Listen to your Heart?

Pop stars sing it. Oprah preaches it. T-shirts tout it.

"Listen Your Heart"

Not only do I see it all around me, I used to believe it.

There is a pervasive thought in the Christian community that the heart is the bearer of truth. Where the heart and God's Word diverge, the heart has the final say. Scripture points us to a very different view of things, however.

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." ~Proverbs 4:23

If the heart is sovereign, why does it need guarding?

"Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path." ~Proverbs 23:19

If the heart is sovereign, why does it need guiding?

"O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?" ~Jeremiah 4: 14

If the heart is sovereign, why does it need saving?

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" ~Jeremiah 17:9

If the heart is sovereign, why does it deceive us?

"The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message." ~Acts 16:14

If the heart is sovereign, why must the Lord open it?

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." ~Ezekiel 36:26-27

If the heart is sovereign, why must the Lord transform it?

Perhaps the root of my confusion and that off many other well-meaning Christians is the nature of the Holy Spirit. Are the Holy Spirit and the heart one in the same? The world would say yes, but Scripture says no. In 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of God's anointing power. "He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (v. 22). The language demonstrates that while the Holy Spirit may come to rest in the heart, it is not equal to the heart.

If the Holy Spirit is not the heart, what is it? We know that Jesus himself promised it to those who love him. "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth" (John 14:16). This oft-quoted verse has a qualification, however. Jesus first states, "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (v. 15). When we obey the commands of the Lord Jesus as they are given to us in scripture, his Holy Spirit will transform our minds and HEARTS into his likeness.

Here is what I picture in my mind as I describe the Holy Spirit. When we obey God, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, but when we willfully disobey the commands of our Lord, there is no room for the Spirit to live there. The noise of sin crowds it out until we can no longer distinguish between the voice of our frail human heart and the voice of God's own Spirit. Eventually, we cannot hear God's voice at all.

My heart breaks for those who believe their own heart can save them, and it breaks because I know that pain. There was a point in my life when I was in the midst of an intense spiritual battle. The world told me to let my heart be my guide, that if it feels right, it must be! But what I felt was sinful, plain and simple. I cannot thank God enough for delivering me from my own heart. He mended it and sealed it with his Holy Spirit, and I have never been the same.