Remove All Idols from Your Heart

Assignments to be completed

• Prayerfully read Chapter 5 of 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice.
• Watch Session 5 of the teaching, following along and taking notes in your LEARN notebook.
• Answer the exercise questions for Lesson 5 found in the Quiz section of the Kairos portal.
• Memorize John 7:37b-39a.

Subjects to be explored

• Remove All Idols from Your Heart

Related objectives

• You will quote John 7:37b-39a.

  “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive….

• You will define “praying with an idol in your heart” and give an illustration of doing so.
• You will discuss what it means to pray in the Spirit

• Anything bigger than Jesus in the eyes of your heart, that’s an idol
  • Look to see what Jesus is doing and imitate
  • Ask God to form the attitude of selling out to God’s will concerning the issue
• “Definite direction” interferes with signals coming from God
• Vision of the Lord should be prominent in consciousness rather than vision of the issue
  • Answer will not be contaminated by desires
• Principle of Pure Focus

  The intuitive flow comes out of the vision I am holding before the eyes of my heart

• Balaam (Num 22:22)
  • God gave him clear “no” answer but his heart did not agree
  • He sought again to have an answer that agrees with his desires, the Lord granted him that, then became angry with him
  • We may get an affirmation from the Lord but it brings destruction
• Pray with purified vision
  • Jesus must be larger than the object

• Test: “When I wrote this, where my eyes fixed on Jesus?”

• The Principle:

  The intuitive flow comes out of the vision being held before one’s eyes.

  • Example: Balaam (Numbers 22:15-35)

1. Living water

   1. Write out John 7:37b-39a.

      “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, and as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive…

   2. Journal about this verse. Ask the Lord what He wants to say to you specifically about coming to Him.

      The Lord asks those thirsty to quench their thirst not by drinking but by receiving the wellspring of life within them through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

2. Idols of the heart

   1. In your own words, discuss the teaching concerning praying with an idol in your heart.

      Praying with idols in your heart means you hold the object of your desire so large that it obscures Jesus, and you're no longer able to see God's will.

   2. In light of this teaching, can you identify an occasion when you prayed with an idol in your heart? Talk about it. How would the Lord have had you pray instead?

      When the emotional pain is so great that my mind and spirit are ravaged by its anguish, I want God to remove it. My prayer becomes focused on the easing of the affliction. Instead, I should focus on the presence of Jesus and become transfixed on the Lord to the extent that I'm completely desensitized to pain.

   3. Journal about praying with an idol in your heart. Ask the Lord if there is anything you are currently praying about concerning which you have not totally let go of your own desires and submitted completely to His will.

      Lord, search me and know my heart; try me and know my mind; I submit all my human tendencies to You. Lead me in the way of Your righteousness.

3. Pray in the Spirit

   1. Discuss what it means to pray in the Spirit according to Virkler.

      According to Virkler, the Holy Spirit should inspire, guide, energize, and sustain our prayers. It means to pray with the spirit in tongues and mind. Tuned to flow and allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through us.

   2. Journal, asking the Lord what that means to you personally. How does He want you to pray at all times in the Spirit?

      Come, reason with me. Come to me by faith in the death and resurrection of my Son. You have access to me because you have a High Priest who loves and advocates for you before me. Come to me with all your imperfections and weakness; come with all your confusion and distress; lay them all before me, and I will turn your ashes into beauty; your mourning will turn to joy. My Son has made way for you, come as you are, and I'll lay my hand upon you.