Day 10

Inner Narrative Pleasing God

I’m glad you are reading about developing a godly inner-narrative. These thoughts are shared so your inner-narrative would bless the God-who-indwells-you. This post is going to begin to focus on the Holy Spirit’s interaction with the meditations of our hearts (Psalm 19:14b).

We know that our Creator hears our inmost thoughts. He hears them from heaven. He hears them from where He dwells in our inner being. He hears them before we open our mouths and He experiences our thoughts before we speak them. Psalm 139 speaks to this reality.

You understand my thought from afar. (Psalm 139:2b)

Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. (Psalm 139:4)

He is so amazing!

This amazing God commanded us to love others and the Scriptures reveal that He is intently aware of the way we speak to them.

Jesus said the good man speaks what is good.

“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; … for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. (Luke 6:45)

There is an aspect of the soul that is in need of exposure, correction and empowered adjustment. Let’s look at self-condemnation and the restorative help of the Holy Spirit.

We were prophetically warned about speaking against our brothers

You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done and I kept silence; you thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes. (Psalm 50:20–21)

In the same way the LORD stood up for a slandered brother, so is He also standing up for us. He is for us. Father is mindful of how we speak in our hearts to ourselves about ourselves and may react to us. Because He is for us, He might stand against us that He might help us. He resists the proud. Our pride can show itself in self-accusation. It’s like one end of a filthy rag despising and condemning the other end of the same rag. He wants to deliver us.

As in Luke 6, our hearts are to be filled with goodness towards ourselves. Our hearts are to be good and do good to others and to ourselves for the pleasure of God. For His pleasure, we are to store up the equivalent of holy, loving, truth (good treasure) and deliberately meditate upon those realities.

As in Psalm 50, we are not to initiate or participate in a self-accusing inner-narrative. That type of inner speech disregards the LORD’s love for us and depreciates our righteous standing before Him. It is the diabolic equivalent of slandering another person for whom the Messiah died.

We are commanded to speak kindly of others and to others. We are to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men (Titus 3:2).

Since this is so, should we malign ourselves? Should we show mercy to others and not to ourselves? God wants us to be considerate, gentle and peaceable in our hearts towards our own souls. That will give His presence pleasure.

The Spirit of God is affected by what we say and how we say it. He is the Spirit of Truth who cares about our motives. He fills us with the fruit which comes from Him: His character and personality.

God wants the fruit of the Spirit to characterize our congregational life. In like manner, our inner life is also to manifest the Holy Spirit’s nature.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22–23)

Here are two questions: Is there a standard of holiness for how we speak to others? Does the living God care about what we say regarding them?

Here are two clear answers: Yes, and, yes.

This standard applies to how we speak about ourselves in the depths of our souls. The goals God has for a corporate expression of the Messiah’s life hold true for our inner being’s manifestation of Jesus’ life. We are being conformed to Jesus’ life. What do you think His inner-narrative was like?

We know that the Spirit who loves us (Romans 15:30) can lead and empower us to express edifying encouragement to those in need. This wonderful Spirit wants to motivate, empower, and lead our thoughts towards ourselves for the same reason.

Therefore, we pray,

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Our last two meditations centered in the following verses from Ephesians 4. They read:

No rotten word must proceed from your mouth, but only something good for the building up of the need, in order that it may give grace to those who hear, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, and rage, and wrath, and clamor, and abusive speech, must be removed from you, together with all wickedness. Become kind toward one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as also God in Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:29–32 Lexham English Bible)

We began to examine these verses in their original corporate intention and make use of them in developing a godly inner-narrative. We concentrated on verse 29 and now we’re going on to the next verses. The next verses are important.

By way of reminder, here is Ephesians 4:29

No rotten word must proceed from your mouth, but only something good for the building up of the need, in order that it may give grace to those who hear,

Here are the next verses:

and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, and rage, and wrath, and clamor, and abusive speech, must be removed from you, together with all wickedness. Become kind toward one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as also God in Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:30–32 Lexham English Bible)

As in verse 29 we find an admonition (No rotten word must proceed from your mouth) followed by a positive command (but only something good for the building up of the need…).

The following verses, oriented towards our relationships with others, can be made immediately relevant to how the meditations of our hearts affect God. As we begin to look at them we discover some remarkable revelations about the nature of the Holy Spirit. Let’s start.

First, we find that rotten words grieve the LORD’s Spirit.

He is called the good Spirit. As such, He wants to fill the believing community with His goodness.

Please note how God’s good Spirit is revealed as our Teacher.

God’s good Spirit instructed them corporately (Nehemiah 9:20).

You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them (Nehemiah 9:20a)

The individual prayed for the same grace (Psalm 143:10).

Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground. (Psalm 143:10)

A surrendered person has the same qualities as a cooperative congregation. Communities and individuals who receive the Holy Spirit’s instruction experience the impartation of His life.

Along these lines, the believing community is to be filled with wisdom taught by the Holy Spirit (Who is revealed to be good).

I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. (Romans 15:14b)

Like the corporate expression, each one of us is to be full of goodness, filled with knowledge and able to encourage ourselves. In Psalm 42 we can read an example of the psalmist exhorting his inner-being to embrace truth and maintain hope.

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence (Psalm 42:5)

We are to be guided by the Spirit who will disciple us in the way we speak of ourselves, to ourselves. These Holy Spirit led inner-narratives are comprised of goodness, righteousness and truth.

for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth (Ephesians 5:9)

That is what God wants for us. His apostle exhorted us to speak only something good for the purpose of building up the Body. We know that this is also a guide to our inner-narrative.

Jesus is the way to the Father (John 14:6). As our mediator, He is also the way of the Father to us (1 Timothy 2:5). To sanctify our souls for ongoing communion with our Father we have been born of the Spirit (John 17:3). Through the wonderful Spirit’s influence we can relate to ourselves in such a way as to please our Creator. The fruit of the Spirit is not just for the corporate life of a congregation. They are also imparted that we might interact with our souls.

Let us bless the LORD in the meditations of our hearts.

To that end, please pray and ask the living God to empower your soul through the presence of His Spirit.

Father, through receiving Your Spirit’s fruit and wisdom we can learn to further please You in the way we understand ourselves.

Through the Messiah Jesus, increase our capacity to receive Your good Spirit’s instruction.

Teach us how to relate to ourselves in Your presence.

May we be guided and empowered to speak only that which is good, fitting the need of the moment, edifying ourselves that we might better love You and, as a result, more effectively serve You.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Let the words of my mouth and my heart’s deepest thoughts give Your presence pleasure. (my paraphrase of Psalm 19:14)