Exodus 20:17 – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word of God today, the thought of reality filled my consciousness.   Tragically, it is possible to want something so badly that we deceive ourselves into believing it is a promise from God. Still, it is a diversion of the devil to keep us from being and doing what God purposed for us.

Jesus totally yielded His life to the Father.  He said, “Not My will, but Thine be done.”   In Exodus 20, we have the Ten Commandments.  In verse 17, we have the last commandment, which gets to the heart of it all. Covetousness!

God is always focused on the heart!  In the heart is the “want to.”  Jesus addressed that in the Gospels.  Beyond the act is the want to.  It is the “want to” that reveals the condition of the heart.  We do not murder, but we hate (want to).  We empower or employ the devil by not fully embracing the Cross.  If we make the purpose of God contingent upon some event, we rob ourselves. Our trust becomes something other than God.

If we do not fully embrace the finality of the Cross, we allow the enemy to be reemployed. Hebrews 2:14, Jesus rendered the devil powerless (unemployed the devil).  We can live life in God’s fullness and deal with an unemployed devil IF we give God our want to.   God is less concerned with our acts than our desires (the want to).

Hebrews 4:2 reveals that knowledge of the Bible is valueless if it is not coupled with faith.

• Faith is an action word. 
• Faith acts! 
• Faith receives! 
• Faith embraces! 
• Faith motivates us to be transformed!
• Faith yields!

Just wanting something to be true does not make it true!