To change the intent of your heart by the mercies of His grace.
His grace is sufficient in this area of the intent of your heart, but there must be submission on our part, you must desire to be changed.
“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.” (Gal. 5:17)
The intent of your heart is self-imposed, self-directed, you are in control of you, the Almighty has no puppets, Christ pushes no one, He calls us, the Holy Spirit will not take over and control your mind or your flesh, this is the containment within ourselves which is called free will. What you set your heart on is what you will drive yourself to, the want will become a need within you, and that can be a good thing, if that want is for the grace of God to change the intent of your heart.
“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.” (Psalm 27:8)
If your intention in this life is to glorify God in all that you do, say, or think, the grace of God will lead you down the path to accomplish that, but He will not force you to walk it.
I do not believe that all who have been born again will honestly be able to say as Paul did, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:” (2nd Tim. 4:7) I believe the intent of their heart is still focused far too much on self, that they have not fully died to self.
I believe far too many doubt more than they trust, but I also believe that if they would submit themselves fully, the intent of their heart would be changed, they would see that what awaits cannot be compared to what is here, they would understand that all that is here is temporary, they would live by Colossians 3:2, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” They would stop listening to their heart and instead hear the truths of the Scriptures.
“But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” (1st John 2:27)
If the Almighty is willing and able to change the intent of your heart, and you are prepared to follow Him on that path, then you must truly be willing to die to self, to every desire you may have that does not bring honor to His name, to quench your thirst of the things of this world with the living waters that he offers. I could offer you this verse in every single one of these letters and never tire of it, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)
The intent of our heart is to be to live for Christ, nothing should supersede that, nothing should stand in our way, everything should revolve around the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God. But we have enemies, and we are weak, the flesh, our adversary, the world, each and every day they rebuke us, stand against us, try to dissuade us from our main singular purpose.
Will you arrive in heaven with a smile on your face, or battle worn and bruised, prepared to rest?
Our adversary will never again be able to tempt us, our flesh, our old sinful nature will be removed, the world and all its sins and problems will no longer vex us. But I ask you this question, will you be able to see any visible change in yourself in that moment, will you be able to look at yourself and see a difference from who you are now?
You can answer that question today if you will be honest with yourself, if you will look inside and see with truth what honestly is the intent of your heart.
I would highly suggest you do that.
