It’s A Season of Heart Testing
A Word by Madeline James
Have you been feeling the heat and pressure lately? Welcome to promotion season! I’ve come to learn over the years, promotion is not really about the next position or title, its about the heart.
It’ s about where your heart is, and where it will go. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” What this scripture is saying is, what is in your heart will lead and guide you. It will direct you, whether you realize it or not. Sometimes we’ll be lead a certain direction and not always realize, or will have a certain reaction because of what’s in our hearts. Other versions of this verse above say, “Guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.”The Hebrew word for heart is leb. It means inner man, mind, will, seat of emotions and passions. The Hebrew word for the flow of springs is towtsa’ah. It means outgoing, boundary, a source, issues. What are the issues or outgoings of your heart?
When we don’t guard or check our hearts, our flow or outgoing source can become contaminated. God will allow the testings to come to expose whats there. Sometimes we see it as cruel, but really its His love protecting us. He’s allowing the hidden things to be exposed so it doesn’t give the enemy an open door in our lives in that moment or down the road. David prayed in Psalm 139:23 TPT, “God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares.” On a daily basis we have to invite the Holy Spirit to search us, because he is the spirit that searches all things. When we don’t allow the Lord to test and sift us, we can’t be proven. To be proven one must be tested. To walk in the new we must be sifted and tested.
Another reason why we must guard our hearts, is because the pathways of God reside in our hearts. Psalm 37:31 TPT says, “The ways of God are in their hearts and they won’t swerve from the paths of steadfast righteousness.” The pathways of God or the pathway of life is found in Him. We become more aware of Him and His pathways when the eyes of our heart (Ephesians 1) becomes illuminated. When we have unresolved issues, emotions, or things that cloud the eyes of our understanding it affects the way we see. Some of you have been wondering why you haven’t been dreaming like you used or discerning correctly. There’s some things you need to resolve in your heart in this season. And it will also cause us to go down pathways God did not mark out for us. There is only true satisfaction and resurrection life when we follow His ways, Psalm 16:11 ESV declares, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, at your hand are pleasures forever more.”
In this season of promotion, acceleration, and ascending to greater heights, it’s important to discern the snares and traps of the enemy as you go higher. By definition a snare is a trap, a trap that uses a noose, entangled, or any type of trap. The Lord gave me a prophetic dream a couple months ago that describes this season. In the dream I was staying at the house of a prophet, and there were others also residing there in the dream. I woke up in the morning in the dream, and went up the stairs. At the top of the stairs I was talking to one of the other prophets of the house, when suddenly we started to smell something awful. I turned on the hall light, and it revealed there was dog feces everywhere in the hallway and up the stairs. I checked my feet to make sure I hadn’t stepped in the feces and I haven’t. I was relieved.
Prophetically in a negative light, dogs can represent those who turn on you or those who try to tear you apart with their mouth (words). Dog feces can represent offense or stepping into offense. The stairs in the dream represent going higher, and the hallway is a place of transition. In the dream I had no idea there was dog feces all around me until the light was turned on. The enemy tried to set traps for me in the darkness to step into, but the Lord guided each step so I didn’t step into offense. As you ascend higher in this season of promotion, be discerning of the snares and traps of the enemy. Everyone will not celebrate or be happy about your promotion. The enemy will try to trip you up by getting you offended by those who are offended at your promotion. Don’t take the bait. Go low, Stay low, Stay in love, Stay unoffendable. In this season of promotion the Lord is testing your heart all the way to the top. He’s allowing the word of the Lord to test you, refine you, and prove your character. Until the time that Joseph’s word of prophecy about his brothers came to pass, the word of the Lord tested and refined him (Psalm 105:19).
~Prophet Madeline James
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