But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst... [Luke 6:8]

...He knew their thoughts...

Hello, whatever display you show anywhere, whatever front you put up in any place, let it be clearly known to you that God knows your hearts. Your beautiful face cannot becloud His judgment. Your shining appearance cannot pervert His verdict. Your seemingly godly outfit is not the criteria for judging holiness. God is not deceived by your smiling face, He will not be cajoled by your numerous extremisms and activities. Once your heart is wrong, every other external conformity is a deformity, a mere cover-up. The heart of a man is the focus of God, and that is the central focal point that determines every other issue about him. Friend, God knows your heart.


...their thoughts...

Many times in a bid to correct men so that they can be straight up for God, we say "yes, your heart must be clean, but it's not only your heart, your body must be clean also". But, I notice deeply that nowhere ever is the body the offender, it's always the heart. God told Samuel in I Samuel 16:7 that "...Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart".

Whenever you notice that the body has offended, you can always trace the source of that offence to the heart, the body only conveyed the offence that the heart manufactured. I don't need to set my body right before I can be acceptable to God, I ONLY NEED TO DO ONE THING, and that is within my heart. If any man is going to be disqualified before God, check it very well, the offender is NEVER the body, it is the heart. If I need to only set my body right, be sure, there is a wrong spot in the heart not yet dealt with. Wherever you find a problem with the body, that problem of the body did not begin with the body, it is actually the problem of the heart, what you see on the body that is terrible, is only a spillage from the heart to the body. If only the body is dealt with, you may discover that you have only cut some growing branches, the root is still intact within. But wherever the heart is pure and perfect, you will always find a perfect man whose body is undefiled, he is clean through and through.

If at any time, you have to do something external to conform, or you have to clean up your body in order to be clean, check it deeply, there is a very fundamental matter you have left unattended to, you're only a hypocrite, your heart is still wrong. The filthiness of your flesh did not fall from the sky, the filthiness of your flesh is only a smell of the rottenness of your heart, and we are only perceiving the odour of your heart on your body. The problem is not outside, friend, go to the source, it is within your heart. Even with external dressing of wearing clothes, those who tell us to dress well to please God without getting us to the root of the immorality - the internal dress, are only teaching us how to be wolves in sheep's clothing. If we have to teach you how to dress well, if we have to teach you to cut off all the external sins, come out with beautiful appearance, we are only perfuming your body with good fragrance while your heart is still rotten. But if only we can go to the source and deal with the issue from the root - the heart, then you will find a delivered man, who does not need to be pushed and cajoled before he reflects God's glory and beauty on the outside.

When Jesus is on the throne of the heart, and self is finished, that man will always do everything never to please himself, but to please Jesus. So, when you see a man who wants to please himself, it's because he still has a SELF that is alive within his heart that he wants to please. You may succeed in teaching and compelling a man not to please self by decorating the external and dressing his body well, but take note, that SELF will still find other external routes worse than dressing to express its true nature on the outside.

Our major problem today is that as a body of believers in Christ Jesus, we want to SEE well dressed people OUTWARDLY, we want to see men that are conforming to Christ with OUR EYES, so that we can convince ourselves that we are making progress with the work of God. But if truly it is the work of God we are concerned about, and not our pride, God's work demands that He, God, sees His people dressed well INTERNALLY, NOT EXTERNALLY. It takes God, and God alone to do His work, and He works by revealing Himself to people - this is an internal work. Any work done by any man (either by cajoling, persuading or forcefully coercing men), and it is not GOD HIMSELF doing the work IN man, such work IS NOT GOD'S WORK. It may look good, but it does not beautify heaven.

HE WHO IS WELL DRESSED INTERNALLY, WILL BE WELL DRESSED EXTERNALLY, but HE WHO IS WELL DRESSED EXTERNALLY WITHOUT THAT DRESSING BEING A DIRECT RESULT OF AN INTERNAL WORK OF GRACE, IS ONLY A WOLF IS SHEEP's CLOTHING.