31 - The Rediscovered Treasure (Part 4)
Episode Highlights:
The focus of this episode is a recording of a men’s retreat that Chip did in Texas in 1993. The retreat content was edited and put on CDs. The CDs were included with the first edition copies of The Voice of the Heart published in 2001.
Needs are:
how we’re created.
what God works with.
what we have to have fulfilled, or we die.
Our need to belong and our need to matter are more important than food, shelter, and clothing. We will give up food, shelter and clothing in order to belong and matter. The unseen needs are more powerful than the seen needs.
God gives us the desire of our hearts.
We are born with longings.
We long for justice. (We see a small child lying in a bed in a pediatric intensive care unit with bandages and tubes, and we cry, “NO!” We don’t have to know the child to recognize the injustice of it.)
We recognize that we are not made to die of disease. We’re not made to kill each other. We’re not made for war.
We are made for love and peace and eternity and raising each other up.
We are made to experience the grace of a hand that can reach into the farthest depths. There is no mistake that is so far away that God can’t reach us.
We long for a place where we can put our heads against a safe shoulder, where there are arms to go around us, and there is a voice that says, “It’s okay now, it’s okay. You can rest now.” We long for a place called “home,” where God lives.
Longings are deep cravings within our hearts that will never be fulfilled as long as we live on this earth. It’s living in the wishing every day. It’s living in the wanting forever. It’s meeting God every day, and God says, “One day it will all be complete.”
Surrender your heart every day, and it will change. Walk in the surrender every day. Live in the world of miracles. Tell the truth and live in the truth. Open your eyes to see the joy of what happens when we walk in the truth.
If we do not deal with our hearts, we end up living counterfeit lives.
We grow into shriveled, little trees, not oaks of righteousness.
We live lives of shame. (We are ashamed of how God made us)
We lower our expectations.
We don’t expect much from people.
We don’t expect others to show up in our lives.
We have counterfeit fulfillment.
We pursue power.
We pursue mood-altering experiences.
We seek relief.
We plan events in hopes they will make things different/better.
We refuse to face where we live.
We pursue all forms of counterfeit fulfilments instead of believing that God can fill us.
Sadly, we end up practicing hopelessness. We practice hopelessness as a way of not taking a risk to believe that our heart’s yearnings are real. We refuse to believe that our feelings really matter. We refuse to be vulnerable. We refuse to surrender our lives to the God Who made us.
You’re living an impaired life if you:
practice not believing that God made us to surrender ourselves to Him?
tell yourself, “I’m not that bad.” (You are running away from your heart because you’re comparing yourself to others.)
tell yourself, “I’ll deal with all this later” (You are postponing your life.)
judge these ideas as “overboard” or “too touchy feely.”
say, “That’s just life” or “Life’s not fair” to others when difficult things happen. • tell yourself, “I’m not like others. My upbringing was so good that I really don’t understand what others are talking about.”
say, “I haven’t had that kind of bad stuff going on in my life. God please don’t let that happen to me. I’m different than they are.”
say, “At least I’m not like them” or “At least I don’t _____.”
If you say these things or practice any of these behaviors, you are living an impaired life, and you’re running away from freedom that God can do for you what you can’t do for yourself.
Free Resource Impaired Living
If you think you’re not attracted to God, that’s okay, because God isn’t interested in you being attracted to Him. God will do that for you; He will draw you to Him.
You can give yourself to God, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4 (ESV)
Surrendering to God doesn’t mean that He is going to send you to Paraguay to be a missionary. It means that He gives you the desires of your heart.
God will take you to where you want to go. He will take you to where you really need to be. God will take you to places you never dreamed of, more than you could ask or imagine.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
We really are all the same. We’re 99.9% identical in terms of DNA. We’re all made out of the same dust. It really is a small world. - It’s a Small World
Vulnerability is a form of courage. It is actually a responsibility. It’s our ability to respond to how we’re made in grown-up, caring ways.
This means that…if we don’t take responsibility, if we don’t take ownership of our feelings then everyone around us has to pay.
For example:
People who are hurt and won’t own or acknowledge their hurt, become resentful. People who are resentful, hurt others with their words and their behavior. Hurt people-hurt people.
People who are sad and won’t own or acknowledge their sadness, become self-pitying. These people attempt to get others to feel sad for them. They defeat those people who want to care for them. Sad people-make others sad.
God injects His strength into our hearts as we surrender to how He made us. Our attempt to get away from how God made us is a mistake.
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger Psalm 8:2 (NKJV).
The heart matters to God, as he created us.
We need to come “home” to how we are made and grow up. Part of growing-up is reclaiming God’s image within us.
We are made in God’s image. He made us as feeling creatures who are spiritually-oriented; we’re made for connection. We are made to connect with God and others.
Feelings are the doorway into all other tools of connection.
Our spiritual roots are feelings, needs, desire, longings, and hope. These roots must be put in the living waters of God (Jeremiah 17:7-8).
Free Resource: Spiritual Root System
Keeping Heart by Chip Dodd
The Voice of the Heart and The Voice of the Heart Companion Study by Chip Dodd
Needs of the Heart by Chip Dodd
Free Resource 8 Feelings List
Dr. Chip Dodd
Voice of the Heart Center
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The "Living with Heart" Podcast is brought to you by Chip Dodd Resources (www.chipdodd.com) and The Voice of the Heart Center (vothcenter.com).