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The Bible clearly shows that man was created with three parts: the spirit, the soul, and the body. The outermost part of man is the body; the innermost part is the spirit. Between these two is the soul. We have said that the spirit is composed of the conscience, the fellowship, and the intuition. We have also said that the soul is composed of the mind, the emotion, and the will. But the Scriptures show that there is another important organ in man — the heart. The heart is composed of elements from both the soul and the spirit. It includes one part of the spirit and all the parts of the soul.
The mind, emotion, and will of the soul, and the conscience of the spirit, each constitutes a part of the heart. For example, speaking of the mind, Hebrews 4:12 says, “The thoughts...of the heart.” The heart being capable of having thoughts clearly indicates that the mind, a part of the soul, is also a part of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 also speaks of the “intentions of the heart.” While thoughts are something of the mind, intentions are something of the will. Thus, we can see plainly that both the mind and the will are parts of the heart. Furthermore, John 16:22 says, “Your heart will rejoice” and 14:1 says, “Do not let your heart be troubled.” Since to rejoice and to be troubled are something of the emotion, the heart also includes the emotion. Therefore, it is clear that the three parts of the soul are all constituents of the heart.
Moreover, Hebrews 10:22 speaks of “having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” Also, 1 John 3:20 mentions that our heart condemns us. Condemnation is a function of the conscience. Hence, we know that the heart also includes the conscience.
In summary, the heart is composed of four parts: the mind, the will, the emotion, and the conscience. The mind, will, and emotion are the elements of the soul, and the conscience is a major part of the spirit. If we were to realize the component parts of our heart, we would immediately be aware of its position. The position of the heart encompasses the mind, will, emotion, and conscience; it is a very broad position that includes all the parts of the soul plus a major part of the spirit. Thus, the heart is the most comprehensive part in our whole being.
Speaking of the heart, the Bible pays attention first to its truthfulness. Hebrews 10:22 says that the heart needs to be true. All those who come before God should have a true heart. Here, to be true means to be genuine and upright, not false or crooked. The heart of an insincere man is surely not true. Not only so, to be true also means to be single-minded. If a person comes before God to seek something in addition to God, he is double-minded, and his heart is not true. A true heart is real and not false, right and not bent, single and not double. It desires only one thing — God Himself.
When one comes to pray to God, he should desire only God Himself. He should desire nothing outside God. He should seek only God’s will and not anything that is outside His will. Many times when one comes to pray to God for a certain thing, he will ask God to show him His heart’s desire, but he has his own desire also. Such a heart is false, doubting, and untrue. The heart needs to be single, seeking only God’s desire. It is of foremost importance that the heart be true before God.
Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Psalm 73:1 says, “Surely God is good to Israel, / To those who are pure in heart.” A pure heart is more than just a clean heart. It is a heart that simply wants God Himself and has no aim or goal other than God Himself. Hence, Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” What they desire within is God Himself, so it follows that what they see is also God Himself. Hence, speaking of a pure heart, the emphasis is not that the heart should be free from evil or defiled thoughts but that it should want God alone. The heart singly and purely wants God Himself and His heart’s desire.
Please remember, a heart that is not upright or single is an untrue heart. But many times our heart seems to be true, yet it is impure because it still desires numerous things besides God. Our heart appears to be true before men, yet it is still untrue in God’s eyes because we are not pure and single within. To be true one needs to be pure, and to be pure one also needs to be true. In the end we see that these two points show that our heart should just want God alone. If it desires anything other than God, it has a problem concerning being single and pure. If our heart remains two-sided and impure before God, we will have great difficulty in prayer. Hence, in order to learn how to pray, we must deal with the matter of the heart.
First John 3:20-21 speaks of the blame, or condemnation, of the heart. It says that God is greater than our heart, and if our heart condemns us, God will condemn us even more. But if our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God. The part of our heart that condemns us is the conscience. The condemnation in the heart is the function of the conscience. A heart without condemnation is a heart in which there is no offense or fault in the conscience. If we want to learn how to pray, we must deal with our heart until it is free from condemnation.
To pray to God, the heart needs to have boldness, which results from having no barrier between it and God. Once the heart loses its boldness due to condemnation, prayer will become very difficult. Not only will it be difficult to have faith after prayer; it will even be very hard to have faith while praying. If the heart condemns itself, God will condemn you even more. Then you will have no way to pray. Hence, in order to pray, you need to deal with your heart until it is absolutely free from condemnation. Then you can go with boldness before God, and your prayer will be answered.
Second Corinthians 3:14-16 says that to this very day the children of Israel still have a veil lying upon their heart. There remains an opaqueness, a covering, between them and God. But whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Their heart turned to things other than the Lord, and that turning away is the veil. So in order to learn how to pray, the heart must be turned from everything else to the Lord.
In His teaching on the mountain, the Lord Jesus said that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:21). The heart is like the needle of a compass, which points to whatever attracts it. If we love our children more than God, then our heart will point and turn to our children. If we love clothing more than God, then our heart will point toward the clothing. If we love education, position, or money more than God, our heart will spontaneously turn toward those things. And once our heart is turned toward those things, it becomes distracted, and many problems appear. It is impure and untrue, and there is no way for it to be free from condemnation. Therefore, we must turn our heart to God. When the heart is turned in the proper direction, completely turned to God, then it can truly be without condemnation. If the heart is not turned to God, it can never be free from condemnation. You may be able to deceive others, but you can never deceive God. Neither can you deceive yourself. Hence, you must learn to deal with your heart by turning it to God.
Many times, in the prayer meetings or the Lord’s table meetings, there are too few who pray, give thanks, or praise. In all likelihood it is because brothers and sisters have problems with their heart. If your heart was not proper before God during the past week, when you come to break the bread on the Lord’s Day, naturally you will not be able to give thanks or offer praise. At the same time, it will not be easy to be inspired. Our heart may be just slightly inclined to things other than God. Even such a slight deviation will cause us to sense the presence of a veil between us and God. There will be an opaqueness within so that we can no longer see God. Actually, it is not that His face is not open; rather, it is we who are covered within. If I took a handkerchief and put it over my face, I would not be able to see you. In reality, it is not that your face is turned away from me but that my eyes are prevented from seeing you.
Furthermore, even though I may not cover my face, if I turn my back to you, this will become a veil that prevents me from seeing you. Second Corinthians 3:16 says that whenever your heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The veil that is spoken of there is the turning of your back to the Lord. When your heart is turned away from God to other things, that turning away becomes a veil that prevents you from seeing God. If your heart is on your children, then your children become your veil. If your heart is on your wealth, then your wealth becomes your veil. If your heart is inclined toward education, then education becomes your veil.
Some have come to me asking, “Brother Lee, why don’t I have light when I read the Bible?” I have often answered, “Brother, there is no other reason than that your heart is not set upon God. God is light. As your heart is set upon things other than God, those things become a veil to you. Since your heart loves those things, when you read the Bible, instead of light, the veil comes. Once the veil comes, you have no light.”
There are also some who say, “When I pray, it seems that there is something between God and me, and I cannot touch Him. What is the reason?” I answer in this way, “I am afraid the main reason is that your heart is inclined toward something other than God. If your heart is inclined toward other things, how can you see the light of His face? It is impossible.”
When the children of Israel were at the foot of Mount Sinai, they had a veil upon them because they were not singly and purely after God but were after other things. If our heart loves our children, wealth, or clothing more than God, these things become a veil. But also, even if our heart loves gospel preaching or the work more than God, that gospel preaching and that work will become a veil. It is very difficult for some Christians to see light, because they pay more attention to God’s work than to God Himself. They allow the work to replace God. It seems they maintain the attitude that they can sacrifice God but not the work. They can let go of God’s will and His desire, but they must keep the work at all costs. Please remember, even such a work can become a veil and cause them to have no light within. Their lack of light is not because God does not shine on them but because the veil is there. Their heart is not pointing toward God Himself but to things other than God.
If we wish to learn how to pray and draw near to God, we must set our heart right and turn it to God. Not only do I not love the world, sin, fashion, and money, but even God’s work cannot attract me — for my heart is set toward God Himself. God is light, and once you turn to Him, you are in the light of His face, and you are illuminated inside. This is a certainty.
In Matthew 6:22-23 the Lord Jesus said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” This word shows that someone’s heart may not be illuminated but dark. Why the darkness? The darkness exists because his heart is not pointing toward God. At least, it is off a little, thus losing the light of God’s face. Preceding and following this word, the Lord said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also...No one can serve two masters...You cannot serve God and mammon.” This word tells us that the heart in man is dark because it is not after God. Rather, it is after things other than God. God is light, and if our heart is pointing toward God, surely we will be illuminated inside. But whenever our heart turns away from God, immediately we are dark inside. One who prays must always exercise to have an illuminated heart.
We often hear people say, “Oh, these days, I am so confused and dark within.” This condition reveals to us that the heart of such a person is not fully turned to God and needs to be dealt with properly. This dealing is not just with sins or the world but, even more, with the direction of the heart. Does your heart purely desire God alone, or does it desire other things besides God? If you seek after some fruits of your work, the blessings of God, or spiritual enjoyments, then your heart is pointing in the wrong direction. Once the direction of the heart is wrong, immediately there is darkness within.
Brothers, seriously speaking, not many Christians today are illuminated within. This is because there are still many mixtures in their heart. They do not seek God with a pure heart. Let us give some illustrations. Suppose you preached the gospel and only two people were saved, but when another preached, twenty people were saved. Following this, you did not feel good in your heart. This would prove that you were neither pure nor single. Again, suppose you were in the process of purchasing property for building a meeting hall in your locality, and a certain church was burdened from the Lord to supply the needs of several other churches. While other churches received one hundred thousand or eighty thousand dollars, your locality received only eight thousand. Would you feel happy or not? Now, suppose we change the situation: the supplying church had only eight thousand dollars, yet she gave none to any other church but gave the whole amount to your locality. Surely you would be beaming with smiles, thanking and praising the Lord. It was the same eight thousand dollars, yet your reaction was altogether different. As another example, suppose you and another brother are roommates. A responsible brother of the church goes to visit your roommate for five minutes today, ten minutes tomorrow, and fifteen minutes the day after tomorrow. He does this for four consecutive weeks, yet he never comes to fellowship with you. How would you feel about this? Surely you would grumble inside. These reactions in your heart prove that your heart is not pure. Again, on the Lord’s Day at the table meeting both of us prayed. Others gave an Amen after you had prayed three sentences, but they said Amen to every sentence I prayed — they followed me with Amens all the time. Would you be happy or not? You would not be happy, because everyone said only a few Amens to you but many to me.
Brothers, these things may seem trivial, but they prove to us how much we are off and complicated in our hearts. Do not believe that we are so good. If someone would write a biography about us, I think there would be no need to write about anything other than our heart, because he would not be able to exhaust this one subject, that is, the movements of our heart from morning to evening and from evening to morning. With such a record, you can know how much your heart has been off and how much it refuses God. Such a condition of the heart is the reason that many people are not illuminated. The reason we are dark and not illuminated within is because we are not facing the light. Whenever we serve two masters and love things besides God, our inner eye becomes evil. This is a certainty.
Therefore, brothers, the price of obtaining light is to have the heart turned to God. If one wishes to have light and revelation, there is only one secret: seek God alone with a single and pure heart. If the needle in man is pointing toward many things — in the morning pointing toward benefits, in the afternoon toward position, another time toward men’s approval, and in the prayer meeting toward men’s Amens — how could one, being so complicated inside, have the light? Therefore, to learn how to pray, one needs to deal with his heart so that he may be illuminated within.
Influences on our heart come from the four parts that constitute the heart. If one has a problem in his conscience, his heart is affected. If there is accusation in the conscience, surely there will be condemnation in the heart. In the same manner, if one’s mind is perverted and improper, his heart becomes unreasonable. It may be plainly six, yet he would say it is eight. Such unreasonableness issues from an unregulated mind, and an unregulated mind can affect the heart. Not only so, if one loves many things other than God in his emotions, it will also affect the heart. Also, if a man’s will is so stubborn that he never reconsiders once he has made a decision, this also affects the heart, making it hard. For instance, someone may be moved by the gospel he has heard, but since he has already determined that there is no place for God in his ambitious plans, he remains stubbornly unchanged. Thus, his heart becomes very hard.
Please remember, therefore, in order to have a proper heart, the conscience, the mind, the emotion, and the will need to be dealt with adequately. If there is offense in the conscience, it is inevitable that there will be condemnation in the heart. If the mind becomes irrational, the heart will surely be improper. Similarly, if the emotion has its private desires, then the heart certainly will not be able to love God. And if the will is stubborn and unchanging, the heart will surely become hard.
The influences over the heart are the influences over the soul and the spirit. Therefore, the heart represents our whole being. To have a proper heart, we need to deal thoroughly with all the parts of the soul and the spirit. On the other hand, if our heart is right, then our whole being is right. If there is no condemnation in the heart, there is no accusation in the conscience. Once the heart is set right, the mind is spontaneously regulated. If the heart absolutely loves God, then the emotion is surely proper. At the same time, if the heart is soft and not one bit hard, then there is no problem with the will. Hence, a man can be right only when his heart is right.
When a man’s heart is true, pure, without condemnation, and illuminated, being normal in every aspect, he is able to pray. The heart and prayer are absolutely related. Although the spirit is the organ for prayer, one still cannot pray unless his heart has been dealt with properly. And even if he could pray, he would not be able to believe that God would answer. As long as there is a problem with the heart, it is not possible to pray.
As there is such an intimate relationship between the heart and prayer, it can almost be said that if you would just deal with your heart, that, in itself, is almost as good as prayer. Then all you need to do is to cry out to God a little. Many times our prayers do not have much weight or value. The main reason is because our heart is not proper. First John 3:19-22 says that if our heart does not blame us, we have boldness toward God, and whatever we ask, we receive of Him. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with the heart in order that our prayers may have weight and standing.
The heart for prayer is a heart that is truthful and pure, not bent, false, or doubting. It seeks God alone and nothing else. It is also without condemnation or offense. It is also a heart turned to God, aiming only at Him. It is further an illuminated heart that is full of light and is in the light of God’s face. Finally, it is a heart that is under the proper influence of the various parts. One who prays needs such a heart for prayer.
