OPENING OF HEART – Chapter 1 -part 2
NATURAL HEART AND MIND
“THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS AND DESPERATELY WICKED; who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jer. 17:9,10)
It is not a pleasant Word and we are never inclined to preach it, ponder it or explain it unless we talk about others. We would never admit that this Word APPLIES TO OUR OWN HEART! That our own heart may still be desperately wicked and deeply deceitful even after our redemption while doing a lot of good works, joining or helping other ministries who spread teachings according to our own beliefs.
It took a great pressure of sins to bring David to begin to cry to the Lord: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” (Ps. 51:1)
And then he begged the Lord: “Create in me a CLEAN HEART, O God; and renew a RIGHT SPIRIT within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence; and TAKE NOT THY HOLY SPIRIT FROM ME.” (Ps. 51:10,11// Pr. 20:9)
David cried unto the Lord like this BEING IN THE MIDST OF HIS WARS FOR THE LORD, DOING UNTO HIM A LOT OF GOOD DEEDS, BEING HIMSELF AFTER THE HEART OF GOD AND CHOSEN BY GOD TO DO HIS WILL! (Acts 13:22// Ps. 89:20) Are you with me? This Word also means, that we need to cry like that unto the Lord even after many years of our ministry and “wars” for the Lord. None of us is better than was David. True? Do you really believe this?
Believers that never cry, never shed tears to the Lord still possess the same old desperately wicked and deceitful heart WHETHER THEY ARE AWARE OF IT OR NOT! Thus the Holy Spirit may not be allowed into our soul though He dwells in our spirit. No believer is an exception becauseWE ALL STARTED WITH A DEEPLY DECEITFUL AND DESPERATELY WICKED HEART WHETHER WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN THIS FACT, OR NOT YET!
If, therefore, the Lord had not started to create in us a clean heart, it is still in a wicked state and we only “talk” about the Lord. Our lips preach, speak or sing about Him, but our HEART is far from Him… as He is also far from our HEART. (Is. 29:13// Mt. 15:7-9)
The Lord declares clearly that: “…those things, which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the HEART; and they defile the man. For out of the (wicked) HEART proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies…” (Mt. 15:18,19)
An important fact should be realized at this point. The heart of many believers, especially those who work for the Lord, who do something for Him, may not be “desperately wicked” any more, BUT it may still be deeply deceived! Therefore, what we do for the Lord may not be fruitful and fully acceptable to Him. It is better for us all to admit the above possibility rather than remain deceived and continue producing wood, hay and stubble. (1Cor. 3:12,13)
You see, the real problem is not what we speak or do but what are the true intentions of our heart! Our heart is especially tested by the Lord in circumstances involving our family or brethren that are close to us. Our heart will reveal itself sooner or later, and usually, when we do not even realize it. Our actions or reactions, including speaking about others behind their back, will clearly show whether our heart is right or wrong, cleansed or wicked or corrupt. Also, I always believed that it is only our mind, which is able to think, ponder, reason, plan, understand. BUT NO! The Word clearly declares that it is primarily and most importantly our HEART, which thinks, ponders, reasons, plans, decides. It must understand the Word of God, hear His Voice, see His Ways and do His Faith and Judgments placed in our conscience. Faith is never placed in our mind and our mind can never interpret it or understand it. The Lord spoke to Israel, His chosen people, in parables and the reason for it, He declared as follows:
“For this people’s HEART is waxed gross (grew fat, satisfied, unresponsive), and (therefore) their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should UNDERSTAND with their HEART, and should be converted (changed, restored), and I should heal them.” (Mt. 13:15// Is. 6:9,10)
Thoughts, imaginations, intentions, wisdom, foolishness, willingness, seeking, searching and similar actions of man’s HEART, as well as man speaking, pondering and deciding within his own HEART, these all are mentioned on every other page of the Bible. Start at the very beginning of the Bible (ex.Gen. 6:5) and try to find for yourselves how many times this fact is brought to the light by the Lord.
Some examples: Gen. 8:21; 17:17; 24:45; 27:41// Ex. 35:5, 35; 36:2// Num. 32:7// Deut. 4:9,39; 7:17; 8:2,5,17; 9:4; 10:16; 15:7,9; 18:21; 29:4,19; 30:14// Judg. 5:15// 1Sam. 16:7; 21:12; 27:1// 1Ki. 3:12; 8:61; 12:26// 1Chr. 22: 19; 29:18// Ezra 7:10// Esth. 6:6; 7:5// Job 8:10; 9:4; 17:4,11; 22:22; 38:36// Ps. 10:6,11,13; 14:1; 15:2; 19:14; 33:11; 36:1; 49:3; 53:1; 77:6; 95:10; 119:11,161; 140:2// Pr. 2:2,10; 6:18; 8:5; 10:8; 11:29; 14:33; 15:14; 16:1,9,21; 19:21; 22:15; 23:7,12,15; 24:2; 28:26// Ecc. 1:13,16,17; 2:1,3,15; 3:17,18; 7:22,25; 8:5,11; 9:1// Is. 10:7; 14:13; 32:4,6; 33:18; 44:19; 47:8,10; 49:21; 59:13, etc., etc…
I have only reached the Book of Jeremiah and already it is quite sufficient to see the above examples. Now, the word HEART is mentioned 582 TIMES while MIND is only mentioned 21 TIMES in the above quoted Bible passages! You should take time and read those verses quoted above and especially those underlined to see what our heart can do and what place of prominence and responsibility it has before the Lord. It may completely change the way of your current “religious life and understanding”.
Believers may ask how can they tell whether a thought comes from their mind or their heart. Actions of our mind can be recognized since they come from our head and we know when we are thinking, searching or pondering with our brain. Actions of our heart come from “deep within” our belly area without our mind being exercised in any noticeable way. These thoughts and intentions of our heart may come without our prior focusing on them in our mind. They often come out of our heart spontaneously. The difference between the actions of our mind and of our heart is of a great importance. The thoughts of our old mind are not valuable before the LORD, Who declares:
“The LORD knows the THOUGHTS OF MAN, that they are VANITY.” (Ps. 94:11)
Whenever then believers say: “I think that…” what follows has no spiritual value when it comes from his brain. Please note, that the Spirit of God never led Jesus to say: “I think…I assume…I hope…I guess…perhaps… maybe”! Whenever the Lord spoke, He said: “Verily, I say unto you… I tell you in truth…” – no “thinking”, no assuming, no guessing and no reasoning. That also means that the Spirit will never lead YOU to express yourself in spiritual things as the above examples show, but rather as the Lord Jesus spoke. These examples come from the natural soul and not from the Spirit of God. Do you believe this fact?
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I am constrained by the Spirit of the Lord to remind ourselves at this point, that in committing errors due to our wrong thinking, we may not thereby sin against God. But by assuming and presuming without verifying the facts, WE DO SIN against God! These sins then have dominion over us, they rule us and WE CANNOT BE UPRIGHT AND INNOCENT from the great transgression. (Deut. 13:14// Ps. 19:12,13)
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So what is important is what the believer “believes and knows in his HEART”. When the heart is not yet renewed in any noticeable degree, the mind is unrenewed, as well. It is yet in darkness, it may even be numbed or paralysed and thus impotent to think or consider rightly the things of the Lord and His Word.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTROL THOUGHTS IN OUR MIND (2Cor. 10:5) WITHOUT OUR OLD HEART BEING TOUCHED AND CLEANSED FIRST AND ITS OWN THOUGHTS CONTROLLED FIRST.
On the other hand, such an unrenewed mind is always ready to engage in endless religious discussions, doubts, arguments, questions, explanations and other forms of running around in intellectual circles and getting nowhere spiritually. It is a typical “intellectual” religion or religious psychology, which produces no spiritual values, no spiritual progress or growth, no spiritual maturing of any kind.
This is a perfect place to quote another Word of God, which touches this subject in its very core. It says:
“For as he THINKS IN HIS HEART, so is he:…” (Pr. 23:7)
The Spirit of the Lord constrains me to declare what I see with the Lord when I repeat this spiritual fact: “WE ARE WHAT WE THINK IN OUR HEART!”
This extremely important Word declares not only the spiritual reality of our person before God but It also “hides” within Itself the following consequential facts:
a) We cannot become a different person without starting to think differently in our heart.
b) We cannot start thinking differently in our heart without starting to see something different in our heart.
c) We cannot start seeing something different in our heart without departing from the existing darkness, which prevents us from seeing something different in our heart.
d) We cannot depart from the existing darkness in our heart until we allow the Light of the Lord to come in.
e) We cannot allow the Light of the Lord to come in because WE CANNOT BELIEVE that there could be darkness in our heart and that what we read or hear about ourselves or what others tell us could be actually true!
Let us now reverse the order of these facts and begin to see and understand what the Lord wants us to see here:
a) When we begin to pause and even admit that our thoughts, intentions, plans or deeds pointed out to us by others may indicate darkness, foolishness or evil in our person – we are becoming Overcomers.
b) When we begin to believe this truth, the Light of the Lord comes into our heart (Hab. 2:4// Rom. 1:17// Heb. 10:38).
c) That Light will enable us to start seeing different (new) things in our heart, which we never saw before.
d) Seeing different things in our heart will enable us to start thinking different (new) thoughts in our heart.
e) When we start thinking different (new) thoughts in our heart, we will start becoming a different person!
THIS IS THE WAY OF SALVATION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF OUR PERSON before God into the Image of Christ Jesus. From my own experience I may state that the only painful stage in this process is in point a), where we have to “overcome ourselves”, our image, pride and fears, and then in point b), step out of our boat on the water (begin to walk by faith) and walk on the water to Jesus. (Mt. 14:28-29)
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It is quite amazing that our personality is not expressed by what we think in our MIND, but what we think in our HEART. That is why the Word of God focuses on our HEART and testifies about Itself as follows:
“For the Word of God is quick (living, life bringing) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing (it pains human souls) even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit (outer and inner man) and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the THOUGHTS and INTENTIONS of the HEART.” (Heb. 4:12// Rev. 2:12, see also page B2[7])
Why is the Word of God discerning the thoughts and intentions of our HEART and not of our MIND? Why is the Lord knocking on the door of our HEART and not on the door of our MIND? (Rev. 3:20) These questions have one simple answer and it is found in another Word of God, which says: “Keep thy HEART with all diligence; for out of it are the ISSUES OF LIFE.” (Pr. 4:23)
THE ISSUES OF LIFE DO NOT RESIDE IN MAN’S MIND, BUT IN HIS HEART! Hence, the thoughts and intentions of our mind have no power to decide about our life, to be realized in our life, to change our life, our character and our mind itself. They cannot renew or bring life to our soul in any way. They can be compared to our “New Year’s resolutions”. It takes our HEART and the Word of God in it to do that salvation work. Seeing, believing and using this fact in our future life would revolutionize the whole Church. [Whenever we now mention the “Church”, we will always mean the “Church-Israel” made One; see more later.] It would lift us above all the deathly and earthly things and give us the glimpse of the lively and heavenly realm, which we might openly or secretly yearn for in our hearts but are unable to attain it. (Jn. 3:12,31-34// Phil. 3:18-20// Jam. 3:14-18// Col. 3:2, etc.)
I, therefore, believe that it is not only desirable but also vital for us all to learn to distinguish and discern our heart from our mind both in their thoughts, reasoning, ponderings, and other actions, reactions or inactions. So, let us…
NEVER CONFUSE OUR HEART WITH OUR MIND FOR WE COULD BE COMMITING DANGEROUS ERRORS, WHICH COULD KEEP US IN DECEPTION AND SLOWLY LEAD US TO PERDITION!
This chapter should not be concluded without the Word of God, which I desire not only to quote, but also to pray joining the great Apostle Paul in his prayer:
“That the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; THE EYES OF YOUR (SPIRITUAL, NOT NATURAL) UNDERSTANDING BEING ENLIGHTENED, THAT YE MAY KNOW…(IN HEART)” (Eph. 1:17,18)
I propose that we would beseech Our Lord to graciously answer the above prayer for us all and draw us deeper into His Truth, that is, into Himself, and higher above all the earthly and temporal things, which are about to perish anyway and which may otherwise stay in our way as mighty obstacles.
(To be continued next week in part 3)
brother Hanola
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