"What's Your Heart Condition?"

The Lord has really been speaking to me this week about "heart condition." In order to release the power of the Holy Spirit within us and God's glory to help the hurting world around us, we must allow His Word to penetrate our hearts and renew our minds. We must come into alignment with the truth and understanding of God's character to grow and transform into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

Live Life from the Inside Out

We have Christ IN US, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27), when we receive salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and are "born again." We are beings comprised of a spirit, soul (mind, will and emotions), and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The Holy Spirit resides with our spirits when we are "born again" and our spirits are perfected; however, our souls and bodies are not (these are the fleshly components of ourselves that we have to continue to deny so that we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and the leading of God). We need to allow God to heal our hearts by revealing what is blocking us from walking in true freedom and power in Christ. The Kingdom of God is not just in words, but in power (1 Corinthians 4:20).

Our souls have been tainted with everything we have experienced in our lives from how we lived before we were saved. Until we've engaged the life of walking in obedience to God by the leading of the Holy Spirit, our souls are shells that suffocate or block our spirits, our innermost beings. The more we walk in obedience and are not conforming to the patterns, mindsets and ways of the world (Romans 12:2), and are reading and studying the Bible, hiding it in our hearts (Psalm 119:11), the more healing and freedom begins to occur; the impurity of our souls are cracked and the Spirit can move. Abundant life can flow! Our souls must be put under the submission to God's will. We should aim to live life from the inside out (spirit, soul, body), not the outside in (body, soul, spirit).

How to Feed Your Soul

We must watch what we feed our soul because everything that we take in, if it's not aligned with the truth in the Bible, will create blocks and suppress the release of Holy Spirit within us. Our effectiveness and ability for God to transform and work in our lives is severely stifled and diminished by what we feed through our ears and eyes to our souls. This is why we need to feed on the Word of God! It's spiritual food that builds our spirits and begins to crack through the other two layers of our beings to renew and heal (Hebrews 4:12). It starts with feeding and building our spirits.

How to Guard Your Heart

The heart is wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) and everything flows from it, which is why we are to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23). Jesus teaches us that sin is a condition of the heart and the outward deed is actually the fruit of sin. We can assess the condition of our hearts by evaluating what we do, our actions/behaviors. The enemy loves to keep us in our flesh where we are stuck and powerless. When we deny our flesh and bring our will under the submission of God and His ways, it brings forth a life of ABUNDANCE and VICTORY!

Do You Feel Stuck?

The Lord has so heavily laid this on my heart: If you feel as if you're stuck or there's been a block, pray that He would reveal to you what is keeping you from victory and forward movement so that you can surrender it to God and allow Him to release and heal you, enabling you to walk in the freedom for which Christ died to give you.

Are you entertaining the wrong things? Are you harboring bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, anger, jealousy, pride, etc.? "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7a). "For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of" (Luke 6:45b). Our actions and behaviors flow from the condition of our hearts. "Blessed are the PURE in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8 emphasis mine).

Above All, Love!

Jesus taught us to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-40) and the apostle Paul teaches us the greatest gift is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). If we operate from our flesh and from anything but love/pure hearts, mended and renewed by God, we will suffocate the release of the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

Let us be encouraged to check our hearts' conditions so we can walk forth into this new season in freedom!

Abbey Duplaga
Rise & Set Ministries
Email: riseandsetministries@gmail.com
Website: www.AmbitiousAbbey.com

Abbey Duplaga is an emerging prophetic voice who has a hunger and passion for teaching and releasing the Father's heart. She was radically saved and delivered upon a personal encounter with Christ. Abbey worked as a certified public accounting consultant for nearly a decade until she was redirected by following the leading of the Lord to serve in full-time ministry. She joins a beautiful tapestry of women the Lord has woven together as Rise & Set Ministries and their hearts have been set ablaze to share the truth and fullness of Christ and to pour love on His people. Abbey resides in Bridgeport, Ohio.

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