Heart of Man
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June 21, 2015 |
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 "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty" (Matthew 13:18-23).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
The heart of each individual is as different from person to person as their facial appearances are different. It is different according to their growth environment and what they have learned. Now let's delve into heart of man and the kind of heart God wants us to have.
1. What is 'heart'?
Among other things, the fundamental difference between men and animals is that man has a spirit while animals have no spirit. Man has a spirit, a soul, and a body while animals have only a soul and a body.
Only man has a spirit, and the heart of a man is related to this spirit. It is said that a dog looks sad when its owner is sad and cows shed tears when they are taken to the slaughter house.
Some may wonder then if animals as well as men have 'heart'. But, the answer is no. They may act as they do, not because they have heart, but because their souls and instinct are at work.
It is not exactly thought as such, but the souls of animals like dogs and cows can function based on their experiences and instinct. That is why they sometimes appear to have emotions and heart.
When God created the first man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, man became a living being (Genesis 2:7). God filled the man with spiritual knowledge. That is, his heart was a vessel, and the vessel was completely filled with spiritual knowledge. The size of spirit was the same with that of heart.
So it was unnecessary to tell heart from spirit in the first man, Adam. However, after he sinned, the spiritual knowledge of his 'heart' began to leak out from his vessel. Then untruth and darkness started coming into his heart. Finally, his heart, the vessel became full of untruth. In the end, only the seed of life—the trace of God-given breath of life was left.
When we accept Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and the seed of life 'sprouts'. Then, truthful knowledge enters the heart and untruth goes out. Then, again the vessel, which is the heart, becomes full of the truth. Then, spirit is heart, and heart is spirit.
The reason why we tell the vessel 'heart' from spirit is because there is untruth and fleshly knowledge as well as spiritual knowledge contained in it. But when our heart vessels are filled perfectly with spirit, we don't need to call it 'heart' any longer and we can call it 'spirit'.
2. Jesus' analogy on the heart field
Most people have truth and untruth mixed in their hearts. Jesus likened these hearts to a field in the following verses from Matthew 13:18. There are four kinds of fields: road-like, rocky, thorny, and of good soil.
The roadside is very hard unlike the field because people always walk on it. If the seeds fall on the roadside, they cannot take root. Birds come and eat up those seeds. It is the heart with which they cannot understand God's Word or believe it when they hear it because they have thoughts given by Satan. So they can't have faith.
Rocky fields have little soil and many rocks. In such fields the soil is not deep. When seeds fall in this kind of a place, they spring up but they are soon scorched by the sunshine because the soil is shallow. Those who have the heart of the rocky field hear and have God's Word as knowledge but they do not have strength to cultivate the Word in their hearts. Thus, no deeds of faith follow them.
The seeds on the thorny soil sprout but the thorns choke them and stop them from growing and bearing fruit. This field refers to people who act in their own greed and thoughts although they say they act in faith. So they cannot bear perfect fruit.
People with good soil obey only God's Word and bear abundant fruit in spirit and body.
3. Only the heart belonging to spirit can go to Heaven
An untruthful heart cannot enter Heaven. Does it mean if we have untruth left in our hearts we cannot enter Heaven? No, it doesn't. Only the truthful heart that belongs to spirit can enter Heaven.
Only when we try to circumcise our hearts can we cast away untruth and fill the space with spiritual knowledge. To the extent that we listen to God's Word, obey it, and throw away untruth and act in the truth, we can achieve the heart of spirit 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and even 90% and more.
When we pray fervently and receive the Holy Spirit's fullness and help, He gives birth to spirit in our hearts and our spirit grows up. Meantime, we can become God's true children whose hearts resemble God's heart.
Abraham's heart greatly resembled the heart of God. He was even deemed the friend of God and received the right to bless and curse (Genesis 12:3). Moses was very humble, more than any man on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3). Although Moses tossed down the two tablets of testimony (the Ten Commandments) and shattered them (Exodus 32:19) and rebuked the sons of Israel (Exodus 17:2-4), humbleness in God's sight is different from that in men's sight.
Moses had strong self-righteousness when he was a prince of Egypt. But he demolished his conceit and self-righteousness while he was living in his wife's house in the strange land Midian for 40 years. He became a humble man. Then upon God's calling, he worked as a leader of the Exodus and he showed the righteousness that belongs to God.
4. Spirit, soul, and body in Heaven
Through the circumcision of our hearts, we can accomplish heart that belongs to spirit. Then we can enter Heaven. If untruth or fleshly attributes in heart such as hatred, jealousy, and envy were able to enter Heaven, we could not say Heaven is beautiful.
In Heaven are only spirit, goodness, and love, not evil, flesh, and untruth. It is natural that Heaven is separated from other places. In fact, spirit; spirit and soul; and spirit, soul, and body coexist in Heaven. Here, 'spirit' refers to God and heavenly hosts and angels, 'spirit and soul' refers to saved people who believed the Lord and passed away, and 'spirit, soul, and body' are Enoch and Elijah who were taken alive and Jesus who redeemed us from our sins.
But Jesus said to God on the cross, "…Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit." (Luke 23:46). The Lord exists not just in spirit but also in soul and body, that is, in spirit, soul, and body in Heaven.
Jesus's body was buried, but on the third day He resurrected in the imperishable body. He ascended alive into heaven before His disciples' eyes. That is why the Lord exists now as spirit, soul and body in Heaven.
As for spirits and souls of forefathers of faith that are already in Heaven, their spirits and souls will later be combined with their resurrected bodies. Then they will become perfect spirit, soul, and body. But believers who will receive the Lord without seeing death will transform alive into imperishable bodies because their bodies have not been buried.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if you accept Jesus Christ and receive the Holy Spirit as a gift, I urge you to circumcise your heart diligently, that is, to cast away untruth and fill your heart with the truth. I pray in the name of the Lord that by doing so you will achieve God's heart and become men of spirit and whole spirit.
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