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A Heart of Flesh Part 2

The featured image of this post makes me want to weep. This image is a depiction of a heart of stone, the unregenerate heart. Incapable of being moved by passion, for God in particular. This is ALL of us without the gracious work of God. Who of us can claim that we initiated our journey to find Him, that did not begin with His first touch? He was the first to reach out, planting that hunger within us for something more. We love because He first loved us.

God promises His people in Ezekiel 36: 26 He will one day give them a new heart and a new spirit and will take out their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. He promised this when they were in a state of exile and this was a promise of restoration.

The Lord promises to take out their heart of stone, which is a picture of a heart unable to respond to obey, a rebellious heart.

So, how does this fit in as the second part of a series on prophets and intercessors? The first step in any prayer should be to acknowledge our unregenerate heart. We are incapable of praying according to God’s will without the help of the Holy Spirit. No amount of knowledge or what charismatic people might term spiritual “intel” can stand in the stead the breath of God. So, we humble ourselves and acknowledge our weakness before Him. None of us are getting out of this life alive and will one day stand before Him.

On that day, there is not one of us who will be able to stand in His Presence on our own merit. We will need Him to stand us up. No mental gymnastics or argument based on our own wisdom could fly in His face. Like Job, our words fail and we repent in dust and ashes.

What if we were to attempt to walk in the awareness of that truth in our prayer life? There is a lot of talk about the need for discernment these days because of the advances of AI. Teachings and worship that are based on AI abound. It used to be that the AI generated worship lists made rare appearances on my YouTube channel. Now, it is dominated by AI curated songs, and it is less common to see live worship with real people! The bible says, “let everything that has breath praise the Lord” Artificial intelligence is just that, artificial, it has no breath, it has no life, therefore it is incapable of submitting to God. This is a privilege given only to humans.

God created man and breathed into him, and he became a living being. It is God’s breath that distinguishes life and we can look for it to discern the false. A false prophet and teacher can do signs and wonders. But only God creates life in the inner being, only God can change our hearts and make us more like Him in the secret place where we “live” and no one else can touch. Where we are alone except, He come.

And this is what it means to have a heart of flesh, a heart that has been breathed on by God. That only happens to the ones who have been broken open before Him. We can pray anything and everything under the sun within the span of our own human knowledge. It is a all fine and good to do that, it is called petition, and the bible says we should go ahead and do that. Yet that is not all there is. The heart of flesh is just the beginning. Romans 8:8 says it is impossible for the flesh to please God. The next step after our heart of stone being made flesh is to get a new spirit. The Spirit of God is the breath of God. There is a place of prayer that is birthed only in the pierced or wounded heart. This is the heart of someone who has volunteered to share room in their heart for the sufferings of Jesus.

Jesus suffered as our High Priest, identifying with the pain of the chasm of distance between us brought about by sin.

The stony heart must be pierced and broken. Must have oil poured on it and massaged into life, into responsiveness. Only then can it be a place where it is able to produce life. I do not want to be known as someone who can produce an abundance words, knowledge, or wisdom in prayer. I want to speak life. What about you?