True Rending of the Heart

Takes Place on the Knees

By Bonnie Jones

September 2019

Recently the Lord showed me that the church at large has a wounded knee. And if their knee is wounded a Christian can’t walk properly nor can they kneel to pray. The severity of the wound can determine the distance one can become separated from the Lord. Scarring is a natural part of the healing process. And until a wound is healed and becomes a scar the separation can go from a baby step to a giant one. 

The knee joint is one of the strongest and most important joints in the human body. It allows the lower leg to move relative to the thigh while supporting the body’s weight. Movements at the knee joint are essential to many everyday activities, including walking, running, sitting and standing. Often when the knee is injured there is swelling and stiffness, weakness or instability, the inability to fully straighten the knee and often it becomes red and warm to the touch. All of these are signs of inflammation that affect our ability to walk, run, bend and kneel properly while experiencing pain. Without daily intimacy with the Lord Christians can become puffed up in pride (1 Corinthians 4:6), stiff-necked (Exodus 3:3) and weak. (Matthew 26:41)

Kneeling At The Cross

Then this morning He said, “True rending of the heart takes place on the knees.” I believe many Christians have forgotten the importance of kneeling. Perhaps many are unable to kneel due to age or health issues but that’s not the point. It’s the kneeling at the cross that takes place in our heart. It’s a bowing of our mind
 as the old nature departs. It’s coming to the Lord in humility and repentance daily. It’s allowing the Holy Spirit to search our heart for everything that’s contrary to the heart of the Father. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?” And the next verse gives us the answer, “I the Lord search the mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. God wants our heart to be in perfect alignment with His however we must initiate momentum on our own behalf. It’s the rending of our contrite heart (James 4:8a) that brings us nearer to God.  

Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery]. (James 4:8 AMPC) 

Rending Of The Heart

We should compare the rending of our heart to that of the priests, prophets and kings in scripture. The tearing of one’s clothes is an ancient tradition among the Jews, and it is associated with mourning, grief and loss. The first mention of someone tearing his garments is in Genesis. When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes (Genesis 37:29). A short time later, Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days when he thought that Joseph had been killed. (Genesis 37:34) Other biblical examples of men who tore their clothes to express pain and sorrow include David when Saul and Jonathan were killed (2 Samuel 1:11-12); Elisha when Elijah was taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:11-12); Job when he was bereft of all he possessed (Job 1:20); Mordecai when he learned of Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews (Esther 4:1); Ahab when Elijah pronounced judgment against him (1 Kings 21:27); and Paul and Barnabas when the people of Lystra began to worship them (Acts 14:14).

If the knee is wounded, our walk will be off balance and possibly cause us to limp. It will most definitely cause one to lag behind and until the wound is healed it remains a painful experience. Healing the church’s knee is a process and each Christian has its own responsibility. According to (2 Corinthians 6:16) we are a temple of the living God therefore our daily prayer should be “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; test my heart and my mind.” (Psalm 26:2), Therefore it is our responsibility to cleanse ourselves from anything that contaminates us in body or spirit. And we can only do this through fellowship with God. 

(2 Corinthians 7:1) Therefore, since these [great] promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates and defiles body and spirit, and bring [our] consecration to completeness in the [reverential] fear of God.

Rending Of The Heart 

Through Communion

When we humble our self before God asking Him to examine us thoroughly and then repent from our unrighteous thoughts, deeds or actions, we begin the healing process. That’s why I personally find it important to take communion daily according to 1 Corinthians 11:26-32. Many years ago the Lord taught me the importance of self-examination through Paul’s personal experience. If we eat of His flesh and drink of His blood in an unworthy manner we are guilty of sinning against the body and blood of Jesus. (Verse 27) Therefore I ask the Lord to search me and show me anything that offends Him or any area of my life that I need to change so I’m in perfect alignment with Him. (Verse 28) I don’t want anything that’s not of Him yet I desire all things that are of Him. 

²⁶ For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are representing and signifying and proclaiming the fact of the Lord’s death until He comes [again].

²⁷ So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in a way that is unworthy [of Him] will be guilty of [profaning and sinning against] the body and blood of the Lord.

²⁸ Let a man [thoroughly] examine himself, and [only when he has done] so should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

²⁹ For anyone who eats and drinks without discriminating and recognizing with due appreciation that [it is Christ’s] body, eats and drinks a sentence (a verdict of judgment) upon himself.

³⁰ That [careless and unworthy participation] is the reason many of you are weak and sickly, and quite enough of you have fallen into the sleep of death.

³¹ For if we searchingly examined ourselves [detecting our shortcomings and recognizing our own condition], we should not be judged and penalty decreed [by the divine judgment].

³² But when we [fall short and] are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined and chastened, so that we may not [finally] be condemned [to eternal punishment along] with the world.

Paul states that anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the Lord’s body eats and drinks judgment on him or herself. And that’s why many are sickly and fall into death. (Verses 29 &30) When He shines light on the error of my way, I quickly repent. I desire to have clean hands and a pure heart so I can stand in His holy place. In doing so I place myself in position to receive the blessings of the Lord. (Psalm 24:3-6) 

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah (Psalm 24:3-6)

Personally I feel communion is greatly overlooked in the church and perhaps that’s why it’s become so liberal and immoral. But each Christian is responsible for his/her own intimate relationship with the Lord. Coming to Christ daily according to 1 Corinthians 11 will most definitely keep you in right standing with God and it will keep you humble and contrite in spirit. (Psalm 51:17)

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

Your Scar Is A Badge Of Courage

I believe that as Christians begin to rend their hearts in humility allowing the Holy Spirit to search their soul and they in turn repent, wounded knees will be healed. Then scars will form and the enemy won’t have access to the wound again. Bob Jones would always say that a scar is your badge of courage. After all only the Lord knows the secrets of the heart so when He reveals it to us, why not repent and receive your badge of courage?  I believe that the body will fully heal when Christians remember that He was wounded for our transgressions and by His stripes we were healed. So let us daily look to the cross on bended knee and rend our heart. His blood was poured out through His wounds, now let us bear the scars and be totally healed. 

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)