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Influence of the Heart

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Influence of the Heart

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Influence of the Heart

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Today we want to take a look at the renewal or the rebuilding of the heart and the mind of mankind because before God will give us eternal life, before you and I get into His kingdom we have to have a change of heart, a change of mind. There has to be a total change take place.

Transcript

 

I think that all of us like music. You see people, and they're happy; they go around humming and singing. Many songs feature the heart in their lyrics or their title.

I looked it up this morning on the internet, and found one place that listed a hundred and twenty-four songs that the term heart in the title. Things like The Last Unbroken Heart, many of you may remember that goldie oldie by Patti LaBelle; or, You Took My Heart, or Heart of Glass. I'm with you. I don't remember most of these; or My Achy, Breaky Heart, now I remember that one, or Shape of My Heart, My Heart Will Go On. And another one, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? That one goes back awhile, and Your Cheating Heart.

So, you know, there are all kinds of "heart" songs. I could have printed a list off and read a lot of them but we realize that the heart is something that we talk about all the time. People say they have heartaches, or they have a broken heart, or you know, my heart's giving me problems. And we talk about the heart strictly from a physical point of view – of heart attacks, heart problems, you know, whatever it might be.

We realize that the heart of a Christian must be led by God's spirit, must be directed by God's spirit. In this world around us we see the hearts of men and women, and they're not led by God's spirit because God's spirit will lead a person in one direction. That spirit will lead us down the channel of obedience to the Ten Commandments but the world today is influenced so much by Satan the devil and his demons, and it is a fundamental change as we all had reiterated to us again when we went through the Day of Atonement this year, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

We're familiar with Jeremiah 17:9. It says that, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Well, you'll find that the BIBLE describes the heart in terms that sometimes it's difficult to explain.

Over the past several decades scientists have discovered a lot of new information about the heart, and realize that the heart is a lot more complex than we've ever imagined. We know that scientific evidence has shown that the heart sends us emotional signals, and sends us intuitive signals to help govern our life. It does a lot more than just sort of pumping blood. It does that but it helps to align a number of the systems in the body so that they can function in harmony with one another. The heart communicates with the brain, and the brain communicates with the heart. We know sometimes that the heart makes its own decisions completely separate from the brain.

Now when God's kingdom is established on the earth under the direction of Jesus Christ the hearts of mankind will be changed gradually. And again, the sermons that we heard at the feast began to explain, expounded on that more clearly, more detail. How that it is going to take the spirit of God, and when that spirit finally encompasses the whole world, and all nations come under God's government then you'll find that God will establish the new covenant with the nations.

And what does it say that He will do? He will write His laws in our hearts, and in our minds. Now we know that God has started that with us, that process with us today, the Church but  eventually it's going to go out to all mankind. Remember the first commandment, states this: let's go over to Luke 10:27.

Luke 10:27 – Well, we read this, "…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all of your strength, and (with) all your mind," and "your neighbor as yourself." Now, was Luke going a little batty and just sort of repeating himself? Was he saying, "You are to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, meaning your mind, and with all your mind?" Or are the two different?

How do you love somebody with your heart? You ever hear the term someone is lovesick? Well, you'll find that the heart is used in the BIBLE in many places differently from the mind. Now I will admit, and I'll agree that in many cases in the BIBLE when it talks about the heart it's referring to the mind but there are many scriptures where the two of them are used together, conjointly, and they're obviously talking about, one's talking about the heart, the other's talking about the brain, or the mind. How will the world come to know God, come to have a relationship between God and have a right heart and a right spirit?

Today we want to take a look at the renewal or the rebuilding of the heart and the mind of mankind because before God will give us eternal life, before you and I get into His kingdom we have to have a change of heart, a change of mind. There has to be a total change take place.

Now we've just returned from the Feast of Tabernacles. We learned a lot about God's kingdom, His plan, and His purpose. And again, when that kingdom is established on this earth under the direction of Jesus Christ the heart of man will begin to be changed. God will give mankind His spirit, and God will write His law into the hearts of man. Let's notice where this is explained back in Jeremiah 31:31.

Jeremiah 31:31 - We read this: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and (with) the house of Judah—

V 32 - "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke," but He goes on to say, "though I was a husband to them," says the Lord. So it was like a marriage agreement. They were the wife. He was the husband. They refused to obey their husband, submit to their husband.

V 33 - "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel (after) in those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds,…" So in their minds they'll know God's law. "… and I will write it on their hearts;…" In the mind and in the hearts. "…and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." Now does this verse, Jeremiah 31:33 help to explain why some people stop keeping God's law? They agree with it intellectually. It's written in their minds. But it's not written in their hearts also. It's gotta be written in both places; in the heart, and in the mind.

The heart deals with the emotions, with the feelings, with your intuitive desires whereas the mind is just more intellectual. You can agree with an argument. You can agree that something should be done.

Remember what the BIBLE says about David? It wasn't just an intellectual exercise with David obeying God. What does the BIBLE say about David? David was a man after God's own heart; that he had a heart like God. We'll see what that means as we go along.

One can agree, as an example just to illustrate, that adultery is wrong. You can agree with that in your mind but does it go against everything you stand for? Does it go against every fiber in your being? What about any of the commandments? What area of the law are we willing to compromise, are we willing to go against? So we might agree with it intellectually. We might agree that we should keep the Sabbath day, and not work on the Sabbath but yet when push comes to shove will we compromise?

We might agree with the argument. We might say, "Yeah, I realize that but…." We put the big BUT in there – I've got to earn a living. I've got to pay my bills. So we compromise instead of the fact that it would go against everything we stand for to disobey the Sabbath knowingly. So what area of God's law would we be willing to compromise?

V 34 -  It says, "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they (all) shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins I will remember no more." So in the millennium, the white throne judgment also period, this is a reference to a millennial period, everyone will come to know the Lord.

Now people claim to know God today. You know, we all hear people say, "Well, isn't it good to know the Lord?" But they don't know anything about God. 1 John 2:4 tells us, "If we say we know God and we don't keep His commandments we're a liar. 1 John 2:4, we're all familiar with that.

Let's go over to Acts 3:19. As you might guess here we're continuing on with the feast theme but I want to show you how all this ties in with the future, and what God is doing personally with each one of us today.

Acts 3:19 - "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of the  refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

V 20 - "(and) that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,

V 21 - "whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of (all) His holy prophets since the world began. So there is going to come a time of restoration.

God created the earth, put Adam and Eve in paradise, the Garden of Eden. Hundreds and thousands of trees around, bushes, shrubs, flowers, you know, everything you can think of. Beauty, God created it. Only one tree in the garden God said, "Don't touch it. Don't eat it."

What do they do? They eat it. They get thrown out of the garden, and you know, the world could have been totally different if they had simply taken of the "Tree of Life" instead of the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." So there's going to come a time when God is going to restore the earth. He's going to bless the earth again. Let's notice in the book of Ezekiel 11:19 where God talks about the restoration that is going to take place here in the future.

Ezekiel 11:19 – It says, "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and I'll take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh . You ever said about somebody, "Boy, he is cold-hearted?" You know, "Look how hard-hearted that individual is." Well, we use that terminology, and the BIBLE talks about having a stony heart.

Some people don't have any emotion. You know, they may intellectually agree with you but as far as empathy, feeling, emotion, this type of thing – they're devoid of it. They're just a "cold fish."

Obviously Ezekiel 11:19 has not occurred yet. It's future, it's a prophecy about the millennium, and from this passage you learn that when God sets up His government upon the earth, starts the millennium out, starts with Israel, and then eventually it will be extended to all nations, to those surrounding Israel, and then will go out eventually to Gog, Maggot, Rosh, Tubal, and all of those nations will come under God's government.

You can read back in Micah 4, Isaiah 2 that eventually all nations, as we heard referred to in the sermonette, all nations are going to come up to worship God. They're all going to come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Also, Jerusalem will become the focal point of God's government around the world, and all nations of the world will have the opportunity of knowing God's way, have the opportunity to receive God's spirit, and be led in the right way.

As Isaiah 11:9 tells us there's coming a time when"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God (the Lord) as the waters cover the seas." So the earth is going to be totally filled with God's way of life.

Now the world is not that way presently. We know that. When you look at the current governmental system, society, how they're structured, economic systems. It's influenced by the god of this world, by Satan the devil. As we approach the end time, the end of the age, the BIBLE indicates that man will get worse and worse, not better and better but worse. And man's ways, his influences, will become that way.

Here recently, if you've been keeping up with the news, a little ten year old girl had been kidnapped, or was taken in Colorado, and they discovered a body. They didn't know if it was her or not. Took them two days trying to find out if it were because the body had been dismembered. Now what kind of a fiend would do something of that nature?

You see today that people seem to be influenced more and more by the evil spirit world to do things, crimes that are absolutely heinous, and terrible.  In 2 Corinthians 4:4 you'll find that  Satan the devil is the god of this world, and that he has blinded the minds, the BIBLE says, of humans. He is the god of this world. He blinds the minds of people.

A blind person cannot see. Didn't Jesus Christ say if the blind lead the blind they both will fall in the ditch? I mean, if a blind person is trying to lead someone else that's blind eventually they're going to run off the road. And so, Satan the devil has been leading mankind, has blinded mankind to the true principles, and he has led man in a wrong way.

Now we again have just observed the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a foretaste. We got a little foretaste, not the real thing but just a foretaste of the world tomorrow that will be influenced by God, by His spirit, His teachings, His way of life, and when that time comes there will be a total contrast.

At the Feast of Tabernacles we pictured the time when God's law will be written on the hearts and the minds of humanity. You'll not wake up one morning and turn on your television, or read a newspaper, and hear about such heinous crimes taking place. So you'll hear about good news, God's blessings. How many decades have gone by and there's been no divorce take place, no violent crimes taking place, and you know God's government will be a total transformation at that time because all nations will eventually, gradually come under God's law and His way of life, and eventually the whole world will have its heart and its approach changed.

Matthew 5:8 is an interesting scripture. Notice, the world is finally going to come to know the true God, and they will have their hearts purified by God's law, by His commandments.

 Matthew 5:8 – It says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

Now in Revelation 22, I won't turn there, but it talks, somewhere around verse 2 or 3 that there's going to come a time in the new heaven and the new earth when we will see God face to face. Who will those people be? Well, those who have a pure heart, the BIBLE says. They will see God.

So what is the connection between our hearts and our mind. What does the scripture say? Let's go back to 1 Chronicles 28, we'll come back to this scripture again.

1 Chronicles 28:9 - "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind;…" Loyal heart, willing mind. How are our heart and mind connected with each other? Have you ever wondered why the scriptures talk about God writing His law on our heart and in our mind? Why don't they just say that God is etching, writing, chiseling His law in our mind and that's all that there should be but that's not the way it's put. There's a correlation between these two.

The subject of the heart is most interesting. In fact, it's a fascinating study. Scientists have found out that the heart is capable of giving us messages, and helping us much more than we ever suspected. In Psalm 73:21 let's notice, the third book of Psalm.
Psalm 73:21 – Notice what Asaph wrote here: "Thus my heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind." So his heart was grieved. He was also vexed in his mind. Now the world's languages are filled with idioms about the heart. I've mentioned some of these already. We use some to express the intrinsic matter of the heart as a source of something higher quality.

When we say a person is sincere we say what? "Well, they're speaking from their heart." You're implying that they're sincere.

When they throw themselves into an activity what do we say? You say, "Well, they're doing it with all of their heart." You don't say they're doing it with all of their mind. We say, "He used his whole heart, energy, strength, and so on."

When a person falls into despair we say they become disheartened, or the BIBLE talks about people being broken-hearted. So you can become broken-hearted.

Even our gestures, when we gesture about ourselves, when we talk about ourselves and point about ourselves do we always, when we point to ourselves do we say, do we point to our head, or do we point right here when we are pointing to ourselves?

You'll find the heart, over the centuries in many cultures, many nations, many languages is a source of wisdom, it's described in that way, and a feeling in almost any culture. Now this western culture that we live in lets the many religions refer to the heart as the seat of the soul, and the connection between the spirit and humanness, and they use that type of terminology.

Job 38, let's back up here. Notice what Job has recorded here in the book of Job.

Job 38:36 – It says, "Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?" Now, if I just read half of that scripture to you - Who has put wisdom in the mind?- would any of you argue that that scripture's talking about putting wisdom in the mind? No.

That's why it clearly says, well, what about putting understanding in the heart? What if the first part of that scripture were not there and it only said that God can put understanding in the heart? See, it shows that there's a certain amount of understanding that can come.

The role of the heart as an intelligence within the human system is one of the most prevalent themes in ancient tradition, and also in inspired writing. As Thomas Carlyle concluded, "It is the heart that always sees before the head can see." A lot of times the heart can figure it out before the mind really can grasp it.

As we read in Mark 12:33 -  We're, "(And) to love (Him) God with all the heart, with all (the) of our understanding, with all the soul, (and) with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as himself (oneself)…."

So many ancient cultures, as I mentioned including, you can read in the writings of cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, where they maintain that the primary organ capable of influencing and directing our emotions, our morality, our decision-making ability is the heart. They consequentially attach enormous emotional and moral significance to its behavior. Now, similarly, we notice the BIBLE also refers to it. In Proverbs 23:7 we read this:

Proverbs 23:7 – (For as he) As a man thinks in his heart, so is he…. As you think in your heart, so are you.

Luke 5:22 – It says, "… when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, ‘Why are you reasoning in your hearts?'

V 23 – "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise up and walk'?" Even in ancient Judaic tradition the heart is used as center of energy, and there's a term, "Ciphered" that is used in the Hebrew, that means beauty, harmony, and balance implying that the heart gives to the body beauty, harmony, and balance.

How many individuals have you seen whom you might describe as "ugly as a mugwump," but are actually beautiful because of their personality, because of their outgoing concern. It's not how the skin is stretched over the bones of the face or the body but it is their personality. It is their outgoing concern. It's their love for other people, and you are just attracted to this type of an individual.

In ancient Chinese medicine the heart is seen as the seat of connection between the body and the mind, forming a bridge between the two. Actually among many of them, you know, they have what's called acupuncture. Any of you ever had acupuncture treatment? Before, they get these long pins and "Sffffft," they stick these pins in you. I've had a couple of treatments, and the idea is that it's supposed to restore the flow of energy in the body. Their idea of how to take care of the body is totally different than the western world.

You go to a doctor and you say, "I've got this symptom."

He's programmed. He looks in a book. Now he's got the book up here, but I mean, he looks in the book so to speak.

"Symptoms?" Asks a few more questions. "Most of these symptoms seem to be this, therefore I will write you a prescription. Here's the prescription that should go help you."

And you go out, and you take the prescription and you come back. "Doc, it's still hurting. I've got this…" And he may give you something else. And so we find that there is a difference. In the west it seems to be a function of the brain.

The Chinese language has a different perspective. The Chinese characters for thinking, thought, intent, listen, virtue, love all include the character of the heart. The heart is connected with all those. Ancient Chinese dictionary describes silk threads that connect the brain and the heart; that they see that there is a connection there.

In the Japanese languages there are two distinct words to describe the heart. Shinzou denotes the physical organ, the pump. You know, it's pumping. While kokoro refers to the mind of the heart.
I don't know if  any of you have ever heard of the terminology, "the mind of the heart." I'll refer to that a little later here. All of these concepts have a common view of the heart as harboring an intelligence that operates independent of the brain, and yet is in communication with the brain. Let's go back to 1 Chronicles 28:9 again. David, speaking to Solomon,

1 Chronicles 28:9 - "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts…" Is God interested in our heart? Oh, you've got some cholesterol build-up in there. Is that what God's searching for? No. He searches all hearts. "…and understands all the intent of the thoughts." We have thoughts. God understands what's behind those thoughts; why we think those thoughts. What is our motivation.  "… If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off  forever."

Now most of us have simply been taught that the heart is a ten ounce muscle that pumps blood. And truly, it is; it's an amazing organ. It pumps the blood and maintains circulation until we die. When something goes wrong we hire a technician; he's called a doctor, and he repairs the organ. Might open us up and does heart surgery. If worse comes to worse he may replace the pump. That's called a heart transplant. You get a completely new heart. The biological standpoint simply looks on the heart as a working part; one devoid of independent intelligence or emotion.

Now the heart is extremely efficient. The heart works without interruption for seventy and eighty years, or we might say sometimes slight interruption. Without repair or cleaning, without repair or replacement. You don't go in like you do with your car. Get the oil changed every ten thousand miles every ten years. Time to flush the heart out, you know, so you go in and have a heart clean-out.

Over a period of years it beats one hundred thousand times a day, approximately forty million times a year, nearly three billion times it pulsates. It pumps two gallons of blood per minute, and over one hundred gallons per hour. It does all of this through a vascular system of sixty thousand miles in length. Over two times the circumference of the earth. And so it, thump, thump, it just goes on pumping.

Now it's interesting, though that the heart starts beating in an unborn fetus before the brain has formed. You stop and think. You have a sperm cell. You have an egg, they unite, they divide. Now you've got two cells. Those divide, and now you've got four, and you've got eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and it just goes on and on. And as they divide some become the heart, some become the nervous system, others will become the skin, some will become a kidney or whatever.

You know, what causes those various cells to start out one? What causes them to become different organs? Well, scientists don't know exactly what triggers the beating in the heart but they use the word auto rhythmic to indicate that the heartbeat is self-initiated from within the heart. It begins to beat from within the heart before the brain has formed.

Now as the brain begins to develop, it grows, the brain grows from the bottom up. Starting from the most primitive part of the brain, the brain stem, then the emotional center begins to emerge. The amygdale and the hippocampus appear is well known to brain researchers that the thinking brain then grows out of the emotional regions of the brain. So it starts here and it grows this direction. That speaks volume about the relationship of thoughts and feelings in the brain.

In an unborn child there is an emotional brain long before there's a rational one, and a beating heart long before either one of those develop. It's amazing how our body does develop. While the source of the heartbeat within the heart itself, and the timing of the heartbeat is thought to be controlled by the brain through the autonomic nervous system but surprisingly enough the heart doesn't need a hard wire connection to the brain to keep beating.

When somebody has a heart transplant the nerves that run from the brain to the heart are severed, and surgeons don't always know how to reconnect those. And yet when it comes to restarting the new pump, in other words, the new heart, it starts. It's not connected to the brain. It keeps beating. Now it's not the brain telling it. It's just, boom, they start it up again and the rhythm goes.

In exploring the physiological mechanisms of the heart it has been found that the heart communicates with the brain and the rest of the body through four different methods, four different ways. One is neurologically, that means nerve impulses. Nerve impulses that come from the brain to the heart, the heart to the brain. Biochemical, which is through hormones and neurotransmitters. Biophysically, which is through pressure waves, and also a fourth way, energetically or through electromagnetic interactions. It's through these biological communication systems the heart has a significant influence on the function of the brain and in our body systems.

Let me just quote to you from an article entitle, "The Science of the Heart, Heart to Heart Interaction," and this is taken from the Heart Math Organization, research that they have done on the heart, and I'm going to read to you about the electro-magnetic energy from the heart, the fourth way.

"The heart is the most powerful generator of electromagnetic energy in the human body, producing the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field of any of the body's organs. The heart's electrical field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain (60 times more powerful). This field, measured in the form of an electrocardiogram, can be detected anywhere on the surface of the body." So the heart's electromagnetic field can be detected in every cell of the body.

"Furthermore, the magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 5,000 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain, and can be detected a number of feet away…" So if you were to look, they have instruments that can measure electromagnetic force of the heart and the brain.

Let's say this microphone right here is a human body. This is the brain. The electromagnetic field would be like here. Now it's there but from the heart would be like this, it's radiating out. That's why there are many times you come in contact with somebody, and you react to them. You could have a positive reaction. You have a negative reaction.

In the church in the past few years there have been times when I've walked into a room and been around somebody, and the first thought that pops to my mind is evil. There's something wrong here. Something's not right near me. I never really stopped to think about it too much from this perspective but you've got magnetic fields connecting with magnetic fields.

Why is it that sometimes couples say they immediately fall in love? Is it possible that you have two individuals that come in contact with each other and their magnetic fields are so similar that, boom, they're attracted. There is an attraction that takes place, and it's not just intellect. "Oh, she's beautiful. Oh, he's handsome." There's something that goes beyond that, that attracts.

Going on it says, "The heart's electromagnetic field --by far the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the human body--not only envelops every cell of the body but also extends out in all directions into the space around us. The cardiac field can be measured several feet away from the body by sensitive devices. Research conducted at IHM suggests that the heart's field is an important carrier of information." That it carries these fields: neurological, biological, biochemical, biophysical, as well as electromagnetic carry information from the heart to the brain, and to the rest of the body.

In recent years also neuroscientists have made an exciting discovery. They've found that the heart has its own independent nervous system, a complex system that is referred to as the brain in the heart. There are at least 40,000 neurons, or nerve cells in the heart, as many are found in various sub cortical centers of the brain. There's as many there as in parts of the brain. The heart's intrinsic brain and nervous system relay information back & forth to the brain and the cranium creating a two-way communication between the heart and the brain. .

Now it's also noted, and I'm not going to get into this today. The BIBLE talks about a lot of our feelings. And he uses the terminology, if you look in the Hebrew, of the kidneys, of the organs of the body, and about feeling connected with that. You know that there are a lot of neurons in the intestines likewise. And there are actual feelings there in the heart and in the brain, and they're all connected with one another. That's why when we suffer health-wise it affects the whole body, and it does affect us in all of these areas.

The amygdale is an almond shaped structure deep inside the brain, an emotional processing system. It specializes in strong emotional memories. The cortex is where learning and reasoning occur that helps us to solve problems. The discovery that the heart has its own nervous system; a brain that affects the amygdale, the thymus, the cortex, helps to explain why, different physiologists who have studied this like John and Bernice Lacey of the Fells Research Institute said they found that the brain sends orders to the heart through the nervous system, and the heart doesn't always automatically obey what the brain says.

The brain may say, "Slow down. Speed up. Get with it" or whatever, and the heart says, "Go fly a kite." You know, not in those terms but it's got a mind of its own at times. Instead the heart responds as if it has its own distinct logic.

Sometimes when the brain sends a signal to the body in response to a stimuli the heart will speed up but there are times that the heart doesn't, and that the heart thinks that it knows what's best.
Even more intriguing, Lacey found that the heart appears to send messages back to the brain, and that the brain not only understood but obeyed. So the heart's telling the brain. It looks as though those messages from the heart could actually influence a person's behavior.

Now I have known a number of people who've had open heart surgery, and this is true of people who've had heart transplants, and there has been a definite change in behavior in those individuals. There is a change that takes place because something is disrupted within that heart. You can't just take the heart, cut it open, replace things, add things, maybe cut a nerve here or there without something taking place in the human body in the communication.

Lacey also discovered that our heart beats aren't just mechanical throbs as they diligently  pump but also an intelligent language that help that. I don't have time to go through all of that but that the heart beat that, you know, sometimes peoples' heart beat at the same type of rhythm.

I think when you look at this you can see some of the implication for our spiritual health in this regard when you begin to look at it. In order for true spiritual healing to take place it's not just a change of the mind. It has to be a change of the heart that has to take place within a human being.

God fills us with His spirit. Where does that spirit reside? Is it just in the brain? Or does it reside likewise in the heart? Well, we don't know exactly where all God's spirit resides when God places His spirit within us.

In Jeremiah 17:10, let's notice – Jeremiah says, "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."

Psalm 26:2 – "Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart."  So he asked God to try his mind and his heart.

Now anyone who might be interested in finding out some more key information on this can go to www.healthmath.org and you can look up, they've got a seventy page book you can download on the heart-to-heart interaction, and there's a lot of excellent information contained in that.

I can summarize some of the key points that we've covered. Scientific evidence shows that the heart sends its emotional and intuitive signals to help us cover in our lives. Many ancient cultures maintained that the primary organ responsible for influencing and directing emotional and morality decision making is the heart. The heart starts beating in an unborn fetus before the brain is formed. Scientists still don't know exactly what makes it start it beating. The heartbeat is generated from within the heart itself. The heart has its own independent nervous system referred to as brain-in-the-heart. There are at least forty thousand neurons in the heart.

Positive emotions such as happiness, appreciation, compassion, care, and love improve hormonal balance and immune system. Both intelligence and intuition are heightened when we learn to listen to our heart. According to the Heart Math book, the intelligence of the heart on the other hand, processes information in a less linear way, a more intuitive way than direct way.

This one reason why women have what's called "women's intuition." My wife sometimes, you know, I can sit and think and reason, come up, and come to a conclusion. She came to that conclusion immediately. "Well, where'd you get that?" Well, you know, it's just, she can pick up on it. And you know, we talk about women's intuition but are not women described as being more emotional, having more feeling?

You see, women use both sides of the brain. We men use one side. More of a rational reasoning, whereas women use the emotional, and I think if we were to look at it probably there's a bigger heart connection there in some way. And there is intuition, and there is such a thing as women's intuition. So ultimately the head knows what the heart understands, and it has a strong influence on us.

So brethren, we need to realize that as children of God we need to have God's own heart within us. We need to be a man and a woman like David, having God's heart. Mr. Armstrong used to say when he was alive that the cause of all the world's problems are spiritual in nature. And it is a spiritual heart problem that people have.

Before we can establish God's way of life on the earth which we have been called to do in the millennium, the white throne judgment, we have to have a complete change of heart ourself, complete conversion. Our hearts have to become like God's.

Now in Acts 13:22 you'll find that king David is called, "A man after God's own heart." He was a man after God's own heart.

Let's go back to 1 Kings 11:4 – It says, "For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart (notice) was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David." That's1 Kings 11:4. David's heart, The King Jamesversion says, "…was (not) perfect with God." The New King James says, "…was (not) loyal to God." If you look it up in the Hebrew, means it was whole, it was full. 

David's basic drive was to obey God. Now we know that David sinned. He was guilty of having Uriah killed. He sold Bathsheba into adultery with her. And yet, when it was pointed out to David, what did he do? He repented from the very depths of his toes. He asked God to forgive him. From deep inside David wanted to go God's way. With all of his heart he wanted to obey God and please God, and he strayed, you know, just like you and I do occasionally.  But with his whole heart he wanted to obey. And the BIBLE says that he had a heart like God's. Solomon did not.

Now Solomon, the BIBLE says, was the wisest man. But it makes you wonder if it were all up here, in his mind. You know, he could see things. He could reason through situations, give wise answers, but there was something lacking in here. What was it? He did not have a perfect heart, or a loyal heart like David. He did not have a heart after God's own heart.

A person with a pure heart wants to please God. He sees the intent behind God's law. That's why David said, "Oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. He thought about God's law. It became a part of him. He could see why it was good and he was pleased with it.
So, brethren, when it comes to the world tomorrow we can only begin to wonder what a wonderful place it will be when all human beings will begin to serve God with a pure heart, pure mind. Mankind will need a new heart, will need a new heart transplant.

It is interesting, just to give you an example. There was a woman, had a heart transplant, she woke up after the heart transplant and immediately desired to eat chicken nuggets. "I want some chicken nuggets." She never liked chicken nuggets in her life, never liked them, and didn't want them. She couldn't understand why.

She also kept seeing a scene in her mind, and she had no idea what those pictures were so she did some research. She discovered that there was a young man who died about the same time she got her transplant, and she tracked it down and found out that he was the donor of the heart. She found that the young man got on a motorcycle and had gone to McDonalds to buy chicken nuggets. He loved chicken nuggets, and the picture she saw in her mind was a picture of his room.

She didn't have a brain transplant. She had a heart transplant, and yet she could see, she could describe his room perfectly. Now where'd that come from? Well, obviously there is a connection there, and we don't fully understand how it operates. We're beginning to understand.

Brethren, in the millennium when Jesus Christ changes the hearts of all mankind, think what a wonderful world it will be when all of the leaders, all of those who will rule will be spirit beings,  and will rule the nations with a changed heart.

You see, that's what God is doing with us right now. That's why we go to the feasts. That's why we keep God's law and His commandments. Brethren, we need to make sure that it's not just an intellectual thing with us but that it is something of the heart, of our whole being. We read what God says, and yes, we agree with it mentally but we should agree with it with our whole body, our whole being because we're going to have the opportunity of teaching, and God is not going to allow anyone into His kingdom who does not with his whole fiber believe in His way of life.

So God is giving us that opportunity now. Let's take advantage of the blessings that God gives us, and let us worship with him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength, and all of our mind.

Comments

  • Ruth_Serrano
    Thank you brother Holladay! I really enjoyed this sermon & think it is excellent that you shed some light on the intricate ways of our hearts. For years I have struggled with an addiction & did not understand why even though I want to comply with God's words on keeping our body holy unto Him, I fail to do so! The mind is not willing to let me get away that easily! consistent cravings no matter what I do or try are a daily struggle. I am smoking again & want to try to quit AGAIN but my heart after trying so many times, is just not in it anymore. Please pray for those who though desire with all their hearts to be loyal to God in heaven, are still skidding & losing their footing, our strength is wasted our hearts weary. I need His spirit which I don't believe I've ever truly received yet.
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