The Heart of Man !

THE HEART OF MAN : For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. "(Romans 10:10). "For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." (Mark 11:23) Both of the preceding verses speak of believing with the heart. Notice the expressions, "For with the heart man believeth" and "shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe." For years are easily searched for a satisfactory explanation of what it means to believe "with the heart." You must understand, of course, that the word "heart" as used in these Scriptures does not refer to the physical organ which pumps blood through the body and keeps us alive. The word "heart" here cannot refer to that human physical organ, for if it did, these verses were indicate that you could believe with your body. And you could no more believe God with your physical heart then you could believe Him with your physical head or finger. The word "heart" is used here to convey a thought. Consider how we use "heart" today. When we talk about the heart of a tree, what do we mean ? We mean the center, the very core. When we talk about the heart of a subject, what do we mean ? We mean the most important part of that subject, the center of it, the main part around which the rest revolves. And when God speaks of the human heart, He is speaking about the main part of man; the very center of man's being--- the spirit. MAN IS A SPIRIT : (1 Thessalonians 5:23) "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The terms "spirit of man" and "heart of man" are used interchangeably throughout the Bible. We know that man is a spirit because he is made in the image and likeness of God, and Jesus said, "God is a Spirit" (John 4:24). It is not in our physical body that we are like God, for the Bible says that God is not a man. Paul said in his letter to the Romans, "for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outwardly in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that OF THE HEART, IN THE SPIRIT, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God" (Romans 2:28- 29)). According to this verse, the heart is the spirit. Speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus said, "you must be born again" (John 3:7). Nicodemus, being human, or natural, having Adams fallen nature, could think only in the natural, because he had the nature of the devil and therefore he asked, "How can a man be born when he is old ? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born ?" (v. 4). Jesus replied, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; [born of the nature of the devil] and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (v. 6). Of the D&A and nature of God. The new birth is a rebirth of the human spirit. Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). We cannot contact God with our body or with our mind. We can contact God only with our spirit. The spirit is not the mind. (1 Corinthians 14:14) says, "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding [mind] is unfruitful." Some people mistakenly think that the mind is the spirit. However, as this verse indicates, we know that when we speak in tongues, this does not come from our mind, or out of our own human thinking, but from our spirit, from our innermost being, from the Holy Spirit within our spirit.