His Heart, My Home

Romans 12:1, Passion Translation
“Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights His heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.”

Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, confronts us with the question of how we will live our new lives as born-again children of God. He asks, “In view of all of the Father’s mercies, and in light of His immeasurable, unconditional, eternal love, how will you respond? What will be your answer to that perfect love?”

And, just like an “open book” test in school, Holy Spirit places the answer to the question right in front of our eyes. He tells us that we are to surrender ourselves to God by becoming “living sacrifices.”

The dictionary defines a sacrifice as “something consecrated and offered to God.”

Our role as “living sacrifices” is not something that is necessary for our salvation, nor does it urge or persuade the Father to love us more. No, our salvation is by God’s grace, and has been perfectly secured by Jesus. (Hebrews 10:12-14)

The Father’s love is an expression of His eternal nature. Nothing we do will ever change that. (Romans 8:38,39)

But we are told that our surrender to be a living sacrifice, and our quality decision to live the “not-I-but-Christ-life” is acceptable and pleasing to the Father.

How so? Let’s consider a father observing his young son. The boy shares his toys with his sister, obeys his father’s instructions not to ride his tricyle in the street, and draws a stick-figure picture of his family with a big red heart floating over them. All these things delight the heart of the father. He does not love his son any more because of his behavior, but he is pleased by his son’s simple expressions of love and respect.

This is how living our lives as sacrifices affects our relationship with God. Just like the father in the illustration, God is already committed to us in Christ. When we live our lives to honor Him, we are simply returning love and respect to the one who has already given us everything.

But how can I reciprocate His love and become a living sacrifice, when I honestly admit that I often struggle… failing to love others, and not even loving myself? How can I achieve my desire to live my life as an expression of God’s love and please my Father?

God, as He always does, has provided the solution to the limitations of being human. He gave us His Spirit to be the Gatekeeper and the Guide to the Father’s heart. Holy Spirit has the road map to the “deep things” of God. Without Him, we would be lost.

1 Corinthians 2:9-12, Passion Translation:
“Things never discovered or heard of before, things beyond our ability to imagine – these are the many things God has in store for all His lovers. But God now unveils these profound realities to us by the Spirit. Yes, He has revealed to us His inmost heart and deepest mysteries through the Holy Spirit, who constantly explores all things. After all, who can really see into a person’s heart and know his hidden impulses, except for that person’s spirit? So it is with God. His thoughts and secrets are only fully understood by His Spirit, the Spirit of God.
For we did not receive the spirit of this world system, but the Spirit of God, so that we might come to understand and experience all that grace has lavished upon us.”

It is Holy Spirit, the well-spring of God’s love, who has poured out the love of God into our hearts (Romans 5:5). He, then, helps us open the floodgates of that reservoir, filling us and pouring out our love to the Father, to Jesus, and to the world that Jesus died to save.

We can experience God’s love more deeply for ourselves, and pour it out more generously to others, if we earnestly and sincerely ask Holy Spirit to do these three things:

1. EMPTY US

Many times we walk through life, barely aware of God’s loving presence, even though He is all around us, and lives within us. Our encounters with Him are minimal – brief and superficial. We are content with just an occasional sip of His love, a brief taste of his goodness from time to time.

We already feel empty. So why would we need Holy Spirit to empty us? The reality of the situation is exactly the opposite of what it seems to our natural minds. Our real need, which is God’s love, has gone unmet, because we are filled with so many of the wrong things.

We have filled our lives with so many distractions and diversions, that we have precious little time or appetite left for what is most important, for that which truly nourishes our souls, heart-to-heart communion with our Father.

God wants so much more for us. He created us with an insatiable need for love. And He wants to fully satisfy our hearts’ longing for His love, and receive our love in return.

How many times have we seen our kids or grand-kids with their hand, buried up to the elbow, in a “Family Size” bag of Doritos, while washing down those mountains of chips with a large bottle of Mountain Dew? And, with supper being only an hour away, we told them, “Put up that bag of chips right now! You’re going to ruin your appetite!” We’re probably too late! They’re already filled up with chips. There’s just no room left for that great supper that we prepared.

Many pray for God to fill them, but He can’t… because they are already full of something else! Before we pray for God to fill us, we ought to pray that He would first empty us. There must be an emptying before there can be a filling. If we desire to be filled with more of the things of God, we must first be emptied of the things that are not of God.

Before God can “max-out” our lives with His love, there has to be an emptying process, a “garage sale”, a “spring cleaning” of the “stuff” that clutters our souls. That stuff might be hours and hours in front of the TV, endless surfing of the internet, your face constantly in Facebook, a “hobby” that has taken over your life, or a thousand other things. Unfortunately, your life has become “stuffed with whatever stuff you are stuffed with.”

I can’t tell you what the out-of-control stuff might be in your life. That’s between you and Holy Spirit. I’m too busy doing a Holy Spirit inventory and clean -up of my own life. I can tell you this: If you will humbly and honestly ask for Holy Spirit’s involvement, He will pitch right in to help you empty your clutter to make room for a deeper, more intimate experience of God’s love.

2. OPEN US

It’s not enough to clear out the clutter, because the “Clutter-Gatherer” (your flesh nature) will just resume its search for more and more worthless, time-wasting junk to hoard, as soon as it notices some empty space in your soul. We tend to quickly re-clutter our lives, unless we change our focus, our objectives, and our priorities.

Ask Holy Spirit to open your heart completely to God. He will create a greater hunger, a deeper thirst, and a more intense longing for God in you. Ask Holy Spirit to enlarge your capacity for the revealed truth of God’s grace, mercy, goodness, kindness, and love. When He does, put up a “NO TRESPASSING” sign. Guard that space in your heart and soul. It’s reserved for God!

The image Holy Spirit gave me as I was studying this subject was of baby birds in the nest, newly hatched, featherless, and helpless. Even though hungry, they don’t eat the leaves and twigs of their nests. But they strain their necks upward, with their mouths open, when they hear the flutter of their parent’s wings approaching the nest. They know breakfast has arrived! They are hungry, and open to receiving the nourishment they need to sustain their lives.

Holy Spirit helps us do what we can not do by ourselves. He helps us purge the worthless worldly clutter that is ruining our spiritual appetite, and He opens our hearts, making us hungry and thirsty for the Word of Life that will satisfy, sustain, and strengthen us.

3. FILL US

With cleansed and open hearts, we can now ask Holy Spirit to fill us, to channel rivers of living water from the Father’s heart to ours, filling us with all the fulness of God. (John 7:37-39)

Speak this word from Ephesians 3:17-19, TPT over your life:

“By constantly using my faith, the life of Christ is being released deep inside me, and the resting place of His love is becoming the very source and root of my life.”

“I am being empowered to discover what every holy one experiences – the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love!”

“How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends my understanding – this extravagant love is being poured into me until I am filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!”