Attracting the Dove – A Pure Heart

Doing some Dove research I discovered that Doves are not the easiest birds to attract into one’s yard. Creating the right environment to entice these amazing and beautiful birds to nest in your yard means providing seeds, water, and shelter. Another interesting point I gleamed was that Doves are shy, sensitive, and desire a peaceful environment in which to live and have their babies.

Perhaps the demeanor of this gentle cooing bird is one of the reasons the Father chose the Dove as the symbol of the Holy Spirit to “remain” on Jesus at His Baptism. Jesus’ heart was pure and peaceful-ready for the anointing of the Spirit. I believe one of the attributes we can place on the Holy Spirit is sensitivity. If the environment within our hearts is not suitable to His sensitive nature the anointing will depart.

Jesus taught, “blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God,” (Mt. 5:8). God the Holy Spirit is attracted to a heart that is pure and clean, purged from worldly pollution. Paul teaches that we can “grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Eph. 4:30). In essence push Him away by an unattractive heart filled with:

“Bitterness, rage, anger, brawling and slander, every form of malice, unforgiveness sexual immorality, any impurity, greed …” (Eph. 4:31-5:1ff.).

A heart controlled by one or more of the fleshly issues above will keep the sensitive Spirit’s anointing from resting one’s heart. The last few months the Holy Spirit has convicted me of areas in my heart where I have “grieved” the Spirit. One area has been the words I speak. I have thought about placing a lock on my mouth that would prevent me from speaking negative words, ah I have realized that my words reflect my heart. When I call the person who cut me off in traffic a-well not so nice name it reveals deeper issues in my heart. I need some heart help.

The morning I wrote this blog I was reading my Psalm for the day and it happened to be Psalm 51. The Holy Spirit highlighted these healing words from the prayer:

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me,” (vs. 10-12).

David messed up big time like we all do. However, the prayer in the Psalm prepared his heart for the presence of the Spirit to fill him up again with the assurance of forgiveness and joy of knowing the Father’s love.

The Dove may be sensitive but He is always working behind the scenes to point us back to Jesus’ blood poured out on the cross to purify our needy hearts with heaven’s unconditional love. Give Him your heart again today and let Him clean it up and make it once again attractive for the Dove!