Excerpt from Chapter 9 of new book in progress for publishing Lord-willing:
Chapter 1:
Our Lover, the King
The Conviction of Impurity
Default Sensuality
The Gospel’s Power
The Pearl: His Indwelling
The Spirit’s Purging of our Bodies
His Blessing of Life to our Mortal Bodies
The Heart of a Woman
Becoming What She Worships
Becoming What She Worships
Her Captured Heart
Chapter 2:
Eternal Beauty
True Beauty
Eternal Beauty
A Characteristic of Eternal Beauty: Spiritual Motherhood
Chapter 3:
The Resurrection Power over All Impurity
Regeneration
Personal Account of the Resurrection Power
Conquering Love
Chapter 4: The
Masquerade of Demonic Light
The Devil’s Masquerade
The Love of Pleasure
The First Fall
The Deathly Spark of Speculation
The Damning Result of Impurity
Chapter 5: The
Female Equivalent of Lust: Undue Responsivity
Responsivity
The Weapon of Complete Dependence
The Abomination that Causes Desolation
A Few Words on Modesty
Fear and Impurity
Chapter 6: Our
Purity in the Face of Man Souls
True Love and Understanding of the Souls of our Brothers
14 Secrets of the Soul of a Man of God
The Carnal Man’s Response to a Godly Woman
The Relationship between Fathers and Sons
Agape’s Facilitation of Respect
Chapter 7: the
Woman’s Obligation
Souls of Women in the Field of Yok
Priceless Authorities
Priceless Authorities
The Sisterly Obligation
Chapter 8: The
Restoration of the Virginity of the Heart
The Need for Restoration in PRISONERS OF HOPE
Restoration for His Glory
The Act of Divine Restoration
Restored to be His Servants
Expectations that Cause Despair
The Calamity that Overrides Fleshly Pleasure
Chapter 9: The
Affair of the Heart
The Affair of the Heart
The Heart of the Suitable Helper
The False Gospel of the “Affair of the Heart”
The Healing of Unfaithfulness through the Gospel
Chapter 10: Letters
from Two Brothers
Chapter 9: The Affair
of the Heart
The Affair of the
Heart
The affair of the
heart is the unfaithfulness of love, commitment, and honor towards ordinate
sources and the placing of one’s own forms of these affections onto another
inordinate source. The greatest example of this unfaithfulness is the turning
of the heart away from Christ towards the things of the world: people, false
religions, materialism, desire for honor, pleasure, etc. For example, the seeds
that fell on the rocky and thorny soils resulted in the death of the plants
through a final act of unfaithfulness to God in preference for earthly pleasures,
comfort, and security. This may happen momentary to true believers of Christ,
but will never last, for their hearts are secured in the eternal Covenant of
the good Shepherd, who will lovingly discipline and bring back His straying
sheep each time that they go astray. The other primary example of this
unfaithfulness, which results from a woman’s unfaithfulness or disbelief in
Christ, is the turning of her heart away from her husband or father and placing
it on someone or something else. Remember that women are always under a yoke,
even if it is the yoke of her own self.
In this chapter we will discuss the affair
of the heart that exists in a married woman. In the present culture, we often
see married woman lose their devotion to their husbands in preference for
another man causing great marital and family distress and ruin. There are deep
complex issues of the heart occurring in a woman who experiences this “affair of the heart”. There is a great
desire for intimacy and fellowship within human beings, so much so that our
heart would become cold with despair, anger, or hatred, were we to consider
ourselves unloved, unneeded, and unworthy.
The Heart of the
Suitable Helper
The woman who is pure in heart has
experienced the Spiritual life of Christ by eating of His body broken for her
and drinking of the living Water by which she will never grow thirsty again.
She seeks Christ for all of her spiritual, emotional, and physical needs.
Christ rewards her earnest seeking of Him by granting her abundant joy,
increasing comprehension of His unfailing love, and granting her the desires of
her heart for His righteousness and holiness. He sustains her during trials,
bandages her wounds when she pours out her heart, and delivers her out of each
trouble that she faces. The desire of her heart is only to know and obey her
Lord, and she knows that only Christ is able and willing to fulfill this desire
of hers.
The development of purity of her heart
changes her perspective towards her husband. For she no longer seeks to be
cherished and desired by him in an idolatrous desperate manner. She rather is
used by God to be a suitable helper, dwelling on fulfilling, as Christ enables
her, the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of her husband. Because Christ
has filled her heart, all she seeks to do concerning her husband is to please
him in a way that pleases Christ. Her purpose is to support his soul as he
pursues Christ. She seeks to eliminate every barrier in his way that hinders
his progression in his faith. The love that she has received from her heavenly
Father overflows from her towards her husband. And when her husband rebukes her
and speaks in such a way as guilt may be incurred in her, she seeks the
Spirit’s restoration and correction of her spirit. Her repentant, broken, and
contrite allows her to take no offense at his admonition, but to respect his
warning, because by it, her heavenly Father will train her to yield a peaceful
harvest of righteousness. Her freedom in Christ frees her from her carnal need
for her husband’s enrapturing of her. What a blessed helper she is to him,
selfless and strong, and yet gentle and quiet. She is like an ever-filled
fountain of righteous and holy peace for him.
The False Gospel of
the “Affair of the Heart”
In
the natural morally depraved state, humans are prone to dislike the people who
arouse the most guilt within them. The people who make others feel ashamed,
guilty, worthless, vile, carnal, and selfish are often the most hated. The
romantic period that often exists during courtship and early marriage is
characterized by an overwhelming emotional intimacy that puts a sheen of false
grace over both of the partner’s flaws. The ecstasy of the human emotion and
the sense of worth bestowed to both man and woman by the affection of the other
appeals to the desires of the flesh. Humans feel great pleasure in romantic
affairs, because the reciprocate affections from the partner give a temporary
form of elevated worth to the recipient. The adoration of the other provides the
feelings of significance and human glory. For
a time these feelings seem to resolve the guilty conscience that ever plagues
the hearts of men and woman. Carnal romance is
perhaps one of the strongest human passions because it temporarily appears to
dispel the unseen agony of the guilty conscience underlying the fear the death.
14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same,
that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the
devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their
lives. Heb 2
Carnal romance offers a counterfeit
gospel. The Gospel of our salvation exhibits the unconditional love and grace
of God that absolves our guilt and bestows upon us a mantle of righteousness
and light through Christ. The false gospel of romance offers a fleeting
conditional mirage of the absolving of guilt and a bestowing of human glory
onto both individuals. The spirit of carnal romance denies the work of Christ
and is a spirit of the antichrist (1 John 4:3). This spirit cannot save and its
deception results in condemnation, if the deceived individuals do not repent
and continue in the faith (Rom 8:13)
“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace. Jer 6:14
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace. Jer 6:14
During
the affair of the heart, each partner seeks for the other to fulfill his/her
deep emotional needs. Both partners are often tremendously needy, empty, and
unsatisfied in their hearts. The bestowment of value and cherishment from the
other partner is deemed as far surpassing in worth than whatever flaws exists
in the soul of this person. Each person’s heart subconsciously says, “You meet my deepest needs, and if there is
moral depravity in you, I cannot see it; I choose not to, for then I cannot use
you as I so please”.
Because you have said, “We
have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we have made a pact.
The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by,
For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.” Is 28:15
And with Sheol we have made a pact.
The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by,
For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.” Is 28:15
Broken marriages often arise following the romantic period due to the
trials and tribulations of life which bring to the forefront the worst
characteristics of both partners. The mysterious thrill of the romantic embrace
fades into the familiarity of day-to-day life. During trials, each partner may
start to openly or subtly accuse the other. And this is where the feelings of
intimacy start to fade [apart from Divine intervention]. For each partner no
longer overlooks the other’s faults. Each partner no longer eases the other’s
guilty conscience. Over time each partner may even elevate guilt bringing out
old and new guilt over the weaknesses of the flesh of the other. Both partners
attempt to cover up the guilt by accusing the other even more with anger and
arguments. Sometime one or both partners may ignore or avoid the other.
in that they show the
work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and
their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, Rom 2:15
Then, when either of the partners starts
to receive affirmation or affection from a third party, unless God intervenes,
they are fair game for yet another affair of the heart. Little do such people
know that the romance of the new affair would fade into the same gloom had they
been united in unfaithfulness to the first covenant. This is often the basis
for divorce-and-remarriage cycles. These cycles are characterized with
persistent and building guilt in the souls of the participants. They follow in
the footstep of Cain, a vagrant and restless wanderer on the earth (Gen 4:14).
For no partner could relieve the guilt of the heart. No partner could fill the
desires of the heart. No partner could fill the empty soul. No partner could
love unconditionally in spite of weaknesses. No partner could forgive the sin,
the essence of guilt. Consider what Jesus, the sinless Son
of Man, who needed nothing from men, but received His satisfaction from obeying
His Father, says:
24 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them,
for He knew all men, 25 and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. John 2
The Healing of
Unfaithfulness through the Gospel
Dear saint, you are probably realizing that yet again, the Gospel of our
salvation is the only healing balm for the seat of the unfaithful heart. God
will heal our apostasy, love us freely, and His anger will turn away from us as
we are under the new Covenant (Heb 14:4). He calls us to return, though
we have been faithless. He will heal our faithfulness. Let us come to Him for
He is the Lord our God. (Jer 3:22) Then marriage will be held in honor among
all of us, and the marriage bed will be undefiled. We know that fornicators and
adulterers will be judged by our Lord. (Heb 13:4)
When a man and woman are married, they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Whatever God has joined together should not be separated by men. Because of the
hardness of the hearts of the Israelites, God allowed the husband to give the
wife a certificate of divorce and send her away. But from the beginning God’s
command was that of the true unconditional love that remains steady, constant,
faithful, forgiving, and refining towards the recipient. (Matt 19:6-8) Marriage
was instituted by God to display the faithfulness of Christ towards His bride:
His church, the united people of God from all time. Christ washes her with the water
of His Word. He purifies His bride so that she is spotless and clean, prepared
for Christ (Rev 21:2). He grants her His righteous robe as her fine linen
garment (Rev 19:8). The church is progressively sanctified such that she fears,
honors, obeys, and respects her husband, Christ.
“How long will you go here and there,
O faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—
A woman will encompass a man.” Jer 31:22
When God unites His son and daughter in
marriage, His purpose is to utilize their union to conform each of them into
the image of Christ so that their character is refined and the glory of the
Gospel is revealed to the world. The cause of marital strain is always the sins
of the flesh of either, or in most cases both, partners. This strain has no
remedy apart from the work of the cross. For any peace or true and lasting
reconciliation of mind and heart between them to occur, each of them must put
to death the misdeeds of the flesh (Rom 8:13). Something has to die in both of
them. And in the process of that death to self, they are able to live anew with
Christ (Gal 2:20). In fact, the only manner in which a marriage can be healed,
preserved, and flourished is the work of the Spirit through the Message of the
Gospel. Sometimes unbelieving couples appear to have a form of harmony and
mutual affection, yet it is not unconditional, and it lacks the true and deep
emotions of humility, grace, and agape. Such God-less relationships are
somewhat like a business or earthly compatibility partnership. In a Christian
marriage, Christ must be sought and found by both partners for the marriage to
succeed and bear fruit. Thus, the refinement of both hearts from weaknesses,
inordinate strongholds, and pride is inevitable in the union of two true
believers who are being progressively sanctified. This ever-deepening of
holiness in the face of imminent needs for self-examination, forgiveness, and
Christ-likeness reveal the glory of the transforming work of the cross and the
faithfulness and love of Christ towards His own. Indeed, through love and
faithfulness, sin is atoned for (Prov 16:6)!
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that
the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 2 Cor 4:10
If there is nothing else that you remember from this book, dear saint,
remember the Gospel of our salvation. For this salvation, when understood and
believed in its entirety, will result in the conquering of every sin, the full
comprehension of His grace, the fullness of joy, and the satisfaction of the
soul in His love. May our Lord and Savior be glorified and praised by the Word
of our Testimony as He and we receive the reward of the Lamb’s blood. Seek Him
with all of your heart, dear saint!
Priya Philip Thank
you Preethi. I am thankful for the words of truth that you intend to
proclaim in your book. You have a gift a very special gift. God Bless
you as you bless adults and children with words that God gives you to
speak and write.
Preethi Moses Mercy David Dear
Priya, Thank you for encouraging me. We praise God for your example of
faithfulness! May God bless your family with great joy in His Presence.
Love in Christ, Preethi
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