THE INTEGRITY OF GOD'S HEART

By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.

      "So He fed them according to the integrity of His heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of His hands." (Psalms 78: 72)

  GETTING TO KNOW the Heart of the Father is the secret of power with God! Learning to love what God loves and hate what God hates puts us in the centre of His will. By doing His will we align ourselves with Him and against His enemy.

   The Holy Scripture says: "But without faith it is impossible to PLEASE HIM: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Heb. 11: 6)of God

   We receive FAITH through God's Word! The Bible says: "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." (Rom. 10:17). 
   If God is all in all and has all power everywhere, then His Word must be True. And if His Word is perfect and flawless, then, by believing His promises we have the assurance that what He has promised will surely come to pass!

   God' Word says: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb. 11: 6).  
    What does that mean? It means that God's Word is sound, credible and trustworthy.  It means that you believe God's promises will be fulfilled as He said! Faith is like owning the title deed for a property which you have never seen.

OUR HEAVENLY FATHER HAS

OBLIGATED HIMSELF TO LOVE US!

  I believe that the most vital thing a person can do to gain the FAVOUR of God is to love Jesus Christ and to believe the record that He has given of His Son. Our Lord made this AWESOME statement:  

   "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him... If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him." (John 14: 20, 21,23)

   JESUS CHRIST plainly laid out our duty toward Him, if we are to please the Father! He was asked what we have to do to work the Works of God. He answered: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent." (John 6: 28, 29)

   The only thing that we must do to get our Heavenly Father's attention and love is to love, honour and worship His Son and to believe the record He has given of His Son and Saviour of the world!

   God had obligated Himself to love us and make His abode in us by the Holy Spirit if we LOVE His Son. St. John warned: "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son.

    "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a LIAR, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son.

   "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath Life; and he that hath NOT the Son, hath Not life." (1 John 5: 9-12)

    We must get to KNOW our Father's heart if we are to receive the 'Faith of Jesus'! Getting to know the heart of God is the KEY that unlocks the power of God and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who love the Lord and desire to be used in His Kingdom!

               I WANT TO KNOW HIS HEART!

   Not only do we need to love Jesus Christ and believe the report that God has given us about His Son, but we need to love what God loves and hate what He hates!

     St. Paul cried out: "That I may KNOW Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.

   "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

 "Brethren, I count not myself to be apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3: 10-14)

    The APOSTLE JOHN was known as the "Disciple whom Jesus loved" because he was tender hearted and childlike in His faith; who "rested on Jesus' breast" (John 13:21-28) . 
     His writings are filled with such LOVE and the bold declaration of Jesus the Son of God, Who is the Word of God from before the foundations of the world (John 1:1-14; 1 John 1:1-2).

      He stated: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have ETERNAL LIFE, and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God. 
    "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us; and if we KNOW that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." (1 John 5:13-15)

      DAVID also knew the HEART of God! His love and dependence upon Him was so strong and his repentance genuine and sincere! That is why God called him, "A man after My heart" (1 Sam.13:14; Acts 13:22).

   His hunger for spiritual fellowship with God proves that he KNEW the heart of God: He said: "As the hart (deer) panteth after the waterbrook, so panteth my soul after Thee, O, God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?"  (Psalms 42: 1,2)

MY HELP COMETH FROM THE LORD!

   Here is a good example of his total dependence upon God: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills! From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth...Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither nor sleep." (Psalms 121:1-4)

    As King David scanned the hills around Jerusalem searching for the enemy, he asked: "From where will our HELP come?" He didn't have other armies to call upon. There was no one else to help him, so he called upon God and laid his anxious moments to rest.

    Here is his ANALOGY: My help will come from the One who made heaven and earth. Since God made the heavens and the earth He is certainly able to protect the holy city of Jerusalem. He will take care of us because He is eternal, has all power and does not slumber nor sleep. The enemy may be hiding in the hills and is planning to strike, but God will help us!

THE PSALMS REVEAL THE HEART OF GOD!

    The 78th Psalm reveals the great heart of God. After He had severely chastised the Children of Israel for their backsliding, faithlessness and provoking Him in the Wilderness, He freely FORGAVE them!

   The Holy Record says: "But He being full of Compassion, FORGAVE their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned He His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath. For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again."

  Here is the clincher that gripped my heart. He sends His sunshine upon sinners as well as believers. He lets His rain fall on the ungodly as well as the godly. He sees the sparrow fall and cares about even the smallest of His creatures. (Luke 12:6; Matt.10:29)

    "So he fed them according to the INTEGRITY of HIS HEART; and guided them by the SKILFULNESS of HIS HANDS." (Psalms 78: 72)

   Two things struck me: The integrity of His heart and the skilfulness of His hands! Who would be foolish enough to question God's integrity? That would be a sacrilege. 
     It would be bordering on blasphemy and courting spiritual suicide. And it would be agreeing with the vilest of all LIARS, Lucifer the fallen archangel, who deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden!

   The PROPHET DAVID stated: "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." (Psa.12:6); "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

  "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is Thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward'" (Psa. 19: 7-11)

    Is God good, loving and kind? YES. Can God lie? NO! Can God make a mistake? NO! Can God fail? NO! Can God get tired, sick or die? NO! Is God trustworthy? YES!!!

    TALK ABOUT INTEGRITY - God cannot break His Word! He said: "Look on Me and be SAVED, all the ends of the earth: for I am God and there is NONE beside Me. I have sworn by Myself, the Word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." (Isa. 45: 22,23)

    He cannot lie because He is TRUTH. (John 14: 6); "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth." (John 17: 17); "Thy Word is True from the beginning: and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth forever." (Psa.119: 160) 

 One of the Lord's Seven Compound Redemptive names is 'JEHOVAH TSIDKENU' which means 'The Lord our Righteousness'. (Jer.23: 5,6). He judges in righteousness and in truth! The Bible declares: "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." (1 Cor. 1:30)

   St. John the Beloved stated: "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, The RIGHTEOUS.  
  And He is the propitiation (covering, satisfaction, expiation) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:1,2)    

   "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by His grace through the REDEMPTION that is in Christ Jesus." (Rom.3: 22-24)

   If it is possible for a man to comment on such things as the ATTRIBUTES of GOD, I say humbly being only human and therefore imperfect, that Righteousness is one of the many attributes of our Heavenly Father. Everything about Him is anchored in Righteousness and Truth.

           THE SKILFULNESS OF HIS HANDS!

   If there is anything that I could say about His hands, it is that He always reaches out to help His creation. And when He had concluded His amazing work of forming the worlds and creating all living things, Almighty God our Heavenly Father said that it was GOOD!

   Not only did He create man in His own image, but His HANDS brought SALVATION to a sinful, sick and dying world, when they were nailed in anger and hatred to the Cross on Mount Calvary!

   When Jesus Christ - God's Pascal Lamb - offered Himself for the sins of the world, meeting the demands of Divine Justice, He had fulfilled the Words of impending Judgment He had given to Satan in the presence of Adam and Eve: 
    "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her Seed. It (Christ) shall CRUSH thy Head and thou shalt bruise His heel." (Gen.3:15)

   The hands of Jesus that were laid upon the sick and suffering in Divine Healing is a picture of the SKILFULNESS of God's Hands! 
    Any good thing that mankind has embraced, invented and executed upon this terrestrial ball for the past six thousand years of recorded history, has been only through the intelligence bestowed upon us by our Creator and God!

    We must never forget that His hands that shaped Adam from the dust of the earth and healed the multitudes of sick and suffering humanity during Christ's earthly Ministry and made the supreme sacrifice through the shedding of His holy and pure blood, is even now keeping watch over our earth which continues steadfastly in its orbit and will do so until our Saviour returns to earth to rule and reign!    

    The Holy Scripture states: "God, Who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, Whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds. 

     "Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and UPHOLDING ALL THINGS by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged  our sins, say down on the right hand of the Majesty on High." (Heb.1: 1-3) Amen.