OPENING OUR HEART TO THE LORD 
BY REPENTING AND CONFESSING

We have seen that the Lord’s intention is to sow Himself as the seed of life into us. We are the living earth, the living soil, the living ground. The spirit is enclosed by the heart, so if the Lord is going to come into us, our heart has to be opened. We can open our heart to the Lord by repenting and confessing. The word repent in the Greek language means to have a change of mind or a turn of mind. Our mind was originally not toward the Lord but toward something else, and our mind was fixed. Now we have to repent, which means that we have to have a change of mind, and we have to turn our mind. This means that the mind is open to the Lord. Following our repentance, we will always confess. We need to confess all our failures, sins, and shortcomings to the Lord. Confession is the exercise of the conscience. When we repent by turning our mind, we will immediately confess by exercising our conscience. Then there is an opening [190] of the heart. When we mean business to repent to the Lord and confess all our failures before God, our emotion will immediately be moved and touched. We will tell the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I love You.” When our emotion is moved, our will makes a decision for the Lord. We will say, “Lord, from today I want nothing besides You. I want You to be my aim, my goal, and my one desire. I only want to seek after You.” The mind of the heart turns, the conscience of the heart is opened, and the emotion and will of the heart follow. Thus, the whole heart is open to the Lord, and the Lord has a way to come into our heart. It is by repenting and confessing that we open our heart to the Lord. This is revealed in the Scriptures and proven by our experience.

The sad thing is that with many of us, soon after the Lord came into us, we became closed to Him. Then the Lord was imprisoned in our spirit and had no way to make His home in our heart. After we got saved, it may have been that gradually our emotion became closed to Him, our will became closed to Him, our mind became closed to Him, and our conscience became closed to Him. Thus, the Lord was imprisoned in our spirit. This is why both in the Old and New Testaments the Lord always calls us to repent. In the seven epistles to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord tells the saints again and again to repent. Day by day and morning and evening we have to repent. To repent means to turn our mind to the Lord, to open our mind. Following this, our conscience will be exercised in a thorough confession of our sins. Then our emotion will follow to love the Lord, and our will will follow to choose the Lord. The result will be that our heart will be fully opened to the Lord, and the Lord will have a way to fill us with Himself. This is the way to deal with our heart to make it the good ground for the Lord as the seed of life to grow in.

If we deal with the Lord in this way, all our preoccupations will be rid from our being. The rocks and the thorns in our heart will be dealt with. Then our heart will be good and pure. The enemy is always looking for opportunities to make our heart the wayside. Many times we allow things to tread on the soil of our heart which make our heart hardened. We may be preoccupied by our wife, our children, or our parents. Sometimes we may be in a meeting listening to the word of God, but God’s word cannot penetrate us. This is because our heart is preoccupied. Our heart can be preoccupied [191] with earthly things, with things other than Christ Himself. We may feel that a brother or sister is really for the Lord, but we may not realize that their heart contains some hidden rocks, thus making it impossible for the seed of life to take root within them. Also, the thorns, which are the anxieties of the age, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts for other things, can grow together with the seed and choke the growth. The Lord is ready and available, but our heart is not so available. Our heart is not pure. This is why we have to deal with our heart. The heart has to be purified.

Hebrews 10:22 tells us that our hearts need to be sprinkled from an evil conscience. We must have a conscience without any accusation or offense. Our conscience has to be cleansed and purged. Then our heart will be released from every preoccupying thing to be the good soil for the Lord Himself. All four parts of our heart have to be dealt with. The mind must be always turned to the Lord. The emotion must be always loving the Lord and fervent, zealous, for the Lord. The will must be submissive and pliable yet strong. Finally, the conscience must be purged and must be without any offense. Then we will have a proper heart. We must try to learn these lessons in life and help the children of God learn all these lessons. These are the necessary lessons for us to enjoy the Lord.

DEALING WITH THE LORD TO BE POOR IN SPIRIT

Besides dealing with the Lord to be pure in heart, we need to go on even deeper to be those who are poor in spirit. It may be that our spirit is not empty for something more of the Lord to be deposited into us. According to Matthew 5 we have to deal with our spirit first. The first condition for the nine blessings in Matthew 5 is to be poor in spirit. We need to pray, “O Lord, empty me. Evacuate and empty my spirit of anything other than Yourself. Even empty my spirit of the old experiences of Yourself.” We should not be filled up with our old experiences of Christ. Our old experiences of Christ can hinder us from experiencing Christ in a new, fresh, and up-to-date way. Our spirit has to be emptied. This is the real humility. It is possible for a person to be humble outwardly yet still be so proud in his spirit. The real humility is a matter in the spirit. This is why Peter tells us that there is the need for a meek and quiet spirit. The real meekness is in the spirit. A person may be quiet outwardly but may be full of opinions inwardly. [192]

Day by day we have to learn the lesson to deal with the Lord to be poor in spirit by emptying our spirit of many old things such as old knowledge and old experience. If our heart is not open, the Lord has no possibility to dispense Himself into us. If our spirit is full, the Lord also has no way to impart something fresh of Himself into our being. We have to be poor in spirit and pure in heart. We need to ask the Lord to empty our spirit and clear up our heart. Then the Lord will have the free way in us and the adequate room in our being to fill us.

A PROPER HEART AND A PROPER SPIRIT 
TO EXPERIENCE AND ENJOY CHRIST AS THE TREE OF LIFE

The heart acts in cooperation with the spirit, but the spirit is the organ for us to directly receive and contact the Lord. If we are going to contact the Lord, we must exercise our spirit. If we are going to serve the Lord, we must exercise our spirit. If we are going to receive the Lord, to take the Lord in, we must exercise our spirit. But the exercise of our spirit depends on the condition of the heart. If the condition of our heart is wrong, it is hard for us to exercise our spirit. One thing we should never do with the saints in the church is to play politics. We should not have two faces, pretending to be one way to a brother’s face but undermining him behind his back. Our heart must be honest and sincere for us to experience the Lord. We have to be faithful, honest, and frank. If we feel that something needs to be said, we should say it faithfully, honestly, and properly. We are the children of God, the children in light. Our heart must be honest and pure. Our conscience must be purged. If our heart is condemning us, how can we pray in a proper way?