3 of - The Heart: The Key to Everything in the Christian Life - Book Review

The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, & he saw that everything they sought or imagined was consistently & totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had made them & put them on the earth. It broke his heart. (Genesis 6:5-6, NLT)

In Genesis 6, people's thought life had so corrupted their hearts that it reached a point of no return.

The Devil is a master general at attacking the thought life of a Christian. His war strategy involves tactics of deception, pressure, & enticement to turn our thinking away from God & toward his kingdom.

The Devil knows that in order for a person to do evil, he must first think evil.

Within ten generations he was so successful that only one person on the entire earth had godly thoughts. The population of the earth at the time of the flood was between 235 million & 7 billion people.

They were wise, rich, sophisticated, & cultured for their time, but the defining characteristic of their age was wickedness because of their thinking.

Only Noah was thinking rightly & found favor with God. Noah's thought life was pure & free from evil because he walked with God.

And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, & He was grieved in His heart. (Genesis 6:6, NKJV)

As Christians our thought life should honor God first & foremost. The Greek word translated "honor" in Romans 1:21 means to make glorious, to adorn with splendor, to make excellent, & to cause the worth of something to be made known.

Do your thoughts glorify God daily? We must never give the glory of our thoughts to another.

Before Noah, Enoch also walked with God for hundreds of years.

In the Hebrew, "to walk" is to form habit patterns that determine your way of life.

We must walk with God for life to have true meaning. A thought life without God is ultimately an exercise in foolishness, & it always lead to dangerous consequences for the heart.

Toxic thoughts are like a spiritual cancer to the heart.

Toxic thoughts are like poison, but the good news is you can break the cycle of toxic thinking.

Toxic thoughts are thoughts that trigger negative & anxious emotions, which produce biochemicals that cause the body stress.

God sets the standard high for our thought life in the book of Philippians.

Selfishness did not exist in thought life of Jesus.

We cannot serve God if we are not humble. We cannot obey God if we are not humble. We cannot love God if we are not humble.

Pride is lethal because it lifts up the heart against God.

Jesus Christ did not have one ounce of fear in his thinking. During a great Storm on the Sea of Galilee, waves pounded on the tiny boat He was in, & it was filling with water. Jesus was sleeping soundly when He was frantically awakened by His disciples. He rebuked the wind, crying out, "Peace be still" (Mark 4:39), & reproved His disciples for their lack of faith.

Jesus had great compassion for people who were hurting & suffering from physical & spiritual ailments.

Jesus never had a thought of unforgiveness or bitterness. He demonstrated great mercy & forgiveness in his thinking, no matter what the circumstance or offense.

God commands us to think from a heavenly perspective, with eternity stamped on our thoughts, & no longer allow the temporal things of this earth to control our thought life.

Carelessness in our thought life, by allowing the sin natural to control it, is dangerously destructive to our walk with God.

Train yourself for godliness. (I Timothy 4:7, NIV)

I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. (II Timothy 4:7 KJV)

So run to win!

Only God's mighty weapons have any chance of tearing down every brick of the strongholds that captivate our hearts.

The Greek word translated "stronghold" means fortress, castle, or prison.

Do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:27 NIV)

Leave no such room or foothold for the devil (give no opportunity to him.) (AMP)

In the battle of Jericho God sets forth the pattern of how we should approach the tearing down of every stronghold in our minds & hearts.

The second thing we must do to tear down any stronghold is to consecrate ourselves. The Hebrew word translated "consecrate" is qadash, which means to be set apart, sanctified, holy, & pure, & is used to describe what is set aside for God's purpose.

Salvation is now available through Jesus Christ.

The Battle is Not Yours but God's. Believe in your awesome God. No stronghold can stand against the Almighty God!

The Ark of the Covenant: The Power of God's Word & Presence. The sixth truth is, just as the Ark of the Covenant was marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, we can take the Word of God & march it around every stronghold, confessing its truth & claiming its power.

The seventh truth is to have faith in God & His Word. Faith is an unwavering trust & confidence in our God that he will never fail us.

The last truth in the Battle of Jericho is that we must wait on the Lord. God did not move to demolish the walls of Jericho until the seventh day.

God does not need an advisor. God does not need a counselor.

Leading Every Thought Captive to Obey Christ. The last & great truth of how to tear down strongholds in our hearts is in 2 Corinthians 10:5.

The first thought pattern is false reasoning.

It is never wise to try to out think God Almighty!

The Lesson of Lazarus. We must take off our grave clothes when it comes to our thought life.

Jesus first calls Lazarus by name. Jesus is calling you.

The Parable of the Sower & the Seed: The Four Conditions of the Heart.

This parable is an illustration of how to build the kingdom of God in our hearts & produce an abundant harvest of fruit to the glory of God.

The most important time of a man or woman's life is when the Word of God is sown into their heart.

Listen & Behold.

The sower does not sow Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Secular humanism, modernism or spiritualism. The sower sows the God-breathed Word that proceeds directly from the mouth of God Almighty.

The Devil is the supreme enemy of the heart & he is sowing his tares in every community, city, & nation.

This seed is producing hearts that hate truth & love darkness.

In this first soil of the heart, the seed of Word of God is sown, but it has no chance to grow because the Devil comes immediately & snatches away the seed.

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.

Judas was in the inner circle with Jesus Christ, one of his original twelve disciples , who followed Jesus. Yet Satan entered into his heart at the last supper & he went out into the night to betray Jesus.

There are only two spiritual fathers that can give birth to their image in our hearts: God or the Devil.

Now let us think about spiritual arteriosclerosis for a moment. This is a gradual day-by-day process where our spiritual arteries become hardened by sin, poneros evil & unbelief.

The author, Tim Rowe has a doctorate of jurisprudence & a bachelor's degree in biblical studies, history, & classics. He is the president of Goodness of God Ministries & lives in Indianapolis with his wife & son.