SPLAGCHNIZOMAI is Greek for “moved with compassion.” Jesus was SPLAGCHNIZOMAI and healed people. Jesus was “moved with compassion” to teach people. When you look at all the usages of this word you see that Jesus was moved with compassion in just about every aspect of life he walked in. You can be too.
Being moved or led by God is not as difficult or mystical as it sounds, it can actually be done consistently. There doesn’t have to be guess work in hearing and following God. The guess work only comes in when you’re unsure of your identity or you’ve allowed your heart to be distracted by life’s circumstances.
The key is understanding that you have a new heart, because you follow God from the heart.
Unfortunately when discussing the heart, many Christians think of this verse…
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9
That was true of everyone before the resurrection of Christ, and it is currently true of those who are not born again, but it is no longer true of a child of God. It’s no longer true of someone who trusts in Jesus as their righteousness. The person that has placed their trust in Jesus for eternal life has a new heart. That’s one of the backbone promises of the New Covenant.
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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezekiel 36:26-27
This new heart is the kind of heart King David heart prayed for, a clean heart. This new heart, this new core, this new nature is after God’s nature, which is truly holy and righteous. Surely we become new creatures.
The New Heart
Living from this new heart is important because that’s where God interacts with you. As Ezekiel stated, God will give you a new heart and MOVE YOU to follow his decrees and keep his laws.
What laws? I can promise you that on this side of the cross, God is not moving you to take the proper offering to the high priest to sacrifice it, sling its blood on the altar and burn its intestines.
God’s spirit is moving you to keep the laws Jesus identified as the “whole of the law”; love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, sound and mind AND love others as you want to be loved.
To put it simply, God will pour out his love for you in your heart and move you to love others.
Your new heart is not evil and wicked like your old one, it’s clean and encoded with God’s righteousness, it knows how to follow him. Your mind may not always be aware of God’s influence but your heart is. God renews your heart but you must renew your mind. You have a part to play in following God. That’s not an obligation, that’s actually freedom.
BECAUSE YOU HAVE A NEW HEART, GOD CAN TRUST YOUR DECISION MAKING PROCESS BECAUSE HIS WISDOM IS ENCODED WITHIN YOU.
That doesn’t mean that every decision you make is exactly what God wants, but when you’re moved by love and compassion, you are more likely to do what God is leading you to do and say.
You’re free to choose what you want to do with your life.
Get The Process In The Right Order
You must align your thinking with his wisdom and instruction as you make choices, set goals, make new habits and break bad habits. When you do so, you’ll know exactly what to do.
Have you ever tried to move forward and become overwhelmed or things went wrong? You may have gotten the process out of order.
You may have identified an area in your life where you’d like to follow God, set a goal and failed to reach that goal. It may have been ministry related but it can also be in business, relationships, health…any area of life really.
Most of us start with the externals when we seek to improve areas of our life or move forward in our calling. The proper is to start inwardly.
Try this process, it can be applied in any area of life. Here’s an example of how to apply it in the area of personal relationships.
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
#1 God created me to be his child, my very existence, my purpose is to be in relationship with God.
#2 God says he’ll never leave me or forsake me.
#3 Because I’m in a loving relationship with God, and because he’s always with me, I can venture out into other relationships. I will not enter into toxic relationships because my relationship with God is healthy. I will look to how God treats me as an example of how to treat others and how to let others treat me. I will open up, communicate more and begin to enjoy healthy relationships.
#4 When I step out and get around people or attempt to strengthen a specific relationship, I will catch myself if I begin feeling insecure and remind myself that my most important relationship is safe. From that place of security I will set safe boundaries and let go of my fear and insecurity in this specific relationship. If this relationship is toxic, I will let this person go, just as God lets people go who do not want to experience his love for them in a healthy way.
Putting The New Heart and Goal Setting Togehter
You have a choice regarding what you’ll do with your life. You are not locked into a single demand from God that you must complete in order to fulfill your purpose. You are free!!
However, once you do make a mature, wise and godly decision or you choose an area of life you look forward to, you can trust that your heart will hear God…especially if your mind is full of God’s thoughts about that area of life. And even more so if you move forward in that area in compassion for others.
You may be a business owner with no formal ministry, you may be a nurse, you may be a teacher, you might be a preacher, you might be a convenient store clerk…it doesn’t matter. Whatever you do, trust that God can and will move with compassion through you toward people. Your single job is this, daily, allow God to love you and be willing to serve others in whatever arena of life you are in. It’s pretty simple, know God’s love and let that cultivate compassion toward others.
If you have a specific area you’d like to do that through, apply the 4 step process I defined earlier and move forward, in compassion…be SPLAGCHNIZOMAI!!!
