Jesus, teach me that there are four doors that have to be opened to God so I can experience direct communication with Him. Teach me that without this communication, He can’t tell me what I need to do in order to get His help. Help me let You take me into a look at HOW to open each door to God so I can be healed.

Teach me that the first door God wants me to open to Him is my heart. Help me see that God has named this mysterious part of me that contains all my feelings as being my heart; help me understand that this is the area where all my emotions reside. Make it clear to me that this Biblical term, heart, is in reference to this area that represents who I am now; it does not think logical thoughts; it just gives me feelings based on certain past experiences and current belief systems. Address the issues of my heart in this course and in the next course, Submitting Your Attitudes and Character.

Jesus, help me understand that the heart is more powerful and influential than my mind. It can make me do things I really don’t want to do; and, it can keep me from doing things I do want to do. But, before You take me into the major aspect of the heart, take me into a look at where it fits in with the rest of me. Help me examine the other parts of me that I have been having to deal with.

Help me start looking at myself this way:

• A spirit being is WHAT I am; it CAN base its decisions on spiritual concepts.


• My mind is WHO I am becoming; it bases its decisions on reasoning and logic.


• My heart is WHO I am now and HOW I live now; it bases its decisions on feelings and emotions.


• My body is WHERE I live; it bases its decisions on selfish, self-centered, and pleasure oriented experiences.

Jesus, teach me the emotional assignment from God for my heart: Mark 12:30 (NIV) Love the Lord your God WITH all your HEART.... Make it clear to me that love is the connection between me and God; all my relationships with Him will flow through the connection of love. Show me what it would be like if I didn’t have words to use so I could communicate my thoughts and feelings to others; that would be terrible! Teach me that God uses love like I use words; He does things with me and for me so I will be able to feel and understand how much He loves me.

Jesus, I have had people say things to me that they didn’t mean. I have had people to try to gain my trust and then abuse it. All their words and all their efforts were just to fool me into believing they were my friend. Teach me that God doesn’t just SAY He loves me, He ACTS on the basis of love; He DOES things that prove how much He loves me. John 3:16 (NIV) For God so loved the world THAT HE GAVE His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Teach me that this is the major way my heavenly Father wants to talk to me. He wants to communicate with me by DEMONSTRATING His love; He wants to bless, heal, deliver, and meet my needs.

Jesus, if I only spoke English and my friend only spoke German, show m that, that is the kind of problem I will struggle with the most with God. He speaks love and I typically speak and mainly only understand the language of my body, the world, and sometimes I may even speak the language of the devil. Teach me that God is actually talking to me ALL THE TIME; but, I have a hard time receiving and understanding His message. Show me how I am going to learn this language of love so I can carry on a conversation with my heavenly Father.

Jesus, You dealt with some people who wouldn’t involve themselves in the language of love; so, tell me, in You own words, how my heart works so I can speak and understand the love language with God. Help me let You show me a group of people who SUBMITTED themselves to evil. They thought they were in a very special relationship with God. But, they had drawn up their own set of rules for how to communicate with God and how to please Him.

Jesus, You were talking to a group who had developed their own langage; now help me understand what You said: Mat 12:34-35 (NIV) You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil SAY anything good? For OUT OF THE OVERFLOW OF THE HEART THE MOUTH SPEAKS. The GOOD man brings GOOD things out of the GOOD STORED UP in him, and the EVIL man brings EVIL things out of the EVIL STORED UP in him. Jesus, make it clear to me that this is a vital peace of information You are giving me here. It is a truth that I MUST understand, if I am going to see my life changed.

Jesus, You diagnosed these people as BEING a “brood of vipers.” Why?

• You said it because they lacked the ability to say anything good. Now show me why they couldn’t say anything good.


• They couldn’t say anything good because THEY were evil. Now show me why they were they evil.


• They were evil because evil had been STORED UP in their hearts. Now show me why evil was STORED UP in their hearts.


• Evil was stored up in their hearts because they CHOSE to EXPOSE themselves to evil things.

Thank You Jesus! I see it now. Help me see that my issues with spirituality can be fixed by You, if I will allow You to empower me to EXPOSE myself to all the right things. Show me that this is why these studies are so important, I am now allowing You to expose me to Your wonderful teaching. Teach me that this exposure is storing wonderful, powerful, and miraculous things inside me. Make it clear to me that, that storage will express itself as it comes out of my heart and through my mouth.

Jesus, teach me a new, wonderful, love language. As I learn this new love language, let it change my whole life. Teach me that the more I expose myself to Your wonderful truths, the more I take the steps into LIVING out the language of love. I won’t just say loving things, I will be and do loving things.

• STEP ONE: Jesus, I CHOOSE to EXPOSE myself to good things such as You and Your Word.


• STEP TWO: Jesus, as I choose to expose myself to good things such as You and Your Word, let me STORE them in my heart.


• STEP THREE: Jesus, as I store good things in my heart, let it flow out of my mouth as the language of love.


• STEP FOUR: Jesus, as the language of love flows out of my mouth, let it empower me to LIVE a good, successful, and victorious life.

Jesus, make it clear to me HOW this works. Show me that as I expose myself to these Biblical principles, THEY get stored up in my HEART. As THEY get stored up, they change the way I talk. As they change the way I talk, THEY turn me into the kind of person I need and want to be. PLUS, THEY teach me how to understand and speak the love language that my heavenly Father speaks. That means I have opened the door of my heart to God. BUT, help me see that my heart ALREADY HAD wrong, bad, and evil things STORED in it. Show me that this submission training from You has to drive that out.

Jesus, make it clear to me that my heart is who I am NOW because it MAKES me be, talk, and live out those things I have stored up in it. And, most of the time I have stored up a mixture of good and bad things in my heart through mixed exposure. Show me that it is because of what I have exposed myself to and what has been stored in my heart, there are times when I treat myself and others good, and there are times when I mistreat myself and others. Help me understand that the big question is, what am I going to do about all those things I am exposing myself to?

Jesus, help me see that there are times when I do good things to people but I do them with selfish motives in my heart. I say and do nice things in order to get people to do what I want them to do. Teach me that God doesn’t consider me manipulating people as being a GOOD thing; teach me that, that is a language that sounds like love but isn’t.

Jesus, help me see that it is important for me to understand the word “good;” there are people who think they just need to go around doing good deeds, and that would make them a Christian. You aren’t saying that all I have to do is go around being nice to people and I will be a Christian. If I “act” like a Christian or “try” to live out the Bible, it will be fake; I will be trying to be something I am not. Teach me that this too is a language that sounds like love but isn’t.

Rom 12:2 (NIV) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but BE TRANSFORMED by the RENEWING of your mind. THEN you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will. Jesus, make it clear to me that once I was born again, that made SPIRITUAL EXPOSURE work. I am exposing myself and STORING up things in a heart that can comprehend spiritual things. Show me that in order for a tree to produce oranges, it has to BE an orange tree. I can EXPOSE a weed to the same sun, soil, water, and air as an orange tree, but it will NEVER produce oranges.

Jesus, teach me what “the renewing of my mind” has to do with opening up my heart to God. Show me that my mind is like a funnel that passes things on to my heart. If my mind learns something and it makes sense to me, I will add it to the belief system of my heart. Now show me what happens to my heart, if my mind is conformed “to the pattern of this world.” Better yet, show me what happens to my heart if I “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” Teach me that in salvation, for example, I heard the gospel message and it sounded like something I would like to try. The gospel made sense to my mind so I passed it on to the belief system of my heart. Then my heart accepted it as truth and that inspired faith inside my heart so it could believe God raised Jesus from the dead. Help me understand that, that is how my mind and my heart work together.

Rom 7:22-23 (NIV) For in MY INNER BEING [spirit] I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of MY BODY, waging war against the law of MY MIND and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within MY MEMBERS. Jesus, teach me that this is the battle my mind is having to fight right now. Show me that my mind reasons, considers facts, listens to logic, weighs opposing concepts, and because it has been born again can appreciate truth. It has accepted God’s truth and is ready to live that truth. But, my body and my heart are resisting my logical, rational, reasonable, and spiritual decisions on the matter.

Jesus, make it clear to me that the reason these studies are so important for me is because I am spending time with You. You are helping my mind UNDERSTAND how God works. If You can use these studies to explain the reasoning behind Christianity to my mind’s satisfaction, it will pass this information on to the belief system of my heart. Help me understand that once my heart gets on board with me, I will have a powerful ally; BUT help me see that my heart changes very slowly and does not make its decisions based on logic. So, I let You go over the experience of salvation with me and help me see how important it is to convince my mind so that You and it can convince my heart.