Verse 20 says, “These are the ones sown on the good earth: those who hear the word and receive it and bear fruit, one thirtyfold, and one sixtyfold, and one a hundredfold.” The good ground, the good heart, is a heart that is not hardened by worldly traffic, without hidden sins, without the anxieties of the age and the deceitfulness of riches, and without the lusts for other things. Such a heart is pure, good, and right.
The Triune God, who is the tree of life, has imparted Himself into us to be our enjoyment. He is the seed of life sown into our heart. Our heart is like the soil, the earth. If the soil of our heart is the wayside, trodden by the world and preoccupied by many things, it becomes hardened. Our heart must be released from any preoccupation for the seed of life to be sown in it. Our heart may not be preoccupied, but there may be hidden rocks in our heart. The rocks are hidden sins, personal desires, self-seeking, and self-pity, which frustrate the seed from gaining root in the depth of the earth. We may seemingly be a good brother or a good sister, and yet we are superficial with the Lord because of the rocks in our heart. Thus, it is impossible for the Lord as the seed of life to grow within us deeply. It is also possible for our heart to be full of thorns, which are the anxieties of the age, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts for other things. Some people have their heart set on a better car. Even [187] this desire can hinder and choke the word from becoming fruitful. The thorns frustrate and choke the growth of the seed.
If we are going to have the Lord as the seed of life grow within us to be our full enjoyment, we have to deal with our heart. We have to ask the Lord to be merciful to us. By His mercy we have to deal with all these negative things in our heart. We have to deal with the things preoccupying us, with the hidden rocks, with the anxieties of the age, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts for other things. Then our heart will be good, right, proper, released, and prepared for Christ as the seed of life to grow within us.
TURNING OUR HEART TO THE LORD
Second Corinthians 3:16-18 says, “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” We may talk about the Lord as the life-giving Spirit, but our enjoying and experiencing the Lord as such a living Spirit depends upon our heart being turned to Him. When our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Actually, our turned-away heart is the veil. To turn our heart to the Lord is to take away the veil. Our heart is the crucial factor in our enjoyment of the Lord as the life-giving Spirit and in our being transformed into the Lord’s image. If we are going to enjoy the Lord as the living Spirit and be transformed by Him, we have to deal with our heart. Our heart has to be turned to the Lord.
THE PARTS OF MAN
First Thessalonians 5:23 strongly indicates that man is of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. There are many other passages in the Scriptures showing us that man is a tripartite being (see The Parts of Man published by Living Stream Ministry). The three parts of the soul are the mind, the knowing part (Psa. 13:2; 139:14); the emotion, the loving part (1 Sam. 18:1; S.S. 1:7); and the will, the deciding part (Job 7:15; 6:7). The mind is for us to think, to know, and to consider; the emotion is for us to love, to hate, to be happy, or to be sorrowful; and the will is for us to decide or to choose. The soul is the very person of a man. [188]
The spirit also has three parts. These are the conscience (Rom. 9:1; cf. 8:16), fellowship (John 4:24; Rom. 1:9), and intuition (1 Cor. 2:11). The conscience is for us to discern right from wrong and either justifies or condemns us. The fellowship is for us to contact God and to commune with God. The intuition means to have a direct sense or feeling in our spirit, regardless of reason or circumstance. The intuition can directly sense the mind, the will, the heart of God. Many times this direct sense is against the knowledge of the mind and the emotion or the feeling in the soul.
The heart is a composition of all the parts of the soul plus one part of the spirit, the conscience. Thus, the heart is made up of the mind, the will, the emotion, and the conscience. Hebrews 4:12 talks about the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The thoughts are in the mind, and the intentions relate to the will. Hebrews 10:22 tells us that our hearts need to be sprinkled from an evil conscience, and we have seen that we need to love the Lord from our whole heart. The shaded area in the following diagram illustrates the parts composing the heart.
The above diagram shows us that the spirit is enclosed in the heart as the hidden man of the heart. Proverbs 4:23 tells us, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, / For from it are the issues of life.” The heart is the gateway, the entrance and the exit, of the spirit. When the heart is closed, the spirit is imprisoned. When the heart is open, the spirit will be released.
Jeremiah 31:33 says, “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put [189] My law in their inward parts and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” We need to compare this verse with Hebrews 8:10. Hebrews 8:10 says, “I will impart My laws into their mind.” In Jeremiah 31:33 inward parts is used for mind. This proves that the mind is one of the inward parts. It is also an interpretation of the term inward parts. The inward parts include not only the mind but also the emotion and will, which are the composition of the heart. In Jeremiah 31:33 the Lord said that He will put His law in our inward parts. But in Hebrews 8:10 the word laws is used. Eventually, the one law becomes many laws. By imparting His divine life into us, God puts the law of life into our spirit, from whence it spreads into our inward parts, such as our mind, emotion, and will, and becomes several laws. The law of life becomes a law of the mind, a law of the emotion, and a law of the will.
Psalm 51:6 says, “Behold, You delight in truth in the inward parts; / And in the hidden part You would make known wisdom to me.” Again, the inward parts are the mind, the emotion, and the will. Truth is something in the inward parts, and wisdom is something in the hidden part. Wisdom is deeper than truth. God desires that we would have truth in our mind, emotion, and will. In our spirit, which is the hidden part, the hidden man of the heart, He makes wisdom known to us.