time with Him, talking with Him, sharing our heart with Him, and seeking to know His thoughts, His ways, and His heart!

Are you excited? You have begun the greatest quest and adventure of all eternity, your journey into the heart of God!