Like a Hammer

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"Is  not My word like fire? declares the Lord, "and like a hammer which shatters a rock?" Jeremiah 23:29

God said that His word is "like a hammer which shatters a rock." Theologian Albert Barnes comments on this verse: "Like a hammer, God's word rouses and strengthens the conscience and crushes within the heart everything that is evil." In the same breath, God said that His word is like fire. Theologian Matthew Henry gives his understanding of this verse. "The unhumbled heart of man is like a rock; if not melted by the word of God as a fire, it will be broken to pieces by it as a hammer."

I found these commentaries one morning when I was studying Jeremiah 23:29. Shortly after, as I proceeded to ready myself for the day, something occurred which God wittingly took advantage of and used as a teaching point. I was putting blush on my face when it slipped from my hands onto the floor. In one instant, the once-solid piece was broken into small bits. When I went to pick up the bits, the pressure from my fingers turned them into dust. I heard God speak to me right then. "With my Word, which is like a hammer, hardened hearts will be made like dust in My hands. It is only then that I can shape and mold new hearts; hearts that are soft and open to Me."

My thoughts then went to a potter that makes clay from dust particles and then shapes and molds the clay into a beautiful vessel. God Himself, in the book of Jeremiah, uses an analogy of being a potter who forms us like clay in His hands. "But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make" (Jeremiah 18:4). If the clay vessel is hard, then the potter cannot reshape it. He must take a hammer and break it down into its original form of dust particles. He then adds water to the clay, and it turns into soft, mold-able clay; clay that is easy for the potter to shape into a more beautiful and honorable vessel ("He will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work" 2 Timothy 2:21).

The heart of America has become hard like a rock. This is depicted in the US map vision at the top of my web page. Like the people in Jeremiah's day, many have said, "We are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart" (Jeremiah 18:12). I believe that God is releasing His fire upon America, which is like a hammer, in order to break it down into dust and to start new. Similarly, we read of how God took dust from the ground in Genesis 2:7 to form Adam and then He breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. I believe that God is going to breathe the resurrection life of Jesus Christ into the dead-like state of the heart of America. God is going to resurrect the heart of America! God is going to do a miracle!
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God, the potter, is going to remake the heart of America; make it like new. It will be a heart that is soft and open to Him. It will be a heart that beats with love for Him and for people--all people, whether saved or unsaved. It will be a heart that is pure and holy; set apart for Him.

DECREES

​I decree God will revive America by taking the dust-like-ashes of her heart and breathe His resurrection life into it. (Genesis 2:7, John 11:25)

I decree God will give to America a crown of beauty instead of ashes. (Isaiah 61:3)

I decree God will give to America a new heart and will put a new spirit within her. (Ezekiel 36:26)

I decree God will remove from America her heart of stone and will give to her a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)

I decree God will create in America a clean, pure heart. (Psalm 51:10)

PRAYER

Lord, search my heart and probe me. I desire to be as soft clay in Your hands; humble and open to You and Your will for my life. I give You permission to deal with the condition of my heart. Show me the areas that have been hardened by things like offense, rejection, pride or  unforgiveness. Make my heart pure like Yours. Amen.

"Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand"
Jeremiah 18:6 

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