How to Train Your Heart to Believe God’s Word
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10, KJV)
Many believers, including myself, grapple with a paradox: the struggle to believe God’s Word truly. I have often been amazed to discover that my heart has not accepted certain scriptures as much as I thought. Yet the scriptures call us believers—meaning believing is inherent to us. Today, let me show you how to train your heart to believe God’s word.
The key to understanding this vital concept lies in two foundational truths. First, man believes in the heart, a complex union of our spirit and soul, functioning as our minds, emotions, and will. Second, believing with the heart means accepting something as true and being persuaded.
To believe in God, the Holy Spirit takes God’s Word, renews our minds( our way of thinking), and brings us to accept it as true. So this is God’s primary tool to help us train our hearts in the Word: meditation. Through continuous meditation on God’s Word, we can condition our minds to accept the scriptures as true, be persuaded about them, and allow them to influence how we live. For instance, take a healing verse like Isaiah 53:5, “By His stripes, we are healed.” Reflect on it, repeating it in your heart, embracing its reality. Bring your mind to accept that truly, by Jesus’ wounds, you were healed. This purposeful meditation, though demanding, is vital.
Please abandon the notion that your spirit mysteriously believes God’s Word despite what you think(your mind). This belief, especially common among charismatics, leads many to assume they have faith when they may not. Faith is a way of thinking—thinking as God thinks, naturally making you speak and act in a particular way, without drama or “trying to act faith”. Your task is to align your thoughts with God’s Word.
Meditate
Do you genuinely accept God’s word as true?
Apply the Word
In our doubt-infested world, intentional and purposeful training of our hearts to believe God’s words is crucial. I have shown you what to do, so train your heart to accept the word.
Pray
Ask the Father to guide you in this challenging yet rewarding process.
Recommended
- The Three-Tier Pyramid of Believing
- The Proof of What We Truly Believe
- Man Believes With the Heart
- The two tablets of the human heart
- How to Meditate on the Word of God
- View All Deshen Daily Devotionals
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Good day, Pastor. Thank you for all the teachings that you have put forward on this platform, have been richly blessed by them since I came in contact with this site. God bless you.
However, over time I have been made to understand that renewal of the mind is by meditation on the Word of God, how true is this fact? Again, I have been made to understand that meditation is an act of focusing or fixing one’s thought or mind on the Word of God, yet another version makes me understand that to focus means to repeat the scripture or anything you’re meditating on over and again in the mind, is this true? Please I really need to be helped in this area, because I haven’t being able to make success in my meditation exercises, which one of the explanations above is true, or if they are both wrong, what is actually meditation on God’s Word? Please I need urgent answers. Thank you.
Hello Darlington. I am glad to see you are asking those questions because it seems the Lord has out an interest in your heart for the Word. For your questions
1. Renewal of the mind is by meditation. This is true. But it is mote than that. First, renewal of the mind is not merely changing the way we think in our minds. It is deeper. It is a renewal of the entire person, mind, emotions and will(soul). This is captured by
“And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:”
Colossians 3:10 KJV
The key to this transformation is knowledge as you see in this verse. As you grow in knowledge of Christ, a transformation will take place. Meditation is like exercise that intensifies the hold of knowledge in your life. So yes, meditation is a central part of the process of transformation because it gets the knowledge of God rooted in your heart.
2. Meditation. Yes, both are correct too. Meditation has been shown to us in scripture to be both. Pondering, thinking and focusing the mind on the Word as well as muttering, speaking it with the mouth. Many of us are not familiar with the fact of meditation by speaking because it is strange to us. I do both, and it is important you start learning how to do both as soon as possible. I have written many devotionals about meditation and spiritual renewal and transformation. Please take a moment and read them carefully. Get back to me with any questions . These are the links.
https://patrickoben.com/tag/meditation/
https://patrickoben.com/tag/spiritual-transformation/
Thank you, Pastor for the answers to my questions and the devotionals on meditation and spiritual transformation that have thrown more light on the issue. I am grateful.
However, there’s still an issue that bothers me, it’s about focusing one’s thought. I have tried over the years to focus my thoughts on the Word, but I doubt if I am doing the correct thing, because I haven’t seen any positive result to that effect.
In an attempt to solve the problem, I read an article sometime which made me understand that to focus the thought on a particular verse of the Word is the same as repeating the verse in my mind, could this be true, because this is the method I have been using but still to no avail.
Please help me on this as your help will go a long way.
Thank you and God bless you.
I see. Yes, instructions like that can be confusing if not properly understood. I will start by encouraging you to relax, and do not allow this brother you. You are trying really hard to fix something or achieve something by your own. The first thing I mentioned above was for you to understand that renewing the mind is not simply changing the way you think. It is much deeper. It is a deeper thing that occurs in our soul as we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. It is not a mind game of just simply trying to think on the Word of God. That is the reason I have just mentioned that you should relax. What they told you to fix your mind on the Word of God is correct. That is what changed my life entirely as my mind was renewed to focus on God and set my mind on Him. Its as not just my thoughts changing. It was my entire life, my heart was being transformed. I want you to change your perspective a little bit. Do not try to follow that instruction on fixing your thoughts on the Word of God. Focus on having a revelation of God and knowing Him intimately. Let that be your desire. Let your mind focus on Christ, wanting to know Him. Remember, I mentioned above it is the KNOWLEDGE OF GOD that is the transforming power, not merely what we do with our minds. Please remember what I said above. The secret is not in meditation or the mind. It is in the Word or the knowledge. Meditation simply helps you take firm hold on it. Please take a moment to read these devotional about the mind. I will suggest you spend some days reading what I sent to you have and this one
https://patrickoben.com/tag/the-mind/
I pray the Spirit of the Lord helps you overcome this obstacle that is hindering your progress spiritually.
Good morning, Pastor.
I have seen the new episode of answers that you sent to me. Thank you for the steps you’ve described and the encouragement you’ve given to me and also the Mind link that you sent. I truly appreciate what you’ve done and pray that our Almighty Father will replenish and bless you richly.
God bless you.