About

There is more because God wants to be God to you here, and you want God much more than you realize.

But how can we experience God as He desires when we struggle with reoccurring sin and feelings of hopelessness, fear, shame, and unworthiness?

We must not let ourselves hide from the truth about our struggles. We must also not allow ourselves to hold back from doing everything we can to grow spiritually.

On many practical levels, what we do for Christian growth determines the quality of how well we live before we die.

We should read our Bibles, pray, and spend time with other Christians. But we must not ignore where the Bible says we should “…remove the foreign gods…and direct your hearts to the Lord…” (1 Sam. 7:3).

Directing our heart toward God is like giving a wild donkey something it wants in order to get it to gladly cooperate with what you know it needs. Heart Training Ministries is to help you be effective in doing this.

What I offer is not a short or easy path; it will take courage. But if you are willing to work at taking small steps, one after another to remove obstacles and build your faith, Heart Training Ministries is for you.

Jesus came to save us from sin (John 1:29). But to make this effective, Jesus lived a sinless life (1 Peter 2:22), He died as payment for our sin (1 John 4:10), ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:9-11), and was glorified (Acts 2:33), so that the Holy Spirit of the Father now shines from Jesus (John 7:39; Heb. 1:3).

By all of these things working together, we are saved and can spend eternity with God after we die because “He saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6).

Because of the abovementioned things about Jesus, He can also freely give us the Holy Spirit as the Helper who enables us to live a holy and deeper Christian life after salvation (John 16:7).

But for that, we must be actively believing the Holy Spirit is coming to us because “…we…receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:14), and we “.. must believe…that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

The Titus verse above says that when God saves us, we receive the Holy Spirit, poured out onto us through Jesus. The deeper Christian life has to do with learning to keep receiving from the radiance around God after salvation so we can abide IN Him because “…as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Col. 2:6).

Related is where it says, “…God is Light…if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5,7).

For salvation, “we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13), and for that, we only need to receive one time. So when Jesus spoke to the woman at the well about drinking from Him and not being thirsty again (John 4:14), He wasn’t talking about salvation. He was talking about living a holy life.

To have water that springs up in a well, it has to keep receiving a continuous supply in an ongoing way. Like the woman caught in adultery (John 8:11), Jesus was explaining to the woman at the well about how she could go and sin no more.

By directing your heart into the place of continuing to receive from the radiance around God, and then being intentional to enjoy the benefits of His nearness, you can find freedom from sinful behaviors and live a holy life.

Heart Training Ministries is for helping you work through that kind of thinking so you can more easily receive the presence of God and abide in Him.

God wants to be God to you by His nearness being your refuge (Deut. 32:37-39), strength (Hab 1:11), and glory (Jer. 2:11-13). In today’s terms, this has to do with God’s presence, making us feel secure, confident, and worthy. But experiencing God in such a practical way hardly seems real to most people.

The problem is that our hearts have learned to depend on receiving from earthly and human sources, and these have become idols to us.

Jesus explained, “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).

Did you see that? Our faith is damaged for receiving from the radiance around God in direct proportion to our receiving glory from the world.

Jesus also said in that verse that we are to seek the glory that is from God! Sadly, most Christians ignore this verse because it says that God does not give His glory to another. So, we must be clear about this!

The glory God does not give away to anyone is the glory that goes to Him through our worship and praise (Isa. 42:8). The glory that God gives freely is the glory that shines from Him because “…the Lord God is a sun and shield; / The Lord gives grace and glory…” (Ps. 84:11).

The glory that shines from God is the Holy Spirit (John 7:39), who is also called the “Spirit of glory” (1 Pet. 4:14).

But let me emphasize again that to experience the Holy Spirit coming to you as the Scriptures describe (John 7:37-39), you must actively believe you are in that moment, receiving His radiant glory upon you here.

Heart Training Ministries gives tools for changing your thinking to the point where your adequacy comes from God and not from yourself; “Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God (2 Cor. 3:4-5).

Let me say again that God defines idolatry as having to do with what we depend on for confidence (Hab 1:11), security (Deut. 32:37-39), and worth (Jer. 2:11-13).

God wants to be the one God we depend on in these ways. But human emotional NEEDS in these areas are driving, and everything we rely on is close to us here.

Therefore, for us to experience God being God to us as He desires, we MUST be able to experience enough of His presence with us for it to be practical. If it isn’t effective enough to depend on God emotionally as our refuge, strength, and glory, we won’t be able to stay turned toward Him, and our unmet emotional needs will keep driving us back to our idols!

Is it right for us to depend on God in this way? Consider that King David satisfied his thirst for God by enjoying the nearness of God’s power and glory in the sanctuary: “…You are my God…My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You…Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory…My soul is satisfied…” (Psa. 63:1-2, 5).

Because David satisfied himself with God, you can do the same!

Sadly, most of us have grown so comfortable trying to depend on earthly and human idols that it is not easy or desirable for most of us to want to turn away from the hidden kinds of idolatry in our hearts and toward God.

Repentance means to change our mind, but since behavior flows from our heart (Mark 7:21-23) and Jesus said that our heart thinks (Luke 9:47), we must repent in ways that change the thinking patterns in our heart.

We must repent in keeping with the fact that earthly sources and sin are inadequate to fulfill what we long for. Trying to depend on earthly sources and sin is painful and hurts us. We must repent in the context of how great it is to experience God being God to us here.

We must repent with joy!

Because God is seeking true worshipers, He designed us to have emotional needs, resulting from our humanity falling short of His glory, even after salvation. Meeting our human emotional needs drives both our good and bad behavior. But because God’s glory is what we fall short of, the glory around God is the only thing that can fully satisfy us.

But let me emphasize here that because God is seeking TRUE worshipers; depending on idols and sin to fill us, is false worship. God has allowed evil to exist for a time so that we have something else to try and depend on apart from Him. It is natural for us to love and praise what makes us feel confident, secure, and worthy. By God’s intentional design, life is a test to see who and what we will rely on and worship.

So, how do we identify the idols we need to repent from? Over the years, our heart learns to ease our sense of falling short with well-hidden pride related to every aspect of what God is like.

Our human sovereignty and power fall short. But rather than trust God’s presence by His grace to draw near, we work at finding ways to reassure ourselves and feel secure through human power, domination, and control. Rather than receive God’s presence and rely on the nearness of His righteousness and perfection, we work at achieving a sense of righteousness and goodness on our own and praise ourselves for it inside. Trying to rely on ourselves to be the “god” we need is painful! Our pride gets hurt when we fail to perform in less-than-perfect ways. Rather than receive God’s presence so we can esteem His worth close to us as what makes us feel worthy, idolatry keeps us in bondage to finding reasons that justify esteeming ourselves.

If salvation is all you know in the Christian life, even when you have been a Christian for years, you can still be in bondage to heart-level idolatry and well-hidden pride. Do you sometimes react by defending yourself and fighting back with harsh words when disapproval makes you feel unworthy or dishonored?

By learning to rely on God to draw near and His kingdom to come so that His power and glory are what satisfies us, positively filling our emotional needs becomes a powerfully positive motivator for the deeper Christian life. Yes, it still hurts when people lash out at us, but depending on the nearness of God for emotional stability is the only thing that makes loving others practical in stressful times.

Because every good and perfect thing from God comes down from above (James 1:17), receiving the radiance of God and His kingdom as what satisfies us, is also what crushes Satan and his evil kingdom under our feet (Rom. 16:20; Dan. 2:35, 44-45). Directing your heart to depend on God by trusting His presence and kingdom to come has world-changing results.

God says that He wants to be treated as holy by those who draw near to Him (Lev 10:3). We Christians must go deeper with repentance. Idolatry is rampant and unrecognized. Hidden and recurring sin is common and should not be! Revival will come when Christians make themselves ready (Rev. 19:7) through repentance that changes idolatrous thinking patterns.

By learning to rely on God to draw near and His kingdom to come so that His power and glory can be what satisfies us, positively filling emotional needs becomes a powerfully positive motivator for the deeper Christian life. It still hurts when people lash out at us, but depending on the nearness of God for emotional stability is the only thing that makes loving others practical. Because every good and perfect thing from God comes down from above (James 1:17), receiving the radiance of God and His kingdom as what satisfies us is also what crushes Satan and his evil kingdom under our feet (Rom. 16:20; Dan. 2:35, 44-45). Directing your heart to depend on God by trusting His presence and kingdom to come has world-changing results.

In brief, we must change our thinking patterns from works and self-efforts aimed at finding worldly glory that eases our sense of falling short of God’s glory. We must also change to depending on the radiant glory of God coming down to us as what fills up our falling short and satisfies us in practical ways.

With earthly things, we have to earn the glory we receive. With God, our hearts must learn to entrust ourselves entirely to what Jesus earned for us.

We must change our thinking patterns to a place of enjoying in a childlike way that we can depend on God to draw near to us here so He can be God to us as He desires: “… let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain…” (Hos. 6:3). “Break up your fallow ground, / For it is time to seek the Lord / Until He comes to rain righteousness on you” (Hos. 10:12).

Heart Training Ministries uses something I call Heart Training as a form of repentance that helps you move the truth about receiving God’s presence and kingdom from your head down into your heart, where it can make a difference in how you live.

The Heart Training tool is a collection of many declarations divided into sections that help you joyously direct your heart away from hidden idolatry and more fully toward God.

Heart Training is effective and practical because it is based on a clear and underlying understanding of human emotional needs, idolatry, and God’s desire to find true worshipers so He can be God to us here.

Let me explain more about how God wants to be God to you by showing you examples of Heart Training that we see in the Scriptures. Try reading these verses out loud and with determination while also thinking about how you are reacting to these Scriptures inside.

“My soul will make its boast in the Lord” (Ps. 34:2); “I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!’ ” (PSA 91:2); “…the nearness of God is my good..” (Psa. 73:28); “…I have no good besides You” (Psa. 16:2); “…You, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head” (Psa 3:3); “…the Lord is our righteousness” (Jer. 33:16) and “…He loves righteousness…” (Psa. 11:7); “…He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him” (2 Sam 22:31); “…glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3); “…O Lord God, You are my confidence…” (Psa. 71:5); “I love You, O Lord, my strength” (Psa. 18:1).

Did your heart respond to the verses above with hope, or did fear and hopelessness come over you? Either way, because we live in a world with evil in the air and with people around us who don’t understand deeper Christian things, obstacles of fear, disbelief, and hopelessness often take hold of us and create walls between us and God.

It will take courage to address these kinds of things in your heart, but let me assure you that Heart Training is a powerfully effective process of continuous improvement for the deeper Christian life. Little by little, the more you declare to your heart what you are turning away from and toward, the more your heart will soften and be able to believe. Heart Training can help you no matter how far away from God you may feel at this point in your life!

Heart Training is extensive and covers many topics because there are so many idols we depend on. Heart Training is a tool that helps you change in four main areas.