Mensa Otabil - The Believing Heart
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Today we talk about the believing heart. Romans chapter 10, verse 10: «For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.» We receive all of God’s blessings by believing in His promises. When we say that we believe in something, it means that we’ve accepted it to be true, accurate, and trustworthy; we can put our confidence in it. So when we say that we believe the Word of God, that is what it means: the Word of God is real to us. We believe, we accept it as true, and we have placed our confidence in it.
Though the Bible was written thousands of years ago, time has not diminished the power of its promises. Some promises made in the Bible took thousands of years to be fulfilled. So if God says, «I am the Lord your healer,» He might have said it 3,000 years ago, but that word has not diminished in power. If we accept it as real and accurate and put our confidence in it, then we have believed what God has said, and that is when the Word of God becomes active in our lives. The Bible says, «With the heart man believes.» The part of us that believes is our heart, not our head or intellect. There is the inner being, the core of our being, that settles a matter. The head debates a matter; the heart settles it. That’s why sometimes, in life, you can have something that is settled inside you, but your mind is still debating the pros and cons of it. The heart believes and settles it, but the mind will continue to debate whether it is so or not.
The believing heart is the heart that is able to see possibility in the realm of God. When we say a person believes, they have moved from argument and uncertainty to being settled in possibility because God is a God of possibility, and He says, «All things are possible to him who believes.» Once you settle in your heart that God will favor you, that becomes a possibility in your life. Once you settle in your heart that God is your healer, it becomes a possibility in your life. Once you settle in your heart that God is able to prosper you, it becomes settled and possible.
So with the heart, we settle a matter. That is why, when we accept God’s Word in our lives and say to ourselves, «Yes, this was written 3,000 years ago, but He is the same yesterday, today, and forever,» we hold on to this word. Faith comes into our hearts, and with that faith, the Bible says we begin to speak. There are things we must settle in our hearts. We must settle in our hearts that God loves us; it must be settled, it is a settled fact. We must settle in our hearts that God hears when we pray. Your prayer is not just speaking into the air; God hears when you pray. You must settle in your heart that the name of Jesus Christ is above every name. So when we say, «In the name of Jesus,» we are deploying the awesome power of God in our situation.
We must settle in our hearts that God wants us to do well; He wants us to prosper. We don’t argue about these things; we settle them. When we settle these in our hearts, we can say that we have believed with our heart, and then we begin to say it. When we believe in our heart, we must confess it; we must declare it. What you say must agree with what you have settled in your heart. May the Lord help you to believe and settle in your heart that His promises for you are yes and amen, that He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or think, according to the power of Christ residing in you.
Let us pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, with my heart I accept that Your promises are real. I believe in my heart and boldly declare that all things are possible in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.» Well, I’ll be with you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life.