After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. Mark 3:5.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Hardened hearts of unbelief limit what I can do for you. I desire that in every area of your life you prosper and are in good health even as your soul prospers by walking in the truth. I know the plans I have for you, plans for your shalom (nothing missing, nothing broken and no one alone) (wholeness in every area of your life—physical, spiritual, emotional, financial, and relational, the whole pie of life) and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.
“He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:7-8.
This may surprise you but the top of the list of those who do not enter the eternal Kingdom are the cowardly and unbelieving. But it really should not surprise you, for it was fear and unbelief that kept the Israelites who I redeemed from slavery in Egypt to the glorious freedom of the children of God with outstretched arm and the blood of the Passover lamb from entering their promised land flowing with milk and honey.
A hardened heart of unbelief can ruin your life. Hard hearts are rebellious and proud but at the same time they are cowards and they resist all the good things I have planned for them. They will not go forward in faith. They sit in the darkness and then complain how dark it is but make no effort to come into the light. In fact, they avoid the light. And they blame Me who is light for the darkness in their lives.
Think about the Israelites I redeemed out of the slavery of Egypt to take into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised by Covenant oath with Abraham to give to his descendants because of his faith in Me. I brought them out of Egypt with such glory, I did the impossible for them. I brought them out healed, rich, and free. I parted the Red Sea for them in one of the greatest battle strategies there has ever been by devastating an entire army bent on capturing and killing My people without My people having to fight or have any weapons.
I came down on Mt. Sinai before all the people and let them hear My voice. I led them with a pillar of cloud by day and kept them safe and warm at night with the fire in the cloud of My glory which hovered over the Holy of Holies in My Tabernacle with them. I lived in the midst of them, fed them each day with Manna from Heaven, gave them water from the flinty rocks, and journeyed with them to the Promised Land. I walked with them and answered everything they asked. But after all that, they ended up refusing to go into the land I had so joyfully and carefully prospered and prepared for them.
Why? They hardened their hearts to Me. They complained, grumbled, continually cried out in fear, got jealous of Moses and Aaron and tried to overthrow them and take over, and tested My goodness constantly from the day I parted the Red Sea to the day that we arrived at the border of the Promised Land. They also had so many complaints and violations against one another that they lined up trying to get judgments against one another all day so that Moses had to get help in judging all their claims and set up lower and higher courts. And you have continued that to this day.
What caused one of the biggest fiascos in history that the very people who should have known Me, that I held so close to Me, failed to enter the beautiful life I had prepared for them in advance? Why did they not walk in awe and wonder at My mighty works on their behalf as they had the privilege of living the plans I had revealed to Abraham with such delight centuries before it was all prepared in perfection for them to take?
They were ungrateful and though they had seen My Works they never learned My ways. My ways are lovingkindness and truth. Every time something appeared challenging to their ease and comfort they cried out against Moses and Me and said they wished they had never left the slavery of Egypt and they wanted to appoint a new leader and return there. And yet in Egypt under the yoke of slavery they had cried out to Me to deliver them. But when I did, they wanted to return to the misery of slavery because at least they felt they would be looked after and have their fleshpots to eat from.
When they cried out all night against Me after ten of the twelve spies who had scouted out the Promised Land returned with a report that caused them to fear the inhabitants in the land, this was unfounded. I had told them there were fierce men, even giants, in the land but that I had sent an angel to go before them to be with them to clear out all that opposed them. They forgot all about what happened to the Egyptian army that I had covered with the Red Sea when the Egyptians tried to destroy them by taking them back into slavery a second time. They refused to go forward in faith, instead of trusting Me after all I had done for them, they spoke against My goodness saying I had brought them there to destroy them and that they would rather go back to die in the desert or in Egypt then go into the beautiful land I had promised them.
They had no trust in My promises to them, sworn by Covenant oath. They had no faith for a good outcome.
I told Moses they had spurned Me. They tested Me through they had seen My works and heard My Words. They had no gratitude, no love, and, though they were fearful, they had no fear of Me.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I do not want you to limit what I can and want to do for you and with you, the great plans I have for your shalom, to give you an awesome future filled with genuine hope that does not disappoint. I do not want you to block your healing, your blessing, your beautiful life so that your life also is one of the biggest fiascos in history. The way of the hardened heart of unbelief—the proud, the scoffer, the doubter, the blamer, the rebellious, the immoral, the coward—is the wide road that so many travel on that leads nowhere but destruction. Over two million people saved out of slavery in Egypt went that path while only two, Joshua and Caleb, chose the narrow path that leads to life. The path of the believer—the humble, fearless, loving, grateful, trusting believer who is constantly rejoicing in My goodness, provision and love, and, yes, in My forgiveness as well.
Moses understood My goodness and lovingkindness and he interceded for the people who had spurned Me. They had tested Me, attributing evil plans to Me to harm them when they had no basis for that. And I did forgive and care for them so that they walked well provided for in the barren wilderness with good things each day and My presence there for them as I held them close to Me and protected them, but they wandered with no purpose and never achieved the level of prosperity, peace, and joy I had for them. They grieved Me. They limited Me and they were not fruitful. They continued in their complaining, grumbling, bitter ways until they died in the desert just as they had spoken in My hearing. They became the prophets of their own lives to die in the wilderness without entering their destiny. They did not get My plan for them but their own. Be careful about that when you speak the evil you do not want when the good is there for you to take all the time. It is all in the hand of your tongue. Death and life are in the power of your tongue and you see this clearly in the incident with their refusal to go into the Promised Land. What they spoke in My hearing they received. They had set it all in motion by their fearful words which is perverted faith and works against you instead of for you.
I swore that they would never enter My rest. Why could I swear that? Because I knew that a hardened heart will never follow Me, they are rebellious hearts, full of fear and unbelief, and never will be at rest. There is no peace for the cowards and unbelievers. They always have something that is agitating them.
Faith honors Me. And I can honor those who honor Me because they will receive it.
Faith is a wonderful thing, it turns your life around, it fills your days with beauty and takes away your frown. It turns you into a prophet, telling the good news, that I am here among you, making all things new.
What is the cure for a hardened heart? A grateful heart. How do you regard your life? Are you a complainer? Or are you awestruck by the wonderous gift of life that I have chosen to give YOU? And it is forever. I want to walk with you always and care for you forever. Do not spurn so great a salvation. Let the glory in.
I love you. Do not be fearful to go forward in faith with joy. You do not have to know everything before you head in the right direction. Just keep walking with Me all the way into your Promised Land, do not draw back in unbelief and ruin your life with your own hands, the hand of your tongue.
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Hebrews 10:35-39.