“Heart is used in Scripture as the most comprehensive term for the authentic person. It is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate, & decide. It has been described as ‘the place of conscious & decisive spiritual activity,’ ‘the comprehensive term for a person as a whole; his feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will,’ & ‘the center of a person. The place to which God turns.’” ~ J. Stowell, Fan The Flame, Moody, 1986, p. 13 Pic Of “Follow Your Heart” Most of the world, & many in the Church are being encouraged to operate under this philosophy of life, implying that it is where authentic freedom & genuine love is found – following your heart. But Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things, & desperately wicked; who can know it?” Following the dictates of their own hearts is what led Israel – God’s people – into rebellion, disobedience & eventually judgment in the Old Testament. They were not seeking to know the heartbeat of God anymore. The Lord is warning us today about repeating the same mistake Israel made, & thinking that we should follow the dictates of our own hearts in 2026 – “What are you passionate about? What does your heart tell you to do?” We had better find out instead what the Lord Jesus Christ is passionate about; getting so close to Jesus, by way of the Cross, that we can sense His heartbeat, & have the Holy Spirit’s help in understanding what Christ’s heart tells us to do! 6 Passages Where Jeremiah Warned The People Of God About Following The Dictates Of Their Own Heart Instead Of Finding The Heartbeat Of God Jeremiah 3:17 “At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.” In the Kingdom Age, Jerusalem, where Jesus will physically rule & reign, will be a place where the heartbeat of God motivates everything that happens, & not the dictates of mankind’s evil hearts. “‘their evil heart’,” “…it cannot be changed by a different political party in power, education, money, psychology or anything else that man can do. It can only be changed by the power of the crucified & risen Christ.” J.S. Bible Commentary On Jeremiah Through Lamentations, World Evangelism Press, pg. 24. When we are following the dictates of our own evil heart, we are missing the blessings that Jesus paid for through His finished work on Calvary. Jeremiah 29:13 Pic These Last Days that we’re living in are no time for half-hearted Christians, or casual Christianity. We better lay our lives down at the foot of the Cross & find out what the heartbeat of Jesus Christ is, & then follow it! Jeremiah 7:23, 24 “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, & I will be your God, & you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels & the dictates of their evil hearts, & went backward & not forward.” Following the dictates of your own evil heart will only bring you into a backslidden state. We must go by way of Calvary, denying self, & crucifying our flesh, so that we can hear the voice of God, & His heartbeat leading us forward into His plans & purposes. “…when men walk in their own ways, or the ways of others, and not God’s Ways, then obedience is lacking, & things will not be ‘well unto you.’ God’s Ways are His Bible (AND His Redemption Plan = Jesus Christ & Him Crucified)” “Whenever man follows his own counsel, he always ‘goes backward, & not forward.’ However, in the ‘imagination of his evil heart,’ he surely thinks he is improving upon God!” J.S. Bible Commentary On Jeremiah Through Lamentations, World Evangelism Press, pg. 61. Too many church-goers in 2026 in America are just giving God lip-service & going through religious motions – their heart is not really in it. They’re not going to church to find God’s heartbeat. Matthew 15:7, 8 – “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, & honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” Jeremiah 9:14 “But they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts & after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,” Fathers, we ought to be teaching our natural children, as well as the younger generation that look up to us, spiritually-speaking, to do what Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, & with all your strength.” What legacy are we leaving for future generations that come after us? A legacy of proper faith, that has the proper object = Jesus Christ & Him Crucified? Too often we’re leaving a legacy of traditions, rituals, & dead works that come from the dictates of our own evil hearts, instead of modeling what it looks like to spend a lifetime finding, discovering & following after the heartbeat of the Lord Jesus Christ! Jeremiah 11:8 “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done.’” “Jeremiah contrasted the teachings of the Bible with those of the human imagination, & declared the latter to be evil, & that the wrath predicted in the Bible would certainly strike those who accepted this religion of the imagination.” J.S. Bible Commentary On Jeremiah Through Lamentations, World Evangelism Press, pg. 88. II Corinthians 10:5 says, “Casting down (imaginations) arguments & every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,” Jeremiah 13:10 “This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, & walk after other gods to serve them & worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing.” “Proud people may look important, but God says their pride makes them good for nothing, completely useless. Pride rots our hearts until we lose our usefulness to God.” Life Application Study Bible, Tyndale, pg. 1313. “If men do not follow the Word Of God, then their ‘imagination’ is all that’s left…” J.S. Bible Commentary On Jeremiah Through Lamentations, World Evangelism Press, pg. 101. Jeremiah 16:12 “And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.” “Even after being repeatedly shown their sin, with continued pleading for repentance, they stubbornly refused to yield. Why? Men love their sins, their own ways, & their prideful positions; hence the stubbornness!” J.S. Bible Commentary On Jeremiah Through Lamentations, World Evangelism Press, pg. 126. I Samuel 15:23 – “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, & stubbornness is as iniquity & idolatry. Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”