I will try to keep this brief. There were promises in the Old Testament concerning a new heart and a new spirit that God would give His people one day under the New Covenant. You see, under the Old Covenant, people lacked the equipment they needed to sustain a living, loving relationship with God. Plus, the presence of the Lord wasn’t within them. The promises stated that He would circumcise old hearts and give new hearts that would love Him and seek Him. At the cross, Jesus fulfilled all of these words. As new creations, you and I were given brand new hearts that beat and pant for Him, and we were given new spirits that tabernacle His Spirit and that desire His presence above all else. By the Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself came to live within the human spirit, and He gave people what they needed to have an eternal relationship with Him. I know this is elementary, but I want you to understand that you and I should never fall under the deception of the enemy. He tells us that we don’t have a heart for the Lord like we once had or that we have somehow lost the burning desire to know Him, but the truth is that we were all given hearts that love God above all else. That is our true identity!
When Jesus directed John to write a letter to the church of Ephesus, He told them to do three things in order to return to their first love: remember, repent, and do the works they did at first. I think it was a simple command. First, they were to remember that God had given them a first love heart. Second, they were to repent of believing anything differently than this truth. Third, they were to do the ‘first works.’ In John chapter 6, when the disciples asked Jesus how to work the works of God, He told them to believe in the One He sent. So, to do the first works was to simply believe that Jesus has done everything to make first love a reality in our experience. Therefore, all that needs to be done is to rest in His finished work. The great reality is we are seated with Him in the heavenly places surrounded by an atmosphere of perfect love.