Deuteronomy 29:4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. ESV

In worldly terms perception is defined as awareness thru the exercise of the senses. Touch, smell and any system that reports to the brain even beyond that of hearing and seeing are all involved in perception. It is the brain that receives the data input and does the analysis which establishes your reality. So why is God making reference to the heart?

Mark 2:8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

Psalm 44:11 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

The emphasis here is over the actions of men, which we see, and the speech of men, which we hear, which belie what is truly in their hearts. How are you to know by faith what is God’s will for you in any of these situations if you rely only on worldly senses? To walk in the Spirit we must be willing and able to allow faith to act as our guide and not our worldly senses.

Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The key here is “by reason of use”. You must exercise your faith, take it out for a walk, in order to experience how it works apart, separate from the other senses.

Faith doesn’t sit around waiting for God to do something. It needs exercise.

Psalm 78:36-37 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

How much do you really know about the covenant that God made alone? The meaning of covenant has changed over the years to implicate two parties but in the Old Testament economy God made a covenant alone, man had no part in it, except to receive the blessings. God said, I will, and nothing man said could change what God had declared. All man had to do to receive the blessing was to remember God’s covenant.

Yet again and again man failed to praise God for all He had done and returned to complaining about their hunger in the flesh and asked to be satisfied physically rather than spiritually. In this man has not changed. More give me more, I am not satisfied.

Psalm 78:38-39 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

We have seen God’s mercy over and over again in this life. Forgiveness is freely given. It is so freely given we give little to no heed to the consequences of sin. We continue to provoke God by seeking satisfaction of the flesh. Give me more.

Psalm 78:40-41 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

In this is the true failure of Christians, who by lying lips and selfish hearts have kept the blessings of God’s covenant with man from flowing out from us to those whom God would have compassion upon because we act selfishly.