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Welcome to Gospel Truth with Andrew Wommack. Celebrating 25 years of sharing God's unconditional love and grace on television. I would like to thank Andrew and Jamie Wommack for their faithfulness in following.

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The Lord and everything that you are doing to continue to spread the gospel across the globe.

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And now, here's Andrew.

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Welcome to our Thursday's broadcast of the Gospel Truth. I'm nearing the end of my second week teaching on hardness of heart. And I tell you, this is powerful. This is something that has revolutionized my life. I believe it would do the same thing for you. And we're offering this little book on this for a gift of any amount. We have a suggested donation. They'll give that out at the end of the program. But if you'll send anything, we'll send you the book. If you could not or would not send some gift at all, we'll send you the little booklet and then we have cds, DVDs and a USB. And I've already covered a lot of material. Most people think a hardened heart is only referring to people who are God haters, people who are living a life of rebellion. But I shared from Mark chapter six that if you would be shocked to see the supernatural, then that's an indication that you have a hardened heart. Or according to Mark, chapter 8, verses 17 and 18, if you have trouble perceiving understanding spiritual things or remembering spiritual things such as scripture and stuff, it's because your heart is hardened. Those are some radical statements, but I've already covered that. We spent a whole week discussing what is a hardened heart. And this week I've been talking about what causes our heart to become hardened. And according to mark chapter six, verse 52. And it's when we consider other things than the word of God, whatever you consider, your heart becomes sensitive to whatever you fail to consider. It's not like you forget the information, but you quit being influenced by it, you become hardened to it. It doesn't dominate you anymore. And the sad fact is that we have been so focused on this natural realm, not just sin. Hebrews chapter 3 says that sin hardens our heart towards God, but. But it's not only sin, it's just whatever you are considering. If you are dominated by something that isn't sin, but if you are so focused on it, it will harden your heart towards the Lord. And so we've been talking about that and today I want to go to something that is one of the most profound things that the Lord has ever spoken to me. I've never Heard anybody say it in exactly the same way. But it's talking about Abraham. I used him as an example yesterday. And let me just read some of these verses here in Hebrews chapter 11. This is what people call the Hebrews hall of faith, you know, like a hall of fame. And it's talking about Abraham and Sarah. And in verse 8, this is Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8. By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out unto a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same. For he looked for a city which hath foundation whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also, Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she she judged him faithful. Who had promised, therefore sprang there even of one in him as good as dead. So many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims and on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And look at this in verse 15. You probably don't have this marked in your Bible, but this is worth marking. This is worth taking special notice of talking about Abraham and Sarah in. In Hebrews 11:15. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, and they might have had opportunity to have returned. Boy, that is powerful. Again, this. Some people read this and think, well, what is so special about this? This is saying that for them to go back to Ur of the Chaldees would have been sin for them because God told them to leave Ur of the Chaldees, to leave all of their family, their kindred and stuff. And Abram understood this to such a degree that when it came time for him to select a wife for his son Isaac, he wouldn't let his servant get one from the local area. He sent them back to another place. He did not. But he would, he says, under no circumstances, if the woman won't come with you, do not let Isaac go back there. They understood that God told them to literally forsake that and to have nothing to do with it. And this verse is saying, if they had been mindful of you know, that's just obvious what this is saying. If their mind had been full of that country from which they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. Returning for them would have been sin. So putting all this together, you can say it this way, that since they weren't even mindful, since they didn't think about doing anything contrary to God's word, they weren't even tempted to sin. They didn't have an opportunity because they weren't mindful. If they had been mindful, if they had been thinking about it, well, then they would have had an opportunity to sin, to go back to Ur of the Chaldees. So here's the way I say this. You can't be tempted with something that you don't think. That is one radical truth. And I think that most people don't believe that. Most people think, I didn't, I didn't think for the. I didn't pursue this. But you somehow, you can't go anywhere in your physical body or in your emotions that you haven't already been in your mind. It's like if you were in a mine or something. You can't just walk through the dirt and the rock. You have to dig out a place. You have to excavate and remove that dirt before you can step into that place. You can't go anywhere in your physical body that you haven't already been in your mind. So therefore controlling your thoughts as this is talking about, if they had been mindful, if their thoughts had gone back to Ur of the Chaldees, they would have been tempted to go back. But since they weren't mindful, then they weren't even tempted. You know, we have people come to our Bible school all of the time and God speaks to them and they see an opportunity to understand and learn things about the Lord. And so they leave from wherever they live and they come to Colorado to go to our Bible college. And did you know, it doesn't always just everything work out perfectly. Sometimes when they get here, they can't find a job, so they're struggling financially. Some of them have left family and they're missing family. Some of them, when they get here, they've come from a warm climate and this is a cold climate and they don't like that. They miss the beach. You know, I love the mountains more than I love the beach. But there are some people that love the beach more than the mountain. And anyway, they get to thinking about where they came from and they get to thinking about boy back there. It was Warm. Back there at least I had a job back there, I had a house that I had lived in. And back there I had all my family. And if you start thinking, thinking like that and thinking about what you've given up, then you will be tempted, you will be drawn back to those things. But what should happen is, is if God tells you to do something, you go there and you just forget the things that are behind. Is what Paul said over in Philippians chapter three. And you don't think on any of those things. You know, Jamie and I, when we got married, we were raised in the Baptist church. And one of the things that the Baptist church taught so strongly is that the most important decision you will ever make in your life outside of being born again is to the person that you're going to marry. And so boy, we both entered into this decision to get married and we prayed about it long and hard until we were absolutely assured. And so my point is that divorce is just off our radar. I actually had an uncle that when I brought Jamie down to meet him, he told me, he says boy, you're a wommack and wommacks don't get divorces. Now you may disagree with all that and I'm not condemning anybody who has had a divorce, but that was just the way that my family. You just don't get a divorce. Anytime you put two people together there's going to be some friction there. But you know what, we just never considered it. But today there are people that before they get married they sign a prenuptial agreement about how they will dissolve all of their assets and separate them in case they get a divorce. If you go into it like that, if that is on your radar, if it's an option, I can guarantee you God is the devil is going to push you until you come to a crossway roads where you have to make a decision. But if you just make that decision before you ever get into it, that look, there is no option man. I'm never changing, I'm never going to leave nor forsake Jamie. I don't care what happens. And you make that kind of a decision, it makes your life so much easier. We have to get to a place that just like Abraham and Sarah, they never thought of the country that they left. They were very wealthy in that country and yet when they came into this land they were nomads. They didn't have a certain dwelling place. There was times that Abimelech came and told Abraham to get out of the place and leave them alone. They went through a lot of hardship. They had a lot of things happen to them. And if they would have been like most people, they would have sat down and thought about, well, it was better back here. But you have to get to a place to where you just don't consider anything other than what God's word says. You know, God's word says that by his stripes you were healed. He wishes above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. And on and on and on. I could go. You can get so focused on that that honestly, you don't ever consider anything else. You know, people have come along and. And they've said things like, well, what's your family history? Well, my dad died. He actually died when I was two years old, but he was raised from the dead. And he. He died and stayed dead when I was 12 years old. And it was heart problems, artery problems and stuff like that. And anytime I've ever had to fill out a questionnaire with a doctor, they always ask you about that. And the moment that they see that my dad had heart problems, then they immediately start projecting those same things on you. But, but, you know, my mother lived to be 96, and her heart was just fine. She was healthy as a horse. Why don't they ever look at that side? But see, the point is, many people that they, they come along and people will start showing these negative things and they start going there in their thoughts, they start going there in their mind, and they see, well, this is a problem that runs in my family. And they consider this, and then they wonder why all of a sudden they're having some of these physical problems. You can't be tempted with what you don't think. And I know that there's people watching this, that you just disagree with that and you're rejecting it straight out of hand. But this is exactly what this verse is saying. If they had been mindful of that country they came out of, then they would have had opportunity to return. You can turn around and say it this way. If they were not mindful, then they weren't even mindful. Tempted. They didn't have an opportunity. You can't be tempted with what you don't think. So therefore, we need to control the things that our. That we think upon. You do not have to just allow the sewage of this world to flow through you. Every television set that I've ever seen, every phone that I've ever seen, you can control those things. You can choose what you want to watch and what you don't watch, what you read and what you don't read. And yet the average person just lets the sewage of this world flow through them and thinking, well, I. That's not for me, I'm not going to do that. But it's so much better not to even consider these things, man. I could give you thousands of examples in my life of how this has played out, but God, I mean, I've just made some decisions that I'm going to hesitant to share with you because not everybody's to the place that I am, but I've made some decisions that I just. There's certain things that I don't consider. There's things that aren't an option to me. They may be an option to you and that's the reason that you struggle with them, but. But I just don't have those things. You know, way back in 1968, I had an encounter with the Lord that just revolutionized my life. And I made some decisions back then and I just made a decision that whatever God says to me to the best of my ability, I'm going to do it. And I mean, I have lived that to the best of my ability. I'm not saying I've done it perfectly, I've made mistakes, I've misunderstood and stuff, but there's not a time that I can think of that God told me to go this direction. And I said, no, I'm going to go that direction. Since 1968, I just made an absolute unconditional surrender. I ran up a white flag and man, it just makes your life easy when you do that. Once you know what God has told you to do, you just do it regardless of what the consequences are. I remember when Covid came out and the governor of Colorado threatened. Well, he didn't just threaten, he did sue me twice, and I sued him twice. And he said he was going to arrest me and they sent a cease and desist order and if I didn't obey it, they, they were going to come and arrest me. And man, I didn't like that. And I remember Jamie saying, I hate this. And I said, well, I hate it too. But you know, what was I going to do? I'm not going to sit there and know that God told me to do this. And yet I'm going to obey some governor or a president or a city council member or anybody. I'm not going to obey anybody if it makes me disobey God. I made that decision back 57 years ago and it just makes my life Real easy. I didn't like it. If I would have been one that considered, well, maybe I could go this direction. But what would happen if I just compromised here? Would we still be able to do this? I made those decisions 57 years ago, and it just makes it so easy for me now. I just do what I know God tells me to do, regardless of what the consequences are. You know, there are some people that will see in God's word that you are supposed to do this. You're supposed to take a stand on something. Like, for instance, I can remember during COVID I had a male nurse come to me and he said that his hospital where he worked was going to fire him if he didn't take the COVID vaccine. And I said, well, do you think you're supposed to? And he said, no, God told me not to take it. And I said, well, then don't take it. And then he started telling me, but if I don't take it, then they're going to fire me. I've had all of this training. I'm going to lose it. I'm going to lose my nursing license. I. And he just went on and named thing after thing. How am I going to make it? How about, how am I going to live? How am I going to support my wife and kids? And he started naming all of these things, like dominoes, domino effect, if I don't do what they say. And he says, so what do you think? And I said, you lost me the moment you said God told you not to do it. If God told you not to do it, just don't do it. And who cares what the results are? But see, a person who will sit there and say, well, I know God wants me to do this, but if I do it, this is going to happen. This person's going to reject me. I could lose my retirement. I could lose my job. I could. No, if God tells you to do something, you just salute and say, yes, sir, and you do it. And that simplifies everything. You don't consider what could happen. You just do what God tells you to do and. And forget what the consequences are. John Quincy Adams, our sixth President of the United States, said that duty is ours, results are God's. I think that's great wisdom. We just need to do what God tells us and not worry about the outcome. God told Abraham and Sarah not to go back to Ur of the Chaldees. And they were so focused on it, they weren't even mindful. They never thought about what they left all of their Comforts, all of their friends, all of the things that could have happened. They were focused only upon God. And because of that, they were never even tempted to go back. Well, I could be a great man of faith if I was never tempted to do anything else, man, I could. I could do anything. If I never had any tempting in, any, any temptation, any fears, any reservations about it, so could you. So the key isn't that we need more faith, it's that we need less. Considering all of this other stuff that has just polluted us today, I believe that this generation of Christians is more plugged into the world, into the negative, into all of the ungodly stuff that's going on in the world than any generation of Christians that have ever lived on this earth. Because of our technology. I mean, we get notifications every few minutes of what's going on on the other side of the world, all of the terrible things we hear all of these negative things, and we just are inundated with all of this stuff. And, you know, when I was in Vietnam, it took two weeks to get notification of what happened back in the States. I remember when they finally started bombing into Laos and we. I was close enough that I could see the Laotian border, I could see the deuce and a half's coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. And yet we couldn't fire at them because they were out of bounds. And when President Nixon finally allowed us to shoot and to start doing that, we thought, praise God, finally we're going to get to fight. They're taking the handcuffs off and we're going to win and get this thing over with. And it was two weeks later that we found out about the Kent State riots and how that back in the States all of the students were rebelling and all of the rebellion towards it, and man, it just deflated us. But, you know, we missed a lot of stuff just because it took two weeks to notify us. People, you know, back in the 17 and 1800s, it might have taken a month or more before they heard things. So all of the insignificant negative things that were going on daily, they just missed it. They didn't hear about it unless it was one of the major things. But today we are just inundated with all of this bad news every single day, all of the negative things that are happening. And then we wonder why we're discouraged. Why is it that it's hard to have hope? It's because we hear so much hopelessness. We hear so much negative all of the time. Now, again, I'm not saying that we become like a ostrich and put our head in the sand and bury our head and just try and ignore that there are negative things out there and we need to, to some degree be aware of what's going on. But we don't need to be just baptized in it and immersed in it the way that most of us are. And our kids, man, this I. It probably could be amplified for our kids. They get to. I've seen statistics that they say that the average kid spends anywhere up to 10 hours a day on their phone and on their different devices. Man. It's impossible for you to have a sensitive heart to God and spend five or ten hours a day on your electronic devices drinking in the sewage of the world. And then you're going to be sensitive to God. And I know that that may be offensive to people, but that's the truth. It's tight, but it's right. If you're going to have a sensitive heart to the Lord, you're going to have to spend time, quantity and quality time focused on the Lord. Whatever you focus on, you become sensitive to. Whatever you neglect. You don't have to reject it and disown it. Say, I don't believe it anymore, just neglect it. And you will become insensitive to that. That's what I learned through this hardness of heart. And so this has encouraged me to just be more focused on God than ever before. And it just is an automatic thing. Whatever your heart, whatever you feel focus on the most, your heart becomes sensitive to it, dominated by it. And whatever you neglect, your heart just starts becoming insensitive to it. And if you can understand this principle and understand what we're talking about, then it makes the cure real simple. We just have to turn around and start focusing on God with everything we've got. And as you do that, it will change your heart and you'll begin to start understanding and perceiving and remembering and things will start working in your life. It really is this simple. It's not necessarily easy. The hardest thing you're going to ever do is unplug from this world. You'll feel like Adam and Eve, that I'm missing out on something. There's the knowledge of evil that I don't know about. That was the temptation way back in the Garden of Eden. And it's going to be. It's not going to be easy. It'll be hard for you to just get to where you focus on God and quit letting all of this junk that everybody else is focused on dominate you. You know, I've missed a lot over the last 57 years. I don't know a lot about sports, I don't know a lot about movies, songs. Just a lot of things that other people watching this program know. And it's not that it's sin, but I've missed out on all that. I've missed out on depression, sickness, disease. I've seen my son and my wife raised from the dead. I've missed a lot. Amen. And I'm glad I did. So I encourage you to please get this Teaching I've got this book entitled Hardness of Heart for a gift of whatever you can give. This little booklet on hardness of heart is just a brief summary of the larger teaching and it'll be sent to you free and postpaid if you request it. And then we have cds, DVDs and this is a USB that will have the audio and video on it. So please listen to our announcer as he gives you information about how you can receive these products and please call or write today.