The Centrality of the Heart

Spiritual Life and Ministry

Prepared by Ron Chimzimu

For Bob Stauffacher

April 17, 2013

The Heart Defined

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 Scripture normally divides the human being into the inner and outer person; the body and

the spirit. The body houses the spirit. And the “spiritual” inner person is usually referred to as the

heart of man. According to David Tripp (2002), the heart encompasses all the other terms and

functions used to describe the inner person (spirit, soul, mind, emotions, will, etc.). These other

terms do not describe something different from the heart. Rather, they are aspects of it, parts or

functions of the inner person” (p. 59). Wiseman adds that the “heart, in biblical vocabulary,

refers to the center of moral, spiritual, and intellectual life – the seat of emotions, beliefs, and

decisions” (1996, p. 209). Then again, Aldrich observes that “the heart of man is pictured in

Scripture as the center of the rational-spiritual nature of man…it is the center of our moral life,

the origin of all that is good and evil in thoughts, words, and actions” (1977, p. 31).

From the definitions above, it is obvious that the essential core of who we truly are as

human beings is our hearts. It is against this understanding of the heart that I endeavor to show,

through this paper, the centrality of the heart in Christian life and ministry. If the core of man is

the heart, then it is only prudent to invest some effort into understanding the nature of the human

heart and how we can effectively minister to people in a way that would bring about real heart

change.

The Centrality of the Heart

In his book, Secrets to Inner Beauty, Joe Aldrich (1977) tells about his visit to the

Strategic Air Command headquarters in Nebraska, the nerve center of America’s vast military

network that stretches the entire globe. He was guided to a command post located five stories

underground. At that post, important “decisions are made and orders sent which affect the

destiny of the entire world” (p. 33). Similar is the significance of the human heart. Scripture is

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replete with passages that hint that the heart is the root or hub of everything that a person can

ever be or do in terms of his moral character. In Proverbs 4:23, Scripture warns us to guard the

heart for “it is the wellspring of life.” In other words, everything that a person ever does in life is

contingent upon the posture and inclinations of his heart. The heart is the central command post

of the human being.

In Matthew 15:18 – 19, Jesus Christ points out some pretty serious things about the heart:

“the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean’. For

out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony,

slander.” In Luke 6:44 – 45, Jesus further clarifies that the “good man brings good things out of

the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his

heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:44 – 45). Again, everything

is about the heart. By way of application, this is what I think Jesus Christ is saying in these

passages: when I cherish evil thoughts, the problem is not really what I have heard or seen; the

problem is my heart. When I am short – tempered, the problem is not really the intolerable

people around me, my heart is the problem. When I am sexually immoral, it is not really that the

flirting woman seduced me; it is what my heart really wanted. When I steal, it is not necessarily

because I am poor; it is because I have a thieving heart. When I slander someone or give false

testimony, it is a sign of a bad heart inside of me. Jesus says out of the heart flows everything

that makes me unclean.

The implications of this truth are enormous for transformational ministry. People do not

do what they do because of the adverse circumstances they find themselves in; the circumstances

only provide a suitable environment for the manifestation of what their hearts are really full of.

Changing people’s circumstances does not bring about real and lasting change. A nagging

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woman will continue to nag even if she marries a different man. A thief will keep stealing even if

you give him everything he needs for life. Aldrich observes that the “pollution of his heart works

outward, prostituting his personality and relationship” (1977, pp. 32). Nothing outside of man

makes him unclean. What comes out of man is what makes him unclean (Matthew 15:18);

therefore, it is clear that real change has to begin from the inside out. But a question may be

asked, what is really wrong with the human heart?

Spiritual Heart Disease

Scripture teaches that the human heart is evil and corrupt by nature. We are all born

sinners because our root, our covenantal head and father, sinned in the beginning. The Bible says

“... sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to

all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). In other words, we are all born with a corrupt

command center. Jeremiah 17:9 says “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?” Titus 1:15 adds “…to those who are corrupted … nothing is pure. In

fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.” Wayne Grudem (1996) comments that

“every part of our being is affected by sin – our intellects, our emotions and desires, our hearts

(centre of our desires and decision – making processes, our goals and motives, and even our

physical bodies” (p. 497).

It is apparent from scripture that the gravity of the corruption of our hearts is enormous.

The Prophet Jeremiah says our hearts are incurable! No surface therapy can heal our hearts.

Jesus faulted the Pharisees for thinking that they could cleanse the heart by outward works.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup

and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees!” (Matthew 23:25

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– 26). If Christ faults all outward efforts at change, how then can the healing of the heart be

attained? In other words, how can we, as ministers of the Gospel, help people to love the Lord

their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind and with all their

strength?

Heart Transplant not Heart Therapy

Scripture seems to teach that we cannot improve on a bad heart. The spiritual heart

disease is incurable. Aldrich puts it beautifully: “band-aids won’t suffice. Man needs the radical

intervention of God to be beautiful. Nothing short of miracle can bring beauty to man’s heart”

(1977, 32). And indeed God promises a miracle of a spiritual heart transplant! “I will give you a

new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you 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 26:36 – 37). If God’s ultimate solution to the problem of sin is heart

change, then it is imperative that our primary focus as ministers of the Gospel should be heart

change.

But how exactly does God administer a heart transplant to an individual? The Apostle

Paul states that the Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes

(Romans 1:18). He elucidates that salvation is by the washing of renewal and rebirth by the Holy

Spirit, not because of any works on our part, but solely on the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus

Christ (Titus 3:5). Thus, the Holy Spirit uses the Gospel to give new hearts to all who believe

solely on the merits of Jesus Christ for their personal salvation. By implication, this means that in

dealing with any problems that people bring to us as spiritual counselors and pastors, we should

aim at dealing with the source of the problem – the heart. And the way to do it is to bring the

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Gospel of Jesus Christ to bear in whatever situation is at hand; consequently, our counseling, or

preaching, or teaching, or mentoring should always be Gospel – consistent in whatever form the

Holy Spirit may guide us, because without it there is no heart transformation.

It depresses my heart when I consider how sometimes ministers of the Gospel deprive

people of the transforming truth of Scripture by preaching that which is not the Gospel at all. It

almost looks like preachers are more concerned with making money and raising their personal

profiles by peddling ideologies such as the prosperity Gospel and “prophecies.” They promise

people health and wealth at the expense of heart change. They emphasize such practices as

giving and fasting as if people’s salvation depended on them. So people give and fast, while their

hearts remain rebellious and far away from the Lord. Isn’t this what God condemned in Isaiah

29:13? “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their

hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”

The result of such outward religion is that church pews are fulfilled with people who do

all kinds of “Christian’ things but are unregenerate at heart. Statistics have it that 80 to 85% of

the Malawi population is Christian. But sometimes one gets to wonder as to why then is

HIV/AIDS so prevalent in Malawi? How is it that Malawi is one of the most corrupt countries in

Africa? How is it that evil is so rampant in our nation? Certainly it is not the 15% non –

Christians who are raising the statistics of HIV/AIDS and corruption. The plain truth is that as

Christians we are living double lives. We talk the Christian talk, but do not walk the Christian

walk. Our Christianity is cosmetic – washing the outside of the cup while the inside is full of self

– indulgence and sin. We are the hypocrites!

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 As a personal resolution, I have recommitted my heart to Christ so that He may

continually transform me into His likeness. I really want my life to proclaim the excellences of

Christ by living a genuine Christian life. I have also committed to the proclamation of the saving

Gospel of Jesus Christ and praying for the salvation and transformation of souls. I am convinced

that it is when the heart is truly transformed that spiritual disciplines can produce their fruit. My

understanding is that spiritual disciplines are for the spiritually regenerate only.

Heart Exercises aka Spiritual Disciplines

Receiving a new heart at salvation is only the beginning of a lifelong journey with the

Holy Spirit whereby believers grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter

3:18). Just as our physical body needs to be nurtured to grow into maturity, so is our spiritual

life. There are things that can choke and spiritual lives, and enemies that seek to destroy us.

Hence the importance of spiritual disciplines in our lives. Spiritual disciplines are the activities

that believers do in order to maintain a vibrant walk, and to keep in step, with the Spirit. Some

examples of spiritual disciplines are prayer, fasting, worship, solitude with God, giving, etc.

However, the cunning enemy of our souls has found ways of using these disciplines as mere

facades with the ultimate goal of keeping people from seeking a genuine relationship with the

Lord. The Devil allows people to practice spiritual disciplines while keeping them from knowing

Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. He makes them believe that saying a prayer, going to

church, giving, or even fasting is enough to take them to heaven. No wonder many people in this

country claim to be Christian while they do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, it is also possible for true believers to put on a show of spiritual

disciplines. We sometimes act to impress others, or sometimes we just go through the motions.

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We utter beautifully worded prayers while our hearts are far away from the Lord. We preach

touching sermons from the head, not the heart. We only draw from our education and experience

without waiting and drawing from the Holy Spirit. We go to church because it’s our Christian

tradition to go to church. This kind of practicing spiritual disciplines can be as bad as that

practiced by unregenerate Christians. The Bible has a lot to say about outward acts of religion

without an inner relationship with Jesus Christ.

Regarding worship, Jesus tells us that the Father is Spirit and seeks worshippers to

worship Him in truth and spirit (John 4:23 – 24). In other words, the Father is only moved when

we worship Him in sincerity (truth) and from our hearts (spiritual inner person). It is possible to

deceive everyone around us, but we cannot deceive God. He sees deeper into our hearts.

Outward acts of worship without engaging the heart will not help any believer to grow in his

relationship with the Lord. It is futile.

Concerning prayer, no one can intimately commune with God without engaging the heart.

Scripture encourages us to pray in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18). It is only the inner person who can

truly tune to the Spirit of God to receive guidance and spiritual nourishment in prayer. Fleshly

minded prayer can be boring, monotonous, and usually ineffective. Prayer in the spirit emanates

from a righteous heart and is effective – it avails much (James 5:16).

As touching fasting, God abhors it if it is nothing more than a carnal tradition. Isaiah 58

enumerates for us what true fasting should be, and what it shouldn’t be. A fast from an

unrighteous heart or rooted in the traditions of man is merely a false humility. God is hates it. A

fast from a righteous heart causes us to be to “like a well – watered garden, like a spring whose

waters never fail” (v. 11b). Through it God ministers to our souls as well as to the people in

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community. When we fast we are reminded of our responsibility to take care of the less

privileged and the oppressed. Through it we are drawn closer to God and are also enabled to

reflect more of God to members of our communities.

From these truths we see that spiritual disciplines are only beneficial when they spring

from a sincere and righteous heart. God promises tremendously blessings to those that seek Him

with all their hearts (Jeremiah 29:13). On the other hand, He has no respect for those that treat

sacred things with frivolity.

On a personal note, having studied the theme of spiritual disciplines for the past few

months, the Lord has deeply challenged me to consider the sincerity and focus of my service to

the Lord. The Holy Spirit has impressed upon me to be vigilant as I guard my heart against

operating on auto-pilot when it comes to spiritual disciplines. He has also shown me that I

haven’t been paying enough attention to heart – transformation in the lives of the people to

whom the Lord has been sending me. I have also been challenged to approach the things of God

more prayerfully and more consciously.

Finally, I have resolved that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I will confront an impure

heart, in my own life and in those around me, with the truth of the word of God. Why? Because

an impure heart pollutes our relationship with God; we operate without the power of the Holy

Spirit, and we become less effective. Aldrich says “A polluted heart produces a poisoned mind,

which produces a prostituted body and poisoned tongue. Inner pollution destroys purity, blocks

intimacy… and shuts down significant relationships” (1977, p. 34). “The ultimate aim of the

Christian minister, after all, is to produce the love which springs from a pure heart, a good

conscience and a genuine faith (1Timothy 1:5, Phillips).

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aldrich, J. (1977), Secrets to Inner Beauty, Santa Ana, California: Vision House Publishers

Grudem, W. (1994), Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Theology, Grand Rapids,

Michigan: Zondervan

International Bible Society. (1984). The Holy Bible. Minto NSW2566: The Bible Society of
Australia Inc.

Swindoll, C. R., (1982), The Quest for Character, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan
Publishing House

Tripp, P. D., (2002), Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P & R
Publishing Company

Wiseman, N. B., (1996), Growing Your Soul: Grand Rapids, Michigan: Fleming H. Revell