A Heart Probe

This may speak to some of you. I know not everyone is experiencing a very difficult, challenging season right now, but some are, and it has been perplexing. Often in the past few weeks I have cried out, "What is this season, Father, and when will it be over?"  Congregations are getting smaller and people are apathetic, or fed up, or distracted. For me it feels like a pit of discouragement.

And so I sat with the Lord for a long time this morning, asking questions, and finally I received breakthrough, and knew that I knew I had heard from the Spirit of God. He said, "The answer to your question is found in Deuteronomy 8:2."Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way into the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart..." Verse 3 goes on: "He humbled you, causing you to hunger..."

The revelation hit me profoundly and deeply.  "The testing of a heart cannot be done while the person is operating in great success and provision.  In those times we are self-satisfied, self-assured. We are not feeling desperate or asking questions. We are not hungering or thirsting. We are comfortable. THAT IS NOT A DESERT, IS IT?

This season is a heart-probe. A probe so deep that at times it aches. How deep am I willing to let you probe, in order to find those dark, hidden places?

I went to Psalm 139:23-24 and prayed that prayer again. And Father told me to have it continually on my lips. When someone around me irritates me or offends me, I am to pray, "Search me O God and examine ME. See if there is any offensive way in ME......(in how I'm reacting). 

Once again I believe He has given us a vital key about the time we are in - and how to prepare for the much more difficult days ahead.  Search me, O God, and examine me - tell me what You find in my heart. And when you show me what You have found, I pray that you will do as the old worship song says,
Change my heart O God
Make it ever true
Change my heart O God
May I be like YOU