It was something like and I was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital holding a diagram of my husband’s heart. The doctor who sat beside me explained the diagram which she had drawn upon to indicate the problems in his heart. You see, he had a silent heart attack, and they performed a test to see about blockage and damage done. He had two arteries 100% blocked, one a larger blockage than the other, and one artery 50% blocked.
Because of the blood flow problems in his heart, he had suffered a heart attack which damaged a small portion of his heart. I looked at the picture in disbelief thinking, how can this be, and how could we have had no warnings before now? I was shocked as I considered my hubby to be fairly healthy and strong for his age, but the picture in my hands said differently.
Restricted blood flow to the heart causes problems and possibly permanent damage, just like I imagine our restricting the Holy Spirit’s flow in our hearts (Strong’s G2588= thoughts, feelings) can cause us problems and damage. How do we block His flow? Speaking from experience, it is various personal issues in our lives that restrict His flow. For me, that means fear of the unknown was a big restriction, probably like the large 100% blockage in hubby’s heart. It took a lot of years to substantially clear it up.
Then there was some anger blocking Him. Every time He ‘let me down’ by not answering my prayers the way I wanted, it added a little more until I was completely blocked. The Lord worked away at that one for a few years, and now it is gone. Other blockages were ignorance, trying to maintain my own control, lack of discipline, judgmental or superior attitude, and on and on. These things continued to block the Spirit’s flow to me, hindering my growth and maturation. For too long I did not understand…
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1Cor.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Is. 26:3
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2Cor. 10:5
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Pr. 4:23
We are responsible for our hearts and must do what we can to keep them open to the Father, the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. That means casting down our thoughts that keep blocking Him from moving in our lives; keeping out bad blockages such as “bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, …with all malice” (Eph. 4:31) so we do not grieve Him (v. 30). The religious leaders were chastised for resisting the Holy Spirit (Acts ) because they were blocked up by pride, works, hypocrisy and legalism.
Are you finding your life dull, your heart cold, your thoughts negative, or your maturity at a stand still? What things are blocking your heart today? Can you remove them, repent, ask forgiveness, or cast them down, or do you just need to get down on your knees and cry out to God for help? Whatever it is, don’t give up. Never give up. Do what you can, and when that fails:
Sometimes prayer is the only way…
Break up the hardness in our hearts oh Lord!
