The Heart is very important.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” – Proverbs 4:23
Can we describe our hearts, or define it? Take a minute and try writing it down on a piece of paper.
This might seem like a fairly easy task to do, however, when we really try to find words or phrases to describing our heart, we just can’t. (I don’t know about you, but i can’t) I, furiously flipped through the instrument that record, analyze, summarize, organize, debate and explain information; that are illustrated, non-illustrated; hard bound, paper-backed, jacketed, non-jacketed with foreword, introduction, table-of-contents, index that are intended for the enlightenment, understanding, enrichment, enhancement and education intended for the human brain through the sensory route of vision, sometimes touch (book of vocabulary) in my mind and found to my very amazement, rather than disappointment that I can’t do it.
To place this post in it’s context, this was a discipleship session with Joey on a Sunday afternoon.
So Joey followed up by asking where does our hearts lie?
It lies between our soul and spirit.
The soul is where all our emotions and feelings flow out from, you can say it’s the well of emotions/feelings in our lives. Whereas the Spirit, is our conscience, allowing us to communicate with God.
A word study on the word Heart led us to learning it is it’s Greek and Hebrew meanings.
In Hebrew, the heart means an Inner Man.
In Greek, the heart means Center of all spiritual physical life.
Do you know that your heart, plays a far more important role than just pumping blood to the rest of your body? In fact, this heart I’m talking about is our spiritual heart.
Yes, we all have 2 “hearts”, our physical heart and our spiritual heart. An example would be, when you see a poor, thin boy in rags scouring for food, you pity him. You want to do something for him, you feel like buying him proper clothes and probably a meal, am I right? Do you think your physical heart, caused all those emotions to stir up, or was it your spiritual heart? Get what I mean now?:) Yeah.
Which heart is more important? As much as the physical heart is important, the spiritual heart is in fact, equally if not more important that the physical heart. The condition of the spiritual heart, believe it or not, actually affects the condition of the physical heart. A healthy spiritual heart results in a healthy physical heart. If you are always angry on the inside, always cursing others and swearing at them, you’ll get angry and it makes your physical blood pump harder, resulting in high blood pressure.( That is if you are always losing your temper at others. )
Drawing the link between Christianity and the Heart.
Our God is Love. His essence is purely Love. How can Love be felt, via the Heart.
In the past, because the people of God felt God’s love for them, and hence, they begin studying the scriptures. However, it has become that many people study, read and even teach the word of God but feel nothing for God. Why? Because Teaching targets the mind, not the heart. People want to know more about God rather than knowing God himself. It’s a pity that we can’t change our own hearts; nobody can change it, except God.
If our hearts don’t change, nothing can.
If the heart is unmoved, nothing will be moved. If a Christian can’t feel God’s love, it is pointless just knowing it, because there is no real drive for him/her to change his/her lifestyle. I have seen Christians who cried after they say the sinners’ prayer because of the power of God’s love; and their lifestyles were changed.
Another word for Changed would be transformed.
Only the love of God can transform us. Transformation is the outcome of Love; the positive way. It is a transformation that is eternal, not temporal because God’s Love is eternal and not temporal. This new state that our hearts are transformed into will then determine how we live our new life.
This is why I chose Christianity to be my religion, with no offense to other religions, because Christianity is the only religion whereby I feel undeserved Love from a Loving God, who allows me to have a personal relationship with him.
My Reflections
Indeed, the heart is very important. It is the source that allows us to feel how God feels, to communicate with God and to sense his presence and anointing.
3 takeaways from this Session is:
1) After the transformation of the heart, comes the Conditioning of the heart.
Condition it to what? Many times we attend camps, conferences and have amazing encounters with God but how much impact does it have in making it last? It doesn’t last for more than a month if not a little bit more. Hence, comes the conditioning of our hearts. How do you condition the heart? Doing quiet time? Devotions? Yes, it does help, but not completely. To condition your heart, we must fine-tune it to the same frequency as Jesus Christ. Which means, feeling his heartbeat and doing what he would do. By praying and living in the spirit daily, allowing the spirit to control your speech, actions, thoughts, intentions and decisions. To condition your heart to beat the heart beat of Christ. It is a very near-impossible state to reach but you never know until you try. You will never reach it till you take the first step towards it.
2) How the heart is on the inside, determines how the outside will show.
If we have a selfish heart that cares only for ourselves, our actions will prove selfish. When our hearts yearn to be like Jesus Christ, our actions will show. If we make a mistake, then the spirit comes and convict us of every wrong move, word, thought and decision is being made. If our hearts are filled with Love for others, loving others become a natural part of us.
3) It is because of our heart, that we can experience a much more complete picture of God.
If God had just gave Adam and Eve a bible instead of a heart, we would all only be able to know that God love us, but not be able to feel that God loves us. It will be such a pity because no matter how much God does, we will only know that he love us, but not be able to feel the extent of his great love. Songs will be composed and sung from the mind and not genuinely from the heart.
God gave each one of us a heart, because without it, we would all end up in hell knowing that God loved us but not being able to do anything about it.
