A Heart Exchange: Prayer, Judgment, and the Compassion of God

In this episode of the Press Movement Podcast, we conclude our journey through Ezekiel with a powerful reminder: God sees everything—even the thoughts in our minds—and yet, He still desires to be our sanctuary. As Ezekiel witnesses God’s judgment unfold, he responds with compassion and intercession. Through this, we learn that spiritual leadership requires both truth and love.

God’s justice is never void of His mercy. Even while allowing destruction, He promises to gather, restore, and give His people new hearts—hearts that can be molded, hearts that can love Him back. This episode challenges us to pray deeply, speak truth with compassion, and remain sensitive to God's timing in both judgment and restoration.

Whether you’re navigating personal trials or discerning your place in today’s spiritual climate, this message is a call to stand, pray, and press into God’s heart.

📖 Ezekiel 11
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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through. And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us.

Hello everybody, and welcome to the Press Movement Podcast. Thanks for joining me today as we are going to the book of Ezekiel. This is our last stop in the book of Ezekiel. It has been an interesting journey.

I think that Ezekiel is perhaps the most interesting prophet in the Old Testament, and if you don't know why I say that, I would recommend going back to the very first podcast on the book of Ezekiel because the way the Lord dealt with him was so unique, and that just does not change from what I can see. So we're in Ezekiel 11 today, and Ezekiel starts by saying the Spirit of the Lord lifted me up, and he brought me to the east gate of the Lord's house. And there he saw 25 men who were important men in the city. At the gate would be the place of gathering, decision-making. That's where all the important men met.

And the Lord let him know these are the men that devise mischief and give wicked counsel in this city. These are the men that are leading this city wrong. It was the government. Now, I know some of us can read a whole lot into that. In the New Testament, the Bible does tell us not only to obey those that have rule over us, but it teaches us to pray for them, and it teaches us that that is where the war is—with the principalities, the powers, the rulers of darkness. The government has always been something that we need to pray for and intercede for, and today is no different.

There are men gathered in public and secret places who are making decisions about how they will lead their countries, their cities, their states, even their towns. And some of them are leading wrong. So the Lord gave Ezekiel what to prophesy to these men. And he said to them, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. I've said it before, I'll say it again. So many times we think that the Lord knows our heart. He knows our mind. He knows our intents. And we act like that's a good thing, but he sees every single thought. He was letting them know he is seeing your motives. He's seeing what you're really after. He's hearing the difference between what you say and what you're wanting—where you're trying to direct the people. God does not ignore the deceitfulness or the devices of the enemy. He said, I know your thoughts—every one of them.

And he tells them how they've destroyed the city, more or less. You've multiplied your slain in the city; there's more people dying because of you. The city is like a cauldron. It's like a boiling pot. He said, you have feared the sword, and I will bring a sword upon you. What you've been timid about is that somebody’s going to come and fight you. Well, I'm bringing them to fight. So he's going to let their worst nightmare come true. He's going to bring them out of where they are, and this time it is not a good thing, because he's going to deliver them to the hands of strangers and execute judgments against them. He says, Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. I am bringing judgment to your city.

Now notice, in Ezekiel 9, he brought judgment to the house of the Lord. Now judgment is coming also to the city. And he's going to judge them within the borders of Israel. And he does this because he said, I want you to know I’m the Lord. I'm in charge here.

And as Ezekiel prophesied, the Bible says the son of Benaiah died. His name was Pelatiah. Ezekiel fell down on his face and cried with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord God! Wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” You see, that is the prayer there. And I don’t know if you can imagine this, but to Ezekiel these were not just sinners or random strangers. These are people whose names he at least knew, and so to see the Lord move so swiftly right after you spoke it—it caused Ezekiel to feel something. And he's asking God, are you really going to destroy everything that remains?

There’s a sense of compassion here that Ezekiel has for the people he can see, and I do find that to be often an attribute of the people God uses. Now once we get to Jonah, we may see something a little different, but the majority of the prophets and preachers, even when they had to say things the people didn't like, it wasn't because they hated the people. They had compassion. Jesus himself was moved with compassion. Even though he had to speak against certain things—and at times the actions of certain people like the Pharisees and scribes—it was that love and that compassion, in fact, that often moved him.

And I would argue, some of them as well, to tell the truth—the truth that the people wouldn't want to hear, the truth that would get them hated, the truth that would bring light to their evil and cause them to look in a mirror, if you would. It was that kind of truth that the prophets—and Jesus himself—preached. But it wasn't because they didn't care. It was because they did.

It is important today that we not withhold truth in the interest of keeping a make-believe peace. Just so we don't want to hear it, we’re going to “get along.” We don’t want the smoke, so to speak. We have an obligation to love our neighbor, and sometimes that means we have to tell them a truth they’re not going to want to hear. But as the Lord moves us—and that was the case in Ezekiel—the Lord moved him. It was the right time.

We do have to tell the truth, and telling it at the right time doesn’t mean it’s going to make us feel good or even that they're going to respond, but it does mean when we've kept the word of the Lord, he knows who’s obeyed him and he knows how to have mercy on them that have followed him. But Ezekiel is touched when he sees Pelatiah die as soon as he has prophesied what the Lord will do.

And yet the Bible says again, the word of the Lord came to me. Can you imagine the fact that you have to keep preaching, keep talking, right after you see something like this? But the Lord comes to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 15, and he says, “Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly [w-h-o-l-l-y] are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord: unto us is this land given in possession.”

Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God: Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.

In other words, God is doing what He always does—not abandoning His people. Even in judging against them, even though He's going to allow the sword to come, even though they may be scattered, there are people now—because the Lord is reprimanding Israel—who think, Oh, this is going to be our country. We're going to take this land. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. And what the Lord is saying is, “I've scattered them, but I'm going to be to them as a little sanctuary in these countries.”

In other words, they're going to find peace, they're going to find rest, they're going to find their place—and I will be there wherever they are. And God goes even further than that because, like I said, He is reprimanding but never abandoning.

Therefore, say—He says to Ezekiel in verse 17—Thus saith the Lord God: I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.

In other words, I’m giving you your land back, and I’m going to give it to you clean.

Verse 19: And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

He's doing a heart exchange. He's going to help them want to love Him. Sometimes you’ve got to ask God, “Help me to want to want to love you. Help me to want to want to follow you.”

He said, “I’m exchanging their hearts. The hard heart—I’m making it a heart of flesh. Something that can be molded. Something that can be touched. Something that can be changed. Something that is of life.” I’m giving life to their hearts.

And it’s funny because, in verse 5 when He said, “For I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them,” and He went on to explain how evil they are—that word “mind” and the word “heart” here in verse 19 are the same word in Hebrew, which is the original language of the Old Testament.

So for all purposes here, these are the same words. So where He saw these negative things going into—and this bad stuff going into—and He knew the condition of their heart, He now says, “I know their heart is stony. I know it's hard. I know it's full of mess. I know the mess has been there and lingered and it is very much ingrained in who they are. So I've got to do a heart exchange. I've got to give them a heart that can be touched.”

And that is as much the point of God allowing judgment as actually judging them and showing that He's God. He wants to know them. He wants to be close to them. He wants them to love Him. And He uses judgment, yes, to show who He is and that He's God—but also to bring the people back to Himself.

He begins to make a difference between those who will let God change them and those who will not. Because He says in verse 21, after He talks about this new heart so they can walk after His statutes and keep His ordinances:

But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense [or pay back] their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord.

He's not going to keep convicting everybody for the things that some people did.

Even today, there are some things that will affect us all when it comes to judgments—whether it's war, whether it's sickness, famine, economic crisis—there are some things that affect us all. But what we've seen of God is that He knows how to preserve His people and cause even a little sanctuary in the middle of whatever situation.

The prayer of Ezekiel was: “Will thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” God, are you really going to destroy us all? And the answer God gave is really no. But I will destroy those who still won’t choose Me.

And that can be a hard pill to swallow when you start to see the faces of people who refuse to make God their choice.

But today, we have an opportunity to be moved with compassion, to pray, to speak up where the Lord allows and directs—and really learn and know the mind of God: that even in judgment, destruction is not His goal. He wants to know us. He wants to know you. And you can know Him—as you talk to Him, as you seek Him, as you listen to Him, and as you get to see Him in the Scriptures.

And one thing you’ll find that is very consistent throughout the Scriptures is that prayer reaches every single situation.