THE HEART IS THE PLACE
Encounters with God happen in only one place: the heart. The heart is the place where all spiritual activity occurs. The heart is where God convicts religious people that religion is sin. The heart is where God makes his home after he writes his laws in our heart.

Some people call this change of heart spiritual transformation. God calls it being born again. When we are born again, God changes our evil, impure hearts into clean, pure hearts that are suitable homes for him.

See below to understand the characteristics of each kind of heart:

It is worth noting that all of the characteristics of a clean, pure heart are essentially invisible, except to the born again person and God who knows our hearts. It is also true, however, that the overflow of our hearts is evident to others as good works/deeds which include, but are not limited to, the following:

• • • Represent God’s character to others.
    • Correct injustice by fighting to set captives free from religion.
    • Function as a true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests and warriors.
    • We speak for God out of the overflow of our clean, pure hearts.
    • We tear down religious idols and high places.
    • We feed the spiritually hungry, clothe the spiritually poor, visit religious prisoners and make disciples.
    • We love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
    • We study to learn more of God’s mysteries.
    • We teach others what God teaches us.

STUDY TIP: See these links below for more about good works:

• • • CHARACTERISTICS OF WARRIOR/DISCIPLES.
    • God’s Characteristics.
    • Jesus’ Ministry Functions
    • Checklist for identifying true prophets.

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When all of the above characteristics are present in the hearts and reflected in the works of any person, and when that person otherwise rejects all of the principles that characterize Defiled Religion that others can observe, and instead chooses Pure Religion that only God can observe, that person may be said to be a New Covenant disciple. That person may be said to be “born again“.

It must also be said that people in whom these characteristics are present have God’s name (i.e. character) and spiritual laws written on their hearts. This is how they qualify for status as a New Covenant disciple. This also is the evidence of being born again.

But, the heart is not always a positive place as we see in the following scriptures:

STUDY TIP: See HIDDEN LIFE OF OUR HEART for more about the heart.

Unlike clean pure hearts, which are essentially invisible to the public, evil, impure hearts have many ways of breaking out in ugly, destructive, public ways. Here are a few examples of characteristics that may be found in people with evil, impure hearts:

• • • • Public religious practices.
      • Identity with a particular religion.
      • Religious pride.
      • Religious speech.
      • Show positive favoritism toward people who are like them while showing negative partiality against people who are not like them.
      • Hypocrisy
      • Bigotry and oppression toward people who are not like them in terms of religion, skin color, social status, sexual orientation, etc.
      • Buying and selling of religious products and services.
      • Greed, selfish ambition, argumentative, jealousy, fits of rage, divisiveness, envy, arrogance, disrespect for other cultures, disrespect for authority and law.
      • Little or no mercy or compassion for the poor, downtrodden.
        
      • Quick to anger and slow to forgive.
      • Potential to display physical violence and verbal abuse.
      • Fanatical displays of self-righteousness in politics and secular movements.
      • They cannot display Godly Faith, Grace, Mercy, Peace, Glory, Blessing, Hope, Joy, Truth, Belief, Trust,  or Love toward others.

Calling these characteristics evil will seem like an unreasonable overstatement to most people. This is to be expected, perhaps, given the common, public association of evil with satan, the devil and demons. His use of the term may be more acceptable if we remember three facts:

First, satan, the devil and demons are only fictional characters. See Serpent, Devil, Satan, Adversary, Demons, Evil Spirits and Anti-Christs for understanding of how God uses them to instruct about false prophets.

Second, it is important to remember that evil is a term that God uses to illustrate the great difference between pure religion and defiled religion.

Third, God knows our hearts better than we do. If he wants to use a term like evil to represent hearts that do not have his laws written them, he has authority to use that term.

Because the characteristics of an evil, impure heart are inconsistent with God’s character (i.e. name), it must be said that people in whom these characteristics reside are not New Covenant disciples. It must be said that God’s spiritual laws are not written on their hearts. Rather, they are Old/First Covenant religionists who observe religious laws. This is true for practitioners of any religion (including Jews, Christians, and Muslims) and for those who practice no religion at all. It is also true for people who who do not even believe in God because even unbelievers still observe their own personal laws, household laws, civil laws, institutional laws which are all created by people who may or may not claim to have been inspired by God when they created those laws.

What people who make laws of one kind or another claim about the source of their inspiration makes no difference to God and should not be a matter of concern for anyone who follows the laws which they have created. Sometimes these human laws are consistent with God’s spiritual laws, but generally they are not.

Generally, we want to interpret scripture’s symbolic meaning. However, the scripture that says the heart is deceptive and sick beyond cure is one of those scriptures that may be interpreted literally. We can also easily understand scriptures that say only God knows our hearts. That means also that we do not know our own hearts the way God knows them. Thus we don’t know when any of the above negative aspects of our hearts are at work. That is why we are dependent on God to show us what is in our hearts so we might know our hearts the way God knows them.

The process begins when God tests our hearts.

STUDY TIP: See Death, Resurrection and New Life, DISCIPLINE THROUGH CONFLICT, Examine Yourself and Study for Discipline.