For eBooks click here

In Conclusion...

Reading, and even being excited and blessed by the reading, is NOT enough! 

There is no substitute for working the truth down into your heart.

1). Cause: Emotional / Spiritual dependence on earthly sources and not drinking from God; Solution: Heart-training for changing our dependence to God (It is my opinion that changing emotional / spiritual dependence to God is not practical without Heart-training - it is possible but it takes too long without Heart-training).    

2). Cause: Hurts from the recent or distant past. Solution: Learning to draw near to God and let Him reach in and heal you. Some Christians specialize in helping others with this kind of thing. My approach is to use the Heart-training and the spiritual exercises in the back of the book to bring people to a place of being able to receive inner healing from God on their own. I believe that teaching people to do this on their own is necessary because the more dangerous you become to the enemy the bigger target you are. When that happens inner healing is needed often enough to be impractical for always depending on others.   

3). Cause: Demonic Influence. Solution: Here again there are Christians who specialize in helping others work through difficulties in this area. If you have a background in the occult you may find it necessary to seek help from Christians who specialize in the area of Deliverance Ministry . My approach is to have people use the Heart-training because it removes the "handles" that the enemy uses as reasons for hanging around Christians. By using they the Heart-training to find freedom to draw near and stand before the Lord people also find that they have a much increased authority in the area of deliverance ministry.   

4). Cause: Character weakness. Solution: After learning how to teach people how to receive inner healing, I have also found that the same principles can be applied for great benefit in the area of character growth. For this I use the Heart-training, the spiritual exercises in the back of the book, and also the pages toward the back of the Heart-training about "Letting God Give You a New Heart."  

Let me relate some of the things that I observe in our small groups that I suspect are also happening to readers on the web.  

A very few people I have taught these principles to have been able to apply these things and experience the presence of God in just 2 or 3 weeks. That is far from the norm. Most people take longer because our ways of thinking are more deeply performance oriented than what we realize. It takes time for most people to begin thinking according to grace.  

In the small groups, I have observed that it takes people about 8 months of teaching before they are convinced enough to jump in and really start working at using the Heart-training to direct their heart toward God. It takes time for these things to soak down into the heart. Today, these are some of the most faithful and committed people I have in my group. Others look at them with awe and have asked me, "Have they always been like that?" The answer is no they haven't, they didn't settle for being excited about what they were learning in the class. They applied themselves to turning their heart toward God and grew very quickly.    

Others I see, come to the teaching portion of the class, and they like it a lot. But they never seem to take responsibility for their own heart and do the work of turning their heart toward God. A few of them dabble in the Heart-training during the small group sessions, but other than that, they never really dive into it. Eventually I watch them drift out of the group. 

I recently confronted one of the guys in the group who was about at that 8 month mark, but who hadn't really committed himself to make what the Bible says about repentance work for him. He was really struggling with serious problems with pornography and masturbation. I told him that I believed he was at a decision point. He needed to commit himself to using the Heart-training regularly and with passion or he was going to drift away and look back with discouragement because, "It didn't work for me." I told him that the reason it wasn't working was because he wasn't doing the heart-training on his own. He could see I was right because of what God has done in others in the group. He made a decision to go for it. 

Within 2 weeks it became apparent that he needed some deliverance ministry. He had done enough heart-training during that time that his faith was strong enough to renounce and command the evil to go away himself. All we had to do was listen to the Holy Spirit and give him a little bit of direction about what to tackle first and second and so on. 

The last few weeks are evidence that he is a changed man! He is experiencing God's presence regularly. He told me this last Sunday that he is still using the heart-training (mostly the diagrams), because of the powerful benefit that he is seeing because of it. He is very excited and amazed at how he is growing in the Lord.  

Are you at that point? What I would tell you readers is to be careful not to mistake learning for growth. You may have loved what you read on this website, but if you don't take the next step and work the truth down into your heart, you won't grow anything close to what is possible.   

A Recent Email

Below is a portion of an email a small group leader named Linda sent to someone else.  

"...when I was first introduced to Barry's books I was a student (I still am), and all I wanted to do was read his books & study about the things of God. Truthfully, I probably spent more time studying the heart training materials than I did doing my schoolwork at first. But God seemed to honor that, & I think that is because He was the one who was drawing me to Him, & He was pleased with my response. We only have to look at how Jesus praised Mary for just wanting to sit at His feet to realize how much God values having us spend time in His presence. And I think that entering into and abiding in God's presence can be equated with sitting at the feet of Jesus. I just know that when I wait quietly before the Lord He manifests His Holy Spirit on me in a big way. So I can tell that He is pleased with me. Also, I find that when I spend the amount of time in His presence that He is calling me to, then the ministry just falls into place. I think that is because then I am operating out of the overflow of His Spirit, rather than a depleted source that is not being regularly refilled.

"In addition to learning how to abide in the Lord's presence, I have found the heart training materials to be invaluable as well. I really only started seriously heart training this year, but the results have been unbelievable! I found myself telling the girls I was working with, & I think this was of the Lord, that heart training is like a physical exercise program, in that it is noticeably effective if you do it at least 3-5 times a week. I heart train on a daily basis now, at least 2 pages at a time, & sometimes I do so morning & night.

"Some helpful strategies I have found for heart training include having an accountability partner. Sometimes you may be able to help each other figure out which sections to work on. I only work on 1 or 2 sections at a time myself. Over the last 3 months, I have concentrated on the protection, adequacy & strength, & ministry sections. It can also help to heart train with another person. It is especially effective to heart train in groups...All I know is that with heart training, what I know in my head is somehow transferred to my heart, & that seems to be crucial for growth.

"God bless you as you study & grow!"

"Linda."

Small Groups      

God is blessing small groups! Mid summer of 2000 it started with 1 small group that grew to 23 at one point. By the end of the school year we had three small groups and 2 leaders. Right now, it looks like we will have 4 or 5 by the fall of 2001.

People are discovering they can lead others into the throne room and that they can show people how to drink from God. Several are doing one-on-one discipleship. Ministry is happening! Everyone involved is very excited about what God is doing.

Would you like to lead others to draw near to God and drink? Pray about starting a small group in your area. 

If you decide God is leading you to start a small group, or to be in one, be sure to make a post about it on the forum in the section for small groups.

By the way, I expect that "8 month mark" to decrease as time goes on. The more people we have who can give testimony to what God has done for them, the sooner others will be convinced to dive in and do the work themselves. I talked about this because I want small group leaders to know that the greatest fruit takes some time.

For eBooks click here

 Barry's Video Blog...

Please make a donation by using paypal. Send it to barry@tasteheavennow.net  Thanks! 

I am praying for the Lord's abundant blessing on your efforts to direct your heart toward Him.

 In Conclusion

E-mail the Author...

(C) Barry Hall 1999

Information on this site may be reproduced for personal or for instructional purposes if it is not being used for resale. If a page is distributed for instructional purposes, the web address must be included. Printed quotes must include the authors name and the web address. Quotes for use in publications intended for resale need the written permission of the author. All rights reserved.

Scriptures are taken from the updated NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1987, 1988, The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Other scriptures are from the New International Version or Amplified Bible as noted.