Here are eight warning signs of a wicked and hardening heart.
No Conviction
When a person begins to feel no conviction from sinning, the Spirit may not be as easily recognized next time. When we resist the conviction of the Spirit, it’s like a little tiny callous starts forming over our heart….and the more we grieve the Holy Spirit, the less we’ll feel His telling us to stop and repent of this and then confess it to God. This is very dangerous for someone who’s not a Christian but does believe in God, since, if they fall away “it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them” (2nd Pet 2:21).
Whenever we start growing discontented with things in life, we are starting to harden our hearts a bit. It’s not that contentment comes naturally, because even the Apostle Paul had to learn contentment and despite beatings, stoning’s, lashes, and imprisonment, he says “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Phil 4:11). If anyone had a reason to be discontented in life it was Paul but he says, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Phil 4:12). He learned it. He made a choice. When discontentment erupts into anger (which in time it will), that’s wickedness in a person’s heart.
