Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.  (Pro 4:23 NASB)

Last session we spoke about living water and connected it to the voice of God. Today I want to go a little deeper and talk about activating the voice of God in our heart. Proverbs 4:23 tell us to watch over our heart with all diligence because this is where the springs of life flow.

What are the springs of life?  In Hebrew the term implies a place where a boundary exists between one territory and another, like a border crossing. The phrase is Totzot Chayim. Chayim means living or life like Mayim Chayim, living water. Totzot comes from the root Yatza, which means to exit. If you were in an Israeli movie theater or in a mall, there would be signs using this word to point you to the exit. So, the heart is a border place where life can either exit as in death or enter as in being born again. It is also a portal, a border crossing from the realm of Spirit into our life.

It is the place where the living water flows, the Holy Spirit who speaks to us and counsels us. The heart is the place of our innermost being.

"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.(Joh 7:38-39 NASB)

You can see from this, why Solomon tells us to watch over our heart with all diligence!

We live in a culture that exalts the mind and reasoning. During the period of time, we refer to as the pandemic, which is a false label but unfortunately widely used, we were instructed to follow “the science” or follow reasoning. The problem with reasoning as strategy is that it is built on logic not truth.

When logic has a faulty assumption such as the supposed danger of an invisible microorganism, then logic can take down paths of deception which seem logical but are NOT true. This is one of the many problems of a culture that lives out of its mind and minimizes the heart. It can make us vulnerable to what is put forth as truth but is in fact a deception.

In contemporary Hebrew, the word for mind is “moach,” which shares the root with the word for strength, “koach”. The idea being that the mind is a place of strength. In Biblical Hebrew the words that are translated as mind are lev, heart, ruach, spirit, and nephesh soul. There is no biblical concept of mind as we think of it today.  This tells me that how we think about thinking is NOT biblical, at least not in the original Hebraic worldview.

It is however in the Greek scriptural references. We see it played out in Romans 7. The Apostle Paul describes his struggle between what he wants to do and what he finds himself actually doing:

“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (Rom 7:15, NKJV)

How many of us can relate? We want to make a change in our lives, but we find ourselves sabotaging the very change we want. Maybe we know we need to lose weight, but we can’t seem to stop eating sweets or just eating too much. How many have made New Year’s resolutions of new fitness goals or to stop some “bad habit”?

This dilemma reveals the conflict between our intentions in our minds and the ability to execute which lives in our hearts. Returning again to Proverbs 4:23 which tells us:

“Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” (Pro 4:23, NKJV)

The word translated to Keep or to watch is the Hebrew word Netzer. Netzer means literally a branch or a stump where new growth comes from. Using this word in the context of watching over or keeping a diligence over our heart tells us that our heart is a fertile growing aspect of ourselves that will sprout based on what is planted there as an idea or a desire.

Think of those pesky weeds we have to pull every year. They require no input, no planting. They just appear and compete for nutrients with the plants we want to cultivate in our garden. Think of thoughts like that. How often have we had a thought which captivated our attention and often led us astray from what we knew in our heart. This is why Paul tells us to bring our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, (2Co 10:5 NASB)

The word “Christ” is the word for the anointing. The anointing, which is the tangible reality of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit leads us into truth.

“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” (1Jn 2:27, NKJV)

Back to Romans 7, the Apostle Paul is describing the impact of this and the conflict he is feeling with trying to do the right things. He continues:

“I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Rom 7:21-23, NKJV)

This is an excellent description of the war between the heart and the mind. In our logical western culture, we “think” we can reason and live our lives following science or whatever is in style in our culture. This is a very slippery slope. Take, for example the recent debate about gender. Clearly the scripture tells us that we were in created in love by God as reflections of His image and likeness, and that image is male and female. He also tells us that we are to love and honor our mates. Men are created to love and honor or cherish women and women return that love and honor. This is the heart condition and is designed to reflect the image of God.

Into this conversation comes an attempt to rationalize gender as not being biologically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually created but instead it is reasoned that gender is purely a matter of identification and choice.

It seems kind of obvious that this is strategy to harden the heart of man against the love of God. Intimacy and trust with God is traded for a rationalization rooted in the pits of hell.

The devil has always wanted to corrupt the image of man by causing confusion over what the truth is and more importantly where the truth is.

This began in the Garden of Eden where he convinced Adam and Eve that they did not need a relationship with God to know truth but could be “like” God and themselves be the source of knowing good and evil. This one action severed the source of absolute goodness and love from man and replaced Him with man’s own truth and the truth given by the devil, which of course is no truth at all but a system of lies designed to destroy the true image of God in the earth.

"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (Joh 8:44 NASB)

To return to truth God made a way through the cross and when we receive Him we receive the Holy Spirit which opens up our heart again to the truth.

This was always what God desired that we would have a restored intimacy born out of trust. Yeshua told us about this relationship:

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” (Joh 16:13 NASB)

Where does this happen? In our heart.

and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Rom 5:5 NASB)

This is a love relationship and it like all love relationships is based on communication. I find most theological questions can be answered by returning the person asking to the heart and love. Right versus wrong is Not the proving ground. That is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is where pride and defensiveness live and where people fall out of love with a God who is love and fall into deception rooted in the mind and rationalism. What is really tragic is when the church goes down this path and, in its attempt, to be the guardian of truth becomes actually the enemy of love.

Activation: Mark Virkler teaches a 4 step pattern to practice hearing the voice of God. First is to quiet ourselves. Second is to tune to Jesus. See Him with your eyes of your heart. Third tune to the spontaneous flow of thoughts that come from Him and 4^th Journal what you receive. So let’s use this and ask Him who am I to you Lord and write.  Here is Mark Virkler's 4 step teaching