THE LIFE OF THE CROSS; BECOMING A PEOPLE AFTER GOD’S HEART
1. THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD.
A. The reality of the emotions of God is not just an issue of attributing human characteristic and behaviors to God as
though the emotions of God are human. The emotions of God are divine and are transcended in nature. The emotions
of God are spiritual and divine in origin and not earthly and soulish.
B. The emotions of God are experienced in the context of embracing the life of the cross.
“But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart and
the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD
commanded you.” 1 Samuel 13:14
“And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said,
‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will” Acts 13:22
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever
desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25
C. All of God’s emotions are deep and transcended expressions of He divine being and essence i.e. love, wrath,
jealousy, joy, delight, pleasure. The emotions of God are not soulish but spiritual though they can be powerfully
experience in the soul of the born again believer.
D. I believe that believe that the experiencing of the conviction of the Spirit is an encounter with the emotions of God.
Conviction allows us to experience God’s zeal for righteousness and His hatred towards wickedness.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:9
II. THE CROSS: THE BEGINNING POINT OF THE EMOTIONS OF GOD.
A. The beginning point of pursuing the emotions of God. The revelation of true love and affection is revealed in the
realm of the cross.
B. Without the revelation of the cross the beginning point of the reality of the emotions of God becomes the filter of
our own sensuality and media, entertainment toxic souls, thus making the bridal paradigm sensual.
C. The bridal paradigm and the revelation of the Bridegroom God is to awaken holy, pure, righteous and fiery
affections in our hearts for God and His Christ.
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the
meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against
the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and
self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.” James 3:13-16
D. That which is experience outside the life of the cross is self-seeking surges that seek to be satisfied by the lifting of
our souls to another and the worship of a God created in our own image. As a result we are tempted to relate to God on
the same basis as though His emotions are like our.
E. Being sensual in this context refers to our own preoccupation with earthbound realities that are secondary, some
legitimate and some illegitimate, to satisfy our appetites.
F. The cross of Christ gives us profound insight into the deep things of God in that the cross is in the very center of
who God is.
III. AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART.
A. David as a man after God’s own heart is what set him apart from all other man and women in the word of God.
There were others who lived extraordinary lives before God in obedience like Daniel, Job, Moses, Joseph, Esther,
Deborah to mention a few but David had a unique standing before God.
B. David’s own accomplishments though many and powerful were not the things that caused him to be recognized in
a unique way throughout the corridors of history.
“But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart and
the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the
LORD commanded you.” 1 Samuel 13:14
“And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and
said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will” Acts 13:22
C. A man or woman after God’s heart is in reference to a person whose single focus, passion and vision is to pursue
and understand the emotions of God. God is not a stale stoic. He is the author of the realm of emotions because He
possesses powerful transcendent emotions within Himself.
D. A people after God’s own heart are a people who pursue and encounter the emotions of God that fuel
abandonment in their spirit and soul.
E. When we encounter the knowledge of God and the power of His emotions towards us in our being (Colossians 1:27)
it will produce as heart that is ablaze in love.
“And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in
them, and I in them.” John 17:26.
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins.” 1 John 4:10.
“We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19.
IV. BECOMING A PERSON AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART
A. It’s vital that we become students of the emotions of God. The revelation of the heart of God is what will equip us to
become lovesick worshipers. The longer we sit before the fire of God’s emotions to encounter them and to gaze upon
them, the more our hearts will be equipped in love righteousness and holiness.
B. We want to be filled with knowledge of His will or the revelation of the longings of His transcendence and then grow
in wisdom and spiritual understanding of his heart. The encountering of the knowledge of God is what will cause us to
walk worthy or equipped to live life pleasing to Him and Him alone.
C. Becoming a person after God’s own heart also means that we have a strong vision and commitment to life lives of
100% obedience. This commitment does not mean that we attain to it, but that we pursue it with all of our being in the
grace of God.
D. David was a man who had a cry in his heart to belong to the Lord even though he made many mistakes and
sometimes committed “horrendous” sins that cost the lives of many. Our sincere intentions to obey God are very
significant and powerful before Him. Our sincere but weak cry in our hearts to be His, are powerful in the heart of God.
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected (mature); but I press on, that I may lay hold of that
for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended (attend
100% obedience and maturity); but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching
forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in
Christ Jesus.”
“Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he
sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places,
where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.
But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some
fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded
a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! ”
E. After God’s own heart means that we contend for the fullness of the purpose of God in a generation. David did all
the will of God in his generation. We are living in the hour in which the Lord is going to return and we want to give
ourselves to partnering with Lord in this hour concerning the things that are on His heart in this crucial hour of human
history. (The book of Revelation, The book of Daniel).
V. THE EMOTIONS OF GOD.
A. David was a man who encountered the power of God’s emotional make up. The Psalms are filled with insight into
David’s heart journey after the heart of God.
B. In Psalm 36:8 David describes the heart of God like a rushing river of pleasure and delight by which we can be
abundantly satisfied. Psalm 42:7 describes the heart of God like a mighty rushing waterfall that flows from the very depths
of God’s being.
C. Having our being filled with the knowledge of God is what will produce unwavering maturity in our lives. It is the
fastest and most sure road to spiritual maturity.
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come
to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man,(mature) to the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but,
speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the
whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by
which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
VI. GOD ENJOYS US IN OUR WEAKNESS.
A. The three things that powerfully transformed my life as it relates to my interaction with God was first the knowledge
of Christ’s sympathy towards me in weakness and temptation – Hebrews 4:14-16. The second powerful transforming truth
was that God’s enjoys me in my weakness – SOS 1:5. The third truth is the reality that God is profoundly affected by me
in His being – SOS 4:9
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16.
“I am dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, Like the tents of Kedar, Like the curtains of Solomon.” Song
of Solomon 1:5.
“ As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” John 15:9.
B. Something powerful happens in our spirit every time the Lord tells us how He feels about us. It truly calms and
quiets our souls and righteousness begins to seem wise and within my reach in the grace of God. Many believers are
disconnected from that reality.
C. One of the most powerful realities is that we have a God who is not apathetic. We serve a God who we not only
experience but Who experiences us.
“You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one look of your eyes,
with one link of your necklace. Song of Solomon 4:9
D. Ravish means: to seize and take away by violence; to overcome with emotion (as joy or delight)
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent
take it by force.” Matthew 11:12
“Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats going down from
Gilead.” Song of Solomon 6:5
“For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the
bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:5
“The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will
quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
E. We don’t just experience God. God experiences us in that the weak yet deepest reaches of our heart in Christ
Jesus affect that heart of God and He moves towards us accordingly.
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8
F. Our wrong views of God will lead to some of the greatest regrets when we stand before the judgment of Christ and
we see how exquisite, lovely and beautiful He is. The issue that the enemy seeks to destroy and skew in our mind and
heart is the revelation of the knowledge of God.
“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of
this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor
have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God
has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:6-10