Rend Your Heart and Not Your Garments

JOEL 2: 12 - “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. 13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful..."

Our Pastor, Chief Apostle HC Gunn, has always taught us that every time God names and sends a child into the earth it has a meaning, and is often prophetic. One of his daughters and my sister, Apostle Terah Josey, and her husband, Apostle Quanterrius, recently had the most beautiful and handsome set of twins - Yireh (a girl) and Yoel (a boy). Yoel is pronounced Joel and he too will be a prophet and man of God, just like his grandfather and like his namesake. Yireh is the Hebrew word for Jireh, which means the Lord will provide.

Since Yoel has been on the Earth, over the last several months, the Lord has been making himself known through the Word coming from our Pastor, reminding us that indeed Jehovah is God (Yoel's name meaning) and that we must humble ourselves and surrender to him in repentance. God is calling for us to bow at His feet and recognize who He is before he passes us by. And through Yireh's presence, God has reminded us that he has sent blessing and provision for us on the earth, but we must repent in order to access all that he has and wants to give to us, as Chief Apostle has been teaching as well over the last months.

Chief Apostle Gunn once told me that some people are saved in their minds but not in their hearts. They can go through the motions of being a saved person verbatim, but their hearts aren't committed. They are using their intellect and reasoning to appear to be walking in faith, but their hearts lack the faith and willingness to actually and sincerely run the race for Christ, so eventually, they will get tired and quit (go back to the world) or run out of bounds (backslide, stop believing).

This past week, Chief Apostle has asked us to question our commitment to God. Are we truly in it for the long haul? Are we truly sorry for our sins and have we made up our minds to hate them and reject them? Do we truly want to be doers of the Word and not just hearers? Are we willing to do more than just come to church and take up space on a pew? Does our life at home, at work, in relationships, and with our children, reflect the Amens we shout out at church? Are we willing to be a servant of God or do we only want a God who serves us and our needs and wants?

It reminds me of a question God asked me one day: Are you just coming to service or are you actually in service? Meaning: Are you just taking up physical space and appearing to be among the Body of Christ or are you serving by using your talents, time, and treasure to help further the will of God, the ministry and support the pastor and fellow saints? Chief Apostle has also been teaching from James, reminding us that God is looking for good and faithful servants.

In Joel 2, the passage: rend your heart and not your garment, speaks loudly. Chief Apostle has been reminding us that it is not just about coming to the altar, praying, and telling the pastor or congregation you want to give God your heart, but it's actually what you do when you leave the church doors. It's in you giving your heart to God every day, breaking it open so he can fully come in, and walking out the Word that you hear preached or read in your everyday actions and decisions. In the Biblical times, people would show outward signs of repentance or grief by tearing (rending) their garments, but what God is saying is He is not looking for outward actions that people can see, he is looking for inward change and sincerity that he can see.

When you are committed to God, you change on the inside so that your external actions actually mean something and count to God. As Chief Apostle always reminds us, even the devil knows the Word, knows the scripture, knows how to sing and praise. So, how are we different than him if we are lying to God and others about our salvation because we aren't truly committed?

Chief Apostle also once told us that sometimes God shows him where the saints leave 99 percent of the Word that has been taught on the ground outside of the church - meaning we are not letting the word take root in our hearts because we have no commitment or desire to carry out the Word. We just want to hear it and feel good, but we don't want to do it.

It reminds me of Matthew 13: 4-9: 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: 8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

God can change your stony unwilling heart into a willing and supple heart of flesh? (I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. - Ezekiel 36:26.)

Choose today. Ask God to deal with your heart and confess what's in it, recommit your life to Him today, and repent in sincerity. My young nephews, all elementary-aged, have heeded the call to repentance, and Isaac, Israel, Samuel, and Soloman have individually made choices to be refilled with the Holy Spirit and/or recommit their lives to Christ. I am proud of them. All of them were inspired by the Word and the witness of their cousin/sister Pastor Amaya, as well as the church leaders and saints who are exemplifying Christ. If they can be sensitive to God's call, then so can we as adults. As Jesus said, we've got to come to God as children.

Our youth are growing in one accord with what is happening in the spirit, bringing to pass what the Lord shared with Chief Apostle many months ago about a revival of repentance of a billion souls spreading across the land starting with the youth.

Kierra, one of our teens/college students, read the following from Proverbs 21 at church on Friday and I am proud that she was led to it:

"1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. 2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts. 3 To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice."

Please listen to this week's radio broadcast "Are You Clear with God" by Chief Apostle Gunn here and Youth Pastor Amaya's blog "Does God Have Your Heart? here., which beautifully ties into what her Pastor and Pop-Pop has been preaching.

In closing: The Lord has issued a warning through the mouth of our Pastor and His Prophet. He told Chief Apostle that we need to take COVID seriously and that the United States is getting too lax, too fast. Before the news came about more variants, the Lord had already told us through Chief Apostle that they were coming weeks and months ago. He also said something worse than COVID is coming and America needs to repent. From the strange weather to losing our defense as a nation, to attacks on our eyes, we will be subject to all of this without repentance, according to the Prophet. So, let us take heed. Let's care enough to protect ourselves and others and not overdo it with activities that we know God is not covering or aren't safe for all involved, and most of all lets choose God now before its too late. In order to survive what is coming, we will need to be under the covering of God, but without repentance we cannot enter into his rest and his safety.

PS: Happy Fathers Day to God, to our pastor and father Chief Apostle Gunn, to my father Ronald Simon, and to my spouse and all of my brothers and fellow brothers in Christ, who are working out their faith through Godly fatherhood or being a Godly father figure.