Integrity of the heart
26 October 2008, 10 AM
Andre Pelser
After one of those heart warming chats with a friend of mine called Clint, I had a fresh revelation of the meaning and the value of INTEGRITY. For most of us the word integrity is out of our reach, beyond our wildest dreams! It is one of those spiritual concepts that has no picture to it, no tangible handle that one can take it and appropriate it in our lives. Humility, meekness and righteousness, gentleness, faithfulness are all similar spiritual concepts that remain a mystery to us unless it is revealed by the ministry of an apostle who have been given stewardship of the mysteries of Christ.
Jesus said that He would give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to His sent ones. A key unlocks a door and a door is the entry point into a new territory! I believe I receive such a key to integrity during our conversation. Something opened up in my spirit and I would like to impart this spiritual gift to anyone who hears my voice!
Scriptural references to INTEGRITY:
| Genesis 20:5 | In the integrity of my heart |
| Job 2:3 | He holds fast to his integrity |
| Job 31:6 | That God may know my integrity |
| Psalm 26:1 | I have walked in the integrity of my heart |
| Psalm 41:12 | You uphold me in my integrity |
| Proverbs 11:3 | The integrity of the upright |
| Titus | In doctrine showing integrity |
| 1 Kings 9:4 | If you will serve me in honesty and integrity, as your father David did, and if you obey my laws and do everything I have commanded you |
| 1 Chron 29:17 | I know that you test everyone’s heart and are pleased with people of integrity. In honesty and sincerity I have willingly given all this to you, and I have seen how your people who are gathered here have been happy to bring offerings to you. |
| Prov 2:21 | Righteous people—people of integrity—will live in this land of ours. |
| Prov 14:32 | Wicked people bring about their own downfall by their evil deeds, but good people are protected by their integrity. |
| Isa 11:5 | He will rule his people with justice and integrity. |
| Isa 32:1 | Some day there will be a king who rules with integrity, and national leaders who govern with justice. |
| Isa 33:5 | How great the Lord is! He rules over everything. He will fill Jerusalem with justice and integrity (7 verses) |
A Revelation of INTEGRITY
A revelation is not something that comes when we look up the Greek or Hebrew meaning of a word! A revelation is something that you cannot receive except that it has been revealed to you! Then you can look up the meaning of the word!
When David said to the Lord, judge me according to my integrity, he did not mean ‘perfection’. We tend to think of integrity as perfection and that is where we miss it! David was far from perfect! So was Moses and Abraham and Samson and all the faith heroes in the bible. But yet they were regarded as men of integrity. What makes it so hard for us to believe we can be their imitators? Why can’t you and I be persons of integrity like the faith heroes?
Because we have no teaching on it we have no faith for it. Faith for anything comes by the hearing of the Word of God. How can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach except they be sent? There are many people preaching who have not been sent to preach! They are passing on information that cannot feed the spirits of people listening to them. That is why the people remain spiritually dry and weak. Impartation can only take place if someone has been given something to impart and if people are ready and willing to receive the impartation!
Instances of INTEGRITY in the life of David
David revealed his integrity when he shared the spoils of war with the 200 men who didn’t go up to fight against the Philistines, but remained behind to look after the women and children. When he returned with the 400 men who helped to defeat the Philistines, he divided the spoils of war between 600 men. The 400 soldiers were upset and complained: ‘They didn’t go up and fight with us!’ But David in the integrity of his heart corrected them and said, ‘Not so, they are part of our army: their duty was just as important as ours! We share and share alike!’ And since that day it became a custom in Israel to share and share alike.
We have this notion that David’s integrity had something to do with a faultless state of being. But think about what David did wrong in his life: he brought up the ark in a way that was contrary to the scriptures and caused the death of one of the men who tried to stabilize the ark when the oxen stumbled and it looked like the ark would fall off the cart.
His counting of the nation of Israel to stimulate his pride in his old age, without making them pay census tax as it is prescribed in the Law of Moses, caused a plague to come over Israel.
He planned the murder of a man and while the man was away fighting he committed adultery with the man’s wife, Bathsheba. When the report came that the man was killed in the battle, because David commanded that he should be set in the front line, he immediately married Bathsheba. The first child died. But she became the mother of Solomon who ruled in David’s place.
The integrity of David’s heart is