from A Heart Like God's series
“God has sent his spirit into your heart”
Keeping Your Heart Sensitive to God's Spirit: Spiritual Disciplines for a Fruitful Life
Guarding your heart and keeping it open to the Spirit of God is essential for walking in His fullness. Proverbs 4:23 tells us, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." But how do we keep our hearts receptive to the Word of God and fertile ground for His Kingdom?
The answer lies in practicing four key spiritual disciplines that condition your heart to respond intuitively to God's Spirit:
Judging God Faithful
Putting on the New Man
Doing Good to All
Walking in Love
These spiritual disciplines are more than just religious activities—they are practices that align your heart with God's truth, making it sensitive to His Spirit and creating fertile soil for the Word of God to bear fruit in your life.
1. Judging God Faithful
The first discipline is learning to judge God faithful in every situation. In Hebrews 11:11, Sarah received strength to conceive after she judged God faithful. You need to ask yourself in every area of life: Is God faithful? Did He really say this? Can I trust Him?
When you consistently judge God faithful, you are programming your heart to trust Him no matter what comes your way. Life will throw challenges at you, but if you’ve disciplined yourself to trust in God's faithfulness, you’ll respond with faith instead of fear. This is a key to keeping your heart open to His Spirit.
Application:
Practice: In difficult moments, declare God’s faithfulness aloud.
Meditate on: Lamentations 3:22-23, “Great is His faithfulness.”
Exercise: Start each day by thanking God for His faithfulness, especially in the areas where you’re waiting for a breakthrough.
2. Put on the New Man
Ephesians 4:22-24 commands us to "put off the old man" and "put on the new man," which is created in true righteousness and holiness. This spiritual discipline reminds us that our new identity in Christ is secure, but it requires daily intentionality to live from that identity.
Putting on the new man is a choice to reject old patterns of thinking and behavior. It’s a discipline that keeps your heart aligned with the reality of who you are in Christ—a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). When you practice this regularly, your heart becomes fertile ground for the Word of God, and you start living out the transformation God has worked in you.
Application:
Practice: Daily remind yourself, “I am a new creation in Christ. I am righteous and holy.”
Meditate on: Colossians 3:10, “Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
Exercise: At the end of each day, reflect on moments when you reacted from your old nature and ask God to help you respond from your new nature tomorrow.
3. Doing Good to All
Galatians 6:9-10 teaches us not to grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not lose heart. Doing good to all, especially those who are difficult to love, is a spiritual discipline that keeps your heart soft and open to God’s Spirit.
When you commit to doing good to others, you’re training your heart to see people as God sees them. This keeps your heart from becoming hardened by bitterness or unforgiveness and positions it to receive God's Word and truth. As you do good, especially in challenging situations, you are actively cooperating with God’s Spirit in your life.
Application:
Practice: Look for opportunities to bless others, even those who are hard to love.
Meditate on: Galatians 6:9, “Let us not grow weary while doing good.”
Exercise: Set a daily goal to do one act of kindness, particularly for someone who may not expect it. This will train your heart to stay open and receptive to God’s leading.
4. Walking in Love
The final discipline is walking in love. 1 John 3:16 tells us, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.” Jesus’ selfless act of love is the model we are called to follow. Walking in love means choosing to act in the best interest of others, even when it’s difficult.
This spiritual discipline keeps your heart sensitive to God’s Spirit and prevents it from becoming hardened by selfishness or resentment. Love is not just a feeling; it’s a decision to reflect the character of Christ. When we walk in love, our hearts remain fertile ground for the Word of God to grow and bear fruit.
Application:
Practice: Consciously choose love in every situation, especially when it’s hard.
Meditate on: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, “Love is patient, love is kind…”
Exercise: At the end of each day, reflect on how you walked in love and ask God for more opportunities to demonstrate His love to others.
Why These Four Spiritual Disciplines Matter
Judging God faithful, putting on the new man, doing good to all, and walking in love are spiritual disciplines that keep your heart sensitive to God's Spirit. When you practice these disciplines, you are cultivating fertile ground in your heart for God's Word to take root and grow. Just as a farmer prepares the soil for seed, these practices ensure that your heart remains open and ready for the Kingdom of God to bear fruit in your life.
Homework
To help reinforce these spiritual disciplines, I want to encourage you to do two things this week:
Read Mark 4, specifically paying attention to the parable of the sower and Jesus' explanation. Reflect on how the condition of your heart affects the fruitfulness of the Word of God in your life.
Read 1 John. As you read, let the message of love take deep root in your heart, transforming how you relate to others and how you see yourself.
Living out these four spiritual disciplines—judging God faithful, putting on the new man, doing good to all, and walking in love—will keep your heart open and sensitive to God's Spirit. As you consistently practice these disciplines, you’ll find that the Word of God bears fruit in your life without striving. Let’s commit to living out these practices daily and watch how God moves powerfully through us.
