Following Your Heart

How often do we hear,  follow your heart! What does that even mean? Briefly, it is to follow your instincts. Generally, it is the first instinct which crosses one's mind. People generally think that the first is the best but usually is one, if not, the worst!

Instinctual behavior is what comes naturally. It is mitigated without conscious thought. Does that sound dangerous? It is! Following the heart is the pathway to danger. It is essentially  behaving according to irrational emotions. Generally, the thought is, I want that, or I deserve that. In order to get things they desire, people do what is right in their own eyes. That is instinctual, and is original sin working in the sub-conscience.

Deuteronomy 12:8 “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—"

Then, the next verse tells why: it is not God's will which you are doing!

There are three wills: (1) God's will, (2) Satan's will, and (3) your will. Until you are born-again, your will matches Satan's because he is Prince of the Air. That it the old person. The born-again person is to have their will match God's will. That is the new person with a changed attitude. The "former self" follows his heart because that satisfies Satan, but the "new self" follows God's heart. The perfect example is from scripture:

Acts 13:22b "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will."

This is so clear! We are to follow God's heart; not our own. That is doing God's will! Look where David's own heart got him. He lusted - an instinct, he had her, and he killed her husband! Thinking he was following his own heart, he was serving two masters! David was foolish to follow his instincts because they got him into severe trouble! What should he have done? Do God's will, not his own!

Matthew 6:9b "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

The will is hidden away in the secret places. We do our own will easily, but doing God's will takes effort. It's the difference between following our own heart - lusts, or God's will for us. Scripture even tells us what to do with our hearts:

Deuteronomy 10:16 "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer."

"Stiff-necked" is stubbornly following your own heart!  We are to cut that instinctual desire off, and give it to God. What are we to do with the desires of the heart?

Romans 12:1a "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice..."

We are to not only have a change of heart but actually present the old heart - or nature, to God!

Those who follow Christ, cease to follow their own instincts :

Galatians 5:24 "And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

 As such, if Christians are truly Christ's, they quit following their own heart, and hang it on the cross right next to Jesus!

What did David do? He didn't have to do what Jesus did, but what Jesus did for him:

Psalm 51:10a "Create in me a clean heart, O God..."

That should be clear: quit following your own heart, and follow the new cleaner heart which God provides. It's doing His will, not thy will!

In fact, the motto of Satanism is: Do what thou wilt! For those who are a little slow, that means: following your own heart!

We must be careful what we say. People may actually do foolish things! Following your heart is a stupid thing to do, and Christians need to quit saying that! That instinct is for the world. In fact, what was it that Eve did when she ate the forbidden fruit. She followed her own heart. She tried to blame the serpent but he only put the thought there. She was doing what she willed - following her heart's desires!

It was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Strange, how with all that new knowledge, she did what was evil. Why? She was listening to falsehoods. She was not thinking with wisdom. The serpent was imploring: follow your heart. God, whose Tree they should have stood under, cried that day, and the pair were punished for following their own hearts. Because of that original sin, men are sill following their own hearts, and doing what they wilt!