Sacrificial love is always the key to opening the hearts of people we minister to and serve. People with hardened hearts will not minister to the poor because they are not walking in Agape Love. A person with a hardened heart will be drawn into sin thus making the Word of GOD of none effect.
The Beloved Disciple wrote in 1st John chapter 3:
18 Beloved children, our Love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our Loving deeds. 19 We know that the Truth lives within us because we demonstrate Love in action, which will reassure our hearts in HIS Presence.
Those with a hardened heart will not demonstrate Love in action.
Paul wrote by The Holy Spirit in Hebrews chapter 3:
5 Indeed, Moses served God faithfully in all HE gave him to do. His work prophetically illustrates things that would later be spoken and fulfilled. 6 But Christ is more than a Servant, He was faithful as the Son in charge of God’s House. And now we are part of His House if we continue courageously to hold firmly to our bold confidence and our victorious hope.
7 This is why the Holy Spirit says,
“If only you would listen to His Voice this day!
8 Don’t make Him angry by hardening your hearts,
like your ancestors did during the days of their rebellion,
when they were tested in the wilderness.
9 There your fathers tested Me and tried My patience
even though they saw My miracles for forty years
they still doubted Me!
10 This ignited My anger with that generation
and I said about them, ‘They wander in their hearts
just like they do with their feet,
and they refuse to learn My ways.’
11 My heart grieved over them so I decreed:
‘They will not enter into My rest!’ ”
12 So search your hearts every day, my brothers and sisters, and make sure that none of you has evil or unbelief hiding within you. For it will lead you astray, and make you unresponsive to the living God. 13 This is the time to encourage each other to never be stubborn or hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 For we are mingled with the Messiah, if we will continue unshaken in this confident assurance from the beginning until the end.
The word hardened means cold, insensitive, unfeeling, and unyielding. Sin will harden your heart thus keeping fruit from being produced in your life.
15 For again, the Scriptures say,
If only today you would listen to His Voice.
Don’t make Him angry by hardening your hearts,
as you did in the wilderness rebellion.
16 The same people who were delivered from bondage and brought out of Egypt by Moses, were the ones who heard and still rebelled. 17 They grieved God for forty years by sinning in their unbelief, until they dropped dead in the desert. 18 So God swore an oath that they would never enter into HIS calming place of rest all because they disobeyed HIM. 19 It is clear that they could not enter into their inheritance because they wrapped their hearts in unbelief.
Paul further wrote by The Holy Spirit in Hebrews chapter 11:
15 And if their hearts (Abraham and Sarah) were still remembering what they left behind (mindful), they would have found an opportunity to go back. 16 But they couldn’t turn back for their hearts were fixed on what was far greater, that is, the Heavenly realm!
If Abraham and Sarah had been mindful of going back to the Ur of Chaldees, their hearts would have become hardened resulting in sin. Because they did not consider going back to their homeland, they were not tempted. They gave no consideration for returning thus their faith remained strong and fruitful.
When you refuse to think on anything that is contrary to what FATHER has spoken to you, your faith continues to grow into the fullness of being a mature Son. This is why we must guard our eyes and ears from the world’s manipulation and deceit.
Jesus spoke about the hardness of heart in Mark chapter 4 when He was describing the third group of people:
18 And what is sown among thorns represents those who hear the message, 19 but they allow the cares of this life and the seduction of wealth and the desires for other things to crowd out and choke the message so that it produces nothing.
When you think about the cares of this life and the seduction of wealth and the desires for other things, your heart becomes hardened and produces nothing. The devil and his demons are well aware of this Truth and they will attempt to steer you into this mindset by drawing your attention from The Word. They are competing for your attention with great subtlety. Do not be deceived and manipulated!
Paul further wrote by The Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 4:
19 In spite of being nearly one hundred years old when the promise of having a son was made, his faith was so strong that it could not be undermined by the fact that he and Sarah were incapable of conceiving a child. 20–21 He never stopped believing God’s promise, for he was made strong in his faith to father a child. And because he was mighty in faith and convinced that God had all the power needed to fulfill his promises, Abraham glorified God!
22 So now you can see why Abraham’s faith was credited to his account as righteousness before God. 23 And this declaration was not just spoken over Abraham, 24 but also over us. For when we believe and embrace the ONE WHO brought our Lord Jesus back to life, perfect righteousness will be credited to our account as well. 25 Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that He had made us right with God!
We must guard our hearts without exception. This is the key to Spiritual maturity. If our hearts are hardened, then we will not fully embrace FATHER’S Word and will not produce the fruit we are meant to enjoy and distribute to others. The adversary understands this Truth thus we must not let our guard down at any time or he will find a way to plant weeds in our soil.