It’s The Heart Or Nothing
The Knowledge of God…
…is a revelation of HIMSELF to the heart. More like a union of his Spirit with ours, such that we have direct access to the very innermost being of the Almighty and righteous God, able to know him within himself. Think about it for a second, what sort of experience would anyone expect from their heart when their spirit and the Spirit of God have become fused into ONE SPIRIT?
Our minds can only experience him after He, through his Word and Spirit, has come to dwell in our hearts.
God does not live in our minds. He can’t. He shines as the Light of the Word to the mind, but he dwells in our hearts through the union of our spirit with his Word and Spirit.
Please when we use the terms “heart” and “Spirit” interchangeably, don’t be confused. They both mean the same thing. The former is a metaphor while the latter is the actual substance. The word heart is used to indicate that the human spirit is the innermost part of Man. And so the same way we say “the heart of the matter” in reference to the main point in question or “the heart of the earth”, referring to the core or crust of the earth, we also say “the heart of man” referring to the innermost parts of his being which of course is his spirit.
Therefore, the experience of Christ in the soul, mind, and body is drawn from the spirit or heart — from the inside out — and not the other way around.
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water”
— John 7:38 NAS
That is NOT a mental affair. It is not even an emotional one, it is a spiritual fountain source established in our hearts or spirits in our union with the Spirit of God who dwells in there.
“…this he spoke of the Holy Spirit who he shall give to them that believe on him”
— John 7:39 KJV
If God misses your heart, he has missed you COMPLETELY
Again, God cannot dwell in the mind. He uses and works through our minds, but he CANNOT Live there because HE IS SPIRIT and can only bond with spirit.
We MUST worship him IN spirit BECAUSE GOD IS A SPIRIT — Jesus Christ.
The capacity to organically unite with God is of the spirit, not the mind. Without God taking root in the heart by the union of his Spirit and ours, our minds CAN NEVER come into His reality.
Right from the word go, “it is WITH THE HEART” that a man believes, and “with the mouth” they enjoy the benefit of the Life which the Heart has received through the agency of the Spoken Word of God. And before then the Lord had already said: “Out of the abundance OF THE HEART, the Mouth speaks”. Therefore, if the gospel misses the heart, He misses the mouth also.
Think about it, if the mouth holds onto the food it received, instead of giving way to the stomach, what will happen to the man? Of course, he will die of hunger. Or let’s say the sick person has the drug only in their mouth and won’t let it into the stomach, they’ll continue to be sick. Unless that food or drug gets “rooted” in the stomach, the body INCLUDING the mouth CANNOT benefit from the life-giving nutrient in that food or drug. We can authoritatively say the man is as good as dead — taste the food all you want, you are dead if it does not enter your stomach. PERIOD.
Same with the Seed of God’s Word,…
…as well as the milk and meat of the word. IF we hear the message of the spoken Word and only hold it with our minds, without allowing smooth passage into our hearts, our entire being, INCLUDING our minds, can NEVER enter into the experience of the Life-giving Spirit in that Word. He MUST ENTER THE HEART else we are as good as dead — reason all you want, you are as good as dead if that Word does not take root in your heart. With the food, it is the Stomach or nothing. With the Word of God, it is ALSO the Heart or nothing!
The soil seeking Seed of Christ
In explaining the parable of the sower to his disciples, the Lord EXPLICITLY made very clear that if we don’t understand that parable we CANNOT understand ALL the other parables. Now, the gospels report that he taught NOTHING without a parable, meaning that the entire revelation of God’s Kingdom, which was all that Christ revealed in both his words and life was packaged and served in ALL his parables. Then out and above all he pointed to the sower as the key to unlocking all the rest.
Now, the sower deals with the foundation, the end purpose, and the workings of the Kingdom of God. And so, he opens by saying the “sower sowed the Word of the Kingdom”. Now, the term “Word of the Kingdom” there simply means the revelation of the Kingdom. Just like the “Word of righteousness” means the revelation of righteousness and of course, the “Word of God” means the Revelation of God — hence who Jesus is — you get the drift there. So, the Sower sows the REVELATION of the Kingdom where? In the Soil which The Lord says is THE HEART of man.
Now, everything from that point on to the last group who brought forth fruit — which is simply the degree to which Christ is formed in us — is simply how the Seed (Christ) who has been planted in our hearts, permeates our souls and minds, even as we feed on the word of truth, causing us to grow in the understanding of His way, truth, life, and authority — a process called the renewing of the mind — and consequently expressing Him here on earth through our words and deeds, the same way he expressed the Father here on earth through his words and deeds.
(Please note: The Word of the Kingdom sown is simply the Revelation of Jesus Christ as Both the Son of God and The King of Saints).
If that Word — which another place in scripture calls “The LIGHT of the Gospel of Christ”, which is just other words for saying “the Revelation of Christ” — does not take ROOT in our hearts, we will wind up like the first and second group in that parable — fall away.
If he does take root, but we allow the love of riches — you know, like the American dream, the cares of this life — which honestly gets multiplied with every chaos and fear thrown around today — and the love of pleasure to compete for the attention of our desires — to put it in the exact words of the Lord: “….Entering in”, we will end up like the third group who never “brought forth fruit to maturity”. A situation graphically represented in the children of Israel leaving Egypt but never entering the promised land, the promised land here being in reality, the experience of the fullness of Life in Christ. Simply put, when “Christ is fully formed in you”.
IF we hear the message of the spoken Word and only hold it with out minds, without allowing smooth passage into our hearts, our entire being, INCLUDING OUR MINDS can never enter into the experience of the Life-giving Spirit in that Word.
Sorry Aleck, but your genius is not required here!
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
…That no flesh should glory in his presence.
1 Corinthians 1:26,27, 29 KJV
This is why you’d have to become a fool to be wise with the wisdom of God. Why? Because He does not introduce himself to your mind. He introduces himself ONLY to your heart. Then Your heart reveals Him to and through your soul, mind, and body.
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
Matthew 11:25
Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein
This is not because God literally seeks to avoid human mental reasoning because of some personal beef He’s got with the intellectual mind, not at all, God does nothing out of spite for anyone or thing. With him, everything is a perfect dance of Life between His Love, His Righteousness, and His Justice.
The Lord in that passage above simply but gracefully and artfully used the term “hidden” to graphically capture and convey the reality that God, being Spirit, NATURALLY CAN ONLY latch unto or bond with a spirit. And so when he shows up in His Word, only with the spirit can his LIFE therein be received.
The Mind CANNOT latch unto spiritual Life. It was fashioned for reason only, hence what it seeks is understanding which, according to the scriptures, comes by light, and both of which can ONLY come from the Word of God — the God who has to settle into the regenerated human spirit in order to shine this light on the mind. Simply put, you’d have to first receive the Life in His Word before you can see in the Light of that Word. According to Christ in the sower, this Life is the Spirit in the soil-seeking Seed of the Word of the Kingdom. The soil which the Lord emphatically declared to be the HEART — THE HUMAN SPIRIT.
This means that when the Word of God is given to two people, one being a “little child” and the other being “wise and intelligent”, He will be able to latch unto the spirit of the “little child” whilst the “intelligent” will be left joggling impotent letters of the words — not the WORD — which they managed to trap with their feeble minds. Why is this so? Well, the little child simply believed the Word they heard. The genius on the other hand wants to first have their minds ascertain the veracity of the Word of God before believing Him— somewhat like having the God of Truth take a polygraph, you know, “he just might be a liar”.
In believing God, the little child engaged their hearts first and foremost, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness...”
In reasoning, or better yet, doubting the Word — or God — first, the genius engaged their minds first and foremost.
In humbly and honestly engaging their heart in meekness, the little child presented good soil for the soil-seeking seed of the Word, and in connecting with that soil, the Word unveiled His Life in that heart. And just like the root of a seed, whose outer casing has unveiled its life to the soil which has received it latches unto the soil in which it was planted, the Spirit of Life in the seed — the Word, latches unto the soil which has received Him.
Think about it for a second, what sort of experience would anyone expect from their heart — or innermost being — when their spirit and the Spirit of God have become fused into ONE SPIRIT?
And So for those of us who really seek to Know God, there is but one question we must settle:
Which of them would you rather be…
