Only God Can Change A Heart

[Starise]

After it's all said and done, only God can change a heart. This can only happen if the person is receptive.

No amount of intelligent reasoning will change a heart the Lord hasn't opened.

The Lord often seems to work on some people in stages. He brings us to a place that is closer to Him but not quite there. This interim time can be years.

The god some people reference coming to some other way besides Jesus isn't YHWH.

YHWH only offered one solution to come to Him.

[grahampaul]

Receptive to sound maybe. "benold, i stand at the door and knock"that would take some reasoning to understand,  previous knowledge maybe . this is one thing forsure  "No man comith to the farther but by me".

 

 

 

[Sower]

2 hours ago, Starise said:

After it's all said and done, only God can change a heart.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"   Jeremiah 17:9

"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."  Psalm 51:10

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."   Ezekiel 36:26

"The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will."   Proverbs 21:1

[Michael37]

2 hours ago, Starise said:

After it's all said and done, only God can change a heart. This can only happen if the person is receptive.

No amount of intelligent reasoning will change a heart the Lord hasn't opened.

The Lord often seems to work on some people in stages. He brings us to a place that is closer to Him but not quite there. This interim time can be years.

The god some people reference coming to some other way besides Jesus isn't YHWH.

YHWH only offered one solution to come to Him.

All good, Starise.

I am put in mind of these verses:

Mat 9:9-13  As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, “Follow me.” He got up and followed him.  (10)  As he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.  (11)  When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  (12)  When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.  (13)  But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Key Point: Without being called to repentance by Jesus none will repent and follow Him.

[Starise]

9 hours ago, Rosie1jack2pauline3 said:

Only God can change a heart, this can only happen if the person is receptive?

Sorry, that doesn’t make sense to me, in one hand you say only God can change a heart, you then go on to say ,this can only happen if the person is receptive?

How does that person/ believer become receptive?..I would imagine only God could open the mind  of a believer to become receptive?

What does only God can change a heart mean even?.. he certainly knows our hearts...

Is there scripture that says this? 

I agree there is only one way to the Father, which is through JESUS, he is the only way to the truth.

The Father draws us to the Son, Jesus.

 

No amount of intelligent reasoning will change a heart that the Lord hasn’t opened?

Do you have scripture to discredit the statement? See Sower's references.They are some of the same ones I would have given.

I was saved very young, but even as a believer in my teen years I was averse to open displays of Christianity. What would my buds think if I went all Jesus on them?

My inner man was still bucking the spiritual man inside of me. Something inside wasn't meshing. Something was making me uncomfortable about all of it.

On one hand I knew Jesus was the way. He had saved me at my request.On the other hand, there was still much inside of me that needed work. At the time I liked the idea of a secret Jesus. I didn't necessarily have to tell anyone on the outside about Him.

Even today I'm not a forward personality. The difference is I am not ashamed of what the Lord has done for me. I might have difficulty explaining it to someone I already am pretty sure will reject it. I am not a salesman. I don't SELL Jesus. Jesus works on us to make us receptive. Even if that amount of receptivity is very small in the beginning.

[Alive]

10 hours ago, Starise said:

After it's all said and done, only God can change a heart. This can only happen if the person is receptive.

No amount of intelligent reasoning will change a heart the Lord hasn't opened.

The Lord often seems to work on some people in stages. He brings us to a place that is closer to Him but not quite there. This interim time can be years.

The god some people reference coming to some other way besides Jesus isn't YHWH.

YHWH only offered one solution to come to Him.

Do you mean to refer to those already in Christ of the Father. Is this the context of the OP?

[Not me]

53 minutes ago, Starise said:

Do you have scripture to discredit the statement? See Sower's references.They are some of the same ones I would have given.

I was saved very young, but even as a believer in my teen years I was averse to open displays of Christianity. What would my buds think if I went all Jesus on them?

My inner man was still bucking the spiritual man inside of me. Something inside wasn't meshing. Something was making me uncomfortable about all of it.

On one hand I knew Jesus was the way. He had saved me at my request.On the other hand, there was still much inside of me that needed work. At the time I liked the idea of a secret Jesus. I didn't necessarily have to tell anyone on the outside about Him.

Even today I'm not a forward personality. The difference is I am not ashamed of what the Lord has done for me. I might have difficulty explaining it to someone I already am pretty sure will reject it. I am not a salesman. I don't SELL Jesus. Jesus works on us to make us receptive. Even if that amount of receptivity is very small in the beginning.

Blessings, this is quite excellent, be blessed in continuing to allow God to work in you and reveal Himself to you…     A blessing of a testimony…

A fellow believer, Not me 

 

[Heleadethme]

11 hours ago, Starise said:

After it's all said and done, only God can change a heart. This can only happen if the person is receptive.

No amount of intelligent reasoning will change a heart the Lord hasn't opened.

The Lord often seems to work on some people in stages. He brings us to a place that is closer to Him but not quite there. This interim time can be years.

The god some people reference coming to some other way besides Jesus isn't YHWH.

YHWH only offered one solution to come to Him.

Not everyone has the gift of evangelism.  But we can all witness and testify of what Jesus has done in our lives....and witnessing has power, even though it may take time for it's fruit to be seen.  "On the strength of two or three witnesses let every truth be established."

God prepares the soil of the heart....He sends in plowmen to prepare the soil before the reaper comes and reaps what others have worked hard for.   Hearing someone witness can be part of that plowing process, as can praying for souls, helping people out in a jam, etc.  As we've heard the parable of the sower, it's best for the seed to fall on good soil.

[Heleadethme]

2 hours ago, Rosie1jack2pauline3 said:

To submit to his will?..to be obedient?...to be receptive for him to soften our heart more?

After all we now have a heart of flesh and a new spirit within us don’t we?

What comes to mind is that God is the Potter, we are the clay.  I think because we are foreknown by Him and elect according to His foreknowledge, He began working on us lumps of clay before we even knew it, and before we knew Him.  I was unmarried and pregnant at the age of 20 and later I realized that becoming an unwed mother helped prepare and humble me for the gospel...it wasn't how I thought my life would end up.  And I heard at least two witnesses of two different people in my life during that time before the Lord called me.  Then I got saved...I received a heart of flesh, yet, still not perfect by any means and had a lot to learn, and still do.  There seems to be a kind of dichotomy with these things....we've received a heart of flesh yet, still it needs more softening....we are the righteousness of Christ, yet still we are seeking more of His righteousness....His laws were engraved on our heart, yet still His word is in process of being written on our hearts....we have all entered His rest through faith, yet still are in process of enterING that land of promise little by little and overcoming little by little.

So after being saved....He still was and is working on this lump of clay...through what chastisements and the suffering that He has allowed in this life.   What does a potter do with a lump of clay to soften it....he adds water (of the word) to it, and whacks it, throws it down hard on the table, thumps it and kneads the heck out of it, lol, ouch, in order to work the water into every molecule of that clay.   I know that what changes have occurred in my heart and what understanding of the word has been engraved on my heart thus far is due in large part to all that thumping and kneading to make me more soft and yielding....the painful part of being engraved upon, ouf.  For our spiritual good...He chastises who He loves as sons...and we are all different, different parts of the Body to start with, like many different kinds of flowers in His garden, as well as that we all have different areas that need perfecting.

[Starise]

13 hours ago, Michael37 said:

All good, Starise.

I am put in mind of these verses:

Mat 9:9-13  As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, “Follow me.” He got up and followed him.  (10)  As he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.  (11)  When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  (12)  When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.  (13)  But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Key Point: Without being called to repentance by Jesus none will repent and follow Him.

Lots of info to garner here from these scriptures. Thanks for sharing this Michael.

When I read this, one of the things I come away with is the idea that Jesus's critics got it all wrong. I try to put myself in that setting or a similar one, maybe translated to a more modern day backdrop. I'm in NYC and I see this person everyone is talking about sitting in the park surrounded by drug addicts, pimps, prostitutes, crooked lawyers and tax men eating and carrying on conversations with Him. If I knew Jesus was supposed to be above reproach and claimed to be the Son of God, what would I think? 

Often I am of the opinion most people who wear sin on their shoulder with no apparent remorse or guilt have all gone to the 'dark side'. They are past redemption because they refused redemption. If they truly knew who Jesus was and STILL chose to talk with Him, then maybe, just maybe they are still looking, still searching, they hope to find the true meaning of life.

Those committed to sin and a life without God would not be interested in Jesus if they knew who He was. So why were they there with Jesus? Was He merely a novelty that would wear off? Jesus didn't seem to think so. He had a real purpose for being there.

Those standing in judgement of the situation had written these people off as too far gone. Those standing in judgement of Jesus must have seen themselves as morally superior. In their eyes they weren't these filthy sinners. As long as a man has breath he is never too far gone.