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We must continue to see the inward parts and the hidden part of our being. We must remember these two expressions: the inward parts and the hidden part. The inward parts of our being are the parts of the soul, and the hidden part is our spirit. With both our soul and our spirit there are three parts, while the heart is composed of the three parts of the soul combined with the first part of the spirit. We must spend time to consider the details of all these parts. We must first see what the function of the heart is and how to deal with it. Then we must see the spirit, and finally, the soul. Let us look to the Lord that we may have grace to see all these parts clearly, that we may be sufficiently impressed to learn all the parts of our being, and that we may know how to exercise our spirit and our heart in order to experience the Lord. In this chapter we must see the functions of the heart, the spirit, and the soul.
According to the record of the Scriptures, the heart has to be dealt with first, not the spirit or the soul. The reason for this is that the heart is a composition of all the parts of the soul and the most important part of the spirit, the conscience. Our relationship with the Lord must start with the conscience. If our conscience is wrong, we can be sure that we are wrong both with God and with others. Therefore, since the conscience is the main part of the heart, the heart must be dealt with first to ensure a proper 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. This is real repentance. When we were fallen, our heart was turned away from the Lord. But when we repented, our heart was turned to the Lord. This matter of turning the heart to the Lord is not done once for all. The heart must be turned to the Lord all the time, day by day. Every morning we must turn our heart again toward the Lord. After rising, we should go to the Lord and tell Him, “Lord, here I am. By Your mercy and grace I wish to turn my heart anew to You for this day.”
When our heart is turned to the Lord, the veil is gone. Many people say, “Oh, why don’t I have guidance? Why don’t I know the Lord’s will?” But the problem is, where is their heart and in what direction is their heart? Their heart must be turned and tuned to the Lord. When I was young, I used to pray over 2 Corinthians 3:16 nearly every day: “Lord, cause me to turn my heart to You.” Oh, it works! Just try it. Before you read the Word in the morning, first of all, turn your heart to the Lord. The veil will be gone, and there will be light. The veil which is between you and the Lord will be taken away by turning your heart to Him, and you will see the light.
Once our heart is turned to the Lord, it must next exercise faith. Romans 10:9-10 says, “Believe in your heart,” and “With the heart there is believing.” To believe is not an exercise of the spirit, the mind, or the will, but an exercise of the heart: “For with the heart there is believing.” We need to learn how to exercise our heart to believe in order to cooperate with the indwelling Spirit. After our heart is turned to the Lord, we should immediately exercise faith in our heart. Whatever the Lord says in the Word, we must exercise our heart to believe. Whatever we sense deeply within, we must believe by exercising the heart. We must believe in the Lord in the midst of our environment. In all the situations within our set of circumstances, we must always exercise our heart to believe the Lord. To exercise faith in the Lord will keep the heart from doubt. We must even pray that the Lord will protect our heart from doubt.
Thirdly, the heart must be sprinkled from an evil conscience (Heb. 10:22). The heart itself is not to be sprinkled, but the evil conscience. Our conscience always needs the sprinkling of the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus. The more we turn our heart to the Lord and the more we believe in the Lord by exercising our heart, the more we will feel in our conscience that we are wrong in many matters. When our heart is not turned to the Lord, we will never sense that our conscience is wrong. When our heart is turned away from the Lord, we have only one sense: that we are right in everything; everyone else is wrong, but we ourselves are right. When we turn our heart to the Lord, we can only see ourselves; we cannot see others. The more we believe in Him, the more we will sense how wrong we are in so many things. We are wrong with our wife, with our husband, with our children, with our parents, with our schoolmates. What are these accusations in our heart? They are the accusations of our conscience. At this time we will spontaneously confess everything according to the inner accusation of our conscience. The more we confess, the more the blood of the Lord Jesus will be applied to our conscience. It will be purged, cleansed, and without offense — a pure conscience. To have our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience means that our conscience has been so purged that there is no more condemnation in our heart. Our heart is at peace and full of joy in the Lord.
Furthermore, according to Ezekiel 36:26, the heart must be renewed. In Ezekiel 36:25 the Lord said, “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.” But this is not all. To cleanse us from all filthiness, from all sins, and even from idols is only on the negative side. We need something positive. Therefore, in the next verse it says, “I will also give you a new heart.” A new heart is the old heart renewed.
Thus, there are four steps in dealing with the heart. They do not take place once for all when we believe in the Lord Jesus and receive Him as our Savior. We who are seeking the Lord must have our heart refreshed by these four steps every day. We must turn our heart to the Lord, exercise our heart to believe Him, have our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and have it renewed again and again. The renewing of the heart is not a once for all matter. I believe that the apostle Paul, if he were living today, would still need to have his heart renewed. We must put all these steps into practice immediately. When we first rise up in the morning, we must pray, “Lord, cause me to turn my heart to You.” Then we need to exercise our heart to believe the Lord: “Lord, I believe You and Your Word. I believe in Your dealing within me and in all Your dealings in my environment.” At this point we will sense how wrong we are, how many mistakes we have made, and how much filthiness we have. Therefore, we must confess in order to be cleansed and sprinkled from an evil conscience. Then our heart will be renewed afresh.
These four steps will cause the heart to function adequately. The function of the heart is to love the Lord, for it is the loving organ of our being. This is proven by Mark 12:30: “You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart.” The heart was created for the purpose of loving the Lord. If we do not have a heart, we cannot love. Could we see without eyes? Could we hear without ears? Could we think without a mind? No! Neither could we love without the heart. Many Christians do not know what the function of the heart is. They know the function of the eyes, the ears, and the mind, but they simply do not know the function of the heart.
Love is a matter of the heart. People cannot be loved with our nose, nor can they be loved with our hands. The heart is the only organ to exercise love. No one can say that he does not love anything. Everyone loves something — either the Lord Himself or something else. The more we turn our heart to the Lord, the more we will exercise our heart to believe the Lord, and the more our heart will be sprinkled from an evil conscience and renewed. Then it will have a greater capacity to love the Lord. This is the function of a renewed heart. Every morning we must renew our heart so that we may love the Lord more and more.
All spiritual experiences start with love in the heart. If we do not love the Lord, it is impossible to receive any kind of spiritual experience. In fact, the first experience of our Christian life, salvation, involves the heart loving the Lord Jesus. Not one person who really repents is without love in his heart toward the Lord. Perhaps he does not have the language to express it, but he has the sweet sense of love within. He does not have the knowledge, but his initial experience of salvation is a reaction or reflection of love in his heart to the Lord.
We all must learn how to continually turn and exercise our heart in order to have our heart purged from an evil conscience and renewed again so that we may love the Lord more and more. It was the loss of its first, fresh love to the Lord that was the cause of the church’s fall and degradation. When our heart is not fresh in loving the Lord, we have fallen. We must turn our heart back to the Lord again and again and have it continually renewed that we may have a new and fresh love toward the Lord.
Now that we have seen the function of the heart, we need to consider the function of the spirit. First of all, the Bible tells us that we were originally dead, but when we received the Lord Jesus, we were made alive. What does it mean that we were dead? When I was young, I could not understand. I said to myself, “How can they say that I am dead when I am still alive?” Later on, of course, I learned that I was dead in my spirit. It was my spirit that was dead and out of function. The function of the spirit is to contact God, fellowship with God, and receive and worship God. But due to the fall, the spirit became dormant and could not function.
When we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit — and we must remind ourselves that when the title Holy Spirit is used, it means the all-inclusive Spirit — came into our spirit and touched our spirit. By such a touch, our spirit was quickened. The expression made alive means something like this: “just by touching, life is ministered and imparted.”
Perhaps this could be illustrated by electricity: when we touch electricity, something of electricity is transmitted into us. By a simple little touch electricity is transmitted. Similarly, the Holy Spirit came into our spirit to touch our spirit, and by that touch the very life which is the Lord Himself was imparted into us. Our dead, dormant spirit immediately became alive. This is something more than a miracle. Many times we have thought that it would be wonderful and miraculous if a dead person were resurrected. But we must realize that when the Holy Spirit quickens our dead spirit, it is even more miraculous. History records that thousands and even millions of people have been rapidly changed because their dead spirit became alive. In just one second a person dead in the spirit can be made alive. The Holy Spirit is much more powerful than electricity and much faster than its transmission.
Colossians 2:13 and Ephesians 2:1 and 5 say that the spirit was dead and then made alive. We were dead in sins and then made alive with Christ. These two passages prove that we were originally dead in the spirit, but when we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, our dead spirit was quickened and made alive. When our spirit was made alive, it was also regenerated. The prefix re- in regeneration means “again.” This means that our spirit was not only made alive, but also that another life was added into our spirit. This other life is the divine and uncreated life of God. It is Christ Himself. When the Holy Spirit, based upon the redeeming work of Christ, came into us, He not only enlivened our dead spirit but also brought Christ into our spirit. This new life added into our spirit is something more than what God gave us at creation.
Therefore, not only has our dead spirit been recovered and made alive, but a new substance has been added into our spirit. This additional new substance or essence is Christ Himself. This is the new birth, the regeneration. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” By the new birth, or regeneration, something other than what we originally had was added to us. We must say this again and again: something has been added. Not only has the old and the dead been renewed and made alive, but Christ Himself has been added into us as the very essence of divine life. This is regeneration and the new life. By all this we now have a new spirit (Ezek. 36:26).
May I ask, “Have you received Christ Himself as your new life?” If you answer yes, I would ask, “Then why are you still so poor?” Christians need to know this Christ as a living reality. Atomic power is not only something outward but something inward. Even within a mere piece of paper there is atomic power. But when you received Christ, something more powerful than atomic power was added into your spirit. If you believe this, you have to jump up and say Hallelujah! You have to thank and praise Him that such a wonderful, all-inclusive, exhaustless, immeasurable Christ has actually been added into you. We simply do not have adequate words to describe the Christ who has come into us. Only eternity can tell the story.
But, praise Him, this is not all. Our spirit is also indwelt by the all-inclusive Holy Spirit. When we were saved, God not only renewed our heart and our spirit, but He also put His own Spirit into us (Ezek. 36:26, 27; John 14:17). This wonderful Spirit dwells (Rom. 8:11) in our human spirit (v. 16). Our spirit is the very residence of the Holy Spirit. Consider how wonderful this Spirit is. From the time of our salvation, our dead spirit has become a spirit that is made alive, regenerated with Christ as the divine life, and indwelt by the all-inclusive Holy Spirit. We now have such a spirit.
But even this is not all. Our spirit is now joined to the Lord as one spirit. Our spirit and the Lord Himself as the Spirit are joined together as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). No human words can exhaust this mystery.
What is the purpose and function of the spirit? It is to contact the Lord, to receive Him, to worship God (John 4:24), and to fellowship with the divine persons of the Triune God. The heart is the loving organ, whereas the spirit is the contacting and receiving organ. We cannot love with our spirit. We must love with our heart. But the One whom our heart loves must be contacted and received by our spirit.
I will never forget a sister who was bothered by this kind of message. She thought that if our heart loved the Lord, it was good enough, and there was no need to talk about the spirit. She thought the spirit and the heart were synonymous terms. Probably after hearing this kind of message, this sister did not sleep well that night, for the next morning while at breakfast, she asked, “Isn’t it enough that our hearts love the Lord? Why is there a need for us to talk about the spirit?” I replied, “Sister, here I have a nice Bible. Do you love it?” She answered, “Of course, I love it.” Then I said, “Take it!” When she stretched out her hand, I said, “Don’t! Don’t exercise your hand. It is your heart that loves the Bible. As long as your heart loves the Bible, that is all right. There is no need to exercise your hand to take it.” The point is clear. We cannot say that as long as the heart loves the Lord, it is good enough. The spirit is necessary to take Christ.
Suppose I love my breakfast. As long as my heart loves bacon, toast, milk, juice, etc., is that enough? Absolutely not! If this is enough, I am afraid that after some days I will be buried. To love is a matter of the heart; but in order to receive something, another organ must be exercised. The organ we need to exercise depends upon what we are going to receive. If we are going to receive food, of course, we have to exercise the mouth; if we are going to receive a voice, we have to exercise our ears. If we are going to receive colorful scenery, we must exercise our eyes. Now, since we love the Lord, what organ must we exercise in order to receive Him? Should we use the eyes? The more we look for the Lord, the more He will disappear. God purposely created only one organ to receive and contact Him. That is the spirit. The spirit within us has the same function spiritually as the stomach has physically. It was specifically created for the purpose of receiving God into us.
But before we can receive something, we must have a love for it. No one receives anything if he does not love it first. If we do not love our breakfast, it is rather hard for us to receive it. This is why we must first have an appetite. When we love the Lord, we will then take Him, contact Him, commune with Him, and fellowship with Him. The heart is for us to love, but the spirit is for us to receive. By the renewing of the heart, we have a new interest and a new desire to love the Lord. By the renewing of the spirit, we have a new ability and a new capacity to receive the Lord. Therefore, after our spirit has been made alive and Christ as life has been added to it, after it has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit and joined to the Lord as one spirit, it then becomes a very keen organ to receive and contact the Lord.
Next, we must deal with the soul. The first thing we must learn in dealing with the soul is to deny it. Two passages, Matthew 16:24-26 and Luke 9:23-25, tell us clearly that we need to deny our soul, which is the self. In the previous chapter, we have seen that the soul, our very self, is composed of three parts: the mind, the will, and the emotion. Therefore, we must learn to deny our natural mind, our natural will, and our natural emotion.
Secondly, the soul must be purified (1 Pet. 1:22), which is accomplished mainly by receiving the Word. The Word of God can purify the soul from so many fleshly, worldly, and natural things. Our soul is our self, our very being, which has been extensively damaged and occupied by fleshly, worldly, and natural things. Therefore, we must first deny our soul; then, the more we deny our soul, the more it will be purified by the Word of God.
Thirdly, our soul must be transformed (2 Cor. 3:18 and Rom. 12:2). Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we must be transformed, but it does not indicate in what part we are to be transformed. However, Romans 12:2 shows that we are transformed by the renewing of the mind. Transformation, therefore, is to be accomplished in our soul, because the mind is the leading part of the soul. After our spirit has been regenerated, our soul needs to be transformed.
The soul has to be denied, then purified, then transformed into the image of Christ — but for what purpose? We have pointed out that the purpose of the heart is to love the Lord, and the purpose of the spirit is to receive and contact the Lord. But what is the purpose of the soul? It is to reflect the Lord. In most versions the word reflecting is not translated in 2 Corinthians 3:18, but the meaning is in the original language. Reflecting is the function of a mirror, which with “unveiled face” beholds and reflects. The soul, by being purified and transformed, becomes the very organ, like a mirror, to reflect and express Christ. Thus, we love Him with our heart, we receive and contact Him with our spirit, and we reflect and express Him with our transformed soul. We must put all these things into practice in our daily life. Then our lives will verify that what has been explained here is entirely practical and really works.
