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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:16, 18; Rom. 10:9-10; Heb. 10:22; Ezek. 36:26-27; Mark 12:30; Col. 2:13; Eph. 2:1, 5; John 3:6; 14:17; Rom. 8:11, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17; John 4:24; Matt. 16:24-26; Luke 9:23-25; 1 Pet. 1:22; Rom. 12:2
We have seen that the inward parts of our being are the parts of our soul, and the hidden part is our spirit (Psa. 51:6). We have also seen that both our soul and our spirit are of three parts. We have a body with many parts, a soul with three parts, and a spirit also with three parts. Moreover, we also have a heart, composed of the three parts of the soul and the first part of the spirit. In this chapter we will see further details concerning the inward parts and the hidden part. I look to the Lord that we may have the grace to see all these things clearly, knowing all the parts of our being so that we may be able to exercise our spirit, heart, mind, and will to contact the Lord, to fellowship with the Lord, and to know the Lord.
According to the Scriptures, we must deal first with our heart, not our spirit or soul. The heart comes first, because it is composed of all the parts of the soul and the first part of the spirit, the conscience. All relationships with the Lord must start with the conscience. Even relationships with other people must begin with the conscience. To be sure, if our conscience is dark and wrong, we will be wrong not only with God but also with others. Since the conscience is the main part of the heart, the heart has to come first in our relationship with God.
Second Corinthians 3:16 says, “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” The heart must first be turned to the Lord. To turn our heart to the Lord is the real repentance. While we were fallen, our heart was turned away from the Lord, but at the time we repented, our heart turned back to the Lord. We must have a turning back of the heart to the Lord. This turning is not once for all; we have to turn our heart back to the Lord all the time, day by day. Every morning we must turn our heart again to the Lord. I would suggest, especially to the young brothers and sisters, that every morning after you rise, when you go the Lord, tell Him, “Lord, here I am by Your mercy and grace. I wish to exercise myself to turn my heart to You again, to turn to You anew for this day.”
When our heart is turned to the Lord, the veil is taken away. This is an important secret for us. Many people ask why they do not have light and guidance and why they do not know the Lord’s will. I would ask them, “Where is your heart? Toward what is your heart turned?” This is their problem. We have to turn our heart to the Lord. Over thirty years ago when I was a young brother, almost every day I prayed with 2 Corinthians 3:16: “Lord, cause me to turn my heart to You.” This works; just try it. Before we go to read the Word in the morning, we first have to turn our heart to the Lord. Then the life will be there, and the veil will be taken away. I like this verse: “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” The veil between us and the Lord is taken away by our turning our heart to the Lord.
Romans 10:9 and 10 say, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart there is believing unto righteousness, and with the mouth there is confession unto salvation.” After turning to the Lord, the second thing the heart must do is believe. To believe is not a matter of the spirit, the mind, or the will. To believe is a matter of the heart; the heart has to believe. First we have to turn our heart to the Lord, and second we must exercise our heart to believe in the Lord. To believe in the Lord is something in the heart.
Verse 10 says that with the heart there is believing. We must learn to exercise our heart to cooperate with the indwelling Spirit in faith. After we turn our heart to the Lord, we must always exercise our heart to believe. We have to exercise to believe in our heart whatever the Lord says in His Word, and we have to exercise to believe in our heart whatever we sense deep within us. We must also exercise our heart to believe in the Lord for all our environment and circumstances, for all the things happening to us. We must pray that the Lord would protect our heart from any kind of doubt.
Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us come forward to the Holy of Holies with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” The third dealing with our heart is that it must be sprinkled from an evil conscience. With our heart, there is always the need of the sprinkling of the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus. The more we turn our heart to the Lord and believe in the Lord by exercising our heart, the more we will have many feelings in our conscience that we are wrong in certain matters. When our heart is not turned to the Lord, we do not have the sense that we are wrong. We have only one sense, that is, that we are right in everything; everyone but us is wrong. However, when we turn our heart to the Lord, immediately we do not see others as wrong; we only see ourselves as wrong.
It is even more so with believing in the Lord. The more we believe in Him, the more we have the sense of how wrong we are in many things. We are wrong with our spouse, wrong with our children, wrong with our schoolmates, and wrong with our parents. We are wrong with everything and have many accusations in our heart. These are the accusations in the conscience. At this time spontaneously we should confess our sins according to the inner accusations, one by one. The more we confess, the more the blood of the Lord Jesus is applied to our conscience. Then our conscience will be purged, cleansed, and we will have a conscience with no offense, a pure conscience. This means that our heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience. Because our conscience has been purged, there is no more condemnation in our heart. Our heart is at peace and full of joy. We sense joy in our heart with the Lord.
Ezekiel 36:26 speaks of the renewing of the heart. Verse 25 says, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean; from all your filthiness and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” However, this is not all. This is still something on the negative side. We need something on the positive side. Verse 26 says, “I will also give you a new heart.” A new heart is the old heart renewed.
Here we have four steps to deal with our heart. Not only at the time we first believe in the Lord Jesus to receive Him as our Savior, but as Christians seeking the Lord, from the time we are saved and all the days afterward, we must deal with our heart in these four steps. We must turn our heart to the Lord, exercise to believe the Lord in our heart, have our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and be renewed in our heart again and again. Even the renewing of the heart is not just once for all. If the apostle Paul were on the earth today, he would still need the renewing of the heart. We all must put these matters into practice right away. At the latest, tomorrow morning when we rise up, we have to go to the Lord and say, “Lord, cause me to turn my heart to You.” Then we must exercise our heart to believe the Lord, telling Him, “Lord, I believe You! In Your Word I believe You. In Your dealings within me I believe You. In all my environment and in all the things happening to me I believe You.” By this point we will realize how wrong we are, how many mistakes we have made, and how much filthiness we have to deal with. We will need to confess to have the cleansing, the sprinkling of the blood, that we may be sprinkled from an evil conscience. Then once again our heart will be renewed.
The issue of our dealing with our heart is that we love the Lord more. Our heart is keen and adequate to function. What is the function of the heart? The function of the heart is to love the Lord. The heart is the loving organ, the organ for us to love the Lord. Mark 12:30 says, “You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart.” The heart that was created in us by the Lord is for us to love Him. Thank the Lord that we have a heart. Just as we could not see without eyes, hear without ears, or think without our mind, we could not love without our heart. I am sorry to say that even many Christians do not know what the function of the heart is. They know the function of the eyes, the ears, the nose, and the mouth, but they simply do not know the function of the heart. Now we all have to be clear that the function of the heart is to love.
In Chinese, the written character for heart is embedded in the middle of the character for love. Love is a matter of the heart. We cannot love people with our nose or our hands. Whatever we love, it is with our heart, the loving organ. Before we turn our heart to the Lord, our heart loves something other than Him. No one can say that he does not love anything. Everyone loves something or someone, either the Lord Himself or something else. No one can say how many things we love, but what is certain is that the more we turn our heart to the Lord, exercise our heart to believe the Lord, and have our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, the more our heart will love the Lord. This is the function of the renewed heart. Every morning our heart must be renewed so that we may love the Lord more and more.
All spiritual experiences begin with the loving of the heart. If we do not love the Lord, it is impossible to have any kind of spiritual experiences. Even the first experience of our Christian life, our salvation, is a matter of the heart loving the Lord Jesus. Not one person who truly repents has no love in his heart toward the Lord. Perhaps he does not have the words for it, but he has the sense within him, “Oh, Jesus is so lovable!” I can recall the time I first received the Lord Jesus. I cannot tell you how sweet He was to me. I did not have the words, and no one taught me to say that the Lord Jesus is lovable or that we have to love Him, but I had the true sense that the Lord Jesus was so sweet and good. At that time I could not even say the word sweet; I could only say, “Too good! Oh, Jesus is too good!” This kind of love is the reflection of the Lord’s love in our heart. We all must learn to exercise our heart to turn it again, to believe anew, to be cleansed again from an evil conscience, and to be renewed again that we may love the Lord more and more.
The degradation of the church is firstly due to the loss of our first love for the Lord (Rev. 2:4). To lose our fresh heart of love for the Lord is to be fallen, to be in degradation. We all must learn how to turn our heart again and again and be renewed again and again so that we may have a new love, a fresh love, toward the Lord.
The Bible tells us that originally we were dead, and at the time we received the Lord Jesus, we were made alive. Colossians 2:13 says, “You, though dead in your offenses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our offenses.” Ephesians 2:1 and 5 are similar to this. These two passages prove that we were originally dead in our spirit, but at the time we received Jesus as our Savior, this dead, dormant spirit of ours was made alive.
When I was young, I could not understand how we were dead. It seemed that I was still living and not yet buried. Later, I came to know that this means that we were dead in our spirit. As we have seen, the function of our spirit is to contact God, commune with God, receive God, and worship God. Due to the fall, however, our spirit was dead and out of function. At the time we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, the all-inclusive, wonderful Holy Spirit came into our spirit. By the Spirit’s touching our spirit, our spirit was made alive. It is hard to adequately translate the Greek word for made alive. It means that by touching life, life is ministered to us. We can illustrate this by electricity. If we are touched by electricity, something of the electricity is transmitted by that touching. The Holy Spirit came into our spirit to touch our spirit. By that touch, that striking, the very life which is the Holy Spirit Himself was imparted into us. Then our dead, dormant spirit immediately became alive.
To be made alive in this way is more than a miracle. We may think that for a person who is dead physically to be resurrected is miraculous, but for the Holy Spirit to make our dead spirit alive is more miraculous than that. Thousands and even millions of people throughout history who were dead were immediately made alive in their spirit. A person who is dead in his spirit can be made alive because the Holy Spirit is more powerful and is transmitted and imparted more quickly even than electricity.
When we received the Lord, our spirit was not only made alive but also was made new. Another life, another element, was added into our spirit. This other life and element is the divine, uncreated, eternal life of God, which is Christ Himself. When the Holy Spirit comes into us, based upon the redeeming work of Christ, He not only makes our dead spirit alive but also brings Christ into our spirit as the new element, as another life added into our spirit. This is something more than what God accomplished in His creation. Now not only has our dead spirit been recovered and made alive, but also we have something new — another element, essence, and substance — added to our spirit.
To be made alive is to be reborn, to be regenerated, as spoken of in John 3:6. This verse says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” By our regeneration something other than what we had was added into us. This new element, essence, and substance is Christ Himself as the divine life added into us. Not only was the old part renewed, and not only was the old part made alive, but something new, divine, and eternal — Christ Himself — was added into us as the very essence of life.
What could be better than Christ Himself? Since we have received Christ, why do we still seem so poor? Today many Christians need to know this reality. Atomic power is something inward, not outward. Even a small piece of paper has this atomic power within it. At the time we received Christ, something more powerful than atomic power was added into our spirit. That was Christ Himself. If we truly believed this, we would declare, “Hallelujah, this is wonderful!” Whether or not we realize this adequately, we still have to thank Him that such a wonderful, all-inclusive, exhaustless, immeasurable Christ has been added into us. We do not have the adequate words to qualify what kind of Christ we have received and has been added into us. Only eternity can tell the story. However, even if we do not see this truth adequately, we still have received Him.
From the time of our regeneration, our spirit has been indwelt by the all-inclusive Holy Spirit. According to Ezekiel 36:26, at the time we were saved, God not only renewed our heart but also renewed our spirit. Then verse 27 tells us that He put His own Spirit into us. John 14:17 also tells us that this wonderful Spirit is in us. Romans 8:11 says that His Spirit dwells in us, and verse 16 proves that this Spirit dwells in our human spirit. Our spirit is the very residence of the Holy Spirit. From the time of our salvation, our spirit has become such a wonderful spirit — made alive, renewed with Christ as the divine life added to it, and having the all-inclusive Holy Spirit dwelling in it.
Moreover, 1 Corinthians 6:17 clearly tells us that from this time onward this wonderful spirit is joined to the Lord as one spirit. Our spirit and the Lord Himself as the Spirit — these two spirits — are joined together as one spirit. No human words can exhaust the meaning of this.
What is the purpose for such a spirit? This brings us again to the function of the spirit. The purpose of our spirit is to contact the Lord, to receive the Lord, to worship God, and to fellowship with the divine Person. This is clearly implied by John 4:24. Just as the heart is the loving organ, the spirit is the contacting and receiving organ. We cannot love with our spirit; we have to love with our heart. However, we have to receive and contact with our spirit the very Lord whom our heart loves.
Once, a certain sister thought that as long as our heart loves the Lord, that is good enough. There was no need to talk about the spirit, since, she thought, spirit and heart are synonymous terms. She asked, “Is it not good enough that our heart loves the Lord? Why is there the need for us to talk about the spirit?” I said, “Sister, here I have a nice Bible. Do you love it?” She said, “Of course I love it.” Then I said, “Take it.” When she stretched out her hand to take it, I said “No, do not exercise your hand. As long as your heart loves the Bible, that is all right. There is no need to use your hand to take it.” She said, “Brother Lee, if I do not exercise my hand, how can I take the Bible?” I told her that, in the same way, we cannot say that for our heart to love the Lord is good enough.
Suppose that I love breakfast. As long as my heart loves bacon, toast, milk, and juice, is that adequate? That is absolutely not adequate. If I only love food but do not take it, after a few days I may die. To love is a matter of the heart, but to receive we must exercise another organ. Which organ we exercise depends on what we are to receive. If we want to receive food, we have to exercise our mouth. If we want to receive voices, we have to exercise our ears, and if we are going to receive scenery and colors, we have to exercise our eyes. We love the Lord, but by which organ can we receive Him? Shall we look at Him with our eyes? The more we look at the Lord in this way, the more He will not be there. No doubt, only one organ was created by God for the purpose of receiving and contacting Him; that is our spirit.
The spirit within us is like the stomach within our body. It is special, specific, and definite for the purpose of receiving something. We have to exercise our spirit to receive the Lord. Our spirit was created for this definite purpose. However, before we receive, we have to love. No one would receive something if he did not love it. If we do not love breakfast, it is hard to receive it. This is why we must have an appetite. We have to love the Lord; then we will take Him, touch Him, contact Him, commune with Him, fellowship with Him, and receive Him in our spirit.
The heart is for us to love, and the spirit is for us to receive and contact. By the renewing of the heart we have a new interest, new desire, and new capability for us to love the Lord. By the renewing of the spirit we have a new ability and capacity to receive the Lord. After our spirit has been renewed, has had Christ as life added to it, has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and has been joined to the Lord as one spirit, it is a very keen organ to receive and contact the Lord.
Concerning the soul, the first thing we must learn is to deny the soul-life, the self. Two passages, Matthew 16:24 through 26 and Luke 9:23 through 25, tell us this clearly. The soul is the very self composed of the mind, the will, and the emotion. This means that we must learn to deny our natural mind, natural will, and natural emotion.
Second, we must purify our souls. First Peter 1:22 says, “Since you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth.” Our souls are purified mostly by receiving the word. The word of God is able to purify the soul. To purify the soul is to purify it from fleshly, carnal, worldly, and natural things. Our soul, our very self, our very being, has been damaged, saturated, and occupied by those negative things. Now this soul has to be purified from all these things. However, we must first deny the soul-life. The more we deny our soul-life, the more our soul will be purified by receiving the word of God.
Third, our soul must be transformed. Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us that we are being transformed, but by that verse alone we are not clear what part is being transformed. In Romans 12:2 we are told that we are transformed by the renewing of the mind. By this we know that transformation is accomplished in our soul. After our spirit has been regenerated, we need to be transformed in our soul. First we must deny the soul-life; then our soul must be purified and transformed into the image of Christ.
As we have seen, the purpose of the heart is to love the Lord, and the purpose of the spirit is to receive and to contact the Lord. What then is the purpose of the soul? The soul is to reflect the Lord. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that with an unveiled face we behold and reflect like a mirror the glory of the Lord. The soul, after being purified and transformed, is the very organ to express Christ, to reflect the Lord. We love Him with our heart, we receive and contact Him with our spirit, and we reflect and express Him with our transformed soul. The soul-life must first be denied; then the soul must be purified and transformed. Then it will be adequate to express and reflect the Lord Jesus.
I hope that you will put all these matters into practice in your daily life. If you do, you will see that what we have spoken of here is altogether practical. It truly works.
