Electives – Section 1

What is Heart-training?
Heart-training is to the deeper Christian life as practice drills are to sports and music. Heart-training is a collection of statements that when you listen to yourself saying them, it helps you to believe and love God more. Heart-training removes obstacles and builds a highway for God to come to you much more easily.

Why should I use Heart-training?
You will experience much more of 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 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 also, where emotion accompanies what is being learned. Your heart can learn new ways of thinking. It MUST. But you have to become the teacher and your own heart has to become your best student. Heart-training is the most effective tool I know for doing that.

How should I use the Heart-training?
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 have to 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 now, were learned by life experiences over the course of many years. And, to be most effective, it helps greatly if you use joy in your tone of voice as you read the statements.

Note that Heart-training is divided into 2 main sections “core classes” and “electives.” Like getting a degree at college, the core classes are needed first. The elective section deals with specific areas of sin. (Note: The order you do the “core classes” may need to be altered. Try to do the sections as they are presented, but if you are having trouble getting your heart to hear it, you may do better to go forward and come back later.)