304. ARE YOU HARDENING YOUR HEART TO GOD’S VOICE?

(The Information and Edification Series – Batch 10)

Whether you are an unbeliever or a Christian, it is possible for you to harden your heart against God and what he is telling you and this is never a good thing, as you cannot win.

Unbelievers often harden their hearts against God, refusing to bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ by faith and refusing to surrender their lives to him, so that they can obtain salvation. If they continue in this path, they will die outside of Christ and go to a lost eternity.

Believers are not exempt from hardening their hearts against God. Yes they have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved from eternal destruction but they sometimes harden their hearts stubbornly against God, dismissing what he is trying to tell them from his Word as they read it or as they hear it declared. They are convicted but they put what they hear on the backburner or use deflection, by trying to pass what God is telling them, unto someone else. They delude themselves into thinking that they are okay, when in fact, they are not and that God is pleased with them, when he is not.

The heart is deceitful and therefore, some of God’s people find ways to ignore what God is telling them because they do not want to address the issue. For example, some people who preach and teach God’s Word, when they find that God is convicting them of something in his Word, find it to be too heavy a burden to bear. Instead of humbling themselves before God, acknowledging their sin and repenting of their wrong, they instead decide to put the message in a sermon and to deliver it to the people in a congregation. Some will go as far as to declare to the congregation, “We are all guilty of this!”, which may not necessarily be the case. It is a mere tactic to escape having to deal with the sin issue that God is convicting them of in their own lives, as an individual.

Personally, I have been guilty of not paying heed to what God has been telling me and this is an area that I need to make amends. Sometimes as Christians, God speaks to us repeatedly about an issue, yet we continue on in it, pretending we have not heard or that it is not important. We are obstinate, stubborn and rebellious. We want to do what we want to do and we don’t want to be told not to do it. We want to indulge in gossip, a little malice against that brother or sister, a little badmouthing here and there and to delight a bit in the troubles and pain of others. We want to hold on to that wrong that someone did us because it hurt us so badly and we wait for the right opportunity to exact revenge, when the Word of God has told us that we must forgive and that vengeance belongs to the Lord.

When provoked by others, we lash out like Moses did to the Israelites, which cost him entrance into the Promised Land and we then try to blame our disobedience on the fact that we were provoked. This may be true but God requires us to have a godly response even in the face of provocation.

We know that God wants us to use the gift he has given us in a particular way and in a particular season or even talents and resources that he has graced us to have but due to laziness and other excuses, we don’t do it. We know God wants us to spend quality time with him by meditating on his Word and praying to him, yet we neglect on these, choosing instead to spend countless hours watching television, on the internet and attending to other matters, which are not as important.

There are many ways that many Christians harden their hearts against what they know is God’s will for them and in terms of how they are to conduct themselves. It being much easier to walk in the flesh, they often give in, sadly, to what the flesh wants to do instead of sacrificing their ego, so as to walk in obedience, in the Spirit.

Hardness of heart is always a bad and dangerous thing.

For, firstly, if we refuse to hear God, HE WILL NOT HEAR US. Proverbs 28:9 tells us that, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer shall be abomination.”

Isaiah 59:1-4 speaks of the rebellious and stubborn person, who continues on in his path of folly, despite knowing the will of God. As a result, when he is in need of help, God does not hear him or help him. The Word of God states:

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.”

Secondly, hardening our hearts against God’s Word, ATTRACTS HIS WRATH.

Whether we are Christians or not, we cannot presume upon the goodness of God, so as to think that we can continue in sin without doing what we know God wants us to do. If we choose stubbornly to disregard God’s counsel and to continue to operate in disobedience, God’s wrath will be kindled against us and we will eventually be made to bear the penalty, howsoever he pleases.

God having given ample time for us to rethink and turn away from the wrong path, his wrath is able to fall suddenly and without any room for negotiation or amends. In Proverbs 29:1, it states, “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy…”

This was demonstrated in 2 Chronicles 36:11-17 with Zedekiah, a king of Judah. Although the Lord was patient with him and his people when they were doing evil and often spoke to them, trying to get them to repent and turn, they did not. As a result, the time came when there was no remedy. Them being often reproved but refusing to change, there was a point when there was nothing they could do anymore to avert the sure outcome. The wrath of God fell on them and they were judged.

The Word of God states:

“Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.”

This leads to my next point.

Thirdly, hardening our heart when God speaks to us, results in THE ATTRACTION OF CURSES AND OUR BEING PUNISHED/CHASTENED.

In Amos 9:2-4, as a result of Israel’s choice to not hear God when he spoke and to continue on in their sin, he indicated that he would pursue after them in his wrath, not to do them good but to ensure that evil befell them.

He said through his prophet:

“Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.”

In the book of Exodus, due to Pharaoh’s hardness of heart, God sent a number of plagues against him and the Egyptians, which culminated in the death of all of the firstborn sons of the people of Egypt, including Pharaoh’s own son and thereafter, the destruction of many of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. He and his people suffered immensely because he refused to submit to the will of God.

The Israelites themselves demonstrated hardness of heart after God took them out of Egypt, where they refused to believe on him and to trust his will for their lives. Those who hardened their hearts, did not therefore go into the Promised Land. God caused them to die out in the wilderness, taking their children into the Land instead.

This leads to my next point.

Fourthly, hardening our hearts when God speaks to us, DEPRIVES US OF BLESSINGS.

In Numbers 14:22-23 and 28-35, God told Moses:

“Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it…Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me. Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”

As a lesson to Christians today, the Bible warns in Hebrews 3:8-19:

“Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”

Fifthly, hardening our hearts against God’s Word, MAY RESULT IN HIM NO LONGER SPEAKING TO US AND GUIDING US.

In the Book of Amos, God had sent the prophet Amos to his people Israel, letting them know how he planned to punish them for their iniquities but they did not pay heed to his words, nor repent. They refused to hear because they did not like what the word of God said, hardened their hearts in their rebellion and instead, desired that Amos remove himself from them, so that they would no longer have to hear what he claimed God had told him.

In response, God told them that they would surely go into captivity, among other punishments. He also told them that there would come a time when, due to the extent of their troubles, they would genuinely desire to hear what he had to say but all they would be met with was silence. This was because when he spoke to them, they hardened their hearts and would not hear.

In Amos 7:8-17, it reads:

“And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.

Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.”

In Amos 8:10-12, God told also them through his prophet Amos:

“And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.“

This is why Isaiah 55:6 encourages the wayward and the rebellious, to “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near…” We ought not to presume that he will always hear us and always be available and therefore, that we can come to him in our own timing.

This leads to my next point.

Sixthly, hardening our hearts when God speaks to us CAN LEAD TO A DULLING OF OUR CONSCIENCE AND A QUENCHING OR QUELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT that indwells Christians.

Christians are supposed to be led by the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit), which will guide them according to God’s Word. Sometimes though, they allow their flesh to dictate their actions and ignore the Spirit’s leading.

Romans 8:14 states, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”. Galatians 5:16-26 also admonishes Christians:

“This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”

When a Christian insists on dismissing what the Word of God says and what the Lord is telling him to do, this grieves the Spirit of God within him and like a fire that is repeatedly doused with water eventually goes out, the Spirit of God within him can be quenched. Given that Christians are sealed permanently with “that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14), when we disregard the holy Spirit, he will not leave us but he can become dormant in our lives, due to our repeated disobedience.

1 Thessalonians 5:19 warns us, “Quench not the Spirit”, which implies that by our repeated actions, we can. Ephesians 4:30 also tells us, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”. Some of the verses before and after give examples of actions and decisions that we can make, that can result in the Spirit indwelling us being grieved.

Verses 25 to 29 and 31 to 32 for example, make it clear that lying to each other, holding on to anger, giving the devil opportunity to operate in our lives, stealing, speaking corruptly, holding on to bitterness, being clamorous, malicious, unkind and speaking evil of others are all practices that grieve the Spirit of God. The Word of God states:

“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of an other.Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers…Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

Where the Spirit convicts us through God’s Word of these practices and we refuse to listen but continue on along this path, the Spirit is grieved and can eventually be quenched. I take this to mean that he will stop convicting us of these wrongs, to our own detriment and destruction. For, through stubbornness of will and the wilful hardening of our heart, we find ourselves in a sad situation where our heart becomes hard, cold and indifferent to right and wrong, us even deluding ourselves when in that condition, that everything is okay and God is pleased with us. We may continue to attend Church and claim to do work for the Lord and engage in the routine of it all but it does not change the fact that there is a disconnect because we have grieved the Spirit through wilful disregard for his Word and have not yet repented. We may read the Word but there is no conviction, sadly, us just seeing it as words or for someone else but it no longer having any impact in our lives.

As Christians, sadly, we can walk around almost robotic-like, having a name that we are alive when we are dead because we have stubbornly lived our lives in repeated disregard of God’s Word and have chosen to not obey him. There are many such professers of Christianity today, operating in many a Church gathering and the reason they seem lifeless is because through rebellion, they have grown used to operating in a manner where they are not led by the Spirit of God and instead, doing their own thing, as led by their flesh. He does not therefore operate as mightily as he could in their lives and in their Church assemblies, them having chosen to quench his voice. What is left then is empty preaching, hypocritical teaching, powerlessness to effect any real change and an assembly that is a mere semblance of what it ought to be.

Some people who once believed on God but have stopped doing so and are therefore not genuinely saved, can also go so far as to result in their conscience being seared, to the point of it becoming useless. 1 Timothy 4:1-2 states of such people: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”

In contrast to hardening our hearts, we should all aim to be open to hearing the voice of God, to be sensitive to his will and to be quick to obey it. As Mary wisely told the servants at the marriage in Cana, of Jesus, “…Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” We should aim to be considered by God, as he did David, as a man after his own heart, who would do what he wanted him to do. Acts 13:22 states of what God had said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.”

David was by no means perfect but he had a heart that desired to please God, that was open to hearing what he had to say and aspiring to do what he was commanded to do. When he slipped and fell into sin, he humbled himself before God and was repentant, relationship and close fellowship with him being most important to him.

God cares for us and wants what is best for our lives. His counsel is therefore one that we can always trust, irrespective of the circumstances and how things look. We should therefore know that it will be well with us if we take heed to what he tells us and obey. On the converse, we will reap nothing but trouble, adversity and sorrow, if we choose to deafen our ears to his Word.

God is willing to give us guidance for our lives, even after we have fallen, him wanting to see us be successful in it. As Christians, he also wants to work mightily in our lives so that others can see and the glory would redound to him but he cannot do so, if we refuse to be led by his Spirit. In short, blessings come through submission and obedience.

In Psalm 32:1-10, after David had sinned on one occasion and sought God’s forgiveness, God did not write him off. He forgave him, told him that he would instruct him and reminded him of the importance of paying attention to what he advised him to do, instead of adopting a posture of stubborness, as a mule does.

David testifies of God and also of what he told him:

“Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.”

(Written on 19th and 20th May, 2024, added to thereafter)

ADDENDUM

On the issue of a hardened heart, Charles Spurgeon stated in September 1887 and it remains true today:

“HARDNESS of heart is a great and grievous evil. It exists not only in the outside world, but in many who frequent the courts of the Lord’s house. Beneath the robes of religion many carry a heart of stone. It is more than possible to come to baptism and the sacred supper, to come constantly to the hearing of the Word, and even, as a matter of form, to attend to private religious duties, and yet still to have an unrenewed heart, a heart within which no spiritual life palpitates, and no spiritual feeling exists.

Nothing good can come out of a stony heart; it is barren as a rock. To be unfeeling is to be unfruitful. Prayer without desire, praise without emotion, preaching without earnestness— what are all these? Like the marble images of life, they are cold and dead. Insensibility is a deadly sign. Frequently it is the next stage to destruction. Pharaoh’s hard heart was a prophecy that his pride would meet a terrible overthrow. The hammer of vengeance is not far off, when the heart becomes harder than an adamant stone.

Many and great are the advantages connected with softness of spirit. Tenderness of heart is one of the marks of a gracious person. Spiritual sensibility puts life and feeling into all Christian duties. He that prays feelingly, prays indeed; he that praises God with humble gratitude, praises him most acceptably, and he that preaches with a loving heart has the essentials of true eloquence. An inward, living tenderness, which trembles at God’s word, is of great price in the sight of God.”

(Addendum written on 07th July, 2024)

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