Introduction to God’s Heart for Aliyah

God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. – 1 Corinthians 2:10–11 NKJV

Welcome to this twenty-one-day study and prayer guide. I believe God has much for each of us in the coming days as He reveals His innermost heart and His deepest mysteries. This guide will prepare you to receive all He has for you.

God wants us to know His heart, so He gave us His Holy Spirit living inside us as our guide to His heart. It’s through the Holy Spirit that we can know the thoughts, emotions and will of the Father.

In John 16:13 (CSB), Jesus says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.”

Take time to meditate on 1 Corinthians 2:10–11 and John 16:13.

Exploring the heart of God through His Spirit is meant to be normal for believers, not unattainable. God created us to know Him—God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In English, when we talk about someone’s heart, we are often referring to their emotions. In the Old and the New Testaments, the word “heart” refers to the innermost part of a person or being, not merely the emotions. The Hebrew word for heart is lev and has many meanings, including the mind, understanding and wisdom. It is used for feelings, the will, the intellect and the center of anything. The Greek word for heart is kardia and includes thoughts, feelings, understanding, desires and the mind.

Scripture reveals many things about God’s heart; at least one may surprise you! We will study a few of the main topics on God’s heart based on how often God talks about the subjects in Scripture. Two of the main topics on God’s heart are Israel and the Jewish people. We need to understand what God has said, how He sees His people and land, what His plans are for them and how Gentiles fit into the picture.

God longs for a relationship with us. When you have a personal relationship with someone, you want to know the other person. You want to know his or her heart—what is important to them, what makes them happy, what makes them sad, what their desires are and what they think about.

Most of us long for a deeper relationship with God. We want to know His heart, yet sometimes we don’t know where to start. The study and prayer guides you will receive daily will help you go deeper in your relationship with God as you better understand His heart.

How the next 21 days will be unique

The purpose of this twenty-one-day journey is not just to give you a biblical devotional study with some good information and daily prayer points, which it will do. It is also to help you to engage with the Word of God, meditating on it and praying the Scriptures. We will look at both of these topics below.

Each day will include the following:

• Scripture(s) to meditate on, study and pray through.
• Teaching on the topic by people involved in ministry.
• A prayer to pray.
• Prayer points.
• An action to take.

Importance of meditating.

Meditation has gotten a bad reputation with many Christians because of how New Agers and other religions use it. However, the Bible has much to say about meditation, and I encourage you to meditate on the Scriptures we study. Consider what each of the following verses says about meditating on God and His Word:

• Joshua 1:8 (NKJV): “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
• Psalm 48:9 (NIV): “Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.”
• Psalm 77:12 (ESV): “I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.” The New Living Translation says, “They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.”
• Psalm 119:27 (NLT): “Help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds.”
• Psalm 145:5 (NKJV): “I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works.”
• Philippians 4:8 (ESV): “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Synonyms for meditate include: consider, think about, study, contemplate, ponder, deliberate and mull over. Biblical meditation is reflecting on Scripture, mulling it over and asking God to reveal His heart through it.

Some ways you can meditate include:

• Reading one or more verses and then thinking about the truths in them, asking God what they mean and how they might change your life. Continue to mull over the truths throughout the day.
• You can also read one verse, but then take time to contemplate every word in the verse, asking God to reveal His truths to you. You could spend a few minutes to a few hours to many days meditating on one verse!

I encourage you to take the time to meditate on and consider the truths each day. Ask the Lord to reveal His truth as you meditate on His Word.

In your daily study and prayer guides, you will study prophetic Scriptures. As you do, ask God to give you His view of those verses. Ask yourself:

• What did God say and mean to the original audience?
• How is that Scripture being fulfilled today? Or, how has it or will it be fulfilled?
• How does this Scripture, or should it, impact my life today? What can I apply from it?

As we meditate on the Scriptures in the coming days, they will transform our lives.

Praying the Word.

As you study each Scripture in the next twenty-one days, after you meditate on them and answer questions about them, then turn them into a prayer. You can change the verses, often slightly, so they become a prayer. For example:

Genesis 12:2–3 (TLV): The Lord said to Abram, “My heart’s desire is to make you into a great nation, to bless you, to make your name great so that you may be a blessing. My desire is to bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

You can pray something like: Lord, You said that Your heart’s desire to make Abram (who later became Abraham) into a great nation. You promised him that You would bless him and make his name great so he would be a blessing. You also said that You would bless everyone who blessed Abraham and curse all who cursed him and through him all families on the earth will be blessed. I can see how You have blessed Abraham’s family and used them to bless the whole world. Thank You for the blessings I have received from Your promises to Abraham. Forgive me for the times I have cursed Abraham’s descendants in any way.

Many of the guided prayers are praying the Scripture we studied.

Ways to prepare for this study

• You might want to find one or more people to study and pray with during your study. You can encourage and challenge each other in your study and in praying.
• Before you begin each day, prepare your heart to hear God’s heart. Ask God what you must do to prepare each day; it could be confessing any sin, praising and worshipping God or anything else He reveals.
• If you haven’t already gotten it, get your copy of the Prepare Your Heart devotional study.¹ Before we begin to study and pray, it is important to have our hearts aligned with God’s heart. This devotional gives a practical study that will empower you as you study Scripture, pray and apply the truths to your life.

I pray that as you study, meditate on and pray the Scriptures in the coming days, you will be abundantly blessed as God reveals more of His mystery to you.

Blessings and shalom,

Gaylyn Williams and Dean Bye

How to Get the Most out of These Blogs

These blogs will help you dig deeper into God’s Word to discover more for yourself and grow in your relationship with God. It will help you get to know God’s heart in more significant ways.

Throughout this study, longer passages won’t be written out. You can study them in any translation you want.

Quotes from people

I am so grateful to all the people I interviewed who gave their insights for this series. If I don’t have copyright information on a quote, it is because it came from a personal interview. You will find contact information for those who want it included, so you can reach out to them. I will only use a first name for people who chose to remain anonymous.

More Resources

You can find many extra resources that add to your study on our website: www.RelationshipResources.org/Gods-Heart.

Bible Translations

These blogs use many different translations of the Bible, which show variations and nuances of the verses. Only part of some verses are used, because that is what is being emphasized. The abbreviations used are:

AMP—Amplified Bible

CJB—Complete Jewish Bible

CSB—Christian Standard Bible

ESV—English Standard Version

KJV—King James Version

NASB1995—New American Standard Bible 1995

NET—New English Translation

NIV—New International Version

NKJV—New King James Version

NLT—New Living Translation

TLV—Tree of Life Version

1. You can get it at www.GodsHeartForIsrael.com.