Here we would like to elaborate on a particular matter— our heart. The spirit of man is the deepest and most central part of his whole being. Man’s soul is his outer man. The soul includes the mind, emotion, and will. Man’s heart also includes many things. Man’s heart has thoughts, desires, and intentions (Heb. 4:12). Thus, our heart includes our mind, emotion, and will—the three parts of the soul. Thus, our mind, emotion, and will are all a matter of the heart.
Hebrews 10:22 also reveals that our conscience is in our heart. The heart includes the conscience, and the conscience is part of the spirit. The spirit also has three parts—intuition, fellowship, and conscience. In summary, the heart is the mind, emotion, and will plus the conscience. The conscience is in our spirit, our deepest part, and surrounding our conscience is our mind, emotion, and will. Thus, our heart has four parts— first, the conscience; second, the mind; third, the emotion; and fourth, the will. Among these four parts—conscience, mind, emotion, and will—one part is in the spirit and three parts are in the soul. Thus, the heart is connected to the spirit as well as to the soul. In other words, the heart is where our spirit and our soul converge. The heart is the converging place of our being. Therefore, the heart represents a person. When we believe that a person is bad, we often say that his heart is bad. In addition, when the heart is absent, the person is absent. Sometimes, a person is present, but his heart is absent. In such a case, the person might as well be absent since only the heart can represent a person.
Those who study the Bible all agree that God’s Spirit and God’s life being in our spirit means that they are in the intuition and fellowship of our spirit, our most central part. But the spirit of man not only has the intuition and the fellowship; it also has the conscience. Hence, God’s Spirit and life, which are in our spirit, also touch our heart. When God’s Spirit and life spread from our spirit, they go through our heart. Therefore, our heart is the key, the gateway. Whether God’s Spirit and life within us can spread to our mind, emotion, and will depends upon whether our heart allows God to pass through it.
When a person is saved, God enters into him and becomes one with him. Before a person is saved, he lives in his mind, emotion, will, and conscience. This is where he is. Once he is saved, God enters into him. Which part of him is God in? God is in his spirit. Thus, there is something between God and man. This something is the heart. Thus, everything depends upon whether our heart is turned to the Lord or away from the Lord. When our heart is turned away from the Lord, then we are turned away from the Lord. When our heart is turned to the Lord, we are turned to the Lord. Second Corinthians 3:16 says, “But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Why is it that whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is removed? The reason is that man’s turned away heart is the veil. If a person has his back toward us, he cannot see us. That is the veil. When the heart is turned to the Lord, man is face to face with the Lord, and naturally, the veil is taken away.
Even though many of us are saved and have the Lord in our spirit, our heart often separates us from the Lord. In a sense, the Lord is on the inside, we are on the outside, and the heart is between us, so that we and the Lord cannot be face to face. Thus, everything depends upon where our heart is facing. When our heart is toward the Lord, there are no problems. We and the Lord are face to face. But when our heart is turned away from the Lord, then we are turned away from the Lord, and spontaneously, there is no communication with the Lord. So, the heart is an important gateway.