What if your heart is no longer 'prone to wander?' What if God is more interested in releasing a noble goodness He's already placed within you, rather than pressuring you to be more 'holy?' Discover the book by Jim Robbins.
In this teaching video, I share one of the biggest barriers to moving out of a shame-consciousness ["I'm never enough."] towards a new-hearted, confident consciousness that believes that, despite the mess on the surface, God has removed an incapacitated heart and replaced it with one whose growing reserves of strength, goodness and nobility are being grown and released by the Holy Spirit, setting us free from the things that pin our hearts down.
Most preaching and Christian teaching today leads us to expect to sin. Jim contrasts this typical understanding of preaching with a New Covenant/New Heart approach that views preaching as a means of affirming and releasing [with the help of the Spirit] the new-hearted desires, appetites, and tendencies that now reside in the Christian's heart.
New Covenant preaching expects that there is a new-hearted goodness that is awaiting nourishment and release [through community and the Spirit] - a goodness that will grow stronger than any fleshly appetites.
Update on Friday, January 18, 2013 at 4:46PM by
Jim Robbins
BETTER QUESTIONS FOR RELATING TO ONE ANOTHER:
The Church needs to replace the question, "How can I hold this person 'accountable'" with
"Father, how can I celebrate the new goodness you've placed in his/her heart [at conversion], and look for its evidence?"
Another helpful question Christians can ask of each other:
"What is it that's more noble in this person than the surface behavior I see? More noble than the fear? More noble than the brokenness? More noble than the self-protective posture?
One attendee of a group I spoke to came up to be afterwards and said, "I'm not sure if I believe you yet, but if what you're saying is true, it changes everything."
The message of RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART isn't new. It isn't a fad. Rather, it's the message of "regeneration" that many of us have passed over or never heard. Martin Luther affirmed it, and so did J.I. Packer, one of the most influential Christian leader of our time:
J.I. Packer, whom Time magazine listed as one of the top 25 most influential evangelicals in America, describes our regeneration as, βthe spiritual change wrought in the heart of man by the Holy Spirit in which his/her inherently sinful nature is changed so that he/she can respond to God in Faith, and live in accordance with His will (Matt. 19:28; John 3:3,5,7; Titus 3:5). It extends to the whole nature of man, altering his governing disposition, illuminating his mind, freeing his will, and renewing his nature.β
In other words, your heart is now your ally, not your enemy.