I Samuel 13:14: “But now thy kingdom shall not continue; the Lord has sought him a man after his own heart.”

Acts 13:22b: “I have found David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.”

One of the top 10 questions I am usually asked is: “What did it mean when David was said to be a man after God’s own heart.”  That is a good question when you look at David’s life.  He was quite a rascal. Like Joseph Smith, we have no idea how many wives he had. He was a lousy father as evidenced from Tamar and Absalom.  He was an adulterer, a murderer, and he had so much blood on his hands that God would not allow him to build His temple.  Yet, we read in I Kings 15:5: that David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.  The phrase except in the matter is not to be understood as exclusive of every sinful act, but to reference a habitual and continued apostasy from God.  It is similar to the phrase turning aside from God.  All David’s other sins were transit, sudden and followed by repentance.   This matter of Bathsheba was a willful, I know it is wrong but I will do it anyways, act. This act came after God allowed David to enter the special fragile areas of His heart and as a result of this willful act he bruised and broke God’s heart.

A man after God’s heart is not a sinless man who locks himself up in a room and prays and reads the Bible all day. In I Samuel 13:14 the preposition Kap that is used before the word levav (heart) is traditionally rendered as like or as rather than after. We could render this as a man with a heart like God’s heart. In Acts 13:22 the Greek preposition is taka is used which is often rendered as according to.  So David was a man who had a heart like God’s or was according to God.  The Aramaic Bible, Peshitta uses the Aramaic preposition aik which is often rendered as such as or as though.  David had a heart such as or as though it were Gods heart.  The answer to the question as to what it means to be a man after God’s heart is only answered if you know what God’s heart is and your heart’s desires are the same as His heart’s desires.  Thus David was a man after God’s heart because God let him into the very secret rooms of His heart; God exposed himself to possible heartbreak so as to share a special intimacy with David.

I have been on my quest to discover God’s heart now for over 6 years having done over 1,500 daily Hebrew word studies and published four books in my journey to discover God’s heart. Yet, this journey continues and each day I discover something new about God’s heart. I am beginning to believe that David was a man after or according to God’s heart because he spent his life seeking to know God’s heart and to do what would bring pleasure to His heart and avoid that which would break His heart. Just as a husband will spend a lifetime learning about his wife’s heart and as he grows closer and closer to his wife over the years he is constantly learning something new about her heart.

I have caught a glimpse of God’s heart as I journeyed behind my Looking Glass where I found it had 22 guards, the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. As my journey continued and I grew closer to the heart of God I found the little hidden codes in each letter that has been taught by the ancient Jewish sages carried an even greater access to the lowest depths of God’s heart. I have discovered that these letters do not easily share their codes and combinations and even though one may read the various meanings that the ancient sages assigned to each letter one cannot really apply a combination of these meanings to discover a personal message from God without seeking an understanding with all his heart, soul and mind.

I can only say that I have caught a glimpse of the lower depths of God’s heart but there are higher levels, levels which are much more fragile, but offer a deeper intimacy with God. The deeper the intimacy, the greater the responsibility one has to be as careful as possible not to break God’s heart. As you approach these levels of God’s heart you find it affects your emotions. You begin to weep over things that would you would normally not feel any grief over and you will rejoice over things that would normally not bring you joy.  But they are the things that causes God’s heart to grieve or rejoice and as you approach those depths of God’s heart where, like David, you have a heart according to Gods heart you will feel His grief or His joy. You will weep with Him or you will rejoice with Him and you will feel His pleasure.

It seems Christians are constantly talking about intimacy with God.  I know this intimacy starts with God’s heart and just as a man and woman enter into an intimacy with each other, the very nature of that intimacy means you must make yourself vulnerable to that person.  You have given that person access to a special part, a very fragile part of your heart and you have given that person the opportunity to break your heart.   If we enter an intimacy with God is it not the same?  If God allows us to enter a very fragile part of His heart would not one false move break his heart? If you wish to enter an intimacy with God you must be aware of your responsibility. You will have the 22 guards of the Hebrew Alphabet watching you very closely. They will not reveal their secrets if you are reckless with God’s heart. The Holy Spirit is often pictured as gentle dove that would be easily bruised if you are reckless with God’s heart. Men are often frustrated over a woman’s tendency to get overly emotional and offended, yet God created a woman as a helpmeet for man to understand His heart, His heart is as easily offended as that of a woman and yes there are times we men can get pretty reckless with a woman’s heart as we do with God’s heart.

David was allowed into those fragile chambers of God’s heart and he got reckless with Uriah and as a result he broke God’s heart. You want to be a person after God’s heart?  You must first resolve that if God grants you entrance into that fragile area of His heart, you will enter reverently, carefully, and prayerfully, with every intention to protect God’s heart.  I have heard people during prayer meetings talk about protecting the anointing. I suspect what they are really talking about is they have entered those secret chambers of God’s heart and one must be careful not to bruise God’s heart with personal agendas, pride, showing off, or seeking the attention of others. In other words they are not protecting an anointing but protecting the very heart of God.

Intimacy with God is no new fad with Christianity, something you put into your Christian, “you gotta experience it list.“  You are dealing with the very heart of God which can be easily broken. David’s brokenness over his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah was not over the consequences he suffered from the sin, but over the fact that he had broken God’s heart after God had entrust that area of His heart to him.

You want a heart after God? You want intimacy with God?  Then consider the great responsibility he will put in your hands when you enter His heart. Expect to weep as much as you rejoice, expect to find yourself avoiding those annoying little sins as you learn to fear God, that is fear you would wound his that fragile area of His heart that He has opened to you. Remember David said that the secret of the Lord is to those who fear Him (Psalms 25:14)