Are you enjoying your heart transplant?

I am sure you know this verse. Jer. 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

Well this was true under the Old Covenant but now under The New Covenant this is a lie for true Christians.

Jer. 31:31-32, "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:"

Ezek. 11:19, "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:"

Ezek. 36:26-27, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

The word heart is not referring to the organ in your body that pumps blood but the very core of your being and the essence of your existence. It is the source of life. You do not really have a heart that is independent from you - NO - the heart is YOU.

The heart was so vile, so evil and so wicked the ONLY POSSIBLE solution was to replace the defective heart with a brand new holy heart. Even God could nor repair or fix the old heart. It had to be replaced.

You can clearly see here that He removes - takes away the old heart and then replaces it with a new heart. This is a heart transplant. It is IMPOSSIBLE to have two hearts at the same time. Now the question is - when does this happen? It happens when we become a believer, a true Christian, and when we receive Christ.

The bible makes it clear that when we receive Christ we are translated from the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of light, we receive the Holy Spirit, and we become a NEW creation - the old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

In order for a person to be saved, then, the heart must be exchanged. This only happens by the power of God in response to faith. "With the heart one believes unto righteousness". When we receive the person and LIFE of Christ all of these things take place instantly.

Acts 11:17-18, "Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God? When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."

Acts 15:8-11, " And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying - (cleansing) their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the LORD Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they."

Acts 2:41, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."

So we know that on the day of Pentecost about 3,000 people received Christ - the living Word and had their hearts cleansed by faith.

So the truth is that your heart was totally cleansed and replaced the second you received HIM! "God gave you the like GIFT at that time".

Romans 6 makes it very clear that our old self was crucified and buried with Christ and now we have Christ's LIFE within us. We have died are NOW - this very second - freed from sin.

Now I bet that your present Christian experience does not match these biblical facts. The reason for this is just because God has already given you a new heart does not mean that you automatically experience the results.

One reason we do not experience the new heart is we have been taught lies by teachers and preachers telling us that our heart is still dirty and unclean and then they give principles to follow, formulas to embrace and steps to take to get a clean heart.

So we have believed an evil report just as 99% of the children of Israel did when they rejected God's truth and refused to enter the promised land.

Look at all the lies you were taught all your Christian life. Jesus might live in your heart someday but Christ Jesus is certainly not your only life. Oh no. You also have an evil life that is not Christ at all. And you yourself, by your own human ability (with God's help, wink, wink) must put your own life to the death of the cross so that someday, someday and far away, you can see Jesus (though He will never be your life). This is the lie and the curse, spoken all through Christian "theology".

Basically, we are trying to get what we already have in Christ. We are trying to get into a room that they are already in. We are striving to improve themselves instead of resting in the power of His resurrection life. If we understood what the Bible declares to be true, then there is no self to improve. For a "dead man" can't be improved. "You are dead, and Christ is your life..." (Col. 3:3-4). God doesn't want improved nor recommitted people. He wants dead people. Why? You can't be raised with Christ if you are not dead.

The way for the Spirit's transforming power to be activated in us is by simply believing what God says instead of striving to become who we already are. Once we lay hold of the truth, the Truth (Jesus) will lay hold of us and by His Holy Spirit transform us into the new persons we already are, thereby causing us to spontaneously manifest righteousness.

The other reason we do not experience our new heart is when we look at our actions, thoughts and deeds we see that they are completely contrary to the truth of God's word. So it appears to us that we do have a dirty and sinful heart after all. Now these appearances do NOT change God's truth concerning you. How could God's truth be changed?

Rom. 3:3-4, "For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged."

So what is the answer to this? Simply believe God and take Him at His word.

Rom. 14:23, "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

2 Cor. 5:7, "(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)"

Gal. 2:16, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."

So right now this VERY SECOND are you going to believe God disregarding all you may feel, think, your present experience and circumstances that appear to be contrary to the truth?

Unbelief is more that just not believing. Unbelief is believing a lie instead of the truth. The problem with unbelief is that you do believe a lie instead of the truth. You have embraced an evil report. Either you believe the lie or you believe God's never changing truth. There is no other option available to you.

Gal. 5:1. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

Christ has already set you free but you must stand fast in believing that fact no matter what you experience. Why not start now? If you do not chose to believe this NOW you are in a state of unbelief.

Are you saying that the Christian no longer has remaining sin in them after they are come to Christ?

Look at what the Word of Gods says.

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Rom 6:17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Rom 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Rom 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Rom 6:20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Rom 6:21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is NOTHING wrong with our physical body.

1 Cor. 6:19-20, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

You are now indwelt by God Himself and He owns you.

Vern- why can’t you answer Bob’s simple question with a yes or no answer?

God says no and I agree with Him.

Acts 11:9, "But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common (unclean)."

Now a Christian can sin but this sin is NOT the result or caused by his physical body or a unclean heart.

Are you going to agree with God's word or not?

I appreciate your response now because you have answered the question.

If your first response would have been "No, and here’s why” and then laid out the scriptural case it would have been more effective than just answering with a bunch of scriptures.

But I must ask from whence does sin spring if not from the heart or body (the brain is part of the body). Nothing truly springs from the heart because the heart is a pump and nothing else. Desires do not truly spring from the heart, but rather the brain.

This is a nice sentiment but the emphasis being placed upon it isn't true Vern.

The prophecies you mentioned are all promises to Israel.
I know Christendom uses those verses to point to the new life we have, but they are taken out of context every time they quote them.

The Ezekiel 11 verse goes on to say
Ezekiel 11:21
[21]But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD.
So it's still possible for a man to turn their back and listen to the evil in their own heart.

This verse I've quoted above is also a prophecy that will take place in the future.

Another verse in the same collection of prophecies you have mentioned says : There shall be no need for a man to say to his brother Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. This clearly hasn't taken place and neither has the complete doing away of our carnal nature.

This does away with your teaching for the use of the verse that says the heart of man is deceitful above all things.

I believe what you say denies others the chance to enter fully into repentance. Where there is a closer walk with Christ to enter fully into. And of which there is great joy in heaven over one man who repents. And you're denying that there is a narrow way or a highway of holiness by the teaching that sin isn't anything for us to come against or to deny. To deny our self life and take up our cross daily.

I know you're coming at things from the angle of grace. But you are over emphasizing it. It's good for us to be made aware of grace though.

We are told to guard our hearts and watch over them.

Paul said we are still being saved and that our salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. We've still got to be aware. It's not all over yet.

The promise made to Abraham includes everyone. We are all spiritual Israelite's when we received Christ.

Yes we are saved by Grace through faith and it is not over. We continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a never ending discovery of Christ and the Love of God.

We are NOW one with Christ - no person can have two natures at the same time. We are now partakers of HIS divine nature.

We do not have a carnal nature but if you do not believe that you need to repent and take God at his word.

I at one time discovered the walk of grace and I believed I had found the complete answer to overcoming all sin... But the Lord drew me out of it. It concerned me greatly but He showed me the other side of the Christian life

Where Jesus said Strive to enter the narrow gate. He showed me this. Your teaching doesn't speak on this.

I do teach that we must labor and strive to enter His Rest.

It was UNBELIEF that prevented 99% if the Israelite's from entering the promised land. If anyone else would have believed they could have entered also.

Heb 4:10-11, "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."

John 3:18, "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

True repentance must include the turning from unbelief to believing God's Word. (the LIVING Word who now resides within us.)

"THE CROSS A PROVISION FOR OUR DELIVERANCE "
Gbile Akanni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=get34DmaH3Y&feature=share

””””””””””””-
elizabeth

AND CONTINUING,...

Vern,
When The Lord draws us by His mighty Grace,... He begins to ‘circumcise’
our heart,.. and there is some mighty cutting away, of that fleshly heart.
...we think it hurts too.

It is the ‘circumcision’ made without hands.

Rom.2:29,
"But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
~~~~~~~~~,
Col.2:11-13,

"¶ In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

12 "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of "THE OPERATION OF GOD, who hath raised him from the dead.”

13 "And you, being dead in your sins and **the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;"
~~~~~~~~~~~

*I find these video ‘s so very helpful,... bro Akanni explains the blood, the cross, our walk in Christ Jesus so well,..
~~~~~~~~~~~

"WALKING DAILY IN VICTORY "
GBILE AKANNI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLS93W-xkOw&feature=share

Edited to include:
These videos that I am offering,are a series,...
I will continue ,Lord willing, until I offer them all.
””(About The Blood, the cross, the resurrection)
””””””””””””
elizabeth

Is there a good you and a evil you?
Is there a good self and a evil self?
How many lives do you have?
Is Christ's life your only life - or do you have your own life and Christ has His own life?
Is your life different from Christ's life?

There are not two selves but Jesus does not simply possess us and control our every thought and whim. If that was so, there would be no need for the 100s of admonitions in the NT. Nor would we be instructed to armor up.

The Christian experience is a steady push to keep moving forward. Paul likens it to a race that we must run. There is no resting or standing still because if you are not moving forward the truth is you will drift backwards. We can be at peace and rest in the struggle but nonetheless there is a struggle.

Expect God

You and I as believers in Jesus do have a very specific role to play as God fulfills His intentions through us in our lives and upon this earth. But our part is the actions of faith, not the actions of human performance.

Certainly our faith, working by love, flows out from us as the goodness of God in tangible blessing to others and as a river of life. But our engagement with God is based entirely on the absence of our performance and our fixation on God's performance.

The actions of faith, then, are those things God has given us to do that cause us to engage with and celebrate and believe in God Himself in Person, living as one person together with us through every word that is Jesus, as this God shows Himself as He wishes through our shared life.

The word that best sums up our actions of faith is the expectation of God.

Look at the intimacy with the Father that asking and believing really is, at the power of giving thanks for all things, speaking good grace into everything that happens to us, and the favor of God in which we walk every moment of our lives.

Now I do expect God to sustain me every second of the day because God always leads us in a celebration of full and total victory in all things before we see any such victory with our eyes. 2 Corinthians 2:14.

There is always, in God’s leading, the full expectation and consciousness of His goodness and favor. If that confidence is lacking, we are still in God’s goodness, we just cannot know it.

God always leads us in that way, to dance and shout in the celebration of and the certain expectation that you and I will please the Father and that we will win the victory in all difficulties that He takes us through, to celebrate in this way before we see it with our eyes.

To celebrate that victory as something that will take place in heaven in the sweet by and by means nothing. There is no faith in ideas about heaven.

The certainty of victory here and now is where faith lives. Complete and absolute victory, first in the little things, and then in the larger issues of life and death that God has placed before us, with the defeat of and complete victory over death being the purpose for which God has given us the Holy Spirit, and the full manifestation of all the life of Jesus inside us right here in this earth. This is the imminent reality of victory that God always leads us in the celebration of right now!

Let It Be - look at Mary's story in Luke 1 as she heard God speaking to her through the angel Gabriel and responded in the very way God wants all of us to respond to His word.

Count It All Joy - is the very mechanism of God's intention by which He proves His word true through us, through weakness in the face of all opposition.

Walk in Favor - the meanings of favor and expectation, describing our every breath as we live our lives filled with another Person.

A great preacher whom I heard a few years ago said that the word "renew" in Isaiah 40 v31 really meant "exchange"; so the text should read, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall exchange their strength".

Oddly enough I do not now remember how he developed his sermon, nor just how he applied the text, but I have been thinking lately that the man had hit upon a very important idea; namely, that a large part of Christian experience consists of exchanging something worse for something better, a blessed and delightful bargain indeed.

At the foundation of the Christian life lies vicarious atonement, which in essence is a transfer of guilt from the sinner to the Saviour. I well know how vigorously this idea is attacked by non-Christians, but I also know that the wise of this world in their pride often miss the treasures which the simple hearted find on their knees; and I also remember the words of the apostle, "For He hath made Him to be sin for us Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5 v21). This is too plain for anyone to miss who is not willfully blind. Christ by His death on the Cross made it possible for the sinner to exchange his sin for Christ's righteousness.

It's that simple. No one is compelled to accept it, but at least that is what it means. And that is only the beginning. Almost everything thereafter is an exchange of the worse for the better. Next after the exchange of sin for righteousness is that of wrath for acceptance. Today the wrath of God abides upon a sinning and impenitent man; to-morrow God's smile rests upon him. He is the same man, but not quite, for he is now a new man in Christ Jesus. By penitence and faith he has exchanged the place of condemnation for the Father's house. He was rejected in himself but is now accepted in the Beloved; and this not by human means but by an act of divine grace.

Then comes the exchange of death for life. Christ died for dead men that they might rise to be living men. Paul's happy if somewhat involved testimony makes this clear: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2 v20).

This is mysterious but not incredible. It is one more example of how the ways of God and the ways of man diverge. Man is a born cobbler. When he wants a thing to be better he goes to work to improve it. He improves cattle by careful breeding; cars and planes by streamlining; health by diet, vitamins and surgery; plants by grafting; people by education. But God will have none of this cobbling. He makes a man better by making him a new man; He imparts a higher order of life and sets to work to destroy the old. Then as suggested in the Isaiah text, the Christian exchanges weakness for strength. I suppose it is not improper to say that God makes His people strong, but we must understand this to mean that they become strong in exact proportion to their weakness, the weakness being their own and the strength God's. "When I am weak, then am I strong" is the way Paul said it, and in so saying, set a pattern for every Christian.

Actually the purest saint at the moment of his greatest strength is as weak as he was before his conversion. What has happened is that he has switched from his little human battery to the infinite power of God. He has quite literally exchanged weakness for strength, but the strength is not his; it flows into him from God as long as he abides in Christ.

A.B.Simpson knew by experience the unavailing struggle to be holy, and he knew also the Bible way to holiness. In a little hymn composed to be spoken at the conclusion of one of his sermons he starts it in this way: "I take Him as my holiness. My spirit's spotless, heavenly dress, I take 'The Lord my righteousness', I take He undertakes." We have but to abandon the effort to be holy and trust God to do the work within us. He will surely undertake.

There are many other happy exchanges we Christians may make if we will, among them being our ignorance for His knowledge, our folly for His wisdom, our demerit for His merit, our sad mortality for His blessed immortality, and faith for sight at last. (from The Alliance Witness - an old "holiness" magazine.)

Vern,
There is something terribly wrong here, and please , I am truly wanting to help.
I want to make note of a few things that you have said,..

~~~~~~~~~
You said:
(1), "our part is the actions of faith, not the actions of human performance”

(2), "But our engagement with God is based entirely on the absence of our performance and our fixation on God's performance.”

Question :But how can these (2) things mix, and be the same ?

* "absence of our prefomance” vs "for as many as are led by The Spirit of God”

*NO Preformance
* Led,.. walk,.. obey
~~~~~~~~~~
(2)Faith: But there IS actions w/ Faith
Question: Are you talking about ‘the faith’ of Abraham,...
‘The faith’ of Jesus ?

Their ‘faith’ was a faith of hearing the voice of God, Believing His voice/Word spoken to them, and obeying..... faith.
~~~~~~~~~~
I promised:
Very encouraging uTube messages,.. I surely need encouragement,..hope it helps others.
~~~~~~~~~
"THE EFFICACY OF THE BLOOD”
Gbile Akanni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiEQP60im2Q&feature=share

””””””””””””
elizabeth

We simply believe God's Word. It is not a performance word; it is a creative word of the Father. In the same way that God said, "Let there be light," and there was light, that is, Christ shining forth, making the Father visible, in that same way, God speaks into our hearts, "And you also ought to love one another in the same way that Christ loved you." Thus there is love, always abounding in our hearts, that is, Christ shining forth through us, making the Father visible.

You see, God forbade us the tree of knowledge, which is the tree of performance. To "perform" a word like this is to eat of that tree, "I can do what God says." In complete contrast, we believe that Christ is our life and that He fulfills the love of God through us.

Here is the point of everything. If Jesus filling our hearts with Himself is not real, then how can we imagine that the Bible and God and salvation could possibly be real? But Christ does fill our hearts and as He reveals Himself through us, we are His image. This love is real and by it we lay down our lives for our brethren.

This "and we also" is part of the "just as" commandments of the New Testament: "Be just like God."

Human performance is known best by always trying and never ever succeeding. Human performance always eliminates confidence in God, since "self" is the "source."

Jesus Christ did a marvelous thing for mankind when He willingly offered Himself as a sacrifice upon the cross. "He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ died in your place so that you might have His life.

This is the ultimate exchange! Jesus Christ exchanged His life for our lives. He became one with us in death so we might become one with Him in life. When He died upon the cross, He became sin for us. He actually became us, and thus died as us. He terminated our old life in Adam so that we could have new life in Him. Christ died in your place.

How can you realize such an awesome transaction in your own life? You can only experience a true and lasting change by an exchange. You must exchange your old life in Adam for a new life in Christ. This exchange occurs when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. At that moment you are born again into a new life in Christ. The Christian life is really the exchanged life.

As a result of this exchange, God makes you a new person in Christ. King David recognized long ago the real source of our lives, "It is [God] that has made us, and not we ourselves" (Psalm 100:3). David understood that God was the source of his life.

The apostle Paul came to this same conclusion when he declared, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ" (Galatians 2:20). Paul got a new name, indicative of his new life. Gone was the self-made man Saul-in his place was the God-made man Paul. He also became a new creation in Christ, and Christ became Paul’s very life!

This same thing is true for every person who is now in Christ. You have been given the ultimate makeover! "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:10). Once you are born again, the testimony of the apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20 becomes your testimony. It is now just as true for you as it was for Paul. Every person who has received Jesus Christ into his life has made the ultimate exchange. It is not something that is going to happen, or that is happening-but it already has happened! You have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, you now live; and Jesus Christ has become your very life.

It is not you who does the changing. Change is God’s responsibility! The primary change has already been made. The ultimate exchange occurred at the cross when Christ exchanged His life for ours. Christ took your place, and in effect, became you upon the cross. This action makes it special! I hope you are beginning to see just how extremely personal the cross is for you.

From HOW CAN I EVER CHANGE?

Making the Great Exchange

Dr. Lewis Gregory