Joined at the heart

    There are times when I am made to realize a oneness in the spirit with another person. It is not that way always, but it should be. Ever wonder why? I think it is because most of the time, we are not around people who operate out of their heart, their spirit. They operate out of their outer man. Their inside man is often buried so deeply we can’t feel the connection. Let me give you an example of a joining of the heart. Have you ever been in a worship service, church, concert or just listening to a CD and someone sang a deeply personal, from the heart song unto the Lord and it so touched you, it became as if it was you singing that song? In fact, you were. You were connecting in the spirit realm. Songs of the heart have a way of joining the heart. Have you ever been in a worship service where the Holy Ghost took control and the crowd, as one, began to sing in the spirit unto the Lord. Oh, I love it!  The sound is so awesome, moving, swelling, rising, getting loud and then soft, directed by the Holy Ghost. Oh, there is a breathtaking oneness in that experience.  Joined at the heart!  Have you ever heard preaching, teaching or sharing that was so from the heart, that you absorbed it like a sponge on water? Joined at the heart!

     Why does this not happen more? I don’t know all the reasons but I do believe one reason is that we are so performance oriented that we can’t be transparent. Fear, guilt, pride, religion, etc., all work against us being able to be transparent about our relationship with God.  Preachers tend not to preach from their relationship with God, they just lecture from their intellect. They are sharing knowledge, not relationship.  Oh, that is good, in a way, but it doesn’t usually connect hearts. Singers are the same. Performance often dominates and we don’t really connect spiritually. Plus, most of the songs, and even most of the sermons, are little teachings,sermons, etc., and that is good, but they are not shared relationship material anyway. Oh, we may love the perfection or the style of the singing, or the oratorical skills of the preacher, but we are not really connecting hearts. It is hard to break the performance bondage. For many years, as a younger man, I did not know the difference between excellence and anointing. In fact, I thought the anointing was on the excellent,  until God set me free. I thought of this not too long ago in a church where an elderly lady was leading worship. She was a bit older, with older songs, and the old me would have been a bit put off by her. But the free me started listening to her heart and I found myself worshipping with her. We connected. Not on the basis of mutual style, perfection, performance or any such thing. Joined at the heart by songs of the heart. 

    Another reason that transparency is a hard commodity to come by is religion. Religion causes us to mask who we really are.  The Pharisees wore the long robes, made loud public prayers and various attention getting rituals, but Jesus said they were a whitewashed gravestone.  What you saw on the outside was definitely not what was on the inside.  Nothing about religion lends itself to honesty, to transparency...appearance is the ruling factor in everything. And, we can't join at the heart where there is no transparency.  Oh, by the way, did you know that holiness is to be transparent? So that what you see is what you get?   A transparent  sinner is more holy than a whitewashed gravestone of a deacon. Without transparency, seldom do we minister, praise, sing, worship, from the heart.  We can only do what we can do while still keeping the mask on.

    You know, back in the 90's, I fell into the River of God.  Oh,  okay, maybe I was drug in,  under prostest, but I got in anyway. And, I am so glad! Glory, halelujah glad!  And, you know what I lost most of?  You know what got washed away the fastest?   My masks!   All my pretenses, all my masks, flushed down the river.  And, I found a freedom to be real.  I found a freedom to stop performing, stop lecturing, stop entertaining, stop keeping up appearances. Oh, 'tis good.  Now, it is so much easier, when the anointing flows from the spirit of another brother or a sister, to just enjoy - being joined at the heart.   My friend, you can have this freedom.  Reach for it.  Pray for it. Do what you have to do to get it. Find the river that washes away your masks, your religious pretenses and role-playing.