Worship: The Heart Path
“Blessed are those…” “…whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.”
Psalm 84:5 (Amplified, The Voice Bibles)
I did not just give you truths, a teaching, I gave you My heart.
Questions
As I walked along the edge of the shore one early summer’s day I was four months into a Sabbatical season to which the Lord had called me. The Sabbatical was another “off the beaten path” adventure with Him and one in which He was revealing more clearly the nature of the path of the life of worship. As I leisurely strolled something indistinct caught my eye. I reached down and to my surprise and delight, pulled from the sand a small heart shaped shell. Turning it around in my fingers I wondered to myself: “Can I put a little hole in it to wear around my neck…?” when the sand slipped away revealing a perfect little round perforation. Remarkable God!
Inspired further I thought: “I could put a tiny chain in the little hole” but as soon as the thought formed, the Holy Spirit said simply “Cord.” I was reminded:” …A threefold cord is not quickly broken”. Likewise a chain could represent bondage. Instead, Jesus said “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good - not harsh, hard, sharp or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.” I would later come to understand that a threefold cord was itself symbolic of the three views of Jesus’ heart within. [Ecclesiastes 4:12; Matthew 11:29-30]
How many years had it taken God to create that shell, cause it to be alive on the ocean floor, die at some point and be broken up by the pounding surf precisely in the shape of a heart complete with little round cord hole for just this precise time and purpose? God was speaking! Awesome God!
Some weeks later while back home and in the midst of very ordinary daily activities, I was reflecting on the three views of the path. God had called me to the path of life in His presence, named me His worshiper, and identified my newborn nature as “instinctively” inclined to the Father through the life of Jesus in me. He was bringing to light one relational path consisting of three distinct yet simultaneous views of the heart. These were vistas of the path from the Father’s vantage point; views of intimacy, surrender and humility.
My reflection was a moment of inner meditation. I pondered the three views in my heart, slowly, silently naming them: intimacy; surrender; humility. I repeated again: intimacy, surrender, humility. There followed an inner pause over something stirring deep within:
Intimacy, surrender, humility…intimacy, surrender, humility…
And then the revelation* came. It came not as a thought though, but as a Person. It was Jesus! There He was! I was seeing Jesus! I was viewing His heart, the heart of JESUS. I have never seen Him more clearly {*Definition of revelation at “How to Read the Path…., Footnote 2, p12}
There He was: His nature, His character, His temperament! In the views of intimacy that secures abiding, surrender that assures overcoming and humility that insures enduring, the Holy Spirit revealed the heart of Jesus. He is the inner man! He is the Worshiper within. He is the nature within that reverences and adores the Father devotedly. Jesus is the “hidden person of the heart”, the living path within me! His heart is the pathway to Zion and the kingdom within! [I Peter 3:4]
Called off the beaten path He was fulfilling His promise to me to see from His perspective. In God to see is to experience. I was experiencing the heart of JESUS. The three views reveal the heart relationship Jesus had with His Father. This is the new nature from the new heart that Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, gives when He gives Himself. This is now my heart and my heart relationship with the Father! Flesh and blood had not revealed this; it was unveiled and imparted by the Father who is in heaven. [Matthew 16:17]
Sometime later, as I was reflecting on the little heart shaped shell that was now complemented with a tiny cord, the Holy Spirit spoke again about the path of the life of worship and illuminated the prophetic significance of the shell. He said intimately:
“I didn’t just give you truths, a teaching, I gave you My heart.”
He has given Jesus. He has given His person, His heart.
This written treasury is His heart extended to you today.