https://youtu.be/z3Lp6YXaSoQ
In our study of Romans we are between chapters 7 and 8 and last time we completed our topical on spirituality. This brings us to our next topical study regarding the heart of the soul. We will start with a brief overview of the entire soul.
The essence of the soul includes: Self-consciousness. Man is aware of his own existence and is able to relate to both animate and inanimate life on earth, Acts 20:10. Animals have consciousness, but not self-consciousness.
Mentality; without mentality self-consciousness has no context. This is the thinking part of man that is comprised of the mind or left lobe of the soul and the heart or right lobe of the soul.
The heart contains the frame of reference, memory center, vocabulary and categorical storage, norms and standards, and volition that is a launching pad for the application of knowledge that is understood and believed to life. It is where you decide on what you will or will not do.
Volition means that man has the ability to be negative or positive to anything in life. This is because one of the reasons that God created man is to resolve the angelic conflict.
Rom 1:20-22; and Prov 19:2; explain that all thought originates in these two lobes. The heart of the soul is the source of all basic sin. It is the battleground between the old sin nature and the Holy Spirit, Matt 10:28; Eph 4:17-19; Psa 143:4;
Emotion, Luke 12:19. This is the appreciator of the soul. Emotion responds or reacts to whatever thoughts are in the soul. The emotion is designed to be dominated and controlled by the "heart" the right lobe of the soul.
Conscience. This is the evaluator that regulates the decisions made in the soul according to the person's norms and standards, Acts 24:16.
The old sin nature is not part of the soul. It is contained in every genetically formed cell of the biological body. It battles for control of the soul through the production of sin, human good and evil. Because we have an old sin nature, God's Word describes mankind as totally depraved. Rom 3:10-18; Jer 17:9;
Without God's Word of Truth in the soul people tend to be unrestrained with their old sin nature's area of strength and link this activity with arrogance. That involves using their mentality to think that they are something they are not. People set up systems of standards and compare themselves with others to advance in their evil self-righteous arrogance.
This is clearly displayed by what sinister leftists are doing to our country.
The soul must also be distinguished from the human spirit. Originally Adam and Eve were created trichotomous, having a body, a soul, and a spirit, Gen 2:7.
After the fall, mankind is born biologically dichotomous, with physical life and soul life but spiritually dead, having only a body and a soul, 1 Cor 2:14; Jude 19.
However the believer is described as having a body, a soul, and a spirit 1Thes 5:23. This is because the human spirit is regenerated by God the Holy Spirit at salvation when the person believes in Jesus Christ and is "born again". John 3:3,5;
The regeneration that occurs at the point of being saved or by being born again by grace and faith in Jesus Christ only saves the soul, it does not save the biological body, Psa 19:7, 34:22; Mark 8:36-37; 1Pet 1:9; Heb 10:39.
The body is not saved because it is contaminated with the old sin nature by the work of the devil in the fall of mankind. Jesus Christ came to destroy all of the works of the devil. 1John 3:8; that includes the biological body.
At the exit resurrection the soul is given a brand new perfect body without an old sin nature or any human good. Having a soul and a human spirit, in a resurrection body is based entirely on God's grace.
In eternity those who glorify God to the maximum will be those who had maximum Bible doctrine in their soul during their time on the earth in the adversity of the devil's world in a contaminated dying biological body.
Only the soul, not the body, was made in the image of God, Gen 1:26-27; Gen 2:7 because God is not material, He is spiritual.
The soul is the area where the worse sins most of which are mental attitude sins are or where the decision to do them is made. Prov 6:16-19;
A person's speech reveals the content of their soul. What you truly are is only revealed when you speak. Verbal sins reveal mental attitude sins. Matt 12:34;
If you are guilty, arrogant, bitter, or full of revenge motivation, your speech will reveal the content of your soul. That means that in addition to mental attitude sins, the soul sponsors all verbal and overt sins.
Because of scar tissue of the soul the soul becomes the source of misery, Psa 6:3, Psa106: 15; Psa 119:25, 28, 81.The predicate for all capacities, good and bad, is the information contained in soul that a person believes.
Inside of God's spiritual power system, the mature believer has maximum capacity for life, love, freedom, and happiness from believing God's Word of Truth.
Inside of satan's cosmic systems, the reversionist has maximum capacity for sin, human good, evil, and self-induced misery from believing satan's lies,
These opposing viewpoints are the predicate for the angelic conflict.
At physical death, the soul departs from the body, Psa 16:10; 2 Cor 5:8.
We will now address the heart of the soul specifically. The Biblical nouns that describe the heart always refer to the right lobe of the soul that pumps information not the biological heart that pumps blood
The Hebrew word "lebh" and the Greek word "kardia" are both translated "heart" in God's Word. Outside of the Bible both words are used for the physical heart, but the Bible does not use them to refer to the physical heart.
The usage of the words for heart is based on an analogy because just as the physical heart is the pump that circulates blood throughout the biological body thereby enabling and supporting biological life, the right lobe of the soul circulates metabolized doctrine in the thinking of the soul that enables and supports the spiritual life of the believer.
The doctrine is initially understood academically in the left lobe that the Greek is calls the "nous" but it is in the right lobe or "heart" where it is completely understood, believed and deployed toward life's circumstances.
In the analogy what the biological heart does for the biological body the soul's heart does for the soul. The biological heart pumps blood, the soul's heart pumps information.
God designed the right lobe to be dominant and to be in control of the entire soul. Whenever you are logical, analytical, or categorical in your thinking, you are using your heart. We see this in 1Sam 16:7.
Since the heart is designed to dominate the soul, all other parts must be controlled by it, especially the emotions.
God's justice tests and evaluates the believer's heart. Jer 17:10, "I, the Lord, search the heart (for metabolized doctrine) and test the emotions (to see if they are subordinate to that metabolized doctrine).
The word translated "mind" in these verses in the NASB is the Hebrew word "kilyaw" that refers to the emotions. The KJV translates it as "reins" which is a better translation.
Jer 20:12, "Yet O Lord of armies, You who have tested the righteous, who sees the emotions and the heart."
Psa 26:1-2, "Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, because I have trusted in the Lord and I do not slip into reversionism.
v2 Examine me, O Lord, and test my emotions and my heart." We see here that one of the major considerations in the function of God's justice is the relationship between the thinking of the heart and the emotions.
Prov 23:7, "As a man thinks in his heart, so he is." The Lord looks at your heart so he can evaluate if the thought that is circulating through it aligns with God's Word of Truth.
Prov 17:22, "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." Having a joyful heart means you share God's happiness as a problem-solving device in the thinking of right lobe (heart) of the soul.
Prov 15:13-15, "A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
v14 The heart of the intelligent seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.
v15 All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast."
God's happiness in the heart is predicated on metabolized doctrine resident in the stream of consciousness of the heart makes for a cheerful face, a marvelous life, and animation. But the spirit is broken when the heart is sad, depressed, or complaining.
The believer's motivation for learning more doctrine comes from the doctrine that is already been stored in the heart. The continual feast is the result of Bible doctrine feeding the heart.
Prov 18:12, "Before his downfall, a person's heart is arrogant; but humility leads to honor from virtue."
This tells us that arrogance rules the thinking of the losers right lobe (heart) but humility that is teachable from grace, doctrinal and authority orientation rules the thinking of winners right lobe (heart) because there can never be any true honor until a person learns understands and deploys God's Word of Truth. 2Cor 13:8;
Prov 18:15, "The heart of the prudent (wise) acquires knowledge; because the ear of the wise seeks knowledge."
This explains where motivation to learn Bible doctrine comes from. When you listen and concentrate, then you will acquire the discernment of the right lobe that provides momentum and the desire for more.
Prov 22:15, "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him."
Prov 27:19, "As water reflects a face, so a person's heart reflects that person." What you really are is not what you appear on the surface; it is what you are in the thinking of your heart or right lobe.
The Bible is like a mirror so you can look into God's Word of Truth and know what you really are.
Job 38:36, "Who has put wisdom into the heart, or given understanding to the mind?" Both lobes are referenced in this verse. The mind is the left lobe and the heart is the right lobe of the soul.
2Cor 6:11-12, "O you Corinthians, our mouth has spoken freely to you (in teaching), because our hearts (right lobes) have been wide open (by maximum doctrine in the right lobe of the soul). Therefore, you have not been hindered by us [in your spiritual life]; you have been hindered by your own emotions."
The Corinthian believers had receptive academic comprehension but no retention. In this passage we see that emotions and heart are contrasted. That reveals that the emotions are not a part of the function of the right lobe of the soul.
Eph 1:18, "(I also pray) that the eyes of your hearts (right lobes) be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance for the saints."
In Rev 2:23, John adds that if emotional control of the soul continues you die. Just as when blood does not properly circulate through the biological heart there is biological death, there is also carnal cosmic death of the soul in the spiritual realm when the heart is circulating cosmic lies. "
Furthermore, I will execute her followers with death and all the churches will know that I am He who investigates the emotions and the hearts, and I will administer punishment to each one of you (cosmic believers) according to your activities."
Heb 4:12, "The word of God...is a judge of both thoughts and ideas of the heart."
Heb 3:12, "Take heed, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God." An evil heart of unbelief is failure to metabolize God's Word of Truth.
1Pet 3:15, "But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, always (being) ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence."
James 3:14, "But if you have bitter jealousy and strife in your heart, do not be arrogant and do not lie against the truth." Arrogance and lying against the truth blocks the metabolization of doctrine. Gnosis doctrine that is not parlayed into epignosis under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit is a lie against the truth.
Eph 4:18, "They have darkened their way of thinking (they always distort what is taught), they have been alienated from the life of God (they only have gnosis but no epignosis, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the scar tissue in their heart."