The Heart of Things

Man is a spirit, with a soul in a physical body. His body enables him to contact the physical, natural realm. His reasoning faculties, his soul, mind, will, emotions and intellect, puts him in contact with mental things. His spirit, on the-other-hand is the only part that puts him in contact with spiritual things. Before he is born again and receives eternal life his spirit is dominated by Satan, that is, spiritual death. This makes it impossible for him to understand God's Word. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul tells us, "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Looking back in the scriptures, we see that God spoke to the Prophet Ezekiel, giving through him, to us, a remarkable prophecy, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." (Ezekiel 36:26-27) This word is actually speaking of the new creation that would be made available through faith in Jesus Christ. God tells us that He will recreate their spirit, or heart. He says, "I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." This suggests that a new kind of love is coming which will make them one as a body of people.

Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35) The prophetic words spoken through Ezekiel now comes to fruition through the believer, the new creation in Christ. He is going to take the stony heart of selfishness out of them, and give them His own heart of love. This new kind of love would not simply manifest through the believer towards those who love him or her only, but every person that they come in contact with.  Jesus reveals this very thing to us... 

^"You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48) 

We also see in Ezekiel's prophecy, "I will put a new spirit within you." This is the promise of God Himself indwelling the believer. Jesus reaffirms this, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:16-18) God indwelling the believer is what makes him a new creation. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Peter tells us concerning the believer, "having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever." (1 Peter 1:23) Peter tells us of this new person, "rather let it be the hidden person (man) of the heart." (1 Peter 3:4) It is here that we are given a title for the recreated human spirit. He is called the "hidden man of the heart." He is the new creation. He is the man, the real person. 

The physical body is not the man, it is the temporary dwelling place for the man. It is the home of the five senses. The soul is not not the man, it is simply the part that the five senses work through giving him knowledge and causing him to respond to the world around him. The brain would lie dormant, it would be inactive, if the five senses did not function. All of the knowledge that is taught in our colleges, universities and technical schools has come to man through these five channels. The only way that man can obtain knowledge, or an education, prior to becoming a new creation, is through these five senses. 

The Apostle Paul tells us, "For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man." (Romans 7:22) "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:16) "That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man." (Ephesians 3:16) In these scriptures we see that the hidden man is called the "inward man." In either case, the "hidden man" is the man. The outward, or the visible man, is the one that we see in the physical realm. It is the inward man who gives the outer man either his attractiveness or his unpleasantness. (2 Corinthians 2:15-16)  

Therefore, know that God deals with the inward man and not the outer man, that is, spiritual things are unveiled to the hidden man of the heart, the recreated spirit. Jesus tells us, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24) Now we can see man as being in Gods class. God is Spirit, man is a spirit. God is an eternal Spirit, man is an eternal spirit. He is capable of receiving the nature of God. (Ephesians 4:24) He is capable of loving God. (1 John 4:19) He is capable of loving like God. (Romans 5:5) He is capable of becoming a child of God. (John 1:12) 

From the beginning man was created in the image and likeness of God, that is, spiritual likeness. He lost that image in the fall, but it is restored in the new creation through faith in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul speak of the inward man also as the "new man." He tells us, "And that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24), that is, the image and likeness of God. Peter says it this way, "you may be partakers of the divine nature." (2 Peter 1:4)   

As we see, the body is simply the home, or dwelling place, of the spirit. The recreated human spirit wishes to communicate its newfound joy to those about it. Hidden away as it is in the human body, it has no way of communication but through the five senses. This is why Paul tells us, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:1-2) and, "that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." (Ephesians 4:22-23) 

Therefore, the first thing that must be done after one is recreated is to bring these five senses into subjection to the recreated human spirit, and God's Word. When this is done the mind will be renewed. Although a person is born again, they still possess the same mind and body that had been under the dominion of Satan. This is the reason that it is so important to renew the mind and bring it into harmony with the recreated spirit. You must bring it into subjection to this new self that has come into being. The trouble with the majority of believers is that their minds have never been renewed. The believers mind will never be renewed until they begin to believe and act upon God's Word. 

So, let us "move on to perfection" in Christ allowing the Holy Spirit to get to the heart of things, so that "all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."