For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. Titus 2:11-12.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
The solution to a hardened heart is grace—grace on top of grace. The law was written on tablets of stone but grace is a living Person named Jesus Christ and here I speak of a mystery: Christ in you, your hope of glory. Glory is My immense power exercised in love that produces good and eradicates all evil. Grace and glory I bestow in Christ. Grace is My divine life in you and glory is Heaven planted in you.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11.
What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’ Zechariah 4:7.
You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3.
Hard hearts become soft pliant hearts with grace poured in. Grace takes out the attraction to sin for My life is so very much more exciting within you.
Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:13-14.
Grace gives you the ability to hear from Me for it is My divine life in you. I ask you to pray for government leaders: “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” 1 Timothy 2:1-2, and now I want to tell you what it is most important to pray for them. Pray for the same thing Solomon prayed for to be able govern his nation wisely: pray for them to have hearts that hear Me, hearing, not hardened, hearts. Pray that all those in authority over others have hearts that hear and stay open to Me always. The heart of the king can flow in My hands but it will only flow without the exercise of force against that ruler on My part, as happened with Pharaoh when he refused to let My people go, if they will hear. Pray that the leaders hear Me and feed My sheep with My Word—take up the Sword of the Spirit in pray and petition and Spirit led prayers and do not let them indoctrinate people with false doctrine and make those subject to their authority a devil worse than themselves.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one convert; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” Matthew 23:15.
Jesus described a hard heart as being like a swine’s heart, it tramples pearls underfoot and spits them out because they are not peas or onions, and like a dog’s heart that tears the one trying to heal it to shreds.
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:6
In all of this dark and corruptible world the safest place is grace.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2.
I give grace to the humble. Submit to My mighty hand, for I am your Father and in My hand you are like clay with the potter. Clay is soft and pliable, easy to mold. Stone must be chiseled. An open humble heart is like clay in My hands, as I mold you anew as a new creation in Christ.
You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth (Adamah (אֲדָמָה)). Psalm 104:30.
You are Spirit molded, Spirit enfolded, Spirit breathed, when the Holy Spirit is received. Baptized in the Holy Spirit.
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:21-22.
Remember Ezekiel and the vision of the dead dry bones? He prophesied to the bones and called in My Spirit and new life was given and they became living bones covered with living flesh and the spirit came to make them alive from the grave.
I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it,” declares the LORD.’” Ezekiel 37:14.
When the leaders hearts are alive, their nations will thrive. If their hearts are stony and dead, the sheep are not fed. Violence will reign and the leaders are to blame. Sheep with no shepherd are never protected. They wander alone with no place to call home.
Feed My sheep with My Word and all will be well. Where there is no Word, life becomes hell. You know this is true because it all begins in you. If you harden your heart you will never have the best part.
Where the leader’s heart is hard, there is no grace for anyone in that place. Think of Herod, so cruel and corrupt, all walked in fear under his reign. There was no grace for anyone from him, so no one was safe. He killed all those who got in his way. The same was true of the Pharisees, priests, and scribes, the one in their way did not remain alive. They put Jesus to death and His followers too. And nothing could stop them, until like Paul, they were born anew.
It all comes back to a hardened heart, no one is safe around such a one for there is no repentance, no softness, no grace. But I am gracious, humble and gentle of heart, I stoop to make you great, and if you will humble your heart to open it wide, I can come in, cleanse you of sin, and seat you with Christ in Heaven at My side. And that is the place you want to be, but a hardened heart will not come. It will resist Me and I in turn will resist them.
A hard heart is the source of all sin. A hard heart lets the devil in. It is a stronghold for evil, for evil spirits, unclean birds.
And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” Revelation 18:2-3.
But a born again heart is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. Be aware of My presence in you and with you, that is Covenant, My Covenant with you, and your heart will not harden but will soften in the tender embrace of My grace.
I love you. Pray for the leaders that they may have hearing hearts. Pray that I raise up leaders after My own heart like the early and the later rain. A time of refreshment.
“And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. Acts 3:17-21.