August 2001

Part Five

              Doctors say a “sound heart” is a healthy heart; and God says the heart is never healthier or happier than when it is encased in the protective armor of His Anointing! (Eph 6:11-17) The heart of man is located in his body, and Christ is no exception to this. His Heart also inhabits His Body and we, His people, are that Body of Christ! And “Christ is the Head of every man!!” (1 Cor 11:3) With this in mind, we reconsider David’s words in Ps 23:5.

“The Lord anoints my H-E-A-D (Christ) with OIL [the“Oil of GLADNESS”, Ps 45:7; and the“Oil of JOY”, Isa 61:3] and my *CUP overflows!”

[*CUP (Heb 3563) symbolizes the MIND of SPIRIT! and is defined: “To hold together; a container and a LOT (as a portion).” Its meaning extends to that of an unclean bird; [Rev 18:2 describes “Babylon” (representing every man’s carnal state of confusion) as “A cage of every hateful and unclean BIRD” that is in great need of cleansing!] This Hebrew reference is also translated as “OWL” in Ps 102:6.]

             Without Christ, our cup is empty and dry as well-illustrated in Jesus’ parable of ten virgins. The five who had Oil in their lamps (i.e. Anointing in their spiritual minds) were received by their Bridegroom into His wedding chamber; while the five without Oil in their lamps were sent away! (Mt 25:1-12) The fact that all ten women (10 = Law) in this parable were virgins indicates that their souls were unsullied by fornication with this world; however only five (5 = Grace) had evidence that their virtuous state was the result of God’s GRACE AND ANOINTING, alone, and not the result of SELF-WORKS and the PRIDE OF LIFE! For this cause, our Merciful God warns His people, that just “The thought of foolishness (lit. perverseness) is SIN!” (Pr 24:9)
            Let us hear and heed the testimony of such foolishness from Solomon, the son of David, whom God anointed with His own wisdom, but later allowed to abuse the gift with fleshly pursuits to teach him (and now us) an object lesson of which he wrote in Eccl 5:1-3,4.

“Keep your foot (i.e. think carefully what you are doing) when you go to the House of God! [This does not refer to some man’s religious institution but to that “House of Prayer” which God says to every believer, ”You are!!” See: Mt 21:13 and Eph 3:3] Be more ready to HEAR (God’s Word) than to SPEAK the sacrifice of fools who take no thought that they do anything wrong! Do not be *RASH with your mouth nor let your heart be hasty to UTTER A SINGLE WORD before God; for He is in heaven (He is Spirit) while you are on earth (we are natural men); so let your words be few!! For just as “dreams” come when the heart is too cluttered with life’s busy affairs and it is too full of cares from striving with painful exertion; so also a fool’s voice is easy to identify by his multitude of foolish words! So...SUFFER NOT YOUR MOUTH TO CAUSE YOUR FLESH TO SIN!”

[*RASH, (Heb 926) means:“TO TREMBLE INWARDLY, TO PALPITATE; BE SUDDENLY ALARMED, BE AGITATED; HASTEN ANXIOUSLY; BE AFFRIGHTED, AFRAID, AMAZED, OR DISMAYED; BE HASTY; GIVE SPEEDILY; BE THRUST OUT; BE TROUBLED OR VEXED!”]

              The Lord reveals here that one of the primary reasons men rush to speak is FEAR!! When our natural man is forced to accompany our spiritual man as he approaches the Throne of Grace, he experiences a reasonable reaction of fear just as the frightened scarecrow in Wizard of Oz when the wicked witch tormented him with the threat of fire! When man’s aspirations and accumulations in this world (which Scripture calls, wood, hay, stubble, chaff, etc.) are confronted with fiery trials, it is understandable for him to run for the nearest fire extinguisher!! But 1 Thess 5:19 warns true believers, “Do not quench the Holy Spirit!”When we see Holy Fire ablaze in our lives, it is really God’s Fire of Love come to set us free by burning away the shackles that bind us to this world of sin and death! And let us remember in our development as overcomers, we must not condemn those who have not yet reached our present understanding. Have we forgotten the helpless and hopeless feeling inflicted on us by the stranglehold of fear and anxiety?! A true sign of a “sound heart”, beloveds, is genuine, empathetic, Mercy and Compassion!!

[TO BE CONTINUED]