Why our Christianity doesn’t work:

Three very important reasons why our Christian life doesn’t work; (Need you to have a receptive heart to HS right now - what I am about to say you will want to reject, immediately)

The first reason most of us cannot live in our hearts is that we are religious people.

Very hard for us to hear; you are a religious person, I promise! A lot of talk about a religious spirit - I am not talking about a religious demon - I am talking about you and me; I’m talking about the fact that we are so religious that we cannot live in our hearts, because our hearts are too damaged to live in them, and we will talk about that much more.

We have learned a style of relationship with other people that is compulsive, predictable, rigid and self-defeating. We need to learn about this style and how we can move from it.

Deep down we are unwilling to be an ordinary person. There is something in us that craves extraordinariness - It is impossible to live in our hearts if we are determined to be “Special” or “better” than everybody else! (We will talk about 2 and 3 later)

Religiosity:

The church in America, in the west, is destructively religious. Now I didn’t know this 10 years ago, I was as religious as the best of them! RTN/The Call/Church plants - raised in dispensationalism, etc.

I was so religious that it damaged the ministries and Churches I was a part of, and it damaged my family. And, I did not know that I was religious and I did not know I was damaging them.

We must trust our hearts; Because our hearts are washed by the blood of Jesus, and because Jesus imparts in our hearts, soul, and Spirit his very own righteousness we can, therefore, TRUST our hearts.

What does it mean to “Trust our whole hearts?” - Basically it means we can believe and rely on what our hearts are telling us. Our feelings are valid - we don’t trust our feelings because we are simply talked out of what we feel. But, if we are trusting our hearts and we say, “I’m feeling sad”, then we are feeling sad. WE TRUST THAT OUR HEART IS REPRESENTING REALITY TO US!

If we feel jealous, then we can say, “I am feeling jealous” because our heart is reflecting reality. If I feel angry, then I must be angry - these emotions and feelings are true.

Most of us don’t believe that we can trust our feelings and trust our heart;

Now all of these elements of the heart bring us to the next issue concerning living in the heart; It’s the issue of “Experiential Christianity”

For most people Christianity is a set of beliefs held in the mind, it’s a theological statement or a doctrinal position.

However, Christianity, in reality, is truth and a person that we experience. What good does it to leave us on earth to simply believe in a doctrine about Jesus, and doctrine about the trinity, and doctrine about open or closed communion? What good does it do to believe that??

To live as Jesus did, to live from our hearts, we have to turn 180 degrees. When we get to a place of healing and living our Christian life experientially we begin to feel Jesus literally living his life through our hearts. It’s not enough to say, “I know that Jesus loves me” when we live experiential Christianity we FEEL Jesus love for us, we FEEL his life being lived through us, we FEEL his very own compassion for others, we FEEL his forgiveness for ourselves and for others, we FEEL his, not our humility. We FEEL his faith, his obedience, and his desire to please the Father - if we are living “Experiential Christianity!”

We need to live “Completely and wholly” from our hearts. Scripture says, “He said to himself in his heart” - “We are to love God with our whole hearts” - “We are to meditate in our hearts” - “Love God fully in our hearts” - “A young man is to follow the ways of his heart” - “And, God will give us the desires of our hearts!” and so on…

Living in the heart has tremendous value

Living in the heart is actually living in the “Whole” of the heart, not just part

Living in the heart means that our heart must be healed. (We can’t without healing)

Living in the heart means to live “Experientially, not just doctrinally.”

Living in the heart means that we learn to trust our hearts completely.

The word Heart/s appears 841 times in the scripture referring to us. 12 other times it appears but it’s the heart of the ocean or sea or matter… 841 times amazingly appears in scripture to define us. However, the word Spirit or Spirits appears only 190 times in scripture; actually it appears 611 times in the NAS bible, but only 190 times does it have to do with our human Spirit; in contrast to 841 times the heart. Every other time “Spirit” appears in scripture it’s always a demon, or always the Holy Spirit. The word “Soul/s” appears 290 times.

Episode 3: Our Story of Our Son Michael Black by Gary and Lisa Black

Hey everyone, as our platform is growing and people are sharing our podcasts, video's and other content, we are getting a lot of requests for who we are and why we do what we do!

Please enjoy, and if you like, share Lisa's story - we are excited for what the Lord is downloading and for future content!

As our platform is growing we have had requests for who we are; we are getting better at our podcasts the more we do them, but here is our first one, Gary's testimony, if you have not listened to his story yet.

As we are getting settled in the states, the next few weeks will be full of brand new material; Parenting, roles of fathers, and roles of mothers, grandparents, family, and community. Fatherlessness and it's affects on the generation and what we can do about it! And, much more to come...!

Enjoy, and as always go to garyandlisablack.com for more podcasts videos, blogs, and more!

And, if you would like to become part of our support family, (We need to increase our monthly income living here in the states, immediately), go to garyandlisablack.com/donate and join our Patreon team, or for a tax write off, donate directly to our foundation.

Thanks and much love from the BlackTribe!