How Far Hath The Heart Fallen

How Far Hath The Heart Fallen

10/29/18

Can anyone actually determine how far a person falls away from true authority?  I know many of us would like to ignore such a thought but it is possible for God gives us illustrations of what the human heart can do when it has made up its “mind” to stray away from truth.  Sadly, it is usually after the fact that we recognize the effects of such a disastrous turning even though the signs of blessings have come and gone with no holdings possible within our hearts.  God still calls us to live in His Light and shall continue this beckoning until we draw our last breath.  The patterns that we set into motion must contain God at the helm because if He is not then we are subject to the plan of the world which has no good outcome for us physically, spiritually, and most importantly eternally.

For some people in this world, they do not have to contend with the fact their children will not continue to live for God after they walk out of the house into adulthood.  However, any God-fearing parent will always wonder and pray for their child’s spiritual condition and that they will always draw closer to God all of their days.  Then there are those young people who as soon as they step foot out the front door lose all contact with God and have nothing to do with God on any level which brings into question the Scripture passage that states to train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it, a seemingly controversial verse in which the truth was not manifest in someone’s life.  There is only one answer for this question and that is the child still and continues to look in the wrong direction for guidance, so there is still hope that God will grab hold of them before it is too late; more on this at a later date.  It is this falling away that we must understand and when we understand it we will know how to pray against it and help God come into contact with whoever is the subject of the question.

The condition of the spiritual heart is the one area that is most vital to our eternal future and is what God looks upon when He sees how we live.  This definition of His on-looking can seem to be complicated to someone who has been born into sin but not ever witnessed the supernatural patterns of God the Father and Creator, in fact, one may totally dismiss this truth due to the lies that this world presents to us each day.  It is not our place to condemn such beliefs but to do our best to show these wonderful people that our spiritual hearts do exist and that they need to be in contact with their Creator for that is what they were originally designed to do.  Because we are now physically subject to sin and have no option of physical eternity in our present state, it is easy for our enemy to grab hold enough that it makes witnessing to those who need God much more difficult but this state of physicality should not be a hindrance at all, just a guide of how important it is that we understand exactly what the Bible says and how it serves as our lifeline against our enemy.

A few weeks ago, I was rushed to our local medical center for an operation on my heart.  While I was not expecting such a surgery to come as quickly as five years after my previous heart procedure, I was told by my physicians in 2012 that the next time they saw me I probably would have my chest cracked and once again modern medicine and its personnel were correct.  The personnel at my hospital’s emergency room believed that I should go to that place by helicopter in order to expedite my arrival and travel time and by the time I knew that my transportation had already been established meant my arguments against the flight were mute.  So, off in the air I went and as we left my small town I was able to see my house from above for we flew right over it, this pattern was not new to me because I had watched the helicopter go over our house many times before but this time was so different than any other setting.

As I was lying there on the stretcher in the helicopter I was able to see out the front window and watch the scenery as we passed by it.  Of course, at some point in early in the flight I thought to myself that it would be a shame if this thing would go down and I would never be able to have any corrective surgery because I would have been dead, it was a ridiculous idea but one that my mind entertained for a few moments.  That all changed shortly afterward because God began speaking to me and He showed me a picture of an onion.  I related to this because it is time for harvest and we usually get a large bag of onions to last us for most of the winter but this single onion was unique in many ways.

To the outside view, it was the perfect onion in color, shape, and size and it looked ready for anyone to slice it and use it according to their wishes.  As it was before my eyes, I really did not understand how or why it was before me until God asked me a simple question and when I gave Him the answer He began to show me why He had an onion in front of me.  I do not know how long this vision was before me but it could not have been but a few minutes but the information that God showed me concerning this onion was vast and yet specific at the same time.  As soon as God began showing me the onion He two things not at once but separately the first thing He did was somehow perfectly and precisely slice the onion into two pieces from top to bottom, effectively cutting the onion in half.  But this beautiful onion that was white as I have ever seen had a black spot in the center of it, where the root or heart of the onion would be located.  And as God brought it closer to me He said that the black spot of that onion was the heart of the onion for it was the place where the onion would receive its nourishment and would be the origin of its growth as well.  This I knew for we had planted such “seeds” in our garden for a while now so this was not too much of a surprise.

However, it was the explanation that God then gave me that set me back for even though I had understood this concept about an onion before and had actually been around the process of onions going bad from the inside out I did not know that this is how God sees our hearts.  When this image was placed in front of my eyes, God spoke to me and said that this is how He views our hearts and immediately was reminded of Psalms 51 where God states that we are all born into sin even at the moment of our conception and that through this inherited condition God cannot help but see such deformities and wickedness even though our surroundings look perfect.  It is this detail about having a black heart that God wanted me to understand that is how my heart looked to Him for a long time but now all He sees is a red line above my heart.  While this picture stood out in my mind quite vividly, God was not through with what He had to say to me for this vision was about to become much deeper not only about my life but for the existence of this nation and future world conditions.  First off, God reminded me that this black heart condition was not the way that He designed our heart’s to be and to function that His creative abilities were perfect in every way in our beginnings.  It was our choice to allow sin to be introduced into our lives that established this blackness and decaying state of our hearts and that even though our physical hearts will one day stop that it is still possible to have eternal life, but only as His Word defines it and not through our own devices or methods.  This picture of a perfect onion with a black dot in its middle hit home to me because it also symbolized my physical heart due to the condition that my genetics has placed me in, but at the same time I had a renewed sense of hope because God told me that I would be fine but I needed to trust Him in all things concerning this process.

Secondly, God asked me a question and that question dealt with my old school days when I was in Biology class and we dissected an onion.  I quickly but no out loud said yes to this question and I replayed the dissection process in my mind which included taking the onion and slicing it in half and then using one side of the onion for the procedure.  I then brought it close to my eyes and went for one layer of the onion and slowly yet methodically peeled that single layer from the onion and it was this single layer that I was going to put under the microscope and look at the different levels of mitosis that the onion skin presented.  An onion is the best organism that we have to look at the different stages of mitosis for the cells of an onion are nicely placed in an orderly fashion and while all lined up in rows still represent individuality due to the fact that each cell operated at a different time which gives us the perfect examples of mitosis.  But as soon as I completed this thought in my head God spoke again and said that it was not the mitoses that He wanted me to understand but the peeling away process was His target.

For quite a while now God has told us that He is a complete God and that everything He does He does for a reason and on a total level.  Hopefully, we know this truth about God well enough to understand the process by which God is going to expose this nation, including the Church, to get to our hearts so He can show us about the need for Him in our lives.  Since God is a complete God He cannot and shall not just slice our physical attributes that we have surrounded our hearts and go straight to the heart and repair it; that would not be in accordance to His process of completeness.  Instead, God showed me that He is going to be using the Biology class process of peeling layer by layer off of our lives until He reaches our heart.  This seems like a cruel process but when you hear the next portion of why God must perform changes in this manner you should understand.  What God has shown me corresponds with the fact that God does not sit on His throne with a huge pencil and eraser then erases names out of the book of life when we do wrong, nor does He have a gavel in His hand ready to end our lives and angrily judge us; however, it does project His character as one that wishes to give His children time to realize their sins before He must remove all of our existence in order to get across to us that we need Him.

The layers that God created in our physical beings are not the same today as they were in the Garden of Eden.  Yes, our bodies are the same but how they functioned before sin entered into our lives was totally different but because God designed them in a specific order and manner our existence was not immediately sealed or destroyed.  Through the process of sin, our hearts have become blackened and thus affect the condition of what our physical lives represent around us.  From the time Genesis 3:7 transpired we have been in the business of physically trying to cover our sinful hearts with physical identities.  While the ability to reason and to have knowledge was present in Adam and Eve’s lives the only thing that they could think about was to cover them to hide their heart.  But God already knew what had transpired because He witnessed the color change of their heart and it is this color change that we try and cover up today as well.  These covering opportunities have become our definition and what we would consider to be our hiding process in order to look presentable before others.  It is evident that Adam and Eve had fallen away from God enough that their first response was to cover themselves instead of going to God first which is exactly what we do today as well.

If an onion is left alone for long enough the heart of that onion becomes rotten and through this process of becoming rotten the inner layers of the onion begin to take on the characteristics of the heart.  The onion continues to try and grow and produce more layers around it and it will even begin its new process of restoring itself for the next cycle but at some point, the onion’s heart shall decay enough that all processes of growth stop and the onion begins to dry.  When one cuts into this type of onion they can see that the center of the onion cannot be used because of the state that it has become and more importantly the layers around the heart cannot be used either for they have taken on the condition of the heart.  If the onion is placed back into a favorable environment it will continue this decaying process it shall not recover its full and proper heart condition again but will decay further and destroy more layers surrounding it.

At this point, the onion becomes mush from the center outward and for the most part cannot be used at all.  It begins to stink and its smell is distinctive and pungent all the time.  But this point in the life of the onion did not occur overnight but took an amount of time to complete and it is this point of our lives that God does not want us to arrive.  In fact, God cannot allow our lives to reach this point of decay because it would go against His Covenant with us and also allow Satan to grab the upper hand due to our present condition of harboring sin.  Even though our hearts are blackened with sin God cannot allow us to increase in the probability of death without doing whatever He can to make us aware of what is going on inside our lives.  Therefore, in order for God to complete this task of making us aware of our need for Him He shall peel away each layer of the world that we have built around our hearts so that we can see just how sin eats away at our lives and that only His Son’s blood can truly cover our blackened hearts.

Is it possible for us to know exactly where our hearts stand in accordance with this potentially mush condition or have we covered ourselves with layer upon layer of worldly exposés that we can no longer able to see what our hearts really contain?  Look at our lives and the manner in which we conduct ourselves, are a Christian nation or are we remnants of the Wild West reincarnated as the eternal definition of The Badlands?  When our conduct has become adversarial to the point where we do not look at others as friends it represents the growth of the decaying parts of our inner beings and if not stopped will continue to outgrow what we try and replace it with, for it is just like an inner infection that quickly develops into a cellulitis and if not treated properly shall continue its invasion and eventually the entire body (onion) becomes infected.  It is this process that while we may ignore or deceive ourselves about God sees His prized creations becoming a state of death and He just cannot sit back and not do anything concerning this matter.  See, even before man was created God was busy advancing His Kingdom through the goodness of His presence through the provisions of work as it is stated in Genesis 2:5 which means that if God was busy advancing before mankind was around His statute of work for the Kingdom continues after mankind was present as well, Genesis 2:15.  God’s agenda is to weed out any part of sin that dwells in our presence or that exists around us, and these two verses of Scripture prove that sin was present before mankind was created and after mankind was on the earth.

In order for God to complete this process, He first allows us to give ourselves completely to Him so that He can accomplish this cleansing on a voluntary basis.  Yes, the process will not be a pretty picture but when we allow our hearts to and inner spirits to be cleaned in this manner God is able to keep our lives intact instead of having them ripped apart in an involuntary state.  The definition of Covenant is to be separated from the world and since this can only be performed by God not only is it His definition but it defines how His methods of living need to be and it is our hearts that provide this “target” and He needs to clean every layer leading up to that target.  Sin is an invading entity and if not treated properly it shall only grow as the invasive bacteria do in the cellulitis example above.  But the question continues to remain within our realm of how long are we going to allow sin to invade our lives or are we going to ignore it and try to build superficial layers around it in order to hide it?  I am reminded of an incident back in 1986 when the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl exploded and the Russian’s solution to getting the radiation to stop leaking in the air was to pour an almost immeasurable amount of concrete onto the burning reactor.  It solidified and did its job temporarily for the radiation began seeping through the concrete and returned to its poisonous levels.  This is what unabated sin will do to our lives if it is not dealt with on God’s level.

In our Biology class experiments with the individual layers of the onion, we found out that it was not very easy to peel just one layer off the onion at a time.  Many times it would take a while to complete this action for we would get two or three layers at one pull which would not be adequate to see the individual onion cells lined up in mitotic formation.  Each layer of the onion represented a specific process of growth and while all of the layers contributed to the overall growth and stabilization of the onion, each layer had an independent process that required its own amount of energy from the heart of the onion and when put together with the other layers formed a magnificent machine that one could spend hours upon hours looking at the mechanisms at work.  It is this individual layered process that God has to take into consideration when He is dealing with cleaning our hearts for if He does not properly and adequately reach our hearts layer by layer and then removes these layers one by one then the restoration process through spiritual definition cannot be properly completed.  In other words, all layers must be removed one at a time in order by which they appear and if they do not those contents of the layers skipped or missed have the spiritual authority to come back and infiltrate your heart again, Jesus addressed this principle in Matthew 12:44.

It feels kind of weird to be compared to an onion and the layers of such an organism but on the other hand, it serves as the perfect example of how sin enters into our lives and then through our natural processes grows layer by layer around our sinful heart.  The last portion of this article deals with God and how He is going to deal with this nation.  God dealt with this subject on a personal level and then on a national level and while the methods of His dealings were different they have significant meanings of how His peeling shall occur.  God understands the function of my heart and He showed me this example so that I will understand how He sees my heart and how it is covered by His Son’s blood, but when it came to the nation’s “onion” He mannerisms were different for He did not slice the onion at all but simply began peeling layer by layer off of the onion.  Through this process, each layer fell away from the onion and as each layer left its place the onion became smaller in size.  When God is allowed to take control of our lives He shall show us the filth that He is taking away and the goodness that He is replacing it with, this is all part of the measures of witnessing that we can demonstrate to others who truly want to change.

As the size of the onion shrunk, so did the effectiveness of the onion and how it could provide nourishment to its intended subjects.  See, each layer that was taken off was not done in a hasty manner but a methodical one that took a specific amount of time, but what was so amazing was that it was precisely one layer at a time which also had a specific purpose as well.  As each layer came off I could see that it represented a certain portion of our existence in the world that we had allowed being built around us, none of the layers had anything to do with God or His promises or Covenant.  Every detail about our societies was being taken off our existence and as each layer came off it was visibly evident that as the closer He got to the heart of that onion the darker the layers of that onion were.  I do not know how to explain it adequately enough as of yet but it was like each layer pulled off was dead or diseased in some manner and while it functioned to a certain degree it’s construction could not satisfy the need in which it was intended initially.  I could see and feel the fear coming from the onion itself, a weird event that sticks out in my mind.

Finally and most importantly, I saw the onion and what God was doing with its presence but there was a detail that says it all about this nation and how God holds its value for His Kingdom.  As each layer disappeared from the onion, it sat there and did not move one bit from its original position and as my eyes “pulled away” from the closeness to the onion I could see a hand holding the onion in place as if it was keeping the onion in close proximity for some type of protective status.  When you peel an onion or slice it up to use it in food one cannot hear the onion if it makes any noise at all, a silly concept but one that holds truth and value for this article.  I could see another hand peeling away each layer and discarding it in one motion, there were no human mechanical devices to help this process it was just two hands present completing the necessary movements.  As this process continued, I could hear a loud commotion but could not see what was actually going on so as I kept my eyes on the peeling process I had to try and concentrate on the other noises as well.  The noises were not of any organized rhythm either but all jammed into one loud bunch of noises.  Then I heard God say that this is the process that I will do to this nation in order to reach their heart so that I may reach what I have Created.  I suspect that since this peeling process was not completed in a very fast manner that the restoration process, if any will take a considerable amount of time as well, for look how long it took Israel to be restored after its fall to the Assyrians and Babylonians.

Now, when looks at this picture on an individual level it may not be as “scary” as one may believe, but we must consider the personal implications that occur when we allow God to peel away those decayed layers that hinder our service to God and life under Covenant.  Yes, the loss of those layers will be painful as they leave our lives but we must remember that in order to be made clean and holy again we must be completely removed from sin that we have allowed to infiltrate our existence.  Many people shall not understand what we are going through but will recognize that we are battling something inside.  This process is an ugly one but one that is necessary in order for us to live in eternal freedom from this world, another aspect in which friends and family members may not understand.  When God removes sin it comes with a reminder of exactly how sin digs its claws into our lives and to be honest this lineage and root system runs deep for it is established at our birth and grows constantly if not recognized.  God shall replace these dead layers with ones that will glorify Him and shine to others as a testament of His Covenant and Grace, a change in stature that cannot be hidden.

In concerns with the national level, we must also take into consideration the entire spectrum of what will be taking place as God delivers His reckoning.  We cannot forget that this process was shown in a manner in which the nation was not willing to have such peels and layers taken off, but that it was God who held the onion and began peeling, in other words, God was in complete control of the situation and it was His doing that was being manifest, not this nation’s, a huge difference in the two portions of the vision.  While the first portion deals with the individual and how the internal spirit of the individual is restored, those layers are kept in place but transformed into the vision of God for His child.  Yes, they will be different but restored by God’s process and not the world’s.  The difference here is that when God deals with this nation He peels the layers of the onion away and they are gone!  This setting represents the change in heart according to how the nation responds and has responded to the warnings that God has provided over the past.  When God is “not allowed” to have control then He being holy and sovereign over all things takes matters into His own hands and deals with the problem in another fashion.  Do not believe me?  Ask Israel, ask Rome, and Greece, ask Egypt, ask Assyria, ask any other group or nation what occurs to their existence when they refuse to allow God to be in control of their lives, their existence becomes just a memory until they return to God.

We cannot forget that without any question, and I do not care what elected officials say contrary to, this nation is the greatest nation to ever be established in history and there is a reason for this abundance of blessings and that source is God.  When our beliefs and trusts leave God and are placed on the human scale of self-reliance nothing good can be of long-term security.  Humans have tried to understand each other and live with each other on an equal basis for centuries even millennia and have not figured out the key as of this day and the single reason is that in every case they have left out God to run things on their own.  This is a heart issue and until we understand that in order for true equality to reign we must have God first in every aspect of our personal existence and national heart.  We are no closer to this truth any longer than what the past societies were including Israel when she decided that her heart would be better off aligned with worldly leaders instead of her Creator.  God allows this to be attended but as some point, He knows that unless that nation’s heart returns to Him He will have to peel their worldly layers off of their presence at some point in time in their future.

Even though this article may spell some doom and gloom there is some good news that if we adhere to can delay this ugliness and world-changing truth that is coming our way.  God has shown us two distinct levels of this onion and if we as individuals truly and honestly turn our hearts and lives over to God He is faithful to heal us from the sin that we have voluntarily harbored within our lives.  And if enough of us completely repent and turn back to God it shall change this nation’s heart and delay what God has to do if we do not turn back to Him.  Our existence is held in His hand and no matter what we think or believe about this painted picture it is the truth and if we do not change His other hand shall begin to move.  The Church is the entity that must take the lead when it comes to repentance and she needs to turn back to God and allow Him to correct our hearts and our layers so that we show nothing but true restoration to the dying world.  No, the world shall not like it because it will contrast to what it pushes as truth, but we shall stand out as a pure onion does and will be able to change the entire status of the world.

A detail about this peeling that we must remember for we shall encounter it and have to endure it when it comes.  As each peel is strategically pulled off, not only shall this nation endure the loss but so shall the world as well for even though some may discount the true nature and status of this nation our presence in the world is for a reason and through this status we have provided such stability on ALL levels of modern societal standards that when God decides to claim His Created heart for His Kingdom again, it shall affect all societies around the world.  Remember, when God takes a layer of that onion off the entire onion shrinks in size which means its capacity to survive according to what that layer was will be fundamentally gone.  As of now, we have been witnessing small warning signs that have been present in our news for some time, we have done nothing but ignore the heart’s cry and play the superficial finger pointing game towards those who disagree with a certain stance.  God does not play the finger pointing game, He takes complete action to expose the issues so that we have the choice to wake up and change our hearts before He has to begin the layer peeling process.

One of the more important layers that God will peel away is the Church and through this peeling, we shall finally understand just how she has manipulated so many lives over the centuries and refused to complete the work that Jesus commanded us to do.  It would be in our best interest that we figure this issue out and deal with all the other issues that are participating in the hardening and blackening our hearts before God has to intervene.  It does not matter what you believe when it comes to denominational dogmatic statements, lose them!  It is time that we drop all relationships with the world and its divisive nature and focus our hearts on winning the lost.  What is so frightening about how the Church operates today is that they have deemed themselves to be “religious” but have a relationship with the world.  Think about that statement for a while and let it burn into your spirit because that is exactly what we have allowed ourselves to believe and to live under and it is one of the most hideous sins states that we can live in.  I see this type of “Christian” lifestyle being demonstrated each day and if it sickens my stomach I cannot imagine what it does to the stomach and heart of God.  This is not only a personal statement but a national one as well and as God reveals deeper idolatry lionizations it shall become clear that all aspects of our societies shall be affected.

Jesus gave one command to the people that followed Him while He was still present on earth and that was to go and preach the gospel to the ends of the world.  He gave that one command to one people not denominations or groups of people.  The people might have lived in this world but Jesus saw their hearts and He understood that unity was the necessary key in order for this command to be completely and properly fulfilled.  Our enemy jumped on this statement quickly a long time ago when Adam and Eve were walking in the Garden of Eden and we have allowed him to manipulate our lives and presence ever since.  We have to separate ourselves from the world in order for God to restore our layers that lead to our heart.  Sadly, when I hear people today sing or play worship songs I cannot help but wonder what is exactly in their hearts when those words and chords are played.  WHY???  Why should I even have this thought run through my heart?  The condition of the Church is hanging in the balance and she is so anemic that she is rapidly becoming an invalid and nonexistent which means that her status is also being readily deemed as a nuisance to the societies of the world.  It is also evident that many people who sit in services are listening to what the ministers are saying to them, for our weakness to the world is shining brightly than ever before.  Yes, you read that correctly, the ministers are NOT doing what they are supposed to be doing which is teaching us the TRUTH about God and how we should live separated lives from the world.  Manse pansy and watered down sermons grace the pulpits of many of the church buildings today and for this reason alone God must peel away the established Church as she sits in existence today.

I could go on and on about what other layers God shall be peeling away for we cannot forget that when God does something He is always complete about His Ways.  This means that every aspect that modern societies deem as successful and necessary shall fall when God shrinks our circumference of existence.  So as this article draws to a close the question remains if we are going to allow God to break us down and then restore us on a voluntary level or if we will continue to snub our noses in His face and force Him to measures into His hands and reduce us layer by layer.  We still have this choice right at this moment and as each day passes we come closer and closer to one of these two options as answers.  There can be no question from anyone that claims that God does not love us for if He truly did not He would not give us further warnings about what will occur in our lives and at the same time give us the answer as to how to fix the issues before something happens.  Church, let us now repent and be the example that Jesus wants us to be to the dying world before God has to change tactics and begin His peeling.  It is time we retake up our responsibility as the ones who shine the Light to the world and once again act like redeemed of Christ, for Christ promotes growth and God promotes growth so why are we still on a deliberate track of reduction?

DLB