Head to Heart

The difference between reading and knowing, to believing and living it out, is through the heart.

Head knowledge is mostly facts I have taken in and can draw from or recall.  When that knowledge roots itself in my heart it brings out a life change.  It produces. I not only know it, I believe it. It becomes a part of me; active and bearing something.  There is something to show for what you know.  It is part of your belief and being.  It becomes part of your life.

There are many challenges, endless challenges that I am met with in this faith-walk.  The challenges grow me.  They often take my knowing into believing.  That kind of inspiration can only be by the Spirit of the LORD. 

The word inspiration in Latin, has a literal break down meaning of “drawing air into the lungs.” Another recognizable word from the Latin regarding breath is “respiration.”  You also see the portion of “spira” or spirit.  The word Spirit is related to breath.  In Hebrew the word Ruach also means Breath and Spirit. 

To be inspired is like being given a Spiritual Breath for Life. 

Growing into stronger belief and faith is a provision of His Spirit.  He gives us opportunities to see Him and know Him more and it is up to us if we take it from our head to our heart, breathing it in and being inspired by it.  I wrote and teach sessions on the examples of this based on King Saul and King David.  Both men were chosen by God, inspired by His Spirit, but Saul only kept it in his head and didn’t live it out and David took it to his heart and did live it out.  God refers to David as “a man after My own heart.”  Acts 13:22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’  Notice the portion included with him also doing. His belief became an active part of him living it…doing it.

The differences in King Saul’s and David’s lives were vast and it was based on what they took to heart or just to head.  It was whether they believed or didn’t believe.  A subtle reference of the LORD pointing to this in His Word in the physical description of Saul, that “Saul stood a head above all the others.”             1 Samuel 10:23.

 At the end of King Saul’s life, after he had taken his own life, it reads that the enemy came across his body and cut off his head and took his body and attached his body to the wall of Bethshan.  Beth means house and shan has meanings of quiet, tranquility, and dawn.  When you know the story of King Saul, he was not quieted or tranquil and his turmoil was all head thoughts.  He did not live out his faith through his heart.  More in this is that his body wasn’t even brought inside the walls of the House of tranquil-dawn, but attached to the outside of the wall. 1 Samuel 31.

Where I find myself in believing and living it, or either just having head knowledge, shows up often in me as just head knowledge as I have studied the Word.  I need inspiration to believe.  Some would consider me strongly faith-filled, but I have an endless stream of His Word that needs to be taken from my head to my heart. 

The LORD inspired me to one of them in particular last week.  It is a simple and widely known group of verses, but how rarely do I find myself believing it to the point of living it and growing in it.  Worry is head turmoil and not a heart of tranquil belief of a new dawn.

 I was sitting at my desk and working on my computer.  The weather had turned to heavy rain and strong wind.  As I was focusing on my work, I heard a long bang on our front window.  At first I thought it was a bird and quickly dismissed it because I didn’t think there was any way a bird would be flying in this kind of weather.  I figured it must have been a branch.  We have a big maple tree right out front.

As I continued responding to e-mail correspondence, I heard the LORD say, “You have an animal to care for.”  It was not a thought I would have generated and I stood up thinking, “Don’t tell me it was a bird.”  I walked to the door and opened it to look along side of the window. There on the ground was a wood thrush.  It lay with its chest in the dirt, at an angle and it wasn’t moving.  I could see its eyes opening and closing.

I thought, “I don’t know how to ‘care’ for a bird like this!”  Then I quickly went to what I knew I could do in way of care, I started praying for it.  The bird’s eyes opened brighter and it began to move its head as I prayed Jesus’ healing, relief from pain, restoration inside and out, and new strength.  The bird straightened and stood up on its legs.  It hopped under the shelter of the overhang of the bay window.  I went back inside, closed the door and let it be.  When the rain stopped I went to check on it and it flew away.

A little girl growing up, I would hear the verses over and over again from Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.  30And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

I finally, really believed it. 

It went to my heart! 

He had known about the fallen bird.  He called my awareness to it too, in telling me to care for it as I cared in the only way I could, by prayer!  I watched Him care.  I had not paid attention to the word “care” in the scripture before until he used that very word with me that I had an animal to care for.

The peace of having that verse now firmly planted in my heart of belief has lightened me to a degree I never have been before. By just having it in my head, I wasn’t living it out.  The stresses I have since recently endured have not brought the worry as they have in the past.  I KNOW HE KNOWS and He cares!  As I care I pray and I leave them to Him to bring about His goodness into those things.

Let the things that God is showing you inspire you!  Let the breath of His Spirit bring what you know to a heart of belief and into a life that lives it.