Your Heart Holds The Key

Our heart may be invaded by hostile forces

• So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17)
• Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit … (Acts 5:3)?
• Take care brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God (Hebrews 3:12).

Heart gives meaning to our experiences

As human beings we need to put meaning and place value on our experiences. We are not passive receivers, but we have the capacity to put meaning on all our experiences. We do this work in the heart, actively seeking to interpret our experience and place it in the context of the larger picture. It is in the heart that we give meaning and understanding to our experiences.

The meaning and understanding we give to our experiences influences the formation of our personality and our understanding of who we are and of our place in the world.

Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart … (Luke2:19).

They had not gained any insight from the incident from the loaves, but their heart was hardened (Mark 6:52)

Heart sees and knows things

The heart can see and know things that our mind cannot know. The heart can understand the things that God has prepared for us.

• I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling … (Ephesians 1:18).
• I will put my laws upon their heart (Hebrews 10:16).
• My mouth will speak wisdom; and the meditation of my heart will be understanding (Ps 49:3).
• For evils beyond number have surround me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see, and my heart has failed me (Psalms 40:12).

The language of the heart

Interestingly, the heart communicates differently than our mind. In Psalms 19:14, the English word “meditation” comes from the word haguwth, meaning to muse, murmur, ponder, imagine, mutter, etc. It is not referring to intellectual reasoning or analytical thinking.

• Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my  heart be acceptable in Thy sight (Psalms 19:14).

The processes of the heart radically differ from our mind. The heart uses the language of pictures, images, metaphors, intuition, inner knowings, perception, and imagination, rather than analytical reason or logical ideas. To heal the heart, we must become familiar with its language and learn how to use it.

Prayers coming from your head will not heal your heart. When we pray, we need to tune into flowing thoughts, pictures, and emotions coming out of our heart, rather than our logical, reasoning thoughts.

Importance of the heart

David understood the importance of the heart

• Create in me a clean heart O God (Psalms 51:10).
• How blessed is the man … in whose heart are the highways to Zion (Psalms 84:5).
• Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way (way of pain) in me, and lead me in the everlasting way (Psalm 139:23-24).

Thoughts by Jesus on the heart

• Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).
• For the mouth speaks out that which fills the heart (Matthew 12:34).
• The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders (Matthew 15:18-19)
• For the heart of this people has become dull (Matthew 13:15).
• The people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me (Matthew 15:8).
• Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me (John 14:1).
• So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart (Matthew 18:35).

Paul understood the importance of the heart

• I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling … (Ephesians 1:18).
• So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17).
• For with the heart man believes … (Romans 10:10)
• Walk no longer as the Gentiles walk … excluded from the life of God … because of the hardness of their heart (Ephesians 4:17-18).
• The goal of the commandment is love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5)
• Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him (1 Corinthians 2:9)
• Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide (2 Corinthians 6:11).

Heart-Centered Christianity

Heart must be involved in our Christian experience. The heart is the key issue in experiencing a genuine walk with the Lord because Christ dwells in our heart. We experience the presence of the Lord in our heart.  This is where we know the Lord, right within us.

Heart involved in seeking God

• You will find Him if you search for him with all your heart (Deuteronomy 4:29).
•  …  let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:19-22).
• Call on the Lord out of a pure heart (I Timothy 2:22).
• Let the heart of them rejoice that seek (Psalms 105:3).
• Set your heart and your soul to seek him (1 Chronicles 22:19).
• Return to Me with all your heart … and rend your heart and not your garments (Joel 2:12-13).
• A generation that did not prepare its heart (put it right) (Psalms 78:8).
• His heart not wholly devoted to the Lord, like heart of his father David (1 Kings 15:3).

Heart of believers contain Christ Jesus

• So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17)
• …the hidden man of the heart (1 Peter 3:4).
• The Word (Jesus) is near you in your mouth and in your heart … (Romans 10:8).
• The day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts (2 Peter 1:19).
• But sanctify Christ in your hearts … (1 Peter 3:15).

Faith is located in heart

Faith and trust in the Lord is located in the heart, not in our cognitive thinking, mental assent, or doctrinal belief!

• If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness (Romans 10:9-10).
• Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding… (Proverbs 3:5-6).
• Whoever says to this mountain, ‘be taken up and cast into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him (Mark 11:23).

Heart of believers holds the …

• Love of God—The love of God has been poured out within our hearts, through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5)
• Spirit of His Son—God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba Father (Galatians 4:6)
• Witness of the Holy Spirit— the earnest of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 1:22)
• Knowledge of God—For God … is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).
• Mind of the Spirit (Romans 8:27)
• Knowledge, wisdom, understanding (Mt. 13:15; 1 Ki 3:12; Ec 1:12-17)
• God’s thoughts, words, laws— written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, …on tablets of human hearts (2 Cor. 3:3) (See Dan. 2:20,Lu. 2:19; Ps. 119:11; 37:31; 40:8; Heb. 10:16).
• God’s peace—Let the peace of God rule in your hearts (Col. 3:15)
• God’s direction, plans, desires— (2 Thes 3:5; 1 Co 2:9; Acts 7:23; Ne 2:12; 2 Sa 7:3; 1 Ki 8:18; Ps. 37:4)
• God’s righteousness— (Ps. 40:10)
• Skills, talents— (Ex. 35:26, 34,35)
• Comfort—May Lord Jesus Christ & God our Father …comfort & strengthen your hearts (2 Thes. 2:16-17)

Heart Conditions

Heart is sick and wounded

Weighed down with iniquity; whole head is sick, the whole heart faint  (Is 1:4-7).

My heart is wounded (smitten like grass & withered away) within me (Ps. 102:4)

They are a people who err in their heart (Ps. 95:10).

Various conditions of the heart

Scriptures refer to many conditions our heart can be in. Study them to get an understanding of the condition of your own heart.

• Deceived & deceitful—deceives his own heart, deceit in heart, heart is more deceitful & desperately sick, deceive heart of the simple (Jas 1:25; Jer 14:14, 17:9,10; Is. 1:4-7;  Ro 16:18.
• Lying—why has Satan filled thy heart to lie? (Acts 5:3)
• Evil, negative, destructive thoughts & imaginations—imagination of their evil heart (Jer. 11:20); the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21; 6:5-6)
• Unbelieving, doubting—slow of heart to believe (Lu 24:25); unbelief of heart (Mark 16:14); an evil heart of unbelief (Heb. 3:10-12)
• Afflicted & needy—afflicted & needy (Ps. 109:22)
• Astonished—astonishment of heart (Deut. 28:28)
• Desolate—my heart within me is desolate (Ps. 143:4)
• Dead—his heart died within him (1 Sa 25:37)
• Distressed—heart is distressed (Dan. 7:15)
• Broken—reproach has broken my heart (Ps. 69:20)
• Troubled, uneasy—let not heart be troubled (John 14:1); the troubles of my heart are enlarged (Ps. 25:17); disquiet ness of my heart (Ps. 38:8)
• Discouraged—discourage heart of children (Nu 32:7); heart is discouraged (Is. 19:3)
• Oppressed—heart is oppressed (1 Sa 1:15)
• Overwhelmed—my heart is overwhelmed (Ps. 61:2)
• Fearful—let not heart be afraid (John 14:1)
• Trembling, faints, sinks—their hearts sank (trembled) (Gen. 42:28); Jacob’s heart fainted (Gen. 45:26); my heart is like wax (Ps. 22:14).
• Anguish & terror of death—my heart is in anguish, the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear & trembling come upon me; horror has overwhelmed me (Ps 55:4-5).
• Fear of others—say in your heart, these nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them… (Deut. 9:17)
• Sorrowful—continual sorrow in my heart (Rom 9:2); sorrow of heart (Lev. 26:16)
• Sad—When the heart is sad, the spirit is broken (Prov. 15:13).
• Grieved—why is thy heart grieved? (I Sa 1:8); heart was grieved (Ps. 73:26)
• Painful throbbing—throbbing in our hearts (Ps. 38:10)
• Forsaken, abandoned—forsaken or grieved in spirit (Is. 54:6)
• Divided, conflicted, double-hearted—war was in his heart (Ps. 55:21); conflicted with double heart (Ps. 12:2; 86:11); heart is divided (Hosea 10:2)
• Angry—heart is hot (Ps. 39:3)
• Knifed, cut to the quick—sword shall enter into their own heart (Ps. 37:15; Acts 5:33)
• Hatred—you are not to hate your brother in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him (Lev. 19:17)
• Despising—she despised him in her heart (2 Sa 6:16)
• Hard—heart is hard (Deut. 2:20); hardness of heart (Mark 16:14)
• Greedy—heart trained in greed (2 Peter 2:14)
• Lusting—adultery in his heart (Mt. 5:28); lusts of own hearts (Rom 1:24); performed thoughts of his heart (Jer. 23:20); heart been secretly enticed (Job 31:27)
• Envy—let not thy heart envy sinners (Prov. 23:17)
• Rebellious—revolting, rebellious heart (Jer. 5:23); heart departs from the Lord (Jer. 17:5)
• Stubborn—God…made his heart obstinate (Deut. 2:30)
• Proud—Heart is haughty (Prov. 16:18); heart becomes proud (Deut. 8:14; Ps. 101:5); say my power…made me wealth (Deut. 8:17)
• Desiring riches—when riches increase, set not your heart upon them (Ps. 62:10)
• Blind, ignorant, lack understanding—hid heart from understanding (Job 17:4); blindness of heart (Eph. 4:18); blindness and astonishment of heart (Deut. 28:28); Hosea 4:6-7)
• Foolish—foolish heart…(Rom 1:21); foolishness bound in heart of child (Prov. 22:15)
• Darkened—foolish heart darkened (Rom 1:21)
• Loaded with sinful transgressions—heart gathered iniquity to itself (Ps. 41:6); regard iniquity in my heart (Ps. 66:18); Naughtiness of my heart (I Sa 17:28)
• Defiled, impure—heart is defiled (2 Cor. 7:1); you sinners, purify your hearts…(Mt. 4:4; James 4:8)

God promises to heal our heart

He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds (Psalms 147:3).

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,… (Is 61:1).

Prayer

Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way (way of pain) in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. – Psalm 139:23-24

For  help in healing your heart, go to my Resource tab/ Teaching notes and download my 9-part series in 2006 on “Healing the Broken heart”  https://judithdoctor.com/teaching-notes/  

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