The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts. Provers 17:3.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
I test hearts. I do not only look at outer appearance but rather I look into your heart. For that is the real you.
God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7.
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? 1 Corinthians 2:11.
Your spirit is My lamp that I light and search through all the innermost parts of your being. Proverbs 20:27.
How do I test your heart? If you are faithful in little things you can be trusted with greater.
He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. Luke 16:10-15.
I know your hearts. I know everything about you inside and out. I know you thoughts and I know the word you are going to say before you say it. I understand how you work and how you run at the optimum, which is My Will for all.
Beloved, I desire that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth. 3 John 1:2-4.
Jesus told you to be on guard so that your hearts will not be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life so that the day of His return does not find you unfaithful and unfruitful—just cluttering up the ground with the seed of My Word in your heart choked off by thorns.
And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Mark 4:18-19.
For that day will come for all who dwell upon the earth. And what you have done in your body in this window of time will be evaluated by the purifying fire of love, but it is primarily a test of what was in your heart. If all there is from your life is wood, hay and stubble it will burn up and if there is no gold or silver under there you will have lost your reward. Remember, I look at the thoughts and intentions of the heart to see who you are, and if there is no love there, it does not matter how great it appears to men, it means nothing in the Kingdom. Because everything there is love—born in love and done in love.
If you consider the first parable My Son told upon the earth as He tabernacled among you as one like you, it is a parable about the testing of hearts. Each type of soil is someone’s heart and the harvest is the fruit of that life as directed by the heart. The condition of the heart upon which My Word is sown is represented by different types of soil. But it is all about what you do with My Word that is sown in your heart. It is a test of the heart by what you do with My Word.
It is My Word that tests you.
He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself was laid in irons; until the time that his word came to pass, the Word of the LORD tested him. Psalm 105:17-19.
Joseph held fast to the visions I had given him in his dreams. They had no written Word then, only the spoken Word that I had entrusted to Abraham and his descendants creating a family of faith in the midst of an unbelieving world lost in darkness.
I have entrusted you with talents, unique gifts of My grace, steward them rightly in the little things and then I can bigger things.
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 Peter 4:10.
Joseph used his talents to be excellent as a slave in one man’s household, as a prisoner jailed for what he had not done, and finally, because of his faithfulness to Me, to running a nation, the greatest empire of that day, and feeding all the surrounding countries in time of famine. He let Me work through him unhindered to bless the world and preserve the line of the Messiah through a time of intense famine. And Joseph, even in a place of immense worldly power and influence, remained humble, knowing that his wisdom was from Me.
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it; and I have heard it said about you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” Genesis 41:15-16.
Your heart is where the issues of life are settled in you. Guard your heart above all else and do not let idle useless clutter into your heart to take space away from My Spirit’s guidance and direction within you. The Holy Spirit guides you to all truth and brings to your remembrance all that I have said. He teaches you everything and everything is in My Word. You cannot serve two masters for it is only My Word that sanctifies you and keeps you rooted and grounded in the truth that sets you free, and that truth is love. And if you love Me you keep My Word and then I can keep you and make My abode with you.
The plum line by which your heart is tested is My Word. Do the thoughts of your heart and the words of your mouth witness with My Word? Or are they contrary to My Word? Then they are of the devil’s words, which are always lies, for he is a liar and the father of lies, that was what caused Adam to fall from grace and bring sin into the world. And the wages of sin is death. The one you love is determined by whose word you keep. If you say you love Me but walk in the darkness of sin your words are not true.
True love is totally committed to Me and faithful to My Word. I am looking for hearts that are tender to Me, not stone cold hearts in which there is no repentance or faith.
Consider the king Josiah. Josiah was only eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He did right in My sight, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek Me, the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten image. He then began to repair the temple which the people of Israel and Judah had let fall into disrepair and had filled it with idols. In having the temple cleaned and repaired, Hilkiah the priest (Jeremiah’s father) found My book of the law by Moses. Hilkiah responded and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. Then Shaphan brought the book to king and read from it in the presence of the king.
When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, “Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book which has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD which is poured out on us because our fathers have not observed the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book.”
So Hilkiah and those whom the king had told went to Huldah the prophetess and they spoke to her regarding this. She said to them, “To the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus you will say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel regarding the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the LORD. Behold, I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, so your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place and on its inhabitants.” 2 Chronicles 34:27-28.
And all of you whose hearts are tender to Me, who love and keep My Word as your delight, who weep over those who do not understand the benefits of walking in My Word with Me and are on the wide path of uncontrolled lusts to hell unawares of the danger they are walking in, I will do the same and more for you than I did for Josiah. I will take you out and catch you up in the air with Me before the wrath of judgment falls on those who have destroyed My earth and My people and rejected My grace and forgiveness that is there for them in Christ, My Word made flesh who died for your sins and rose for your justification. I give grace to the humble and mercy to those of tender hearts.
I love you forever. I will never leave you or forsake you. But I do test hearts. Examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. Be careful who you let into your heart. Judas gave his heart to Satan and Satan destroyed him. Peter gave his heart to Me and I lifted him up and restored him. Can I entrust My heart to your heart?
Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. John 2:23-25.