What a joy to reach the last topic on the healing of our senses. Diving headfirst into today's post, or rather, heart first, let us open our hearts and let the Lord touch the core, the origin, the root of life, of holiness and of love, and break all insensitivity that has settled within us and makes us insensitive to the Lord.

By the grace of God, we will address three central types of spiritual insensitivity, based on these images that we can appreciate. How do you think your heart is? Which of the three does it most resemble? Is it hardened like a stone, is it cold and wrapped in ice as in the image below, or is it insensitive as if there were a glass wall between you and God?

Whatever your situation, at the end of this post we will surrender our hearts to Christ and together implore Him to manifest His love and power and grant us the prize, with the healing of our spiritual insensitivity, the complete restoration of our senses. From then on, you will surely notice a significant change in your way of serving God and will witness how you have grown in grace. Hallelujah!

Read and welcome a wonderful promise that God reveals to us through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, revealing His will for each of us who have hope in the God who calls us by name and saves us.

"I will manifest the holiness of my august name, which you have debased by profaning it among the pagan nations, so that they may know that I am the Lord—oracle of the Lord Yahweh—when before their eyes I have manifested my holiness by my conduct toward you. I will take you from among the nations, I will gather you from all places, and I will lead you to your own soil. I will pour clean water upon you, which will purify you from all your uncleanness and from all your abominations. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove the heart of stone from your breast and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, causing you to obey my laws and to follow and observe my precepts. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God." (Ez 36:23-28)

God wants to manifest His holiness, the holiness and power of His name, for with our sins, our transgressions, our voluntary and involuntary faults, our lack of witness, our hypocrisy, our complacency and lack of seeking, we debase the name of the Lord; that is, we cause it to lose its honor, its royalty. We profane the name of God by not truly converting!

And the worst part is that from Ezekiel's time until today, you and I continue to do this, without thinking about the consequences, without caring about what might happen, without thinking that the responsibility for so many people who are lost in this world of darkness, given into the hand of the devil, is ours because of baptism and the knowledge we have, and often nothing changes because we do not assume our mission and our vocation (in other posts we will delve deeper into these two themes).

What God is saying is very clear and we must bring it to our reality: our heart has transformed and become hard as stone, being called a heart of stone, because of this lack of commitment to the Lord, for not progressing and not taking firm steps towards the Lord, for regressing in faith when we have to make important decisions and not praying...

BECAUSE WE PROFANE THE NAME OF THE LORD, BECAUSE WE DO NOT COMMIT TO HIM, BECAUSE WE DO NOT LEAVE SPIRITUAL INFANCY AND DO NOT HAVE THE COURAGE TO WITNESS, BECAUSE OF OUR LACK OF PRAYER, OUR HEART HAS TRANSFORMED INTO A HEART OF STONE BEATING IN OUR CHEST.

But behold, the God who knows us and knows our need, therefore comes to our aid and makes us this wonderful promise to take from us the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh, because He loves us and does not want to see us suffering, reproducing sin, tearing apart the lives of others with this devil's quarry within us.

God heard the cry of His people when they were captive in Egypt and decided to free them, just as He does with us.

"The Lord said: I have indeed seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their oppressors. Yes, I know their sufferings. And I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites." (Ex 3:7-8)

Take the opportunity and access the posts on this blog about prayer (access by clicking here). But there is also a kind of prayer that God hears, which is not vocalized, but is made from life itself (we will delve deeper into this theme in other posts), for God sees our sufferings and has compassion on us. God is merciful in His power and powerful in His mercy (access the posts we dedicated to the knowledge of God by clicking here).

God promises that He will intervene in history on our behalf, so that they may see that we serve a God who is holy, whose name is worthy of honor and glory. By removing our heart of stone and every stone in our heart and pouring out the power of His Holy Spirit, we will have the spiritual sensitivity to follow His laws, His commandments, and live in His will.

Open your heart and let the Lord begin to operate in your life with power and glory. Open yourself to love, to ineffable grace, and to the tremendous power of the Lord, and you will be able to contemplate that no matter how bad you are, God will open a spring in the desert and will make living water gush forth in your chest, just as He did when Moses struck the rock and water came out for the people to drink, and when the Roman soldier pierced Jesus' chest and a torrent of water also gushed out. This is a prophecy!

If you believe in the Lord Jesus, welcome it, for it is He Himself who proclaimed this on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, reiterating what the prophets had said.

"On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." (Zc 14:8; Is 58:11). Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." (Jn 7:37-39)

You who feel that your heart is hardened, be filled with hope, because the stone may be large but there is no stone or rock and no insensitivity that can withstand and resist the power of God. When He touches you, everything will be transformed. Amen!

This second type of insensitivity is very common and perhaps it is not just a static situation of people who are in spiritual coldness or a glacier, who are unable to feel the presence of God, love, any affection, but it is a living reality that has a cause that we need to be aware of and not allow this ice to envelop us.

Everything here is related to the end times, which not even Jesus knows the day or the hour when it will be, but only the Father (we will delve deeper into this topic in other posts). Well, our savior was explaining to the disciples how the end of the world and his second coming would occur.

"Jesus answered them, 'See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, "I am the Christ," and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." (Mt 24:4-12)

Beloved brothers and sisters, we do not need to fear or be shaken by such facts that Jesus spoke of, for many of them are already so present among us that it seems we have grown accustomed to such disasters and catastrophes.

Wars and rumors of wars, fights, torments of Christians massacred and hated by other religions, tsunamis, earthquakes, heavy rains that sweep away houses, cars, people, betrayal among Christians (especially Protestants) because of money, fame and power. False prophets who seduce multitudes like Edir Macedo, Valdemiro Santiago among so many others we have in abundance today.

But in the face of the growth of all iniquity that is now within the Church, within the family (which is the domestic Church and we will delve into this topic later) and much stronger outside these environments, many have had their hearts grow cold. They were not just enveloped by ice, but the cooling was so great that they completely changed their lives, their personality, their values.

They forgot the precious advice that Saint Paul gave to the Romans and to all Christianity.

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom 12:2)

Many of us have distanced ourselves from the truth we once embraced, setting aside faith and adopting a pagan way of life, as if we had never known the Lord or had an experience with Him (access the posts about the experience with God by clicking here).

By letting this growing iniquity around us dominate us and not fighting against it, we surrender to the coldness of the world and sin and stop fighting against the worldly current that floods us every day, to the point that this coldness not only enveloped us but entered our hearts.

How many cold, frozen Christians, who lack spiritual health, but live in constant spiritual constipation, who have distanced themselves from God and live distancing others, giving counter-witness, denying the faith, embracing the devil's lie as if it were truth, and surrendering to the vices and maxims of the world that so strongly combat the spirit.

It is sad but it is the reality that, among this number, those who have not left the Church and are physically present there have become true instruments of the devil, older brothers of the prodigal son who do not feel how much they are loved by God and also do not want to let others feel it. For this reason, they always invent a reason to create quarrels and disputes, because their hearts are insensitive to the voice of God and they do not want to open themselves to the change that the Lord wants to bring about.

Saint James thus warns us not to be deceived by the false and diabolical wisdom that some appear to possess.

"Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good conduct his works done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice." (Jas 3:13-16)

As we saw in the previous post (which you can check out right below this one), the mouth speaks from what the heart is full of. Jesus explains that what is in our heart defiles us and makes us insensitive in this way.

"But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander." (Mt 15:18-19)

There is so much insensitivity that many do not realize they are full of hatred, they only curse, revile, utter misfortunes, and wish evil upon others. And all this comes from their corrupted, insensitive, wounded, hurt heart, which needs urgent treatment. We need to intercede for so many brothers and sisters who do not realize the harm they are doing to themselves and to others.

They are so rebellious and a cause of scandal, stumbling blocks for others, but often they have no notion or awareness of what they are doing. It is necessary to awaken from all drowsiness, it is necessary to break with all this evil, aware that this is a sign of the times that Jesus has already warned us about in advance, but we cannot accept it, we have to fight against it.

Insensitivity, the fruit of the growth of iniquity and the lack of an ardent expression of love, which Christ commanded us -

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (Jn 13:34-35)

- causes us to increasingly distance ourselves from the essential and close ourselves off in a small world that is a true hell on earth.

The great grace we need to ask the Lord for in the face of this coldness and insensitivity, starting with ourselves, is that a holy, young, and vigorous Civilization of Love may arise, be established, and solidify in the face of this society corrupted by sin and dominated by the devil (access the post on this topic by clicking here). Thus we will be able to combat this coldness that spreads so rapidly.

AMONG CHRISTIANS THEMSELVES, HATRED, BETRAYAL, INDIFFERENCE (A TOPIC WE WILL EXPLORE FURTHER LATER) HAVE REIGNED AND CAUSED THE NAME OF CHRISTIANS THAT WE BEAR TO BE A CAUSE FOR JOKE AND SCORN AMONG PEOPLES. IT CANNOT BE THIS WAY! WE NEED TO CHANGE!

All this glacier needs to be melted by the power of the love of the Father and of Jesus Christ, which burns, which inflames, which makes us burn and boil within us, by the Holy Spirit, for He is the wonderful fire of God's love. Let Him burn us and melt all ice, all coldness. The love of God... Ahhhh, that they will never be able to extinguish.

"Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it." (Song of Sol 8:6-7)

All this hope that is arising in your heart as you read these wonderful words of Sacred Scripture is not in vain. It is God touching you with the Spirit of love, setting your heart ablaze with a new fervor that will lead you to the healing of this insensitivity. Open yourself and let all apprehension and fear fall to the ground. It is the Holy Spirit who acts and does!

"And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Rom 5:5)

There is a kind of spiritual insensitivity that is much easier to recognize and that we all know. Saint Paul himself states it categorically.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom 3:23)

This is what sin produces in us! We will not speak specifically about sin but about what it does in us (if you want to access posts about sin, click here) creating a barrier between us and God, making us insensitive to His action and the way He acts.

Many confuse such a situation, thinking that God is incapable of acting, saying that He does not answer our prayers and cannot act on our behalf. Of course, this is a lie, but sin creates a barrier (like the glass we mentioned here to facilitate our understanding) that prevents us from perceiving the Lord's movement.

"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one pleads with integrity; they trust in empty pleas and speak lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity." (Is 59:1-4)

Sin can only be committed and considered sin by someone who is aware of what they are doing. That is why Isaiah spoke these words with pain:

"We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words." (Is 59:11-13)

Many of us have become so accustomed to living in sin and not feeling God's love that we have transformed into creatures worse than animals that have no reason or conscience.

WE MUST EMBRACE THE TRUTH THAT IT IS NOT THAT GOD DOES NOT EXIST NOR DIABOLICAL THEORIES, BUT THAT WE ARE THE ONES WHO SIN AND, HIDING SIN, PREFER TO LIVE IN LIES AND INSENSITIVITY RATHER THAN RECOGNIZE THE TRUTH THAT WITHOUT GOD WE WILL NEVER BE HAPPY.

The great and most evident proof that someone has sinned, has not repented, and tries to hide their sin is that the person is always worried and prefers to talk about all possible subjects, fill themselves with external things, delude themselves with everything in the world, except God, just so that others do not know.

Dear ones, we cannot live like this! God is for us, not against us. He wants to see us happy and fulfilled. Indeed, He made us for this, and the fact that we are neither happy nor fulfilled is a great sin and a great offense to God. And knowing our weakness, God made us so that He would be part of our lives, so that He could always help when we lost our way.

He wants to break every barrier that sin has created in us. It was for this reason that He sent His beloved Son, our savior Jesus, to destroy sin, end the reign of the devil, and establish in our hearts His reign of love, grace, peace, and holiness.

"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." (1 Jn 3:2-8)

Jesus destroys the works and annihilates all the power of the devil in our lives, nailing every document of sin that condemns us, nailing them to the cross and disarming the principalities and powers (cf. Col 2:14-15) and gives us the guarantee that there is no longer any condemnation in our lives, if we are and remain with Him (cf. Rom 8:1).

God does not want to give us commandments written on stones for us to follow strictly, but wants to write them in our hearts and imprint them on our souls so that we may live by love. This is the covenant He wants to make with us (access the posts on this topic by clicking here).

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more (Jer 31:31-34)." (Heb 8:10-12)

In this way, the Lord will act in us, restoring to us the grace of feeling His presence, feeling His love, perceiving His grace that flows in us, no matter how bad or how good we may be. God makes no distinction between people, but looks at the heart (cf. 1 Sam 16:7) and sees the intention of your heart.

It may be that until now you were hardened, full of harshness, coldness, or things you didn't understand, but which prevented you from feeling God's presence and remaining in tune with Him. But now the Lord invites you to begin a new time in your life...

A TIME OF GRACE, OF BLESSING, OF FRUITS, OF HOLINESS, OF WISDOM, OF PRAYER, OF FIRE, GLORY AND POWER. A TIME OF SPIRITUAL SANITY, OF PHYSICAL AND PSYCHIC HEALTH, OF UNDERSTANDING AND OF GROWTH IN THE GRACE AND FROM THE GRACE OF THE LORD. THIS IS WHAT IS ABOUT TO BE INAUGURATED IN OUR LIVES!

All God wants is for us to surrender our hearts to Him and be wise, letting Him act in our lives, giving Him total freedom. Often there is a veil over our hearts that prevents us from deeply understanding the word of God, from entering into the mysteries and the will of the Lord, into the joy of the Spirit, because we have not converted. Only when we convert and let the Spirit act in us will we be free from this veil. This fear of God, this crazy thing that holds us back, must fall once and for all, and let us have the audacity to advance towards the Lord!

"Since we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed." (2 Cor 3:12-16)

To conclude with God's grace and wisdom, taking possession of all the healing that the Lord performs in us this night, let us be inspired by the apostle of wisdom and humble ourselves in God's presence.

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." (James 4:7-10)

"Lord my God... I am a poor, weak, miserable, blind, and proud sinner. I have strayed from You, Lord; I have lived like a pagan; I have been a cause of scandal and estrangement from my brothers and sisters; my heart has remained full of stones, hard, proud, as if You did not exist. I have profaned Your name. But I come to ask Your forgiveness, my Father, I did not want to offend You and commit so much evil as I have done. Come to my aid, Lord! With my tears I come into Your presence to implore mercy and forgiveness...

Sweet Savior, in the power of Your name Jesus, of the cross and Your wounds, I ask You to transform me because I do not want to continue living in this insensitivity. I do not know how to free myself, Lord. I do not know when it began or how it began, but I know that I am full of hardness, Lord. My heart is harder than the ground, touch it and soften it, Lord. Manifest Your power.

Lord and God, I want to ask You to touch me deeply. May Your action be splendid in my life, because I have grown cold in faith, cold in grace, cold in my journey, and I have allowed myself to be enveloped by the evil of the world, of sin, and of those around me who do not follow You. Lord, I was so influenced and allowed myself to be filled with evil that today I no longer recognize myself. Not only have I strayed from You, but I have become a monster, Lord. I wish evil upon people, I cannot love, I can only hate. Lord, I have difficulty forgiving.

The sin that I thought was for my pleasure, that was a game, that was for knowing, has become an addiction and I can no longer free myself. I will only be able to be free if You act in my life now. I need You, my God. I don't know how to live without You. Virgin Mary, Mother of God, who knew how to surrender completely and humbled herself entirely, saying she was the handmaid of the Lord, teach me to humble myself and present all these situations that make me suffer (tell the Lord what hurts most in your heart).

May Your Spirit at this moment come as a torrent of grace and power, flowing like a river of living water within me, because I believe in You, Lord Jesus, and I want to take possession of the grace that this water may purify me and break every stone within me, giving me back a heart of flesh, capable of loving, sensitive to the Lord's action. Act with Your powerful fire and melt all ice, all coldness, all lukewarmness, and thick shell that has settled in me. Break all sin with Your power and Your love. Make every wall, every sin, every evil that has enveloped me fall. I want to be free! Come, Holy Spirit of freedom, and renew Your love in me, ignite Your anointing in me, sanctify my interior, and restore to me the ardor of first love. Fill me with Yourself, Lord, until nothing of mine remains. I only want You! I want and desire You. Come, Lord!

I give glory and praise because Your Spirit performs an admirable, wonderful work in me. Ahhhhh Lord, how much grace, how much power, how much goodness and mercy from You for acting and giving me a new chance, to restart a new journey healed, with my heart in tune with You. Evil has fallen, coldness has given way to the dazzling flames of Your power, the stone and barriers have given way to the sensitivity and holy flesh that You give me. Alleluia. All praise and grace, honor and power to the Lord. I love You and adore You, Lord, with all my being and with all my heart! Gloryyyyyyyyyyyyy! Thank you, holy Mother, for your help and intercession. May praise be to the Holy Spirit of God!

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Yours. Amen!"

"My son, give me your heart. Let your eyes observe my ways." (Prov 23:26)

With the Colo de Deus Community, let us take possession of the action of the Lord's power, for miracles happen "Where the Spirit of God is".

Let us learn with Eliana Ribeiro to grow even amidst difficulties and always ask the Lord "Take me beyond".

Let us ask the Lord, with Nando Mendes' beautiful song "A new heart".

Let us not forget to always surrender ourselves to the Lord, for He will be willing to welcome us and heal us, free us, restore us, give us life and life in abundance, full life. Let us be new spiritual men and women, sensitive even to the gentlest inspirations of Jesus' heart!

May God bless us and confirm in us all healing from any spiritual insensitivity.