Enlarging Our Hearts - Part 2 — Zac Poonen

The Heart Narrowed by Wrong Attitudes

We'd never have a wrong attitude towards a single person in the whole world. It's like people who smoke cigarettes. Every time they smoke cigarettes, their lungs become a little more gray, and it gets darker and darker and darker and darker.

And if only every time a man smokes a cigarette he could see the condition of his lungs, he'd chuck smoking immediately. But he can't see it. He can't see that his lungs are getting worse and worse and worse and worse.

It's like people who drink alcohol. If they could see every time they drink alcohol what's happening to their liver, it's getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse, they'd quit drinking immediately.

But we've seen the danger of perhaps smoking and drinking without all those pictures, but we haven't seen what is far more serious, and that is when you have a wrong attitude towards another believer, your heart becomes a little more narrow.

And when it becomes a little more narrow it's like, you know, rust getting inside the pipes that bring water to your house and you find a little trickle of water coming through the tap. That's exactly what happens.

And we pray to God and say, God, do mighty things for me, and God can send rivers through it, but only a little trickle comes through your tap because you have narrowed your heart by wrong attitude towards somebody else.

That all the prayers of all the people, most godly people in the world, just won't help you. And that's what happened to the Corinthians. The reason why God could use Paul continuously towards the end of his life was because he kept his heart large.

Responding to Those Who Despise Us

I mean, even when the Corinthians said, hey, Paul, you're not an apostle, it didn't make a difference to him. He said, that's fine. If you want to think of me like that, it makes no difference to me. Think if you can have an attitude like that that somebody despises you.

Now, somebody despising you cannot narrow your heart. It's your reaction to that that suddenly makes your heart narrow. Remember that. Nobody outside of you can make your heart narrow. Your pipe becomes small because you choose to react in a wrong way to the way somebody else treats you.

And on the other hand, you see, the reverse is also true, that if you react in a right way to that person, your heart suddenly becomes larger. You know, if I love somebody who loves me, that's great. And Jesus said, even the world people do that.

But if I love somebody who hates me, my heart suddenly becomes larger. And I suddenly find water gushing out of my tap. And I wonder why. It's because you decided to love somebody who hates you. I mean, these are principles that Jesus taught us in Scripture.

Loving Beyond Our Own Church

He said these words in Matthew 5, and I could paraphrase it like this. In Matthew 5, he said, verse 46, if you love somebody who loves you, what's so great about that? Or verse 47, if you greet only those brothers who greet you, what's great about that?

You greet only your brothers means, if my, I look at it like this, that if I can, if my attitude towards a person in my church, because he belongs to my church, and I have a warm attitude towards him, let's say a believer, born-again believer who loves the Lord, but who does not come to CFC, but goes to some other church, maybe he finds that church is better.

Okay, praise the Lord. If I can't have a large heart towards him, if I can't greet him just like I greet another brother who is in my own church, that word applies to me. You greet, let me paraphrase, you greet only the brothers from your own church, what's great about that?

Even the communists greet their fellow communists, and people who belong to the same cult will greet people in the same cult. There's nothing great about that. There's nothing great about your loving somebody who loves you, giving gifts to somebody who gives gifts to you.

It doesn't enlarge your heart. If that happened, then everybody in the world, the communists would have large hearts, and the people in the cults would have large hearts, because they give gifts to one another, but it's when we do something which people in the world don't do.

That is, I'm happy to meet someone who doesn't agree with me, but who loves the Lord. He's my brother in Christ, and along with all the saints, I can experience the length and breadth, the depth, the height, the love of Christ which passes all knowledge.

Taking Up the Cross Against Natural Reactions

And I'll tell you something, you've got to really discipline yourself to do that. When we think of taking up the cross and following Jesus, this is one of those areas where the cross comes in. The cross is something that puts my natural reaction to something to death.

My natural attitude, the attitude of all human beings, is to love those who love me. Jesus said that, to greet those who greet me, and ignore the others. And I'll tell you, we have to make a deliberate effort in this area.

So, I mean, the only people who do that are those who are serious about enlarging their heart. Last Wednesday we were considering the difference between the mind and the heart. You can understand so many things in the mind, and your heart may not be touched at all.

Mind Faith and Heart Faith

And that's the reason why I was saying how many people don't have faith. Because faith, there's a difference between mind faith and heart faith. Mind faith is, I believe the sun will rise tomorrow morning.

I believe that two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen make water. There's so many things I can believe in my mind. I have absolute faith. It doesn't change my life one bit. It doesn't make me more spiritual, it doesn't draw me closer to God.

I can write down a thousand things that I believe in my mind. The sun will rise tomorrow morning, Jesus Christ is God. H2 plus O is water, Christ died for my sins. It's all in the same category. It doesn't change my life one bit.

But when this comes into the heart, the Bible always speaks about believe in your heart. And when my heart trusts in that, all of a sudden, something happens. I believe it's like that with assurance of salvation.

Heart Faith in Salvation, Healing, and the Holy Spirit

I remember in my own life, I think I must have asked Jesus to come into my heart, maybe first when I was 13, and maybe 100, 200, 300 times I asked him to come into my heart. But I didn't know whether he came or not.

It was all in the mind. I said the right thing, I believed the right thing, but one day, I had faith in my heart. The simple word, Him that cometh to me, I'll never cast out. I believed it. I've never had a doubt in nearly 48 years now.

It's amazing. With mind-faith, you keep on doubting, doubting, doubting, doubting, and one day it comes in your heart, and you don't doubt at all for the rest of your life. I believe this is why you find some people also struggling to get healing.

They believe everything in their mind. They believe, believe, believe, believe, believe, but nothing happens. One day it comes into their heart, and they're healed, physically. The same with baptism in the Holy Spirit.

So many people pray, Lord, I believe, I believe, I believe, I'm sure you love me, everything. One day it comes into your heart, and you're baptized in the Holy Spirit. It was like that with me. And the same here.

Enlarging the Heart Beyond Bible Knowledge

I can know things in my head. My mind may be large, not just with earthly knowledge, with Bible knowledge. What I need to get enlarged is my heart. And the heart does not get enlarged by listening to meetings, listening to messages.

We get so much information when we come here Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. Do you think your heart is getting enlarged? No. Your mind is getting enlarged. You're getting so much information. It's correct information.

When I say the sun will rise tomorrow morning, that's correct information. When I say that H2 plus O is water or 2 plus 2 is 4, that's correct information. It's not false, it's not wrong doctrine, but it does not enlarge our heart.

And I've discovered this is the reason why so many people have so much knowledge, never seem to become spiritual. I used to always be puzzled with the fact that so many people in our churches have heard so much, and I say, Lord, why are they not spiritual?

Why are they not overcoming? Why are they still defeated after so many years by petty little sins, which even other people in other churches overcome, who don't hear about victory? And this is what the Lord showed me.

It's their mind that's getting enlarged, not their heart. Tell them to enlarge their heart.