"Provocation"

"How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!" (Psalms 78:40) It is usually a matter of being hardhearted that causes us to continue in a life of sinful living, but in some cases, there is a issue called 'stiffneckedness.' Is there really a difference between the two? I believe that there is, because one involves the heart and the other involves attitude. A person could say those are very closely related issues, and in a matter of speaking, they are very closely related; but they are separated by the distance between your heart and your mind! If we really wanted to get technical, we could reference those that are stiff necked as being haughty or stubborn; these are issues that are mind related, and even though our heart might break for what we do, our mind convinces us to do it anyways. Paul uses this illustration in Romans 12:2, as he says, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." You see, our biggest problem when it comes to having victory over sin, is our inability to separate the natural from the supernatural. We are never going to overcome our flesh in the natural, which is basically the flesh dealing with the flesh; the flesh must be overcome in the supernatural, which is the Spirit dealing with the flesh. The reason that is our biggest problem is because of the big obstacle we have resting above our shoulders, our head; our head always gets in the way of God doing His perfect work in our heart! Another way we can see this is in the way of acceptance, and the difference between the heart and mind when it comes to accepting the supernatural. Our hearts are easily drawn to and willing to accept the supernatural, because there is always hope in what we do not see. But our mind needs proof, and is always trying to analyze what is going on, saying, "Never mind hope, show me something I can hold onto." But that's not how God works! He does not just give us some kind of power that we might be able to move out on our own and be victorious; He is the power...
"Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still "today," so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. Remember what it says: "Today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled." And who was it that rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn't it the people Moses led out of Egypt? And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn't it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn't it the people who disobeyed him? So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest." (Hebrews 3:12-19) NLT