THE HEART BEING THE ENTRANCE EXIT OF LIFE " SWITCH OF LIFE"

The Heart Being the Entrance and Exit of Life, the “Switch” of Life; If the Heart Is Not Right, Life in the Spirit Being Hindered, and the Law of Life Not Being Able to Work Freely and without Obstruction to Reach Every Part of Our Being; Though Life Has Great Power, This Great Power Being Controlled by Our Small Heart

The heart is the entrance and exit of life, the “switch” of life; if the heart is not right, life in the spirit is hindered, and the law of life cannot work freely and without obstruction to reach every part of our being; though life has great power, this great power is controlled by our small heart (Prov. 4:23 ; Matt. 12:33-37 ; cf. Ezek. 36:26-27). Stanza 3 of Hymns,#1025 says,

Though very great is all the world,

And very small is your heart,

Yet the great world with all its wealth

Never can fill your small heart.

The tremendous and great power of the divine life has been given to us. According to Ephesians 1:19-22 , the fourfold power that regenerated us, resurrected us, and even caused us to ascend and be seated in the heavenlies, can save us from sin, the world, the self, and the natural man as well as infuse us and dispense into us all the divine elements of the Triune God. Yet this great power is controlled by our little heart..

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, / For from it are the issues of life.” The issues of life can be explained in two ways. First, the issues of our human life are simply the issues of our heart. Our life today is the result of the work of our heart, the result of all the decisions and choices we have made in the previous years. We should not blame how our life turned out on anyone else or on any environment. Second, Matthew 12:34-35 says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man, out of his good treasure, brings forth good things, and the evil man, out of his evil treasure, brings forth evil things.” If the treasure within us is a good treasure, good things will issue from it. If it is an evil treasure, which is an evil heart, evil things will issue from it. Matthew 6:20-21 says, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not dig through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” If what is in our heart is heavenly, then heavenly things will come out. We then will speak heavenly things. However, if earthly and worldly things occupy our heart, then surely what comes out of our mouth will be earthly, worldly, and even evil.

The main point is that our little, small heart dictates our whole life and determines how we will be in our entire Christian life. Our heart is like a door, where things can come in and out. We have to guard our heart. We must be careful of what comes into our heart through our eyes and ears. Eventually, what comes into our heart or through our heart comes into our being. We also have to guard what comes out. We need to take care of what comes into us and what comes out of us.

One day we received the Lord Jesus into our spirit through our heart. Surely that is a good thing. God is good, and when we opened our heart, a good thing came into us—Christ Himself. Now we have to open our heart so that this heart can function in a proper way so that Christ can come out from our spirit, spread into our heart and even make home in our whole heart, which is our whole being. We need to deal with our heart because our human life and spiritual life, our Christian life, very much depends on our heart.

OUR GROWTH IN LIFE BUILDING UP THE CHURCH AS THE BODY OF CHRIST,WHICH TAKES PLACE BY THE GROWTH OF CHRIST AS THE SEED OF LIFE IN OUR HEART;OUR NEEDING TO COOPERATE WITH THE LORD BY DEALING WITH OUR HEART SO THAT IT CAN BE KEPT WITH THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS

Our growth in life builds up the church as the Body of Christ, which takes place by the growth of Christ as the seed of life in our heart (1 John 3:9 ; 1 Pet. 1:23 ; Col. 2:19 ; Eph. 2:21 ; 4:15-16 ; Matt. 13:18-23); we need to cooperate with the Lord by dealing with our heart so that it can be kept with the following characteristics. Christ is the seed of life sown into us. If we want Christ as the seed of life to grow, to flourish, to blossom, and to bear fruit in our being, and if we want the Lord to spread in us, occupy us, possess us, be one with our inward parts, be lived out by us, and be expressed by us, we must pay attention to the condition and characteristics of our heart.

                                                   God Wanting Our Heart to Be Soft

When God Deals with Our Heart, His Taking Away the Heart of Stone out of Our Flesh and Giving Us a Heart of Flesh, a Soft Heart

God wants our heart to be soft. When God deals with our heart, He takes away the heart of stone out of our flesh and gives us a heart of flesh, a soft heart (Ezek. 36:26). First of all, we need a soft heart. When we were regenerated, we received a new heart, a heart of flesh, a soft heart.

To Be Soft Meaning That Our Heart Is Submissive and Yielding toward the Lord, Not Stiff-necked and Rebellious

To be soft means that our heart is submissive and yielding toward the Lord, not stiff-necked and rebellious (cf. Exo. 32:9). It is good to pray, “Lord, grow in me,” but we should also pray, “Lord, deal with me. Grant me a submissive, yielding, and surrendering heart.” If we learn to pray in this way, even if we did not pray for the growth in life, the Lord’s life will nevertheless grow in us because our heart is properly conditioned.

The opposite of being submissive and yielding is to be stiff-necked and rebellious. In the Old Testament, Jehovah often described Israel as a stiff-necked people (v. 9 ; 33:3 , 5 ; Deut. 9:13). God calls it as it is. Being stiff-necked is a characteristic of Israel, but are we not also stiff-necked, obstinate? In Isaiah 48:4 Jehovah said, “Because I knew that you are obstinate, / And your neck is an iron sinew.” Our neck should be flexible and able to turn, but if our neck is like an iron sinew, it is inflexibly stubborn and obstinate. Like a donkey, we can be very rebellious and unwilling to move. These Scriptures show how much we need to deal with the Lord so that our heart will be reconditioned in order that life will grow.