OUR ACTING AGENT
In the foregoing message we pointed out that our heart is our acting representative. Now I would like to make this matter a little more clear. Perhaps the term “acting agent” is better than representative. Every one of us is a being, a human being. The word “being” is a modern expression. The biblical term for a human being is “soul.” This means that each one of us is a soul. The soul, as a being, has two organs: the inward organ, the spirit, and the outward organ, the body. We contact the physical world through the five senses of our body. Likewise, through the spirit, an organ which has senses of its own, we contact God.
Whether or not we are able to contact a certain thing depends upon the organ we use. For example, if you close your eyes, you will not be able to see anything. However, you cannot use your eyes to substantiate sound. For this, you must use your ears. Because atheists do not exercise their spirit, they say there is no God. We cannot substantiate God unless we use our spirit. John 4:24 tells us that God is Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit. If we exercise our spirit, we shall immediately sense that there truly is a God. Deep within, an atheist may say to himself, “Suppose there is a God after all—what will you do?” With the mouth an atheist may say that there is no God, but in the depths of his being, in his spirit, he may sense that there is a God.
ACTIVE IN HEART
Our soul must act. When our soul, our being, acts, that is the heart. But when we keep ourselves at a standstill, this means that our heart does not act.
We all have two hearts: a physical heart and a psychological heart. We know where our physical heart is located, but we do not know the location of our psychological heart. The actions or activities of our physical body depend on the beating of our physical heart. According to medical doctors, the death of the physical body takes place when the heart stops beating. A person who does not have any pulse is dead, for his heart has stopped beating. The point of this illustration is that the death of the body takes place when the heart stops beating. This is also true of the psychological heart.
Both our physical heart and our psychological heart have arteries. The main arteries of the psychological heart are the mind, emotion, and will. Heart attacks are often due to the blockage of the arteries. Recently I read that doctors who examined the bodies of young men who died in the Vietnam War discovered that in many cases their arteries were blocked even though they were quite young. Realizing the danger of blocked arteries, many watch their diet and are careful to exercise in order to cleanse their blood vessels. The problem of the physical heart is an illustration of the problem of the psychological heart. Today there are millions of Christians. But how many of these Christians are truly living? Most of them are not living. The reason they are not living is that the arteries of their psychological heart have been blocked. This blockage has caused them to die spiritually.
We all need to ask ourselves if we are spiritually healthy. To be healthy physically we need a strong heart. We also need a strong heart if we are to be spiritually healthy. All spiritual diseases are of the psychological heart. Our psychological heart may be wrong in different ways. We may be wrong in our thinking, in our loving or hating, or in the way we use our will.
If our psychological heart is healthy, it will be very active in thinking, loving, hating, and deciding. Our heart is our acting agent. This means that if we are active, our heart will be active in mind, emotion, and will. However, if a person is not active in his heart, we may wonder if he is spiritually alive. If he is alive, why is there no activity in his heart? Why does his heart not function in a normal way, since it is his acting agent?
I can testify that, even though I am elderly, I am very active in my heart. I am full of thought, feeling, and intention. My entire being—spirit, soul, and body—is active. However, the agent of this activity is not the spirit, the soul, or the body; the acting agent is the heart with the three main arteries of mind, emotion, and will.
(Life-Study of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 22, by Witness Lee)
