I have over the last couple of weeks pondered the Lord’s response to the Pharisees recorded severally in the New Testament—Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-31 and Luke 10:25-31. I reached the following conclusions, that the:

1. Lord was not talking about our physical hearts, neither yet the physical soul nor mind nor strength; but about these three separate spiritual entities that together make the man God created in His image and
2. It is impossible for the unredeemed heart, soul, mind, and strength to love God.

Let’s take each of these sub-entities for lack of a better way to describe them individually. Speaking to the heart, Priscilla Shirer gives the most compelling description I have come across, quoted below:

“The heart is the lifeline of your physical wellbeing, all the blood flow, the vitality, the energy that you need to function in every level of your physical life comes from the vitality of your physical heart. What the physical heart is to the physical life, your spiritual heart is to your spiritual life.”

All the energy and vitality to be who God created you to be. To:

• Have fervency in your prayer life.
• Follow Him with passion and with fire.
• Read the bible and not just be anchored on a page but to hear Him speak to you,
• Have a clear reception between you and the Holy Spirit, you need a vital spiritual heart.

That’s why if I were your enemy, more than all else, I would be after your heart! I will aim for your heart; and one shot to the spiritual heart will wipe you out. Why, because the heart is the place of perception and purpose, the place of response to the things of God!

The questions that this poses are, what’s the condition of your spiritual heart; and what must you do if having been redeemed by accepting the sacrifice of Christ for sin, your heart doesn’t fit the 4-way-test listed above? John 7:38 reference to the belly suggests it is the ‘midst’ of a thing, the heart, and correlates well with Proverbs 4:23, Solomon’s follow-up to his father’s instruction in Psalm 119:9-12 (AMPC). This same instruction gives the direction on what we must do—How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch [on himself] according to Your word [conforming his life to it]. With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments. Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You. Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.

No wonder David asked in Psalm 139:23-24 (TPT), the same question that the spirit bid you ask yourself today as we end the second month of this year. Take the action needed to be the heart wherein dwells righteousness and the source of godliness to all in your oasis of influence—God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way—the path that brings me back to you.

Selah

Pastor Afolabi Oladele