by Tammy Phillips
September 18, 2023
“Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.”[Deu 10:16 NKJV]
It is profitable to have good friends who will call you out and hold you accountable. I was speaking to a confidant and somehow the topic of trust was woven into the conversation. I spoke my mind and in nutshell she boldly said, “Your problem is not trust. It is unforgiveness. You need to cut out some weeds in your heart.” She was not wrong.
You can imagine my happiness when I was seeking the Lord about what he wanted to say to YOU today and Deuteronomy 10:16 was the verse awaiting ME!
As a woman, the thought of physical circumcision makes me cringe. It is surgery. It requires a knife and I know it is painful. However, I also know physical circumcision serves its purpose to prevent, infection, disease, and inflammation. Who wants a spiritually diseased heart? Not me.
How do we circumcise our spiritual heart? How do we get rid of the filth?
- Agree to the spiritual surgery.
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, And take away the foreskins of your hearts… [Jer 4:4 NKJV]
- Don’t be stiff-necked any longer.
“Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers [were, but] yield yourselves to the LORD; and enter His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God…” [2Ch 30:8 NKJV emphasis]
Do you know that the Lord talks about stiff necks eighteen times in His word? A “stiff-neck” is stubborn, inflexible, obstinate, proud, unbending, strong willed, unwavering, resolute, and hardheaded concerning things of the flesh, like unforgiveness, pride, lying, drunkenness, excessive lust for anything, sexual immorality, quarreling, jealousy, idolatry, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, or division. It is the “I-am-going-to-do-what-I-want-to-do” attitude with no regards to God’s will or His right way.
- Ask the Lord for help to rend and till up the ground of our heart?
“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for [it is] time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you” [Hos 10:12 KJV]
“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, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. [Joe 2:12-13 NKJV emphasis]
The flesh, our flesh, can hold on to some deep-seated, deep-rooted weeds. For example, when we know someone has been manipulative with ill intentions, when we are deeply hurt, when we have been lied to, betrayed, or called slander by the slanderer, unforgiveness is hard! This is just a few examples of when we need to turn to the Lord and ask Him to help weed out the disease of unforgiveness and offense that we have allowed to grow. Jesus forgave. Jesus lived a sinless life. It is only in returning to him that we can get rid of the weeds that hold us back from flourishing.
- Pick up a knife and rend the heart.
Time for surgery to rid the weeds. Rend means to tear away, cut off, and separate. We must cut away any part of our heart that is after the things of the flesh, be dedicated totally to God and the things of the Spirit. Our spiritual knife for surgery if the word of God.
“For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”[Heb 4:12 KJV]
Let’s just say the word of God cuts right to, and through the heart of the matter.
“Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” [Jas 1:21 NKJV emphasis]
- Do not conform; be transformed.
In life, it takes more than being given a command to change. It takes transformation on the inside. It is the word of God that transforms the heart, loosens the neck, and saves the soul. It is Him, all Him.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what [is] that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” [Rom 12:2 NKJV]
- Receive His promises and heal.
“And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. [Deu 30:6 NKJV]
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do [them]. … 29 “I will deliver you from all your uncleanness.” [Eze 36:26-27, 29 NKJV]
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, [Col 2:11 NKJV]
I enCOURAGE you with the bold words of Stephen and Moses “you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit.” [Act 7:51 NKJV] “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff-necked no longer! ” It took a good friend to strongly admonish me. I am circumcising my heart with her words and the word of God. And, passing them on to you.
For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh…[Phl 3:3 NKJV]
Viva Magenta: Live! Breathe! Be stiff necked no more!
Complete in Him 