Baptized by One Spirit

In much of my preaching through the years I have called the Gospel that God has given us through his Son Jesus Christ, 'the Gospel of the heart.' Let me explain what I mean by that. First of all it is the heart that believes the word of God, not the mind. I'm not saying the mind necessarily rejects everything it hears, but it is not the mind that must hear and believe the report of the Gospel. The apostle Paul said it most simply: "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. 10:10). It is also the heart that is purified, or sanctified by faith in Jesus, through the experience of faith known as the baptism of the holy Ghost (Mk. 1:7,8; Jn. 7:38,39;Acts 1:4;5; Gal. 3:14). Peter gave us the straight up answer on this one when he described what happened to Cornelius the Centurion and his household when they believed Peter's preaching on Jesus, and were subsequently baptized BY Jesus with the holy Ghost: "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8,9). That is quite a significant point, considering the weight of what Jesus said about the heart in regard to salvation: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they [only] shall see God" (Mat. 5:8). In light of these sayings it is obviously the heart that John was speaking of when he made the following monumental statement, also in regard to salvation: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (I Jn. 3:2,3). Again in regard to salvation, Jesus said that it is an honest heart that our continued growth and fruitfulness is dependent on: "But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience" (Lk. 8:15). It is also the heart that receives the love of God from heaven by the same holy Ghost: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Rom. 5:5). There's no way we can undervalue that statement, considering what we are told elsewhere about having the love of God in our lives, and being motivated by it in our deeds: "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not [love], it profiteth me nothing" (I Cor. 3:3).

Considering the utmost importance of having and maintaining the love of God in our lives, I believe one more quote should be given to emphasize the point: "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Gal. 5:14). I'm sure we all realize that we do all of our feeling, in terms of inner feeling, with our hearts. It is that aspect of feeling that the apostle Paul was referring to in the following passage: "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness" (Eph. 4:18,19). If we harden our hearts against the holy Ghost through disobedience, the above description is what can happen to us. That reality should put the following scripture in top priority status for every believer: "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23). It is also no doubt that it was the keeping of our hearts that Peter was speaking of, when he told us, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (I Pet. 5:8). We feel with our hearts and we are made in the image of God, so it is certain that God feels with his heart as well. Our top priority should be to keep our hearts pure so that we can feel God's heart with our hearts, by means of his Spirit that he has given us. That is how we learn to love one another with God's love rather than with a misguided human love. And again, that is our entire calling when it's all said and done, or at least that is what Jesus told us: "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as [the same way] I have loved you" (Jn. 15:12). Also in the end we will all be judged according to our works, and our works are undoubtedly motivated by our hearts (II Cor. 5:10; I Cor. 4:5; Rom. 2:16; Heb. 4:12). After our hearts are initially purified by the holy Ghost, our biggest task is to catch up our minds with the state of our hearts. So it is the purified heart that the mind needs to learn to think like, and not the other way around. Just as we saw from Romans 10:10 that it is the heart that believes unto righteousness, by the same token it is impossible for anyone to find God through their mind. That is what the apostle Paul was speaking of in the following passage: "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (I Cor. 1:21).

The heart is able to believe, but the mind is not. The mind wants to figure things out, but God cannot be figured out, period. It is the reality of God's grace and power that our hearts experience by faith in Jesus, that the mind needs to come under subjection to. When we learn how to do that then we will begin to develop what the scriptures call "the mind of Christ" (I Cor. 2:16). Having the mind of Christ is our greatest weapon for fending off the devil's tricks that are designed to bring our hearts under subjection to his spirit, and to sin. The knowledge of the scriptures and of doctrine are our most valuable tools for developing the mind of Christ, and I'm certain that this is the motivation for one of the most overlooked verses of scripture in the new testament writings: "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee" (I Tim. 4:16). That's a mighty powerful statement by the apostle Paul to Timothy, and he gave him another one like it later: "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (II Tim. 3:14-16). It's certain these are some really significant passages of scripture, but there is one thing that I love to stress in regard to studying the Bible, and that brings me full circle to the whole point of this writing. Like Jesus said, if we are going to be "good ground" in terms of our spirits receiving and nurturing the word of God, which is to say what his Spirit is saying to us; we must keep "a good and honest heart." We can study the Bible forward and backward, and memorize everything in it if we're able; but if our HEART is not humble and honest, and willing to see things God's way, it will only work against us. As I began the article, so will I end it: It all comes down to the state of our heart. The mind must be the servant of the heart, and not vice-versa. Amen.