Winter 2003
A Cleansed Heart
Sharon Earnest

“Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it
are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

“You therefore, endure hardness, as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2 Timothy 2:3

A recent ministry trip brought with it a challenge to keep my heart cleansed. A situation happened before ministry began, which left me with a contaminated heart. I felt disappointed, hurt, betrayed, and resentful, and in the natural I had a right to feel this way.

However, I knew that I must at all cost keep my heart cleansed. My contaminated
heart was affecting my ability to hear from God, and even my desire and ability to minister.

Whenever we face a situation like this, we should look into our spiritual arsenal and pull out the appropriate weapon for the battle we face. The weapon I needed for a “contaminated heart” was the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb. One of Satan’s major weapons is to tempt us to harden our heart in the day of adversity, or to allow a root of bitterness to form within us.

Proverbs 4:23 warns us to “Keep (guard) our heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” In regard to our hearts, we must have a soldier’s mentality and say, “I will let nothing that happens - not any hurt, wound, or disappointment, contaminate my heart. I will guard my heart with all diligence. I will keep watch over my heart.”

Why is it so important that we guard our heart? The second part of the verse in Proverbs gives us the reason, “For out of the heart springs all the issues of life.” Satan is constantly looking for ways to shut down the life of God in us, by seeking to cause our heart to become hardened and contaminated, so we cannot hear from God.

Our reaction to an unfair, painful, or disappointing situation, if we hold onto it, will result in sin. In this way, the enemy can activate “the law of sin and death” in our members through unforgiveness and bitterness, thereby keeping “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (the river) from flowing out of us.

But there is a way that will lead to a cleansed and pure heart. As soon as I could get alone, I came before the Lord and asked Him to apply the blood of Jesus to my heart. I was very specific in naming the reactions that I felt, and in asking for His cleansing. This was not easy, and I had to do some warfare. Hebrews 9:14 speaks of the ability of the blood of Jesus to purge our conscience (heart) and I John 1:7 tells us that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

Sometimes, we must continue to come back to the “fountain” to get our heart cleansed, until we have the victory. The temptation is to focus on those who inflicted the pain and not realize that our war is not against flesh and blood. I had to remind myself that this was an attack to keep me out of the spirit, so I would not be able to minister from the Holy Place.

During the past decade, there has been great emphasis on spiritual warfare, with confrontations with principalities and powers. If Satan can keep our hearts contaminated, he can keep us from hearing from God, so we will have no weapons to fight with, and we are rendered powerless to make known to Principalities and Powers, the manifold wisdom of God.

As long as we live in this earth realm, we will find ourselves in situations that are painful, where we are disappointed, misunderstood, or persecuted. And, we will have reactions to these situations. This is natural. What we do with these reactions is the difference between life and death.

If we allow these reactions to stay within our heart, then the enemy can build strongholds and gain entrance. However, if we appropriate the blood of Jesus, we can experience the cleansing and liberating power that Jesus bought for us at the cross.

In the past, I had trouble forgiving. I knew I should and I wanted to, but I had
difficulty letting go of wounds and hurts. However, when I learned to apply the precious blood of Jesus to my attitudes and reactions, I found that forgiving was much easier. I also learned the wisdom of dealing with these reactions quickly, nipping them in the bud. As a soldier of the Lord, I cannot afford to let reactions to situations set up camp in my heart.

I “war” with the blood of Jesus to have a cleansed and pure heart, so that I may have fellowship with my Father in heaven. Let us fight the good fight of faith and use the “weapons of our warfare” to overcome the attempts of the enemy to shut us down, in order to keep us out of the presence of our heavenly Father.

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,
and by the word of their testimony; and they loved
not their lives unto death.”

Loving “not our lives unto death” means that we will allow death to work in us that life might work in others. We will not major on what others have done to us, no matter what injustice has come our way. Rather, we will put our responses under the blood and we will stand in His righteousness.