The Heart

If the battlefield is the mind, then where does the heart come into the picture, for the Lord talks about the heart even more than the mind. Isn’t that a battlefield as well?

The heart is not the battlefield, actually. The heart is a storehouse. We keep things stored in our hearts, way deep down. Sometimes so deep and so full of stuff we don’t even know what we’ve got stored there any longer.

The reason we need to focus on the heart as well as the mind, here, is that the ammunition that the enemy uses against us (and those that we are praying for) comes from our own ammunition bunker: the heart. The ammo we keep hidden in our hearts is either the lusts of the flesh (which the enemy uses to take us captive) or the fruit of the Spirit (which we use to stand against the enemy, with us “taking” captives rather than “being” captive ourselves).

James 1:13-15 “Let no man say when his is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death.”

If we read that scripture very slowly and carefully we will see that the way it works is like this:

1) the heart (of “the flesh”) stores lust,
2) the enemy uses the lust to tempt us or draw us away from God (to seduce us or entice us to focus on self instead of God),
3) lust conceives (come up with a thought, an idea, a vision of evil),
4) from which (if the thought is not taken captive on the battleground of the mind talked about in the last posting) comes sin (the act of rebellion against God)
5) the wages of sin are death (depending on the sin that death can take on many different forms of destruction, destroying not only ourselves but others around us).

God searches our hearts, and knows our hearts better than we do. When we are born again, He begins a life-long clean-up of our hearts called “sanctification”. As He reveals things through His Holy Spirit Who resides in us, we are to repent of those hidden lusts that have been revealed, and thereby purge them from our hearts. This produces actions of obedience to God (because we can’t be lured away from God by the enemy through lusts that no longer exist in us having been purged out of us instead.)

If, however, we don’t repent of the lusts in our heart that God has revealed to us, if, instead, we hold onto those lusts and just stuff them deeper into our hearts, thinking they are well hidden, then the enemy has now been given a “foothold” by which to entice us away from righteousness, and into full-fledged sin, or rebellion against God. And we find ourselves on the battleground of our own minds, fighting a losing battle with the enemy, having no proper weapons, for we have given our ammo to the enemy. We can only win the battle if we are properly uniformed and outfitted (with the Holy Spirit).

When Jesus said, “The enemy has no place in me”, He meant that there was nothing in his heart with which the enemy could take him captive by temptation, seduction and lies. If we are abiding in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, humbling ourselves in obedience to Him at all times, then He will keep us purged of lusts, thereby preventing the enemy from taking us captive.

Mark 7:21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man.”

It is interesting that the list begins with “evil thoughts” which are the enticements of Satan using our lusts against us, and the sins follow. Just as when the fruit of the Spirit begins its list with “love” out of which proceeds the remaining fruit of joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Psalm 10:17 “Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.”

Psalm 24:3-5 says: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

We, ourselves, when we pray must first search our lives, making sure that our hands are clean (from known acts of sin) and our hearts pure (purged from revealed lusts for which we have repented). Then we can expect the Lord to hear us and to bless us with righteous judgment on behalf of those for whom we pray.

The heart is either the packed-in storehouse of “the lusts of the flesh” or is emptied in order to become the residence of the Spirit of God and filled with the “fruit of the Spirit”. Those of us engaging in battle with the enemy on the occupied territory of the mind, must enter the battle with hearts purified by the Holy Spirit. Only then will we be safe from captivity ourselves, as we pray (step onto the battleground), fighting the battle for the release of other captives.