Restoring Our Hearts – Introduction
Hello Beloved.
FMM is launching a new series entitled “Restoring Our Hearts” and I have the privilege to share from the Scriptures a few things I have learned about the heart. Before I do that, please let me share some of my personal journey so that you might know a little about who I am.
My name is Denny and I come from a small farm in the central United States. I married my High School sweetheart, and started my wonderful journey with Yeshua as my Savior and Lord at the age of 20. I was in the business world for eight years before my wife and I sensed the Holy Spirit leading us into the pastorate. So we went off to school for four years and upon the completion of this program, I started pastoring a church. We had a good relationship with the congregation and stayed with these dear people for 22 years.
There have been many positive experiences in my life. Some of the high points were weekly teaching of the Scriptures, prayer retreats, two teaching times in Russia, an outreach in South America and two weeks in Israel. During this time I was caught up in performance and seeking approval; in other words, it was always about doing things for God, always trying harder, planning the next promotion, serving, being very busy, doing my very best to meet everyone’s expectations. While in this flurry of activity, I had a deep longing in my heart to find rest in Yeshua. I had a good intellectual understanding of the Lord, I knew a great deal about Him, and had good, accurate definitions – all of which lead to an arms’ length relationship.
Then, independently from each other, both my wife and I came to the belief that there must be more than what we were experiencing. So in order to be free to pursue the Father, I left the pastorate and began a wonderful journey with the Messianic movement. The learning curve was straight up at times but so very enriching and enjoyable. And because I also needed a way to make a living, I began my own business of Handyman Repair service. It was so interesting as I look back on those years because I was quite aware of the Father guiding me, giving insight as to how to fix a specific problem or repair. His presence was real and most enjoyable. But when I turned to worship, prayer, or study of the Bible, it seemed that I was in a different place. My relationship was different in some way; I was doing the right things but I didn’t understand how the heart played into all this. Little did I know that a wonderful discovery was soon to take place.
Then three years ago, I received the diagnosis that I had leukemia. This put a new urgency on pursuing the Father. I started praying that before I died I might know, at least in part, the Father’s heart. I had prayed for several months when the Father led me to a brother who was on the same journey. Through Larry Napier and Rediscovery of the Heart Institute, I started to study some of his insights as well as what I could learn from my own study of the Scriptures. The past two and half years have been very exciting to say the least. Let me highlight some of the things I am learning about the heart.
- I pray each day that the Father will show me the things that I believe right now that are not true and keeping me from knowing the Truth.
- I start over every day open to learning new things and going to new levels of understanding and experience.
I had four questions that were always a part of my study:
- What is the heart?
- Where is the heart?
- What is the language of the heart?
- And how do I get to the heart?
It is out of these experiences that I will be sharing as I continue to learn and grow. This growth will continue until my last breath. Beloved, I know so very little about the heart, but the little I know I am willing to share. So let us see what our Father would like to do in all our lives as our hearts are restored to where they were meant to be… in an ever increasing intimacy with Him.
Denny