Apostle Dr. Derrick L. Wallace

As I sit here in the stillness of the morning before the phone begins to ring that the various demands on my day begins to knock on the doors of my mind I find myself, as I often do, contemplating the larger questions of life, the two most important of which are what is God doing in this season and what does God require of us generally and of me in particular.  As much as these two questions have become central to my life and my self examination, I cannot help but believe that they are on the minds of millions of men and women across the world, especially those who are members of the community of faith. As I consider these two questions, I realize that much of what is written, taught, posted and preached by those who have been appointed (or presume) to speak for or instruct us in the things pertaining to the word or the will of God is directed, intentionally or not, at answering these two questions. As I preach, teach and write on subjects relating to God’s will and God’s Kingdom, I find that I two and directly or indirectly writing for the purpose of providing answers to these two questions, however as I consider everything that has been spoken or written in the Word of God or about the Word of God on the subject of what God wants from us it seems to all come down to one thing, God wants us to have an open heart.

 

A heart that is open to Him and to those He places in our lives. In my mind every scripture in the Bible when understood completely and properly centers around God’s desire, or perhaps I should say requirement that we have an open heart. One of my favorite scriptures  in the Bible, brings this point home. The 29th Chapter of the Book of Jeremiah paints a vivid picture of the importance of our having a heart that is open to God and those that God places in our lives and is worthy of not just mention but through examination, however the restraints of this article will only allow me to briefly touch upon this chapter. The 29th chapter of the book of Jeremiah was written at a very pivotal period in the Nations of Israel’s history, a period in time not unlike that time that the Body of Christ finds itself in today, ( in a place of economic, social, and political bondage crying out to God for restoration). In the 29th Chapter of the Book of Jeremiah the Book address a number of things relating to the condition of the people when individually and collectively that would serve to make my point however due to time and space constraints I will only address one. The one that I have chosen to address is the last issue God addressed which can be found in verses 12-14 which provide “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.”  I chose to begin with these passages because they speak directly to the point “when we search for God with all of our hearts He will be found among us”. I think it goes without saying that we cannot search for Him with a heart that is not open to Him. This scripture while expressed in different words one of the major themes in the Bible. To truly understand the importance of this passage of scripture we have to view it in light of the condition that the Nation of Israel found themselves in at the time it was written as well as how they got there. I think it is clearly understood that Israel were and are the chosen people of God, the people through whom God chose to express Himself and rule the earth, a people who were intended to represent the will and character of God so that God could been seen and would be glorified by all mankind, ( much the same way the body of Christ is intended to be today), a people that were ordained and purposed to be an extension of God in the earth. A people who allowed themselves to be deceived and seduced into the worship of others God and in adopting practices and customs that were not from God, in short a people who had turned their hearts away from God and given it to other Gods. A people who turned their back on God. Much the same way many of us have today, we have turn our hearts away from God and do not represent the character, nature or the will of God, even though we waive the name of God around like a banner of entitlement. A people whose abandonment of God led them into captivity and are not crying out to God for his deliverance. In many respects the Nation of Israel was very much like many of us are today, a people who have gotten caught up in the ways and customers of the world only to slowly realize that what we thought would bring us comfort, protection, validation, success has led us into a system of bondage that has stripped us of our dignity and authority and threatens to rob us of our destiny. Crying out to the God we have abandoned, the God we have hardened our hearts against demanding He come and deliver us not because we are repentive and seek to restore our relationship with Him but because the pain of our experience has opened our eyes to the betrayal we have brought upon ourselves. Willing to take no responsibility for what we have done to ourselves, those we are called to serve as an example to or to God himself.

 

However, despite their rebellion against God or ours God’s promises remain true and His purpose for us remains the same and God is consistently and lovingly moving around us to bring us back into the land of His promise and that starts with the opening of our hearts, opening our hearts to Him so that He can clean them as He spoke of in Eze. 43:1-12, open our hearts to Him so He can move through them as He did in Eze 47:1-12, open our hearts so that through us the world can see Him and glorify Him.

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