My wife hates sarcastic humor. To her it’s equivalent to nails on a chalkboard. The instant she hears a good-natured biting joke or a humorous sarcastic comment she disconnects. The first few years of our marriage, this “disconnect” presented a monumental problem. For the one she disconnected from the most often was… her husband. I had spent over fifteen years meticulously crafting my personality around sarcastic humor, training myself in the fine art of extracting laughter out of poking fun at others. Because of this, many conversations grew instantly volatile as my “personality” got the best of me in her presence. Needless to say, since my persona was so entangled in sarcasm, there were many laugh-less nights at home.

Yet around nearly every other human being on the planet, I was the life of the party. Laughter flowed effortlessly as I poured out my sardonic wit on those in my company. But returning home, I endured nearly dry silence. Don’t get me wrong, there was still conversation, but none of the gut-wrenching merriment I had concluded my soul desperately thirsted for. Finally, feeling completely dejected and a little perturbed at my wife for turning this “wild and crazy guy” in public into little more than a droll orator at home, I took the situation to God. It was a rather selfish appeal. “Oh Father,” I’m sure I began, “Why do all my friends and most everyone I’ve ever come in contact with, enjoy and laugh at sarcastic but good-natured humor, and yet my wife is so perturbed by it? What is wrong with her?” I petitioned.

The answer sliced through my soul like a surgeon cutting away a malignant tumor without first administering anesthesia. _“What’s wrong with her,”_ came back the response, _“is that her heart has not grown hard enough to consider what grieves My Spirit as humorous.”_ In a micro-moment I realized my failure, and my flaw. Based on the like-minded masses around me, I thought my wife was the abnormal one. Instead, she was actually one of the few holdouts carrying a spiritual trait all Christians are commanded to embody.

But the fact that that my wife is now such an anomaly is far more calculated than one might presuppose…

GOING GREEK

The Biblical Worldview provides some valuable insights into this condition – and its accompanying strategies. One of the Greek terms in the Bible for “harden” is “pwrovw” (pronounced “po-ro’-o). It means to cover with a thick skin or to harden by covering with a callus. Through this definition, we learn that a hardened heart is a “thick heart.” Why would “thickening” be an important distinction when associated with the heart? In Matthew 9:17 Jesus states “no one puts new wine into old wineskins.” Metaphorically, Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit as the wine and the heart as the wineskin. Throughout the New Testament we discover that the Creator must change the wineskin (heart) of a “reborn” Christian so that the essential wine (the Holy Spirit) can be placed into a receptacle capable of receiving it. So if the heart is the wineskin, and the Holy Spirit is the wine, what is the effect of a hardened or “thickened” heart? The answer: the thicker the heart, the less room to contain the wine.

Let’s look at these metaphors strategically for a moment. If we search the Biblical text for some of the characteristics of the Holy Spirit, we learn that the less wine (Holy Spirit) in the wineskin (heart), the more the Christian would: receive less spiritual counsel (1), remain spiritually powerless (2), provide less “fruit” for the good of humanity (3), be restricted from their God-ordained individual and corporate destiny (4) – and, have less ability to fight the enemy of mankind (5).

THE ENEMY OF MANKIND

For the Biblical Worldview states that there is an ultimate enemy of mankind, existing outside of mankind itself. He is referred to as the devil, or the adversary. The Bible claims he is bent on the wholesale destruction of mankind, not just the Christian (7). But the Christian, those “reborn” in Christ, are the only group of mankind able to resist and threaten him and his destructive agenda (8). Now, assuming there is such an enemy, this “thickening” would be a highly advantageous strategy against the Christian, for all of the attributes of the Holy Spirit in the previous paragraph are subversive to the enemy’s nature, agenda and ultimate existence.

But there’s more. The Biblical Worldview also claims that this enemy is capable of influencing unsaved and/or prideful humanity; what the Bible calls “the son’s of disobedience”(9). To the Christian, this enemy may manifest as a voice of condemnation. But to the sons of disobedience he often acts a voice of inspiration, contributing counsel directly into the minds of those he hates much like a despotic dictator using captured prisoners for his own selfish benefit before their ultimate annihilation. This is a highly advantageous opportunity. For if a heart filled with the Holy Spirit is a tantamount threat to this enemy's existence, would it not be strategic to "inspire" mankind to produce self-perpetuating and engaging devices, processes and formulas designed to slowly thicken the heart? This way the individual rarely retains awareness of his or her heart growing continually and perpetually thicker. And all the while these systems are carefully and calculatedly crowding out the space capable of holding the life-transforming and enemy-destroying “wine” of the Holy Spirit.

A TIME FOR SELF REFLECTION

Have these "inspired" strategies been launched on an unsuspecting humanity? To answer that question is to self-evaluate your own life. Take a critical assessment of what you are willing to tolerate. What have your eyes grown so accustomed to viewing that it now flows across your visual gate with little apprehension or hesitation – be it sexual, violent or debase? What words no longer phase you? How grey is the “grey area” of your moral decisions? As with me, what sarcastic comments fly out of your mouth, or into your ears, without the slightest bit of concern? What activities do you engage in that you must subjectively justify with words or reinterpret scripture so as to appease your inner conscience? By answering these questions, you will develop, much like an internal X-ray, an objective understanding of just how thick your heart may be. Mine, at the time, was pretty hard.

But it doesn't end there. Once you've discovered how this strategy has been unleashed on your own heart, you can investigate which "inspired" mechanisms are being used to further its advance. What "devices," now commonplace in your home, your car, and in your pocket, are capable of promoting the thickening, without giving a moment of thought to its strategy? What devices help portray or communicate a reality in which the thickening (greed, lust, violence, profanity, etc.) is merely a component of existence? You'll find that most of these devices are not in themselves "thickening" technologies, but instead are carriers of this thickening agenda. This too can now be shown as highly strategic. For if these technologies act merely as receptacles for broadcasting thickening content, then the content can be continuously replaced with new, more powerful and more engaging strategies without having to replace the technology itself. In other words, despite the narrow vision of the church against entertainment, television, video games and the like, these arena's and mechanisms are not predominantly “legal” or “moral” issues…

They are “power” issues.

THE PURPOSE OF THE THICKENING

The “thickening” of your heart is designed to keep you powerless. You, as a true Christian through the strength of the Holy Spirit, are the only ones on the planet with power over the enemy of mankind and his destructive agenda against all of humanity. And the enemy knows it. Though the church and “conservative-value” lobbyist groups focus predominantly on the moral content being broadcast through these mechanisms, to the enemy it's all power – and your lack of it. In fact, the enemy's dire wish is for Christians to continue focusing strictly on morality, for such battling under such arguments causes division among factions of society allowing the thickening cycle to continue and societal groups to further divide.

The Apostle Paul forecasted the strategy of these mechanisms through an assertion written nearly 2,000 years ago: "all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable (or powerful)." (10) As technology has advanced, the strategy has grown far more expansive, further mirroring Paul’s declaration. Methodically and strategically, the enemy has "inspired" mankind to develop numerous "lawful" but not "powerful" devices, so that the Christian, fueled on their entertainment, embraces or attacks them based on their legality. And the only ones with the strength to battle and eradicate this enemy and liberate mankind from his destructive grasp remain devoid of their true potential and power through the Holy Spirit. Again, the Biblical Worldview unlocks this strategy.

In Genesis 29 we learn of a roving vagabond of a man named Joseph who, in his journey, comes to a well used to water three flocks of sheep. Nearing the well, we learn there’s a problem for the thirsty, hurried wanderer – a stone lay blocking the mouth of the water source. “When all the flocks were gathered there, they would roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.” The stone had to be removed in order for the sheep, and Joseph, to be watered. There is a vital key here. If one wanted to weaken, emaciate or annihilate the sheep, one simply kept the stone in place. The life-giving water was always present, but to destroy the health, vitality and potential of the sheep required some conduit to hold back the life source. In the same way, the strategy of the thickening in our lives creates a callous stone whose purpose is to prevent the watering of ourselves in the power of the Holy Spirit, and through this lack of powerful spiritual nourishment, the rest of the sheep – or mankind universal.

"If we keep adding stones, soon the water will be lost in the well..." Jack Johnson, Traffic in the Sky

"...how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house." Matthew 12:29

How can I be so sure of this strategy? The “thickening” itself broadcasts the truth of this statement! I have often heard a good friend of mine state, “you don’t take out an ant with a bazooka.” Naturally, the frailty of the ant does not necessitate such a response. The ant is a weak and frail creature. It can be removed easily. But if this "thickening" is so subversive, so encompassing, and so technologically calculated then the enemy of mankind, when it comes to the true Christian, must be dealing with something far more potent and dangerous than an ant. Perhaps he realizes that it is he, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is actually the ant… he’s just hoping the Christian doesn’t wake up to that fact. Remove and critically assess the arenas in your life that cause this “thickening,” and that realization will grow clearer and clearer every day.

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Biblical References: (1) John 14:26, (2) Romans 8:26, (3) Galations 5:22, (4) Ephesians 2:22, (5) Ephesians 6:17, (6) I Peter 5:8, (7) Isaiah 33:1, (8) James 4:7, (9) Ephesians 2:2, (10) I Corinthians 6:12