Heart Center of Man’s Being — Part 1
The radiance of love and creativity come from the center of man’s consciousness, his heart. This is also the place where evil imagination occurs. It is in the heart where we find our connection with God and our likeness in Him. The Bible is full of analogies that attempt to communicate the attributes of God and man using the human anatomy. In the book of Genesis is found the very first reference to the word heart used
in referring to both man and God. As a vital physical organ the heart is fully present quietly doing its job for the life-blood to flow. As a spiritual organ, it works in the realm of the invisible unconsciousness and the consciousness of our soul center. In this role, it is a producer of good or evil, light or darkness. This important link communicates the essence of our potential likeness to God or his opposite. Life’s biggest battles take place within this chamber of the soul. God is very interested in the outcome. This article and ones to follow examines this spiritual composition of the heart. The substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen start here. Thus, the importance is obvious.
The King James Version phrases the translation about thoughts of a man’s heart a bit differently, declaring that the imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Thus, the concern is focused on the intent and images held in the heart. The translation heart is from the Hebrew word leb which also has a longer form lebab. Its literal meaning is the center; or middle of something. According to Lexical Aids to the Old Testament this word is often used in the Old Testament to mean the physical heart, the blood-pumping organ.
Heart The Timepiece Of Life.
The heart, that truly magnificent life sustaining biological design, measures out life beat by beat. It is the timepiece of life. The normal heart is a strong, muscular pump a little larger than a fist. It never sleeps. It does not go on vacation. It does not take a fifteen-minute break. If it did, well, you know. It just keeps doing its job pumping blood continuously through the circulatory system. Each day the average heart “beats” 100,000 times and pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood. In a 70-year lifetime, an average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times. As important as this physical functioning seems to be, there is another reality to the heart of man that is not physical but spiritual in nature.
Heart The Fountain Of All That Man Does
Lexical Aids inform us that “of the 850 times in the Hebrew Old Testament” the word leb or lebab is translated heart, “it is more common to interpret the term as the totality of man’s inner or immaterial nature. The heart stands for the inner being of man, the man himself.” It has been observed that the heart is a fountain of all that a man does. It is the place where the continuous flow of Spirit manifests the world of our soul from the unknown to the known. In this sense the heart becomes the vessel for and transmitter of our self image. Our quality of life depends on what is held there:
Our expression often emphasizes this meaning, such as, “heart and soul,” “the heart goes out to someone,” “one’s heart is in his mouth,” “his heart is in the right place,” “from the bottom of our hearts,” and “a heart to heart talk.” Such phrases capture the essence of innermost feeling. So, the heart in this sense is where true spiritual vitality and rich quality of life is born and nourished, or on the other hand, where it is lost!
Sadly, we learn that God’s first direct reference to man’s heart in the Old Testament is that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We also learn that God has a heart with feelings and it was grieved by man’s condition. This collective 
dominance of man’s evil imagination is credited with bringing forth the incredible destructive forces of nature. The Bible tells of God destroying all men except Noah and his family with a flood that covered the earth. Water is often symbolic of the unconscious psyche, that is unknown to man. Could it be that man’s offensive thoughts and evil imagination invoke the law of reciprocity? Where harm is sown; there shall it be reaped. Pushed out-of-sight the attempts to hide the calamity only build up the unseen and unknown correcting spiritual force, then it erupts to swallow as a monster its prey. The water of the flood came upon most at an unexpected time swallowing their consciousness out of existence.
The Pleasing Sacrifice Brings Peace
Following the flood Noah offered a pleasing sacrifice to God. The Lord, smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. (Gen 8:21)
There you have it. Man has a spiritual problem, a heart disease that is more severe than even those life threatening physical conditions of the heart. The life that is threatened by this spiritual reality must seek the inner gold of being. The inner treasure of our heart determines the quality of our life on earth and in heaven. God provides a way with love. He operates on your heart:
It is a change of heart that we need to bring us together. This is the living sacrifice. The pleasing aroma is you when the pure heart of joy is in the house. This is the first in a series of articles on our heart and its life-giving purpose.
© 2010, Steve Drinkard. All rights reserved.
