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Have you ever considered how blind spots in your faith might be leading you astray? This episode is a deep exploration of the critical importance of examining our hearts and lives to avoid spiritual pitfalls. We discuss how an unbelieving heart can pull us away from God and the powerful nature of His Word, as highlighted in Hebrews 4:12. By emphasizing the necessity of obedience to God’s commands, we lay out the scriptural conditions required to claim His promises. Throughout our conversation, we urge listeners to stay vigilant and responsive to the Holy Spirit, ensuring that their hearts remain aligned with God’s ways.

We underscore the significance of maintaining a teachable spirit on our spiritual journey. Using the iconic movie Braveheart as a metaphor, we highlight the importance of holding firm to our original confidence in God’s promises, even when life throws us curveballs. We explore the perils of complacency and the arrogance of thinking we know it all, which can lead to a hardened heart and spiritual stagnation. Through scriptural warnings from Hebrews and other biblical texts, we stress the need for continual openness to God’s voice and instruction, reminding everyone that spiritual growth demands humility and a willingness to be taught and corrected daily.

Delve into the necessity of self-awareness and vulnerability for true spiritual growth and healing. Drawing insights from John Maxwell’s leadership teachings, we discuss how recognizing our weaknesses can foster better cooperation and growth in our relationships. Ignoring our flaws and the rebellious nature of refusing to see our vulnerabilities can be dangerous. By examining biblical references, we illustrate the importance of self-awareness and the courage to seek help. Ultimately, we encourage a commitment to truth and mutual support, reminding listeners that God sees us completely. Facing our blind spots is essential for obedience to Christ and overall transformation.

Where to dive in:

(0:00:00) – Warning About Blind Spots

Examining our hearts, obeying God’s commands, and listening to the Holy Spirit to avoid falling away from Him.

(0:12:21) – The Importance of Remaining Teachable

Maintaining faith and a teachable spirit is crucial for spiritual growth, avoiding complacency, and remaining open to God’s instruction.

(0:22:23) – The Importance of Self-Awareness and Teachability

Self-awareness and teachability are crucial for spiritual growth, as a hardened heart and closed eyes can hinder revelation from God.

(0:30:39) – Embracing Vulnerability for Growth

Acknowledging and addressing our weaknesses fosters relief and cooperation in relationships, leading to growth and obedience to Christ.

(0:43:07) – The Importance of Growth and Healing

Openness and humility are crucial for spiritual growth, as we examine biblical passages and seek self-awareness and transformation through prayer.

About your host: Jaime Luce’s testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!

Free chapter of Jaime’s new book: You Don’t Need Money, You Just Need God: https://jaimeluce.com/book/

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Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:00 – Jaime Luce
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. He’s saying you need to understand who you really are and what you’re really believing and what you’re really doing, because if you don’t, there is a danger that you’re actually unbelieving and that you’re falling away from God, and that there will be a huge danger. If you do, you will turn loose of the living God. This will affect your everyday life. That’s why we have to do this all day, every day. It’ll affect the decisions you make. It’ll affect the relationships you have. This is so vital. This is our eternal lives. We’re talking about how we walk this life out in obedience to Jesus Christ and what he says. That’s why he says you this isn’t just about blind spots in your relationships or blind spots at work and what you need to do. This is literally about you as a spiritual person, blind spots that we have, about our walk with the Lord. Welcome to the Jamie Luce podcast. Thank you for tuning in.

Today we’re going to be reading from the book of Hebrews and teaching today out of there, chapters three and four. Basically, I have given this message a title. If you are taking notes. I encourage you to take notes today. I do every time, but I encourage you today and what I’m loosely calling this? Because this whole passage is a warning. This warning is for we believers. This is not a warning to an unsaved world. This is speaking to us believers and we need this warning. This is really important. What I have to say today is very important. I hope that you are someone who takes seriously the word of God. How powerful it is, in fact. We’re going to read how powerful it is, in fact. Chapter four, verse 12, says. Verse 12 says for the word of God is living and active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow and the discerning, the thoughts and intentions of the heart. No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom we must give an account. And um, I, I want you to hear this today the power of this word, because the temptation is that if it’s something we think that we know, especially about ourselves, we tend to not listen. It’s human nature. So I want us to begin. I’m going to read to you, not the entire third and fourth chapter, but I am going to read to you good little portions of it to give you an idea of the whole context here. I encourage you to read this on your own, but we’ll start at verse 1, chapter 3, verse 1. Did I tell you we’re going to name this is Blind Spots, the name of this is Blind Spots, and we’ve all got them. So let’s begin reading.

Therefore, holy brothers, this is us folks. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him, who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus had been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself, for every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Skip down to verse 6. But Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house, if indeed, and we are his house if indeed, and this is something that gets left out.

So much of the message that gets preached regularly to the church at large. We like to lay hold of all of God’s promises, and I want you to do that and all of the goodness of God. We’re told to not forget any of his benefits. But there are buts and ifs in the Bible, ifs and thens. If you do this, then this will happen. The blessing of God does not come without the word obedience. If you do what I command you, then if, then and it’s imperative that we know that if we think that we can just quote scriptures all day and quote the promises and the verses that we have memorized because those make us feel good but we’ve been walking in disobedience, there is nothing in scripture that tells us that I will actually receive those things that I’m claiming. No matter how powerful the scripture is, there are conditions, there are scriptural conditions.

I’m not saying that from my own opinion, if the scripture says, if this, then that that’s the way the system works in the kingdom of God. I don’t get to Mickey Mouse with that. I don’t get to change it. I don’t get to manipulate that. I don’t get to. I mean, I’m, I’m. If I try to, the only one I’m fooling is myself. I’m only fooling myself. I’m only fooling myself. So it’s imperative that we actually see with eyes that we have and listen with the ears that we have. This is this is so crucial. So let’s go to verse seven.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, if you hear him speaking to you in anything I have to say today not what I’m saying, if you hear him speaking to you while I’m speaking, if you hear the Holy Spirit today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. What is he saying? They follow their ways, the ways of their own heart, the ways of their own inclinations, the ways of their own culture, the ways they nations, the ways of their own culture, the ways they were removed from Egypt, but Egypt was so hard to get out of them. We have flesh inclinations, passions, desires, and he’s saying that they watched him for 40 years.

Do the impossible and the miraculous, always working on their behalf for their good, doing them good and not harm, protecting them, feeding them, providing for their every need. Their sandals never wore out, their clothes never wore out. They never went without food or water. They always had what they needed. They were protected from their enemies and they had a way made for them where there shouldn’t have even have been a way. He brought such a great deliverance by the miraculous power of his hand to open up a sea and provide dry ground for them to cross and use that same avenue, that same way, to destroy their enemy.

He says you always go astray in your heart and you didn’t know my ways. So there is a, there is a call that is going forth from the holy spirit saying you need to know my ways, you need to hear what I say, you need to do it the way I tell you to do it. Let’s go to verse 12. This little portion right here is where I’m going to really hone in. Take care, brothers. This is the warning. These are believers. Take care, brothers, the brethren, the family of God. Take care, brothers, and I’m saying that to us right now. Take care, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil. What’s evil? Unbelieving heart, unbelieving, leading you to fall away from the living God. But this but means like instead, but exhort one another every day.

Now the Old Testament says that we are to have God’s word literally before us every day in the morning, in the evening, in the afternoon, in our conversations, when we’re walking, when we’re doing work, when we’re eating. We are speaking the truth of the word of God. We are sharing that with one another. We are being taught his word all day, every day, meditating on it. David says continually that he meditated on the word of God without this process of spurring one another on, exhort one another. Exhort one another. To exhort is to be very strong. An exhortation is to say do this, be this, you can do this. Stand firm, be strong in the Lord, have faith, do not fear. We have to be our one another’s coach. We need to be one another’s you know, um uh, team member and family member, and we’ve got to come alongside one another and continually, every day, exhort one another. As long as it is called today. That gives us no breaks. Every day we call today. He says do it every day. As long as it is called today. That means all day, every day, all day. As it is called today. That means all day, every day, all day. Exhort one another. Why did he say to do this Because there is a very real and present danger that an unbelieving heart, someone who begins to lose quote unquote faith, someone who begins to back away and lose confidence in the scripture, someone who backs away from believing that God really will do what he says he would do, an unbelieving heart leads you to fall away from the living God.

Living. He’s not dead, he’s alive, he is active, he is moving, he is producing and doing and accomplishing in our life. What he has spoken will come to pass. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And what was he calling sin? An evil, unbelieving heart. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed, if here’s that word, if again, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm till the end. It reminds me of the movie Braveheart and that, right before going into battle, they have to wait for the perfect moment to move forward and to engage. And you hear him, mel Gibson, playing the part of William Wallace, and it’s hold, hold, hold. We have to hold on, folks. We have to hold on every day, all day. We have to hold fast, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

The author of Hebrews is extending a warning and an instruction to those who know scripture, to those who call themselves God’s chosen, to those who think they already know. They think they know what this word says, they think they know scripture, they think they know what they’re looking for. They think they already know. This is why a warning’s given, because these people, if they think they know, then they no longer listen to the warnings. I know, I know. Have you heard someone say something to you a million times? I know, I know. Have you heard someone say something to you a million times? I know, I know you told me that already. I know, I know what are they really saying. I’m not listening anymore. I’m not actually using my ears to listen, to hear what you’re saying. I think I am above the statement that you are presenting to me. It’s an I know, it’s an attitude, it’s a position I’m taking.

These people and this warning is to the brethren these people who think they already know, they think they know more, so they think more highly of themselves than they ought. Here’s a little warning that’s in the midst of this. Here this little warning says that if you think you already know, then you think you are above listening to what’s being given to you. And the warning inside of that message is then you are now thinking more highly of yourself than you ought. If you’re being told, especially by scripture, then you most definitely need to hear it, and you might have heard it a hundred times, guess what? You need to hear it again. We’re to be doing this every day, all day long.

Have you ever been believing God for something? And it’s been a long road. It’s been a hard day. You have come. You’ve had to really just hang on to get to the end of the day. And then you have to do it again the next day and the next day, and the temptation is to lose that firm grip that’s being spoken of here, to hold. Let me find it again and read it to you hold our original confidence firm to the end. We begin to loosen that firm hold. We begin to think maybe he’s not going to do it. We begin to open our ears to the enemy’s whispers, to the thoughts that the enemy would bring, to the thoughts of any self-insecurity that no outside voice needs to bring, that it comes right from our own hearts. We can begin to hear all kinds of things that want us to turn loose and begin to be unbelieving. If you are someone who thinks you already know, then you are someone who then is please hear me stubborn, and this can be a trap laid for a hard heart. These people that this was being spoken to in this letter, these people, they don’t really listen. They think more highly of themselves than they ought. They are stubborn, and it is a trap for rebellion. It is a trap for a hard heart.

What’s the problem with a hard heart? What did Jesus have to say to his disciples? Over and over again? That they didn’t understand because their hearts were hardened. They didn’t have the faith they needed because their hearts were hardened. This is a teachable thing. What it means is there is something being taught that you’re experiencing, seeing and hearing by the Holy Spirit through the scripture experiencing, seeing and hearing by the Holy Spirit through the scripture and you’re not. And for the disciples, it was in person with Jesus, and there’s something that they are not understanding. So what does that mean? That means that there is something that they there’s a revelation that they have not yet seen.

The revealing of A revelation is it is revealed. Revealing of a revelation is it is revealed. So what is this? What is another issue here for someone who thinks who isn’t teachable, someone who thinks they already know, because it means you’re not teachable If you think you already know. This last thing is this is an attitude. It produces a position, position that stunts growth and revelation. That’s why there’s a hard heart involved. It stunts growth and revelation. Revelation is to reveal what is hidden or unknown, having eyes they don’t see and having ears they don’t hear.

I did a quick little search here. I did a quick little search and this particular scripture came up multiple times. I’m going to give you four of the instances that it comes up, and this is Old Testament and New Testament. This is a warning and it is. It is. It is showing a problem, a position, something to be avoided, something that needs fixing and changing. And if we are not teachable, if we are not willing to hear this and hear what God is saying, we are in danger. And this is in Jeremiah 5, 21. I’m reading all four of these references in the New King James and it says hear this now.

Oh, foolish people without understanding. This is a foolish people who does not have understanding. They think they do, they really think they already have understanding, but they don’t. Who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not. Next verse Ezekiel 12, 2. Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear, for they are a rebellious house. Do you see the correlation? That rebellion, a thinking that there’s already a knowledge and a refusal to receive teaching is the cause of eyes that can’t see and ears that can’t hear. And these people think that their eyes and ears are open. They do not understand that they have made themselves blind and deaf. They don’t know that that’s the condition they’re in.

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Matthew 13, 15. For the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed. See, they’ve closed their eyes. This is rebellion. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. So he’s saying this is a condition that needs my healing touch. I need them to turn to me so that I can heal them and give them what’s missing, to touch them where they need to be touched. And the last one I’ll give you is in Acts 28, 27. This is literally a repeat of the verse in Matthew. For the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts. This rebellious state, this impossible position that they put themselves in, is a dangerous place to be. It blocks up their ability to grow in the Lord. It blocks up their ability to receive revelation.

Listen, if you’re in a place where you need to make decisions and you don’t know what to do, you need a revelation. If you need healing and there’s something you need to know about your body or about your emotional state, about your heart, about what’s going on inside of you and your mind, you need a revelation. We have to be teachable. We can’t think we already know. We have to be those who understand that this is a blind spot. This is a blind spot.

I was listening to um, a leadership um podcast. That is, a John Maxwell um podcast, and they were saying that only between 10 and 15% of people are actually self-aware, that they actually realize who they are, what they’re doing, what their weaknesses are, not just their strengths, and that they are not simply walking around fulfilling a role. That they know who they are, what they’re called to, what they’re supposed to do. They know if they’re good at it, what they’re not good at. And and the one only 10 to 15% of people understand enough about themselves to be good at this, and these people who do this understand that weaknesses are not um, it’s not something to be avoided. That means that I go, then and I bring to myself and surround myself with those who are not weak in that area.

This is basically why the author of Hebrews is saying exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. Evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. He’s saying you need to understand who you really are and what you’re really believing and what you’re really doing, because if you don’t, there is a danger that you’re actually unbelieving and that you’re falling away from God, and that there will be a huge danger. If you do, you will turn loose of the living God danger. If you do, you will turn loose of the living God. This will affect your everyday life. That’s why we have to do this all day, every day. It’ll affect the decisions you make. It’ll affect the relationships you have.

This is so vital. This is, this is our eternal lives. We’re talking about how we walk this life out in obedience to Jesus Christ and what he says. That’s why he says you this isn’t just about um, blind spots in your relationships or blind spots at work and what you need to do. This is literally about you as a spiritual person, blind spots that we have, about our walk with the Lord and how we deal with scripture, and this is equated to obedience. So let me read you the scripture, taking it there, Well before I go there in this podcast that I was watching um and there were two individuals, not just John Maxwell. I wish I could remember their names. I’m sorry I don’t remember their names to give them credit, but the point is this a blind spot, having blind spots, means that you are literally blind.

So if, if someone comes to you here’s the danger of not being someone who’s teachable and not listening. If someone comes to you and even if a pastor makes an exhortation to you on Sunday for you to make self-adjustments, to to grow in the Lord, to be doing things differently, to walk in obedience to scriptural commands, to not be living as the culture lives and to live the way that God tells you to live, to not say, well, I believe this part of the Bible but not that part, because I don’t like the way that that you know. That’s that God wouldn’t say that he’s loving and we, we dismiss and we are not teachable. We do not. We, we’re more teachable to the world’s ways than we are to God’s ways. That’s why he said to them in the desert they go astray in their heart because they don’t know my ways. We have to know the way God says. We have to know what he means and follow what he’s instructing us to do. To do that means I have to hear him and obey him. A hardened heart is that I don’t obey. He tells me what to do and I don’t obey.

So if someone gives you that exhortation your pastor does, a friend does, a family member, a spouse, someone says hey, hey, they’re exhorting you every day and they say, hey, there’s an issue here. And you, if you have a blind spot, you’re going to think I don’t have a problem with that. But the reason you think you don’t have a problem with that is because you’re blind. You don’t see it. You don’t see it. It’s why we need one another to exhort us in the faith, to strengthen us in the faith for iron, to sharpen iron, to be able to say, hey, this area, this is affecting some things, and we need to be those to say I see that Really, that’s what I do To self-examine, to become self-aware, to be someone who sees and hears with my eyes and ears that I am not someone who has eyes but I don’t see, and has ears but I don’t hear.

And it you, you have to be so teachable that you can sit, you can receive from somebody and not feel judged by their honesty. And I’m not talking about allowing people to talk down to you and to be ugly with you and to be to say things in a manner that is degrading and defaming and all of that. That’s not what I’m saying, but someone who loves you and comes to you and says hey, there, there’s a problem here. And I and I, I I know this is to your benefit if I share this with you, because things will go better for you If you understand this. You have to be willing and to be mature enough to say okay, I obviously know that I have not arrived as a human being, I’m still on this earth in a flesh suit, and that means there are areas in me that I need to grow in and I cannot allow myself the luxury of being offended that someone would actually say to me yeah, you actually do have a weak spot there. We’re supposed to do that with one another. I’m supposed to welcome that. I’m supposed to open myself to that.

It’s not a criticism. It is, in fact, one of the other things that John Maxwell said, and I thought this was so powerful. He says if you know your own weaknesses, do you know what a relief it is to go to somebody and to say hey, I’m not good at this, I know I don’t do well here, so I’m going to need some help here. It’s such a relief to the one hearing it, cause they’re like oh good, he already knows it’s it’s. It takes the burden off the person that you’re dealing with and they realize, no, they already know that We’ll work together, we’ll. We’ll fix that we can. We’ll work on that. We can grow with that we can. You can work with something you know that needs work.

It’s when you refuse to see it that you will not grow. You are stunted. It’s a rebellious heart that refuses to see and to hear. It’s like the scripture I read to you that says they closed their eyes. This is a choosing. That’s why I said it’s a position you take. It’s a very dangerous place and this warning was.

I mean, I read you two scriptures out of the Old Testament and two out of the New Testament. This is something that is referred to in this particular passage. So I’ve given you five, but this is to refer back to in the day of the rebellion, talking about the children of Israel in the wilderness refusing to know God’s ways and to do it his ways and to stay in their stubborn, rebellious hearts. Folks, we run the same. If you have ever complained, ever about anything complained, you know, instead of going to God in faith and believing he’s just going to take care of it, if you’ve ever complained, you are guilty of what they were guilty of. They were complainers and murmurers and it was completely frustrating to God, completely frustrating to Moses. God wanted to bring destruction on him and Moses would go intercede and pray for him. I mean, and Moses? That’s why this whole passage, that’s why you need to read the whole thing, because Jesus is a better Moses. He’s a better mediator, he’s a better intercessor. He actually paid the whole price. He didn’t just pray that God would do something. He paid the price for their guilt. He paid the price for us. He’s a better Moses and we have to understand this.

Warning is still coming to us with even better examples and better sacrifices and better payment. We are still in danger of this. If I don’t think that I am vulnerable in these areas, then I won’t take the precautions necessary to protect myself, and that’s true of all of us. If I don’t think there’s a danger, I don’t take precautionary measures. We don’t actually want to know what our vulnerabilities are. I mean, sadly, we’re just saying I refuse, I’m closing my eyes, I want to stay vulnerable in this area and I don’t want to see this. No, no, no, no, no, no. It’s like saying la la, la, la la every time we have to face what’s wrong with us. I’ve been guilty of this. I’m not preaching this to you, just to tell you. I have been guilty of this. I have been working on this so much over the last several years to say what is it in me? Why am I reacting that way? Why am I thinking like this? Where did this come from? Why am I wanting to cover this and protect this when it’s not good for me.

We have to look at those issues in our own hearts. I want to be obedient to Christ in everything, all day, every day. I want to be obedient to him. I want to be obedient to Christ in everything, all day, every day. I want to be obedient to him. I want to please him above all, and I’m sure that’s what your desire is too. But in order to do that, folks, we have to face our weaknesses, our blind spots. Be willing to say I’m obviously blind to that. Help me grow in this, help me see this. And people who know you well and I’m talking about those in your inner circle, not just because there are all kinds of people who know us for all kinds of reasons, and all of those versions of us are true to some extent, but we okay.

I want to read you the scripture In chapter four, verse 13,. He says and no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom we must give an account. So God sees us fully, completely bare, completely naked. There’s nothing high. We can’t hide anything. So wouldn’t it be wise of us to say, okay, I need to see this now, before I stand before him, the one I have to give an account to. I’m going to give an account for this. Whatever this is, in all of its, whether it’s glory or ugliness, in all of its obedience or in all of its rebellion, I’m going to stand and give an account. And wouldn’t it be good for me to care and not allow myself to remain vulnerable in these areas, to say, somebody, help me.

If we don’t encourage one another in this way, we’re basically the? The little story of the emperor’s wearing no clothes. You know, we go around not telling anybody that they’re naked, that they don’t have clothes on. They’ve been convinced that they’re, you know, fully clothed and walking around in gorgeous garments, and instead they’re in, they’re wearing nothing. They’re walking around naked and someone. We need to have people who are brave enough to say this is an embarrassing. I’m trying to help you, I need to cover you. This is an area that you need to grow in. You’re naked and that would be good for us. We should be lovers of truth, even truth that stings.

The Bible doesn’t call a friend somebody who comes up and is constantly encouraging you, telling you how wonderful you are, that, yes, that garment you have on that’s not really real, is beautiful, and how wonderful you look. That’s not what the Bible calls a friend. You know what the Bible calls a friend? Someone that says. The bruises of a friend, those are the things that we’re supposed to cherish, the bruises of a friend, because those are the things that we realize. You actually cared about me, to save me, to pull me into safety, by yanking my arm a little bit and saying get out of there, You’re in danger, get over here to help me, to coach me, to exhort me, every day, all day long. This is so important, guys. This is so important.

Uh, I was listening to um, a conversation between two um relationship counselors, and the quote unquote expert said that he and his wife he’s the expert, he’s been schooled and that’s his job to counsel couples that he loves it. His whole life, purpose and meaning is found in doing this. And yet he and his wife see a marriage counselor and they do this because he understands that he has blind spots when it comes to his relationship with his wife and that she could be trying to communicate something to him. He actually said that he spent an entire year having the same problem argument trying to work through this with his wife because he could not see what she was saying. It took a year and outside counselor to say hey, hey, hey. And he was guilty of saying, yeah, I’ve heard her say that this is what she said. And he regurgitated what she said and they said but did you hear what she was actually saying? And after having a third party come in and show a blind spot to him, hit, the light bulb went off and he’s like, oh my gosh, I get it. And then he apologized and his heart was in it and he could see a perspective he could not see before. And that was an expert. Folks, if the experts need more experts to help them, surely we who aren’t experts need help in this area. We need to be those who are willing to know the truth.

The scripture repeats itself over and over again. For a reason we receive these warnings over and over again because they’re necessary. It’s every day, all day. How are you doing? Do you give your friend a call and say how are you doing today? Have you been in your word? How is it? How is your personal relationship going with the Lord? Are you doing okay? Are you? Are you making sure you carve out time. Can I pray with you? Are you feeling weak in an area?

Let’s agree together. Let’s pull out the scripture together. Let’s exhort one another. Greater is he that’s in you than he that’s in this world. What is God asking you to do? Are you doing it? Are you obeying? We have to exhort one another. If you feel like you’ve gotten off course, maybe what we have to do is go back to the last thing that you know he asked you to do. Did you do that? Go, do that. Go, do the last thing that God told you to do. And in the meantime, let’s hold firm to our original confidence. Let’s not turn loose of our faith. Let’s be those who heed the warnings According to Hebrews 3 and 4,.

We need to have the kind of open hearts, open eyes, open ears that relieve us and free us from unbelief, which is rebellion and disobedience. Disobedience, rebellion and disobedience will keep your heart hard and it will keep you from experiencing God’s rest. We must make every effort to listen to the Holy Spirit and obey. If we are those who think we already know, who refuse to hear and think that we already know because we say in our heart but I believe that this is now. Please open your ears for this. Okay, I’m going to say something and I’m going to repeat it to you.

There is a danger in thinking that because you believe you are safe, because you believe it means that my eyes are open, my ears are open, I don’t have a blind spot. If, in fact, you refuse to hear because you insist that you already know about what you believe, here is where there can be error in that, the error in thinking that, in fact, let me read I’m going to read it to you the way god gave it to me, because I think this is powerful the scripture repeats the same indictment against the very people who should already know, whose eyes should be open and ears should be open, and, in fact, they refuse to hear because they insist that they already know about what they believe. This error means that what they are stuck on believing or, to put it another way, rebellious and hard-hearted is the very belief that holds them in unbelief. Let me say that again, the error of thinking you’re okay because you already know and believe what you think is the right thing to believe, not being teachable because of what you believe, because you can believe folks, you can believe that you have the understanding on something. You can believe, that you have full revelation on something you can think.

I have read all of those scriptures. I’ve read that scripture a million times. I know what it says, I know what I believe. And then, because of what you believe, you now harden your heart to receiving any new revelation that’s found there, because you believe Do you see how tricky that is? Do you see that you could think, yeah, I already know, because of a good belief, because of something that you’ve already been taught that you believe that error means that what they are stuck on believing okay, what they’re stuck on believing, or what they’re now hard-hearted and rebellious about, what they believe is the very belief that holds them in unbelief.

You can have a belief that holds you in a position of unbelief. You could have a belief that God doesn’t heal anymore, and yet you could read a scripture where God heals somebody and God may be saying you’ve closed your eyes and you’ve closed your ears, and if you wouldn’t have done that, I could heal you. You would turn and I could heal you, but you won’t because you believe I don’t heal, or you believe that I put this on you, I put that sickness on you because I’m teaching you a lesson. You did wrong and I’m punishing you. You can have a belief and it holds you in unbelief. Folks, if you want to be turned and healed, you’ve got to allow your eyes and your ears to be open, to be open.

Let’s jump down to chapter four. I’m going to read you verses one and two. Any of you should seem to have failed to reach it, for good news came to us just as to them. The good news has come to us just as it came to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them. They saw what God did. They heard what he said he would do. It did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. They didn’t have ears to hear, they didn’t have eyes to see.

Go down to verse six. Since, therefore, it remains for some to enter it, to enter his rest, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Because of disobedience, again, he appoints a certain day today, saying through David, so long afterward, in the words already quoted today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Folks, my encouragement to you today is let God’s word expose what needs exposing. Ask for eyes to see and ears to hear. Be willing to grow and mature in the word of God, because this word can heal you.

Verse 12 says for the word of God is living and active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of morrow, and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. We need this word, we need truth, we need to stand in a position not of rebellion, but in a position of growth and nakedness before God and saying show me. If there are blind spots in me, show me. Let me become someone who is self-aware, who understands and wants to grow in this and wants to see and open my eyes and open my ears. Give me an understanding heart that I know your ways, that I don’t walk in rebellion, that I don’t walk in a hard heart and that I don’t walk not being able to be healed, to receive what I need from God. This is our warning. What are my blind spots? We’ve all got them, but am I willing to look at them? Am I willing to grow? Am I willing to be mature?

Let me pray for you, father. I’m so grateful for your word today. I’m grateful for your warnings. You have not been lax in telling us who you are, what you want for us and how we’re to go about it. So, father, today I pray for every person who is listening to this today. Father, give them eyes to see, give them ears to hear, give them a strong, confident in faith heart to open themselves to growth and maturity, that they are able to walk out in truth that process of growth and obedience to your word and to your ways, that they truly know you and that they are truly conformed to your image Lord. That they turn and then they are healed. Image Lord, that they turn and then they are healed. And we will be so careful to give you all the glory for it. And it is in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Thank you so much for taking the time.

Today I’m your, I’m in your exhorter. Today I’m your, I’m your brother, your sister, the brethren, and I’m saying to you let’s take a look, let’s be honest with ourselves, let’s grow today, and then let’s watch and rejoice as we’re healed. Thanks so much again for tuning in. If you would like to contact me, you can do that at mail at jaimeluce.com. That’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E. You can also visit my website, jaime Luce dot com. It was my pleasure to be with you today. We’ll see you next time. Bye, bye.