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Second Stream: Receiving God’s Intimate Counsel

“Remember, the purpose of this thing called the Christian life is that our hearts might be restored and set free. That’s the deal. That’s what Jesus came to do, by his own announcement. Jesus wants Life for us, Life with a capital L, and that Life comes to us through our hearts.” Excerpt FromWaking the Dead

“I want to be careful, lest I have painted a wrong picture here. This stream of Counseling doesn’t just flow to us directly from Christ, only from him. It flows through his people as well. We need others—and …

First stream: Discipleship or walking with God. 

“Jesus spoke to those who were doing all the “right” things: “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you” Matthew 7:23

Knowing God. That’s the point.” (Waking the Dead)

“Only by walking with God can we hope to find the path that leads to life. That is what it means to be a disciple. After all—aren’t we “followers of Christ”? Then by all means, let’s actually follow him. Not ideas about him. Not just his principles. Him.”(Eldredge)

Knowing God. And the path that leads to life, and actually following Him. …

“From Eden a river flowed to water the park, which on leaving the park branched into four streams.—Genesis 2:10 (Moffatt)”

Last blog I didn’t get as deep into “how” to strengthen your heart as I wanted, I rambled on a bit much, but let’s take a dive into what it looks like to strengthen your heart in Christ.

Since I like to disciple men or spend time with men teaching them how to deepen their walk with God, I’m tempted to write about all the studies available to us that help in the process of spiritual growth.

There …

So, the strengthened heart, what is “the heart”, and how do we strengthen it? There are entire books written on this topic. So it’s going to stretch my brain to capture all I want to say in this short “blog” But I’ll give it a shot.

Here goes: The heart is the unseen inner life of each of us. (Sacred Romance) And it’s key to living the Christian life.

Our hearts can be broken, heartless, we can have heart aches, or be lighthearted, the eyes of our heart can be opened, as the song goes, we can also be brave …

“May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”‭‭ 1 Thessalonians‬ ‭3:13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Welcome to The Strengthened Heart Blog.
We started The Strengthened Heart as a retreat ministry almost 15 years ago.

The idea for our ministry came after I attended a Wild at Heart Retreat in 2006. John Eldredge then filmed one of the retreats and made the videos available to purchase, so you could hold your own Wild at Heart retreats where you live.…