My new life verse is Guard Your Heart.

This is an object lesson or analogy about my
open heart surgery (July 6, 2007).

Did You Lose it With Your Children Again?

Have you ever lost it with your children, say a lot of things you regretted, then felt like a heel? Did you confess it? Did you lose it again a few days (hours) later? Why can’t we get victory over sin that plagues us?

About ten years ago, I reached the peak of an ongoing battle. For years I asked forgiveness each time but the same sins occurred, at times daily. Something was blocking the flow of the Holy Spirit in my life. I was seeking God but I was not experiencing the love and joy or any of the fruits of the Spirit on a regular basis.

I needed to deal with root issues blocking the Holy Spirit–unforgiveness, anger, and bitterness. Losing it with my children was a symptom of the real problem. Instead of dealing with these issues with confession and repentance I pushed them down and busied myself with church work. I brought more stress into my life by over committing. What a cycle we can create! The more stress the more sin.

Slowly over several years, the Lord answered my cries. I began to get victory over sins I had battled with daily for years. I dealt with anger issues and learned to pray for those that hurt me. I learned to say no to church work outside the home when my children needed me more. I learned to “guard my heart” and stay away from people whose lives were full of complaining and bitterness. I began to learn to teach people to treat me better. I began to spend a lot more time in personal Bible study and prayer. And, in time, things got better.

I didn’t realize how much our lives had changed until last year. There was a blow up…it was a very stressful time that resulted in an ugly scene, harsh words and tears. But I realized it was the first time in over four years since such a blow up occurred and before that it was several years. Praise God! My hubby and I resolved then and there that we would guard our home and not allow the same stress and drama in our home again.

You have to guard your heart from stress. You owe it to your family and yourself. I can’t emphasize this strongly enough. Take a step back and examine your heart–what is there that should not be there? Stress is like a boiling teakettle. The steam has to go somewhere. I’m blessed with a husband that helps me guard my heart from over commitment, bitter people, and other problems. But the physical results from the stress remained in my body.

Stress Affects Us Physically and Spiritually

That stress I dealt with a decade ago showed up as an obstruction in my physical heart. At first I had a hard time understanding that mental stress can cause physical problems. But it does. Under stress, we go into a fight or flight mode, hormones and chemical changes pulse though our bodies, organs get overworked. Over time, stress took its toll on me and a blockage formed.

We cannot preform at optimal health when there is a blockage just as we can’t produce fruit of the Spirit when there is unresolved sin.

Open-Heart Surgery

Last week, I had heart bypass surgery because the obstruction in my heart was controlling, dictating, and influencing my attitudes and frustrating my daily activities. It was not just slowing me down, it was killing me. This was a reminder of how obstruction of sin can stop the flow of the Holy Spirit.

What is the Root Problem?

We may think losing our temper with our children is sin (and it is) but it is also a symptom of a spiritual blockage obstructing the flow of the Holy Spirit. Simply confessing the sin is not enough. You have to get to the root problem. Why did you lose it? Was it the children’s actions or bitterness towards a friend or family member that you’ve been pushing down? Was it the noise level or was it that lie you believed in your teen years that has grown and eaten at your spirit? Was it their actions or your guilt for not disciplining more diligently.

The Heart and Spirit Need to Flow Freely

The Function of the Heart
The heart is an amazing organ. God designed the heart as the center of our physical life. It never rests for more than a second. It is astonishingly efficient. Its few moving parts are almost indestructible. It is far more durable than any man-made pump.

The Function of the Holy Spirit
When we trust Christ to save us, the Holy Spirit enables us to have victory over the desires of our sin nature (Col. 2:11.) When we allow Him to freely flow through us, we grow and produce fruit of the Spirit evidenced by seeking time with Him, and receiving and obeying instruction from Him. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.

Obstructions Block the Flow

My Heart: My left main coronary artery was 80% obstructed (it supplies blood to about two-thirds of the heart; it’s about the width of a straw, when obstructed it is called the WidowMaker). This blockage caused a decrease in the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart resulting in weakness, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and chest pains.

God’s Spirit: The Holy Spirit is always flowing in the Christian. God doesn’t turn His Spirit “on” and “off.” The Lord is always ready to flow through us as His vessel.

Sin is a blockage preventing or constricting the flow of the Holy Spirit resulting in separation from God and His perfect will for our lives. God’s Holy Spirit allows us to receive and transmit the wisdom, splendor, and power of the Living God into the world. We must guard it lest it become obstructed!

Symptoms of a Blockage

My Heart: In the last six months I experienced rapid decline in my health. It was easy to measure my energy level because I have a specific routine every morning. I would feed my horses grain in the barn area, get them hay and walk it across a half-acre pasture, then muck the paddock for 30 minutes. After hernia surgery in November, I was unable to get my energy back enough to muck the entire paddock without stopping to rest. This continued until I couldn’t even pick up a pitchfork.

Eventually, I could no longer walk across the pasture to feed them hay. The last week I could no longer care for the horses at all. Walking outside or across a room was too difficult. The obstruction was controlling, dictating, and influencing my attitudes and behavior. It was oppressing and discouraging me. The obstruction greatly effected how I related to circumstances and people.

God’s Spirit: When we stop producing fruit of the Spirit–love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control–it is our first symptom that there is a problem—an obstruction stopping the Holy Spirit and allowing sin nature to take over. It may start slowly but the momentum quickly picks up the pace in a downward spiral. Instead of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and faithfulness, we find anger, resentment, pride and unforgiveness. An obstruction is anything compelling enough to hold you in its power, keeping you from receiving God’s love and truth.

Once a blockage is established, usually because we have not taken every thought captive, we provide a foothold for the Devil (Eph 4:27). The obstruction will control, dictate, and influence your attitudes and behavior. It will oppress and discourage you. It will effect how you view or react to situations, circumstances, and people.

Finding the Obstruction

My Heart:The symptoms I experienced required testing to find the cause. I went to six different doctors to find the cause of the symptoms. On June 26, 2007 I met my hero, Dr. Askew, my wonderful, dear cardiologist, who was the only doctor that read a test result from last November in my files. That test revealed problems that required more tests in order to find the problem.

A nuclear stress test revealed the blockage but it appeared to be a mild blockage. The doctor scheduled a better test to view the problem in more detail. The next test, an cardiogram (cardiac catheterization) revealed the root problem—the blockage of the left main artery.

God’s Spirit: When there is a spiritual blockage in our heart the symptoms are a lack of the fruit of the Spirit. The next step is to find the cause. The secular word blames the problems we experience on a lack of money or lack of education, or the way you were potty trained, or some other nonsense, etc. When we strive to overcome problems without God we will suffer consequences.

Spiritual obstructions are always rooted in some sin. Finding the obstruction is necessary to deal with it, tear it apart and remove it. Not dealing with the obstruction will lead to frustration and probably more sin and the establishment of other strongholds. Before we deal with the obstruction, we need to have a clear understanding of how God made us, and what really motivates us. Prayer is the way to find the obstruction. God will reveal it to you. Once you recognize the root you can deal with it.

Removing the Obstruction

My Heart: Double bypass open-heart surgery fixed the problem and allowed blood to flow again. My obstructed left main  artery was replaced with an artery from my arm and another from my heart and the blood could flow . My energy level increases daily. I’m just waiting for the broken breastbone and incisions to heal.

To experience optimal health, the blood flow in the circulatory system must remain unhindered.

God’s Spirit: The circumcision operation symbolizes the “spiritual surgery” that God wants to perform on the human heart (Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4). “We have a nature of sin that must be dealt with by the knife; only then can the Holy Spirit flow freely. In Christ, we can “walk in the Spirit and… not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). We submit to his surgical knife through repentance.

Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.(Acts3:19-21)

Whatever the obstruction–bitterness, jealousy, anger, pride, etc.–God is bigger! Mike Dowgiewicz explains,

“If you’ve entered into your relationship with Jesus based on a faulty understanding of Who He is, you can’t grasp how high and wide and deep is His love for you. He is LORD, and as such desires Lordship in your life. If you’re focusing more on the adverse circumstances in your life than on the One Who can free you, you’re listening to the spirit of confusion. When you truly comprehend just how great of a sinner you are and the vastness of Jesus’ atonement on your behalf, you’re better able to persevere in the “arena of suffering” that your earthly life calls for. When you’re assured of His plan, you can be confident that His purpose and His presence will continue without fail. As you desire to draw close to God, He will draw close to you.”

The free-flowing power of the Spirit frees us from all restraints of shame, fear, and hate and allows us to truly blossom as children of God who are much-loved.

The more fully you relinquish yourself to Him, the more you will discover that He has your best interests at heart and that His will truly is good, acceptable, and perfect. (Romans 12:2).

Get rid of any obstructions and stress and allow Him to flow and Guard Your Heart!

For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back from captivity’ (Jeremiah 29:11-14a).

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6:11)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12).

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