Things Jesus Didn't Say - Part 1

The world is full of feel-good spiritual-isms.

"Just follow your heart.”

Obviously, some folks tried it and it didn’t go so well...

What is the heart?

The heart in scripture is a comprehensive term for a person as a whole, including their feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will12. It is the most common anthropological term in the Bible, occurring over one thousand times2. The heart is the center of a person, the place to which God turns1. It is also thought to be a sort of “control center” from which all of our decisions are made3.

In biblical Hebrew, the heart is where we feel feelings and think thoughts. In fact, ancient Israelites didn’t even have a word for “brain” that we know of. (pursuegod.org)

Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV

16 Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.

Proverbs 14:33 NKJV

33 Wisdom rests in the heart of him who has understanding, But what is in the heart of fools is made known.

The heart is also where we make choices. So the concept of the “heart” is best understood as the “inner person” – the seat of our mind (thoughts), emotions (feelings), and will (intentions). Psalm 37:4, Proverbs 4:23, James 1:14-15

Psalm 37:4 NKJV

4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Proverbs 4:23 NKJV

23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

James 1:14–15 NKJV

14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

The heart includes the realm of the soul.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV

23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Genesis 2:7 NKJV

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

The soul includes the mind, the will, and the emotions.

Proverbs 2:10 ESV

10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

The soul is of three parts—the mind, the will, and the emotion. This is clearly and definitely proved by the Word of God. Proverbs 2:10 gives us the spiritual ground to prove that the mind is a part of the soul. This verse says, “Wisdom will enter your heart, / And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” Because knowledge is a matter of the mind, this proves that the mind is a part of the soul.

Job 7:15 NKJV

15 So that my soul chooses strangling And death rather than my body.

Job 6:7 NKJV

7 My soul refuses to touch them; They are as loathsome food to me.

To choose and to refuse are both decisions and functions of the will. These passages prove that the will must be a part of the soul.

Psalm 42:1 NKJV

1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.

Psalm 107:18 NKJV

18 Their soul abhorred all manner of food, And they drew near to the gates of death.

Isaiah 61:10 NKJV

10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

The emotion comprises many things, including love, hatred, joy, and grief. This proves that within the soul there is the organ, the function, of the emotion.

Psalm 103:1 NKJV

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

The bad news in the Bible is that our hearts (our inner selves) are fundamentally broken because of sin. Jeremiah 17:9, Mark 7:21-23, Deuteronomy 30:6, Ezekiel 36:26, Jeremiah 31:33, Romans 10:9-10.

Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV

9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Mark 7:21–23 NKJV

21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

The heart can become hardened.

Popular 80’s hit by Quarterflash - Harden My Heart

Hebrews 3:7–9 NKJV

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.

John 12:37–41 NKJV

37 But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” 41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.

Encountering the glory of God and refusing to respond results in a hardened heart.

Romans 2:5 NKJV

5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

Physical Heart condition:

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - Symptoms and causes

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/...

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a disease in which the heart muscle becomes thickened (hypertrophied). The thickened heart muscle can make it harder for the heart to pump blood. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy often goes undiagnosed because many people with the disease have few, if any, symptoms.

The Word of God can redirect the heart toward God.

Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV

16 Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.

Romans 2:14–15 NKJV

14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)

Jeremiah 31:31–33 NKJV

31 “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— 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, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

The good news is that God can change our hearts in an instant – the moment we place our faith in Jesus.

Ezekiel 36:26 NKJV

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Romans 3:23 NKJV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 NKJV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:8 NKJV

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:9–10 NKJV

9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:13 NKJV

13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”