Heart Training

Heart-Training is a collection of statements that, when you listen to yourself declaring them, help you love, believe, and feed on (receive from) God. Heart-Training is to the deeper Christian life as practice drills are to sports and music. It removes obstacles and builds a highway for God to come to you more easily.

Rather than receiving from earthly sources, you will learn to receive the tangible presence of God because Heart-Training aims directly at helping you change deeply rooted ways of thinking from works to grace.

God designed all people with needs. And human behavior is driven by these needs. The world calls it a need for “self-esteem.” The Bible calls it a “thirst for God.” Over the years, we learn habit patterns of thinking about how we believe we can best fill our needs. And much of what we have learned to believe is hurtful and damaging. The Bible says, “. . .we. . .receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:14). And, “. . .it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all. . .” (Rom. 4:16). So we have to believe we are receiving the presence of God by His grace, or it will be difficult to experience Him tangibly. Jesus explained the problem when He said, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (John 5:44). So, how can we correct this problem? “. . .repent and believe. . .” (Mark 1:15). Heart-Training helps you “repent” from having to earn and achieve earthly glory, to receiving the presence of God’s glory by faith in His grace.

The Bible says, “. . .as he thinks within himself, so he is. . .” (Pro 23:7); “. . .the heart of man reflects man” (Pro. 27:19). And Jesus said, “. . .they were thinking in their heart. . .” (Luke 9:47). Science knows today that our heart has transmitters and receptors that process information similar to our brain – only a lot fewer of them. So, our heart learns slowly, with much repetition, and best when emotion accompanies our declarations.

Your heart CAN learn new ways of thinking. It MUST. But you must become the teacher, and your heart has to become your best student. Heart-Training is the most effective tool I know for doing that.

Speak the statements out loud and focus on listening to what you are saying. But please note that the speed of processing thought is MUCH slower with your heart, so when you say these statements, you must go slowly, or it won’t work. You also have to pause between the statements to give your heart time to agree and receive it as truth. There has to be a lot of repetition because the patterns of thinking you have learned were taught to you by life experiences over many years. The truth is worthy of joy, even when you don’t feel joy. Remembering this is important because to be most effective, it will help you to lower your hesitancy and fear by using joy in your voice as you read the statements.

Heart-Training is divided into two main sections; “core classes” and “electives.” Like a college degree, taking your core classes before your electives is best. The elective section in the Heart-Training deals with specific areas of sin.

Note: The order in which you do the “core classes” may need to be altered. You should first try to do the sections in the order they are presented, but if you are having trouble getting your heart to hear one of the sections, you may do better to go forward and come back to that one later.

Even though some of the verses may be familiar, your heart may not fully believe them. So, read the statements with the verses out loud. And “ascribe glory” to God by impressing the greatness of these truths on your heart. For this to work best, you must purposefully listen to what you are saying. Eventually, your heart will hear. You will believe it. And, your love for God will increase.

Changing how our heart thinks, is a repentance by joyous declarations aimed at helping our heart to hear the truth for the purpose of directing our heart away from hidden forms of idolatry and toward loving God, His cleansing presence, and faith.