The Hardness of Heart series deals with the crisis, the cause, and the cure for a hardened heart. A hard heart is simply a heart that is more sensitive to other things than to God. It is caused by what we focus our attention on, and it dictates the level of unbelief in our lives.

welcome to gospel truth with Andrew

Wommack a teaching ministry that focuses

on God’s unconditional love and grace

and now here’s Andrew today I’m going to

begin a series that I think is really

going to be a blessing to you

if this touches your life half as much

as it has impacted me this is going to

be one of those major revelations that

just is life transforming about

20-something years ago the Lord spoke

some things to me about my heart and one

of the things he told me was that I had

a hardened heart and this is what I’m

going to begin to start talking about is

about a hardened heart what having a

hardened heart is the crisis and then

we’re going to talk about what causes it

and then we’re going to talk about the

cure for it and I tell you this has

become one of the foundational things

that God has taught me and it has just

transformed my life this is a truth that

I apply to my life every single day

I am constantly monitoring whether my

heart is focused on the things of God

whether I’m becoming more sensitive to

God or whether I’m neglecting the things

of God and thereby becoming hardened and

this is just the truth that I use every

single day of my life and I really

believe that this is going to have that

kind of an impact on you so I really

want to encourage you to go to the

effort of watching these programs of

course you can go to our web site and

you can get all of my programs you can

even watch them in advance on the

website but you could get this entire

teaching or you can get our materials

but this is a teaching that every single

person needs to understand and one of

the reasons that I’m placing it on our

television teaching in the sequence that

I have is because I have really been

ministering very hard on the grace of

God talking about how God loves us

independent of our performance and of

course this is something I’m always

teaching on this is what changed my life

and you know some people could abuse

that teaching and think well well the

grace of God since God loves me in

despite of how holy I am therefore it

doesn’t matter whether I live in sin

whether I seek God whether I pray

whether I study the word and some people

could abuse that now I really can’t

relate to that because there is a

scripture in Titus chapter 2 verse 12

says the grace of God teaches us to deny

ungodliness and worldly lust if you

really understand the teaching of grace

grace does not encourage sloppy living

some people call it sloppy agape that

you know I’ve heard people criticize me

with terms like that

it really doesn’t do that if you truly

understand what I’ve been teaching the

goodness of God the grace of God God’s

unconditional love for you would make

you live holier accidentally than you’ve

ever lived on purpose and I really

believe that but I can logically

understand that I have been talking

about how God loves us independent of

our performance how that we’ve been

forgiven of all sins past present and

even future sins have been forgiven and

logically I can understand that somebody

might come to a conclusion that

therefore it doesn’t matter whether you

seek the Lord whether you pray whether

you study the word or anything because

God’s love is unconditional and this

teaching on a hardness of heart if you

put it into the proper context and

that’s one reason I’m teaching it in

sequence the way that I’m doing right

here it will show you the importance of

seeking God and living a holy life it’s

not in order to make God love you more

if you live holy God doesn’t love you

more if you live unholy God doesn’t love

you less God’s love for you is not based

on your performance but it’s based on

what Jesus did for you and if you put

your faith in Jesus then you are

accepted by God on the basis of what

Jesus did and your acceptance of that

not based on your goodness all of that

is absolutely true but does that mean

that we just therefore don’t have to

seek the Lord don’t have to do anything

don’t it doesn’t matter about what

happens no and that’s what this teaching

is going to explain is that the way your

heart

goes affects your relationship of God

here’s another way of saying it holiness

will not make God love you more a lack

of holiness won’t make God love you less

but holiness seeking God will cause your

heart to be more sensitive towards God

and unholiness will cause your heart to

become hardened towards God

holiness doesn’t change God’s attitude

towards you but it will change your

attitude towards God if you live a godly

life and seek God with all of your heart

it’s not going to make God love you any

more but it will make you love God more

now those are major points major major

points and here’s another thing I want

to bring out before I get right into the

midst of this teaching is that the way

your heart goes is the way that your

life goes now that is a very simple

thing to say and yet most people don’t

understand this and practically very few

people function that way most people are

after results like I can take a million

things this is just one example but say

for instance wait you know that is a

major deal people are making billions of

dollars off all their exercise things

their weight-loss deal their diets and

on and on and I mean the American

culture many people are watching this

program around the world are just

obsessed with trying to control their

weight it’s a big thing to most people

most people are after you know a certain

result they want to be in a certain size

dress or they want to be a certain

weight or whatever and they’re after

this results and they don’t recognize

that your weight is actually a heart

problem now there’s probably people

watching this that are going to be

offended by this immediately and start

criticizing this but you know I could

take a side road here and spend a couple

of days verifying this by scriptures

especially out of proverbs 23 verses 1

through 7 and Ecclesiastes there’s a

number of scriptures but really weight

is a heart issue and people see most

people are approaching this differently

they’re approaching it as

it’s only an organic physical thing what

they need is more exercise what they

need is to restrict certain calories

they don’t eat certain foods they will

go to extreme they will do these extreme

diets that I mean punished it’s just

amazing what people will do but the

bottom line is that proverbs 23:7 as he

thinks in his heart so is he

and you know again I could spend the

whole day I’m just going to say some

things real quickly some of you may not

agree with this and I hadn’t got time to

put it into a context where I could

convince you but let me just throw this

out if you’ll receive it this would

change your life but you know the bottom

line with being overweight is you can’t

be overweight by eating one meal it’s

not one meal that’s going to cause it

it’s not one food that’s going to cause

it it’s none of those kind of things to

be overweight you have to eat more than

your body needs and you have to do that

over and over and over and over and over

you could gorge yourself to the point

that you literally passed out from being

so full and I guarantee you might gain a

couple of pounds but to be 10 20 30 40

pounds overweight you have to do it over

and over and over and over and really if

you just trace it back to the bottom

line the bottom line to this is that

you’ve got a heart problem with me the

Lord told me that I was a glutton that I

love food I love to eat and so you know

I have decreased the amount of food that

I eat I’ve decreased as I don’t need as

often I eat anything I don’t have a

restricted diet and yet you know I’ve

been able to lose 20 pounds and keep it

off I still got more to go but I’m

saying that it’s a hard issue the

problem you see people want to go on a

diet they will punish themselves for a

week or for a month but they don’t

change their heart and the moment that

the diet is over they go back to lusting

and eating more than their body needs

more often than they need it and

eventually the weight will come back and

your body will actually feel like it was

starved and it will store up it’ll

change your metabolism and you’ll be

worse off than you were before

if you would just change your heart

issue if you would deal things with a

heart level it will eventually result in

physical outward change but see our

society today is just wanting these

results there’s people that want to win

the lottery and they want to get all

this money and think that that’s going

to solve their problems really financial

prosperity is a hard issue if you would

not spend more than you bring in if you

would discipline yourself learn to be

content with what you have and not

overspend and not get into debt when a

person gets into debt and starts paying

interest I guarantee you you are

shooting yourself in the foot

you are causing problems it really comes

back to a covetous hard issue that’s the

problem

anybody anybody could prosper in this

society we could see things happen if we

would control our lust it comes back to

a heart issue if we would live within

our means if you would spend less than

you make and do that consistently over a

long period of time anybody would

prosper there’s people that struggle

financially because they have a poverty

attitude they see themselves poor they

don’t see themselves as being somebody

who is a quality person and it can

perform at a certain level and so they

it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy

it’s actually a hard issue you know I

can give a personal testimony on this

that on January the 31st of 2002 there

was a lot of things that led up to this

over the previous couple of months but

on that day January 31st 2002 the Lord

finally got through to me that I was

limiting what he could do through me in

this ministry because I had small

thinking I had been persecuted I had

been criticized it’s like when you reach

over and pet a dog if every time you try

to pet a dog and bite you after a while

you get gun-shy about petting dogs you

become very hesitant to do it well the

Lord had put in my heart that I was

supposed to have a worldwide ministry

with a dominant influence and that the

message he’d put on my heart was going

to be major it was going to touch a lot

of people I knew that in my heart

and yet I wasn’t seeing that on the

outside we had seen growth but not like

what not consistent with what God had

put in my heart and a number of things

converged and the Lord finally spoke to

me that it was a hard issue that in my

heart I was limiting God I was afraid of

the criticism that people would come

against me with I was afraid of the

temptations that went with getting a

larger ministry and having greater

influence and the Lord dealt with me on

a heart level now in the natural see I

had been doing all kinds of things to

increase the ministry to reach out to

touch people and to generate the

finances that we needed to accomplish

all of this and I had been praying and

asking for this result but I’ve been

trying to get the end results without

changing my heart and again I go back to

that scripture proverbs 23:7 as he

thinks in his heart so is he

you’re in results the way your life is

going externally in the physical realm

is a reflection of what is going on in

your heart again some people don’t like

that because they say that you’re making

it my fault you’re saying it’s my

responsibility and that’s exactly what

I’m saying and people hate to accept

responsibility we love to push it off on

somebody and say it’s a color of my skin

it’s the fact that I don’t have this

education it’s the bias of this person

it’s my boss who is mean and that’s the

reason and you know on and on we love to

point the finger and make somebody else

responsible for the misery in our life

but the Bible says as you think in your

heart that is the way your life is going

now there can be some you know little

bumps along the way that come through

other people but ultimately your life

will go the direction of your heart

nobody can keep that from happening and

see the Lord spoke this to me I had been

praying for change for growth for

increase in finances increase in

influence getting the message out

touching more people I’d been praying

was frustrated to a large degree and the

Lord finally got it across to me that

it’s because of my heart

I had limited God Psalms chapter 78

verse 41 says in their heart they turned

back unto Egypt and tempted God and

limited the Holy One of Israel and the

Lord used that verse to show me that it

was a heart issue with me I was afraid

of a number of things he dealt with me

on that heart issue I remember it was

February the 11th of 2002 that I called

my staff together and I confessed this I

showed them what God had been speaking

to me I said I don’t know how long it

takes to change your heart I don’t know

if it’s a day a week a month a year five

years but I’m going to change and I was

just absolutely shocked when I changed

on the heart level my physical

circumstances changed so quickly that it

just literally shocked me it overwhelmed

me there was all kinds of things I again

could spend a week teaching on this I’m

trying to say these things in

introduction to this teaching about

hardness of heart but I think it’s very

important that you get this point

because again most people today are

praying for change they want this to

change they want their way to change

they want their finances to change they

want their relationships to change they

want their joy level to change they want

their relationship with God to change

they’re praying for change but they

think that it’s external it all begins

in the heart you change your heart and

then everything external will change as

a byproduct of that and so my testimony

is that when I made this heart change

within just a week of that within a

matter of days I had been trying to go

on the Daystar Network and I knew Marcus

and Joni lamb I had been on their

program I think at that time four or

five times I had talked to them about

going on their network and I don’t know

why but it just wouldn’t work out and

again I go back to that scripture

proverbs 23:7 as he thinks in his heart

so is he

you’re in results the way your life is

going externally in the physical realm

is a reflection of what is going on in

your heart

did you know within one week

of me making that statement to my staff

I got a letter from Marcus Lam and he

says you know we’ve had you on our

program as a guest we know that you’re

on television on other networks why

aren’t you on the day star network we

need you on this network and he says you

just make plans to be on we’ll work out

the details and I mean within one week

of me changing my heart this door that

I’d been knocking at for two years all

of a sudden just boom opened up and

there was a number of things that happen

we had reached a place to where Jamie

and I we had gone as far managing the

ministry as we possibly could we had

about 33 employees and I guarantee you

that was just maxing us out that’s not

my gifting is to be an administrator and

yet we were struggling about how do we

get somebody else to run our ministry

see in the past I’d had three general

managers of our ministry and I wound up

firing them all nobody less lasted over

two years and basically one of the

reasons there is multiple things but one

of the reasons is I give materials away

we make our materials available on a

donation basis we don’t deny people

access to our teaching and we had

financial problems and every manager

fought me on this you need to start

selling you need to do this and there

was just conflict and it was a different

philosophy and every person that I ever

had in here we wound up having a

different philosophical approach towards

this ministry and they wouldn’t agree

they tried to change me and that was one

of the things there’s other things but

we wound up having to fire all of these

managers so Jamie took it over she was

in agreement with me and we were doing

good as far as harmony between us but

you know it was just a struggle for us

to manage 33 people so we had been

praying and saying god we need help and

yet where do you get somebody that has

the business skills and the smarts that

you need to be able to run a

multi-million dollar of ministry and yet

is willing to give everything away where

do you find somebody with our heart that

wants to give and bless people and yet

has the financial savvy

and the the giftings to make the thing

work and we were just at a loss and we

had just talked about it within one week

of me making this heart change in

telling people I was going to change in

my heart I was going to believe God I

called a man David Hardesty who was on

my board of directors and I called him

to cancel a board meeting because I had

a death in the family and I had to go to

the funeral and as I called him in on a

Sunday morning and just told him I

wasn’t going to be able to make this

board meeting he says well I’m glad you

called because last November two or

three months before the Lord spoke to

him and his wife and says it’s time for

us to come out there and take your

ministry to the next level and David is

a man that I’ve known for many years he

had my heart he just loved the ministry

he loved what we were doing and yet he

was one of the leaders in the Sears

Corporation he actually taught in Sears

University training management he was a

high level management he had all of

these skills for 37 years Sears

Corporation trained him he had all of

the smarts that we needed but he had my

heart and I mean within one week of me

making a heart change boom here was one

of the major pieces that had to fall in

line for us to see this visible outward

change we had to have the right

personnel and David and his wife Gail

came out in 2003 and took over the

ministry and we’ve grown from 33

employees to over 200 employees in those

five years and the ministry has just

expanded the finances begin to change

and some people might think we’ll see

you went and told your people what God

had spoken to Eunice but did you know

before we ever got a letter out to my

mailing list before I ever went on

television and told about what God had

done because we make these television

programs like two months in advance and

so there’s a lead time and it takes

about two months for us to write a

letter and to get it all done and to get

it out and for it to reach the people

during those two months from the time I

made this heart change until we could

put the promotion out did you know that

February and March were both record

income

it’s for this ministry when I changed my

heart before I had the opportunity to go

on television and tell a single person

before I was able to put out a letter

and explain it to a single person before

there was any physical reason that

outward things could have changed

I mean instantly we started seeing a

huge increase and you’ve got to remember

this is right after the September the

11th terrorist attacks on the US every

major ministry that I’m aware of in the

United States when this happened people

panicked they began to start sending

money to the people who had been hurt in

these terrorist attacks people’s

attention were drawn away from Christian

television they were watching secular

television wondering where things were

going and I mean across the board every

ministry that I’m aware of

plummeted in their finances during that

period of time some of them had severe

crisis it was right after that that the

Lord spoke to me and before I had any

physical way to advertise and tell

people and generate response against the

trend of every other ministry our

finances nearly doubled just went

through the roof I’m saying all of this

to say that I can testify and this is

what the scriptures say that your heart

is the deciding factor in what is

happening external and yet most

Christians are ignoring this they’re

wanting change they’re wanting their

finances to change their marriage to

change their health to change their

relationships to change their praying

for all of these different results but

they don’t want to change at the heart

level it’s just the opposite if we would

just change our heart as you think in

your heart that’s the way that your life

is going to go and as I talk about a

hardness of heart and describe what that

is what causes it and what cures it if

you can receive this teaching it will

change you at the heart level and then

you’ll find out that change externally

will just come effortlessly if you get

your heart changed if your heart is

really sensitive and soft towards God

you’ll find out that the other change

that you need in your life is just

effortless

look at these verses in proverbs chapter

4 verse 23 he says keep thy heart with

all diligence for out of it are the

issues of life that’s basically what

I’ve been saying this entire program

that as your heart goes that’s the way

that your life is going to go most

people are saying oh no my heart’s just

fine but everything in my life is just

totally a mess out here and so they’re

praying that God will do something to

change this and change that nope as your

heart goes that’s the way your life goes

keep your heart with all diligence for

out of it are the issues of life and you

know what I’m just about out of time

today but we’re going to continue this

on our program tomorrow let me just

summarize today by saying that as I

start teaching on this subject of

hardness of heart I believe what it’s

going to do it’s going to open up a

brand-new way of approaching God instead

of approaching God on the basis of oh

god I need this done in this done in

this done and just trying to get

external things fixed if you would

approach God and say God hears my heart

and whatever it is in me that is

hindering your perfect will from coming

to past touch me on the heart level

change me at the heart level and as your

heart changes proverbs 23:7 says that’s

the way that your life will go as he

thinks in his heart so is he

Andrews complete teaching series titled

hardness of heart is available on either

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from you today

when Andrew and Jamie were young they

went to a conference on Biblical

prosperity they desperately wanted to

get the teaching but simply could not

afford it Andrew promised God that if he

was ever in a position to make his

teaching available he would never deny

it to someone for lack of funds and

that’s what motivated me really to give

is the fact that he gives us stuff away

our hearts are just tied with what

Andrews doing what he’s trying to

accomplish partnership is helping do

what I can’t do I know that I’m a part

of something so good and my gifts can

help reach the nations and the people

whoever has ears to hear they will hear

while flipping TV channels in their home

in Kathmandu Nepal Bob in Dawa Wesley

stumbled across the gospel truth

broadcast with Andrew Wommack and their

lives were changed forever when I found

out that how much God loved me in what

he did for me

I started understanding the gospel

actually desiring to fulfill God’s call

in their lives Bob and Dawa moved to

Colorado Springs and attended Karis

Bible College then it was back to Nepal

and back to work I started walking

toward my office and I started seeing

these two little boys and their feet was

cracked and you know their clothes were

really really dirty

I asked the law what do you want me to

do and the Lord said feed them with that

direction from God their ministry was

born feeding the destitute boys of

Kathmandu both physically and

spiritually

I’ve always focus on sharing the gospel

with these kids and it is only the Word

of God that changes the lives of the

people it is only the gospel

another changed life changing the world

Andrew Wommack ministries and Cara’s

Bible College