Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart will all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” The word works, but the working of the word begins from your heart. Your heart is the beginning of your world. Until your heart opens up, your world remains closed.
God spoke several things through Samuel about Saul but until Saul received a new heart, none of those prophecies came to pass (1 Sam. 10:9). Until your heart is opened your destiny remains closed. Look at this way: Ten drums of water can never be enough to fill up a cup that is closed or covered because the water would have no access into the cup. If you close up a cup and put it inside an ocean, how much water will get into it? Not a drop. So, you are not blessed according to the volume of notes you write in church or the number of messages you listen to, you are blessed according to the openness of your heart.
If there is any prayer you need to pray for yourself today, it is that God would do for you what He did for Lydia in Acts 16:14. The Bible says, “And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” God opened her heart and she attended unto the word.
The Bible says in Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” The first thing Ezra did before he began to seek the word was to prepare his heart. So, every time you want to receive God's Word either in your private study or in church, prepare your heart first. Until you have opened your heart, don't open the book because the book responds only to open hearts, not to open eyes. You can read and read until you become ‘red', if your heart is not open you cannot be blessed. God looks at the heart and not at the face (1 Sam. 16:7).
Proverbs 16:1 says, “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.” The preparation of the heart must precede the answer from the Lord. Where is your heart? Is your heart open or closed? Is your heart good or evil? Is it receptive or ‘rejective'? Is it obedient or rebellious?
The Word of God is creative but the principal factor that determines it's effect is the heart of man. The practical manifestation of every man's destiny is at the mercy his heart. If your heart is right, one word is enough to turn your life around but if your heart is not right, 1,000 messages are not likely to make any change in your life.
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