The Intent of your Heart By Charles Grisham
If you are faithful to God, He will bring you through. He is a great God. Psalm 42 is a psalm of instruction you can learn from even if you don’t know what the writer is talking about. He is the health of our countenance.
Personal Waterspouts
“Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” As we look at this passage of scripture, we recognize the good things of God. I try to do three things every day. I try to touch God. I try to touch a project that will outlive me every day — a song, a poem, a sermon, something that will live on if I die today, something that people can read and enjoy that will help their life. The third thing is touching people every day. Every day of my life, I’ve had a habit of writing five to 20 letters. I say good things to people that will encourage them, help them and bless their life. I’m a man of God; I’m a child of God. I have a mission in my life, and I enjoy what God has given me to do. But as I look at these things I recognize that man looks on the outside. Everything man looks upon in our life is what he sees from our lives.
Look on the Heart
But God has a unique ability to look upon our heart. I recognize that this is a unique personality that I don’t have. I can’t see your heart but I can see what goes on the outside of your life and can draw a pretty good conclusion of what you’re all about. How many of us today are used of God and are an instrument of something that will encourage the Lord to move in our lives? How many want to be a starter in the church where we are? Don’t wait for someone else to get it started. I look on this and recognize that God is a seeking God. He desires to have this time of fellowship with every one of us. He’s a good God; He is concerned about what I do, He’s concerned about what you do, He desires to work with us. I’ve been working with Him a long time. I’ve known Him since I was a little boy of nine years of age, and I know He’s a blessing. We need to get to know God well enough that we are comfortable with His Word. God wants His capacity developed in every one of us. He knows where we’re hooked up and what we can receive. Actively, He begins to look deeply in our souls.
The Noise of Thy Waterspout
The scripture makes it very clear. It says deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts. He actively begins to look at each one of us to see if there’s any activity within us that would invite the presence of God. If there’s any intent of our heart that would reveal that we have an interest in Him, it will show somewhere along the line. If we don’t have any of those things in our responses toward God, it’s very unlikely that He will ever use us very much because we’ve got to be open to God and ready and willing for Him to work in our lives. As long as I’m alive, if I live to be a hundred years old, I want to be growing in the Lord every day. I want to get more sensitive to God every day. God is looking in every one of our lives, and He’s looking for a willingness on our part to see if we will respond as He seeks for us and longs for us. God wants our presence; He wants to hear our words of love. He actively looks and seeks. The Bible says deep calleth unto deep. Upon the hidden intent of our heart there is something going to be revealed as we seek God. We must show that we are ready to respond. Now if He finds buried deep within us any indication that there’s a sincere desire, through prayer or worship, He will then begin to take a singular interest in us. The scripture tells us that the eyes of the Lord are going continually forth every day, and He’s seeking someone that He can actually use. The Bible teaches us that the Father seeks such as would worship Him.
In Spirit and In Truth
His eyes run to and fro every day. You have to love people whether you agree with them or not. I love the Lord; I love people. I’ve fellowshipped with people; I’ve been in meetings where we didn’t believe exactly the same and they didn’t worship God like I did but I still worshipped God. In those early years of my developing ministry I would sometimes sit all night long and listen to the preachers talk, and I would learn things as they talked. I thought many times of how God would use me later on with what I learned from those preachers. But the personal attention that we receive from the Lord can be likened unto a waterspout. I know there are certain songs that we like. And there are some songs that some people think, “That just doesn’t do anything for me at all.” It’s like dew. We also have people that can believe in the rain because it’s something that they can see. It’s hard for us to imagine that God can get moisture through to something without rain falling, but He can send the dew. He can send the rain; it can fall equally.
A Real Downpouring
We can watch it rain and then we get to those things in our lives and we think, “Boy, I want some real down pouring rain.” We want something big enough that we can see. The Lord will send something to get through to everybody. There have been times when I didn’t have great joy. I could just bask in the presence of God and it would be like the dew that comes from heaven, just bringing the things to my life that I need at that time, at that point of my life. God saw that individual need. Then there are times when He can just bless us with rainfall that blesses and blesses and causes us to feel the power of God. Then there are times that can bring the powerful move of the rain of God, when just a shower won’t do any longer, and He will just send gushing amounts of His Holy Ghost power like rain upon us.
Enjoy your Waterspout
Think about this: He says all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me, deep calleth unto deep. And the Lord singularly becomes active in our lives. At first we may not understand the purpose or understand the direction of all-mighty God for this divine activity, but the Bible teaches us about the noise of thy waterspouts. Everyone needs to bring it in, soak it up, enjoy it. If it’s dew, enjoy it; if it’s a shower, enjoy it. If it’s rainfall, enjoy it. But there will be times if you give the Lord particular attention and hold it long enough, God will bring something to you that will supersede all that you have ever experienced from Him, because the Bible says at the noise of thy waterspout, God will bring it right over to where you are. God sees the intent of our heart. If we will lift up the Lord, men will be drawn to the Lord and if we can get the picture of what we need to have in our minds, God can use us to be a drawing power to unsaved people. But there is something we need to recognize here when we read these scriptures.
Desire to be Fed
It’s like walking up to a smorgasbord, you can get a little here and a little there and before long you have a plate full. When you look at the scriptures, that’s exactly the way it is with God and if our level of spiritual hunger seems to fall short of this deep desire then He can only reluctantly feed us on the level of our desire toward Him. You cannot receive any more from God than you have a desire for. He won’t waste His good stuff on you if you don’t desire it. You’ve got to desire it, you’ve got to want it, and you’ve got to be longing for it. God has to see a hunger in you that supersedes any hunger you have for anything else. Jesus feeds us on the level of our hunger. God knows exactly where we are, what we need and the intent of our heart. If we walk with Him, He will lead us into the depths of His spirit.
Transcribed by Susan Thomas
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