Insights from Pastor Nicky Raiborde
“The healthier you are, the healthier you will process revelation, and the healthier you will be able to love and minister in a way that is encouraging and edifying so that people are built up…” Pastor Nicky reiterated to the School of Prophetic Ministry students that he taught earlier this year.
He continued to share how we can keep our hearts healthy as we lean on the Holy Spirit daily.
1. Ask for a fresh deposit of the Father's love daily.
In Jude 1:21 (NKJV), the Bible says, “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
Pastor Nicky calls the process of walking in the Father’s love a Love Walk. He describes this in four stages:
Receiving and growing in the height, depth, length, and width of the Father's love. (John 15:9, 1 John 4:19)
Receiving the Father's love for Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. (John 17:26)
Loving yourselves by the Holy Spirit, (Matthew 22:39 - not self-reliance or arrogance but a healthy love)
Loving others in attitude and action. (John 13:34-35)
The Holy Spirit is the agent that pours the love of the Father in our hearts, bringing life transformation.
2. Get a proper image of who you are and who God is.
In Colossians 3:10 (Amplified Version), Paul said to the church “…put on the new [spiritual] self who is being continually renewed in true knowledge in the image of Him who created the new self.”
Every problem in life, Pastor Nicky said, comes down to either of these two things being distorted, whether it is in marriage, finances, people or any other situation. When our image of ourselves is wrong, we will start to entertain lies and we will start to perform and prove that we are better than others or use the Word of God in a negative manner.
3. Be aware and guard yourself against the enemy's attacks.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 – “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”
These verses reveal four ways that the enemy seeks to attack us as believers – in our emotions (hard-pressed), our minds (perplexed), through people (persecuted) and by attacking our hope and purpose (struck down).
4. Keep your heart and mouth in check.
2 Corinthians 4:13 – “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.”
Romans 10:8-10 – “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Notice the sequence of the Scripture, two times the word “mouth” comes before “heart”, then finally the word “heart” comes before “mouth”. The principle here, Pastor Nicky said, is that we are to keep using our mouth to fill our heart to the point that our heart is so full that it now speaks forth what is needed.
Wash your heart every day with the word, take the Scriptures and fill your heart with them as you confess it with your mouth.
5. Stay accountable.
In his years of ministry, Pastor Nicky shared that he has met so many people who have inflicted hurt on him – either in their responses to prophetic words or because of words spoken out of wounds, insecurity, or a lack of understanding. We are bound to be hurt in church and he recommends finding mentors and people we can talk to who can hold us accountable and speak into our lives. These people should be able to help us examine and process the content of our heart and our soul.
The Bible tells us to guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of it flows the issues of life. In the words of Pastor Dian, you don’t go to soldier class for three days and walk out a champion. The journey of living whole is lifelong, and we can be intentional about maintaining a healthy heart as we grow and sharpen each other in this spiritual family.
Click here to read part one of Ministering From A Healed Heart.