Heart-training for Kingdom Living!

270 Pages·2011·2.41 MB·English

© Barry Hall 1997-2011
Taste Heaven Ministries
Corvallis, Or.
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You don’t have to quench your thirsty desire for God with
earthly things and relationships that are inadequate to supply what
you long for most. You can repent of “other gods” and enjoy...
A Taste of
Heaven...Now!
The series.
Part Three:
Heart-training!

A Guide for Directing your Heart toward God
—in Accordance with His Grace

By Barry Hall
Taste Heaven Ministries Mission Statement: To Provide Understanding and
Tools for a Reformation in Receiving the Presence of God into, onto, and around us by Faith!
“...he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land and will possess My holy
mountain.
And it will be said, ‘Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every
obstacle out of the way of My people.’ For thus says the high and exalted One
who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also
with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and
to revive the heart of the contrite.’” (Isa. 57:13-15)
Contents and Trouble-Shooting guide
Introduction
—Introduction for Heart-Training 7
Core Classes for Your Heart

Core Classes Group One:
—Believing and Enjoying the Truth About God 20

—Trusting Salvation for the Acceptance of God 25

—Changing Mis-beliefs About God (Elective that if needed goes here) 29
Core Classes Group Two:
—~ How NOT to Change! Ineffective and Sinful Ways of Trying to Change 32

—~ Trusting the Punishment of Christ 33

—Turning from Bitterness and Unforgiveness 37

—Receiving Forgiveness and Cleansing 39
Core Classes Group Three:
—Truth about us: Self-Esteem and Our Human Glory 45

— Believing God as Our Righteousness, Goodness, and Perfection 48

—Changing From Performance to Grace 52
Core Classes Group Four:
—Believing and Enjoying God as Our Security 58

—Believing and Enjoying God as Our Reassurance 70

—Believing and Enjoying God as Our Protection 78
Core Classes Group Five:
—God as Our Adequacy and Strength — and No Fear 88

—Confidence to Drink from God, Rather than Despair or Hopelessness 96

~—Inner Healing: Letting God Give You a New Heart 103

—Believing and Enjoying the Love of God 106
Core Classes Group Six:
—Redefining Success: Being to the praise of God’s Glory, not my own 109

—Believing and Enjoying God as Our Thrill and Pleasure 117

—Believing and Enjoying God as Our Reason to Boast 122

—Turning from Demonic Pressure to Avoid or Believe Lies About God 125

~—Heart-training – Condensed (Uses diagrams!) 128
Core Classes Group Seven:
—I CAN Stand Before the Lord and Receive 136

—Being “to the Praise of His Glory” 146

—Healing and the Miraculous 150
Electives for Your Heart

Electives Group One:
Encouragement and Instruction about Growing and Change

—Benefits of Changing our Mind and Directing our Heart Toward God 164

—~ Believing “I CAN Change” and How to Do It 166

—God Speaks: Listening and Hearing God Speak to You 174

—God Listens: Prayer is Talking to God 179

—God is Involved: The Calling and Will of God 180

—Turning from Fear of Being Hurt by God 181
Electives Group Two:
Removing Obstacles Coming From Outside Influences

—Turning from Pressure from People to Avoid God 184

—Turning from Pressure from Religious People to Hold Back 187
Electives Group Three:
Turning Away from Distractions and Specific Pursuits

—Ministry as Idolatry 191

—~ Changing from Works to Grace (for Women) 197

—~ Turning Away from Self-Sabotage 208

—Turning Away from Money and Material Things 210

—Turning Away from Drug and Alcohol Abuse 212

—Turning Away from Food as Idolatry 215

—Turning Away from Bulimia 219

—Turning Away from Anorexia 225

—Turning Away from Self-Mutilation, Cutting, Burning 233

—Turning Away from Depression (as a habit or addiction) 239

—Turning Away from Sexual Pursuits 242

—Turning Away from Anger as Idolatry 251

—Turning Away from Violence 253
Electives Group Four:
Removing Obstacles that Decrease Motivation

—Turning Away from Spiritual Pride (about God’s presence) 256

—No Vacations from God 257
Appendix
—Appendix A: Process Steps for Doing what You Learn 260

—Appendix B: Being “to the Praise of His Glory” – Explained 261

—Appendix C: Exercises for the Soul 263
NOTE: The “Exercises for the Soul” are almost equal in importance to heart-training itself.
Later in the Heart-training, more time should be in these exercises than the Heart-training.
Introduction
Heart-training Introduction
The Bible says that “...the heart of man reflects man” (Pro. 27:19). And, “They always go astray in their heart...”
(Heb. 3:10). So the best focus for Christian growth, must always be our heart. Great spiritual growth requires an
ongoing re-alignment of our heart-level thinking, with truth in the Bible. The beliefs, loves, and fears of our
heart must all be re-aligned. This book is a tool for people who want to do just that.
Heart-training is a practical and effective method of getting truth into our heart and keeping it there. Heart-
training is a joyous and guilt free kind of repentance, aimed specifically at helping people to “draw near” and
receive God’s presence with childlike freedom and faith. This book is both the “how to do it” and the “what
to do.” But your heart-training shouldn’t ever stop.
People need freedom in their relationship with God. Freedom to love Him without being bound to earthly
things. Freedom to worship. Freedom to draw near to God and also to let Him draw near to them (Jam 4:8).
These are things that will always need improvement. And Jesus explained how to do that when He said,
“...you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (Joh 8:32). But the truth that sets us free is much
more than just what we know in our head. Freeing truth is that which our heart is fully convinced about.
I learned in the workplace about continual process improvement. The Christian life is like that. Relationship
with God is not a goal to achieve. It is a process, something we do over and over again. And if we think of
our relationship with God as a process, then our efforts to improve become much more effective. Thinking of
it this way also means that we never fully arrive at the “goal” because the goal is to always improve. Heart-
training gives people a powerful way to be engaged in the process of continual improvement.
I wanted to remember these next 2 sentences so I taped them to walls in our home. The first is that “Great
spiritual success and fulfilment of your calling are NOT possible without heart-training faithfully. The
second sentence is continues by saying, “And, because people are just people, heart-training is necessary for
very many others also. More spiritual success = more heart-training.” Those words are helpful because they
remind me that I am not alone. They also remind me that I will always need to continue using this tool
faithfully. And even though I have used some of these pages more than a thousand times, I continue to use
this tool because it works far better than anything I have found. Next, you need to know the kinds of truth
that this book aims to help you move from your head to your heart.
A Reformation of Faith for the Presence of God
Long ago, there was a “reformation” in the church about salvation by faith. It was a biblical realignment in
thinking about receiving Christ into us for salvation. It was primarily “good news” about eternity future.

This book is an attempt to provide practical understanding and tools for fueling a second reformation.
Like the first, this also represents a major biblical realignment in thinking.

But here is the difference. This reformation is about receiving God’s presence onto and around us by
faith AFTER salvation. This change in thinking isn’t about the future. It is primarily good news for the
present. Consider this. If we were to receive the presence of God by faith in His grace, it could easily be just
as history changing as the first reformation.
8
Introduction
The truth is that we can experience the presence of God far more intensely and far more regularly than most
think is realistic. And do this, we MUST. But getting there, requires that we look honestly at idolatry in our
heart. We must also consider God’s plan for HOW He intends to be a better God to us than the “other gods”
of this world.
God wants to be God to us by His presence in, on, AND around us becoming our refuge, strength, and
glory – our entire basis for confidence and security. So, God purposely designed us with a driving NEED
to experience Him in the very way that He wants to be God to us. But most Christians today are afraid of this
kind of closeness and don’t know how to make it work. So, driven by our unmet need, we have unknowingly
become addicted to earthly “glory.” And idolatry in our heart is preventing God from being God to us as He
desires. And let’s face the truth. There are MANY obstacles that prevent us from experiencing God as we
know we should. Human weakness and fears are great. Therefore, we must also think biblically, creatively,
and we MUST be practical about how we can change, and then how we can maintain that change.
It all adds up to this: Christians need to get back to basics and then we need to apply those basics to go
beyond where we have ever been. Heart-training is a tool for helping people to do just that.
I Wrote this Book For People...
I believe that many will read this book as a devotional because they will find themselves greatly encouraged
and uplifted by the words they read here. But I did not write this book for them.
I wrote this book for people who believe that very little will change unless we show the world the love of
God and His kingdom, at least as clearly as it was during the time of Christ. These are people who want the
presence of God and His kingdom close to them, far more than they want anything else (or, at least they want
to want it).
Yes, there will be many who experience healing by applying these things. But healing, and even miracles
won’t slow them down because they know that the moment they let themselves be satisfied with anything
other than God Himself, their forward progress stops completely.
I wrote this book for those who decide they will use this tool with determination and purpose. They will use
it to go far beyond just being encouraged and uplifted by this book. They will use it to strip away their earthly
dependancies, pride, and disbelief. And they will keep using it until faith and delight toward God grow so
strong that they find spiritual understanding for drawing near and entering before the Lord. This book is for
the people who will use the heart-training to turn their neediness toward God until they find freedom to
receive and to make the presence of God their reason for courage, confidence, and security. They will use it
to teach themselves to greatly love and enjoy the closeness of God as their “I AM.” And, they will continue
using the heart-training because they will have found it to be an effective tool for experiencing the kingdom
of God and even heaven itself, all around them here. Their worship will be boastful and strong, because the
heart-training will help them to experience God as the God who “draws near” and who is a far better God to
them than the “other gods” of this world.
So, be encouraged and blessed by using this book! But if you are one who wants to use this tool to go beyond
those things, then this “introduction” and the “background teachings” in this book will be important as a
foundation for helping you to do that.
9
Introduction
Changing How We Think in Our Heart
Christian growth works best when it is based on a continual process of true Biblical repentance. Technically
speaking, repentance means to “change our mind.” But in the context of the Bible, true repentance changes
the thinking patterns of our heart. It also means we have to change the beliefs, loves, and fears in our heart so
that we think in ways that are consistent with the kingdom of God. The beliefs, loves, and the fears of our
heart must change or our behavior will remain unaffected. And, we CAN change the thinking patterns in our
heart, by speaking truth out loud, listening to what we are saying, and by letting the truth sink down deep
into our heart: “...faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:17). “...confess with
your mouth...and believe in your heart...” (Rom 10:9). “for with the heart a person believes, resulting in
righteousness...” (Rom 10:10).
God designed us as needy people. We need security, a sense of being significant, and a basis for having
courage. A lifestyle of repentance is one of continually training our heart to turn from trying to meet these
needs by feeding ourselves with earthly glory sources. And at the same time, also training our heart to find
freedom to draw near to God, let Him draw near to us, and enjoy His presence with us as the basis for
meeting these needs. By this process, we trade earthly glory for the glorious presence of God. By this process
God is becoming our one and only God as He desires.
Heart-training involves teaching our heart to believe that the payback for repentance is so great that turning
our dependance away from earthly glory and sin is a price well worth paying; “...repent and return, so that
your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts
3:19). So repentance is more than stopping the bad behaviors! Repentance includes changing the way we
think about God’s grace and our being able to enter before God and love Him more fully. If repentance hasn’t
taken us to deeper levels of experiencing God, it isn’t really complete yet.
Even so, please note that the repentance that God desires is without regret: “...the sorrow that is according
to the will of God produces a repentance without regret...”(2 Cor. 7:10). So, God wants us to feel sorrow for sin
but it is NOT God’s will for us to repent by how bad we make ourselves feel for sin. The focus for
repentance is our heart, not our outer behavior. Behavior is the result, not the cause: “...the heart of man
reflects man.” (Pro. 27:19). “They always go astray in their heart...” (Heb. 3:10). “...from within, out of the heart of
men, proceed the...evil things...” (Mark 7:21-23).
So, read the statements on the heart-training pages out loud and listen to what you are saying. At each
(pause) stop and rest into letting your heart believe and love the truth. Don’t worry about having to do
everything perfectly, only believe to the extent that you are able at the moment. Then, move on to the next
statement. Just be sure to use the (pause) for brief moment to think about what you just said, and to allow
your heart to hear, believe, and to love the truth of it. Please also note that while there are major sections in
the heart-training called “levels,” don’t make the mistake of moving from one level to the next and leaving
the earlier ones behind. All of it works together.
Distractions and How I Keep Doing These Things
Deep down I believe that behavior flows from the heart and our heart follows what we treasure. I also believe
that if we change what we treasure, then our behavior will follow that, and change.
Even so, I can fill my life with distractions just as well as the next guy. I mean if you were to peak into my
life, it would often seem like I am treasuring anything and everything except God. You might even see that
sometimes my distractions appear to be carefully crafted in order to dull my desire to move forward.
10
Introduction
Then again, there are also times when I suddenly wake up enough to realize that “continuing on this path will
easily waste the entire rest of my life. And that makes me afraid, because when I am old and looking back, I
don’t want to feel pain from a meaningless and wasted life. So, whatever I do for a job, or where I live, or
whatever things are on that level, I want the underlying foundation of my life to be focused on the most
meaningful and significant things possible.”
When I wake up enough to think and feel those things, at that point, it is either continue on living in
hopelessness and a quiet kind of despair, or I have to look for a reason to have hope so that I can move
forward again.
For me, I always seem to come back to the same thing because deep down in my heart I deeply BELIEVE
that behavior flows from our heart and our heart follows what we treasure. So, if I change what I treasure,
then my behavior will change. And, I will be able to pursue the Lord. And, I won’t be so bogged down with
earthly distractions.
For me, those become windows of time where I might “appear” to be a disciplined person. Because, for as
long as the distractions stay away, I try real hard to focus my effort in the best way I know is possible. What
do I do? I teach my heart what to believe about earthly things and about God. I teach my heart by giving
myself reasons to love God, reasons to NOT be afraid, and reasons to treasure the closeness of the Lord.
Sure distractions come back. But during those times when I am seeing things clearly, I try to run with it as
hard as I can. So even though changing my behavior is the goal, I focus almost totally on changing what I
treasure. And I do that by teaching my heart what to believe, what to love, and what NOT to be afraid of. By
doing this, I am renewing my mind. I am renewing the mind of my heart.
So, is discipline the reason I am able to do these things? NO WAY! The truth is that it is avoidance of pain. I
don’t want to waste my life, and I want to live it for absolutely the most significant things possible.
The Role of Discipline and Decisions
Some people think that being a Christian is just about making the right choices. If that is true then the
Christian life has more to do with discipline than the loves, beliefs, and fears in our heart. And, I don’t
believe it!
Have you ever fallen to temptation so fast that afterward you wondered what happened? I have. In times like
those I don’t believe that our conscious mind had time to rationally choose what we would do.
Discipline is important, but I think that most of us are more reactive than disciplined. If growth in the
Christian life is mainly about discipline, how is it that the gospel is for weak and sinful people? Our
relationship with God is primarily a thing of the heart—and not purely from discipline.
Don’t get me wrong. Sin is sin and we need to make the right choices. But sin is also a desperate attempt to
fill our neediness apart from God. In those cases you may not even be aware that a choice was made.
It is vital that we make the right choices—but it works better when those choices flow out of faith and love
toward God. Discipline is good. But purity is deeper than surface behaviors.
Disciples are “disciplined ones.” But disciples are those whose discipline is a response to their love and faith
in God.