Central Truth: To believe with all of our heart is to believe with our spirit, to believe independently of our mind or our body.

Spiritual things are just as real as material things. God is just as real a person as though He had a physical body, although He doesn’t. He is a Spirit. Jesus has a physical body now, a flesh and bone body, but not flesh and blood. After His resurrection He appeared to the disciples, and they thought it was a spirit or a ghost. Jesus said, “… handle me … for a spirit hath not flesh and bone …” (Luke 24:39).

On another occasion while Peter and some of the other disciples were fishing, they saw Jesus on the shore. He called to them, and they went to Him and ate with Him the fish He cooked there on an open fire. So He has a physical body right now, a resurrected flesh and bone body. And Jesus with His physical body now in heaven is not more real than the Holy Spirit or God the Father is real.

Notice that we do not say God is spirit, but rather that God is a Spirit. Some people think that God is spirit, meaning some sort of an impersonal influence. Even though we say that God is a Spirit, that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t have a shape or a form in the spiritual realm, because He does. Angels are spirits, yet angels have a form or a spirit body.

On one occasion when the Israelites were surrounded by the Syrian army, the servant of the prophet Elisha was filled with fear as he saw the enemy’s host of horses and chariots which compassed the city. Elisha merely answered, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord … open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (II Kings 6:16, 17). Sometimes, as God wills, angels can take on a form in the material realm where they can be seen.

In Exodus 33 we read that God talked to Moses “face to face” (verse 11), although Moses did not see God’s face because a cloud was there. “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live” (verse 20). Then God said to Moses, “And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen” (verses 22, 23). Even though God is a Spirit, we know that He has a face and hands, a form of some kind. He is no less real because He is a Spirit than He would be if He had a physical body. Spiritual things are just as real as material.

II Corinthians 5:1, 6-8

1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

When our body is put in the grave, we still have a building with God, not made with hands, and we shall live eternally in the heavens. Who is going to be absent from the body? (We are, the real man, the inward man.)

In I Peter 3:4 our spirit is called “the hidden man of the heart.” Here we see the word “heart” again. The inward man, our spirit, is called the hidden man. He is a man of the heart, of the spirit. He is hidden to the physical or the natural man. In Romans 7:22 the spirit is called the “inward man.” “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” So we see this “inward man” and the “hidden man” give us God’s definition of the human spirit.

The real man is spirit, he has a body and a soul. With his spirit he contacts the spiritual realm. With his soul he contacts the intellectual realm. With his body he contacts the physical realm. We cannot contact God with our mind. Neither can we contact God with our body. We can contact God only with our spirit.

The Word of God – Key to Heart Faith

When we hear the Word of God preached, we hear it with our natural mind. We can remember how that before we were Christians the Word of God affected us in our spirit. The Holy Spirit, through the Word, spoke to our heart or our spirit. We read in I Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God …” One translation says, “The natural man or the natural mind understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.” We don’t understand the Bible with our mind, it is spiritually understood. We understand it with our spirit, or our heart. That is the reason we may read certain passages dozens of times and never understand their true meaning. Then one day we suddenly see what God is showing us through His Word. It is at that moment that we understand it with our heart. We have to get the revelation of God’s Word in our heart. That is why we must depend upon the Spirit of God to open and unveil the Word to us.

Therefore, to believe with the heart means to believe with the spirit. How does our spirit get faith that our intellect cannot obtain? The answer is through the Word. When Jesus said, “… Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4), He was speaking of spiritual food. He used a natural term to convey a spiritual thought. Our spirits become filled with assurance and confidence as we meditate on the Word. The Word is spirit and faith food. The Word of God is food that makes our spirit strong.

To believe with the heart means to believe apart from what our physical body may tell us or what our physical senses may indicate. This is because the physical man believes what he sees with his physical eyes or hears with his physical ears, or what his physical feelings tell him. But the spirit, or the heart, believes in the Word regardless of seeing, hearing, or feeling.

Proverbs 3:5-7

5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

Most folks practice verse five all right, but they practice it in reverse. They trust with all their understanding and lean not to their own heart: James 1:19 says, “… let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” This is another verse we are inclined to practice in reverse. We are swift to speak and swift to wrath, but slow to hear.

Then verse 7 in the passage of scripture above says, “Be not wise in thine own eyes …” In other words, “Don’t be wise with natural human knowledge, which would cause you to act independently of the Word of God.”

In the New Testament we find the counterpart to this scripture. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations (reasoning), and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:4, 5).

Peace – A Result of Heart Faith

If we want to walk by faith, the Word must be uppermost to everything else. And as we trust God with all of our heart, a quietness and a peace come to our spirit. “For we which have believed do enter into rest …” (Hebrews 4:3). “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

When we trust in God’s Word which says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19), we simply know in our spirit that everything we need will be supplied and we don’t worry. We have no anxiety. If we are worrying, then we are not believing. Our heart takes courage as we read the Word. As we meditate in this Word, our assurance becomes deeper. This assurance in our spirit is independent of our human reasoning or of human knowledge. It may even contradict human reasoning or physical evidence. But to believe God with our heart means to believe apart from our body.

Dr. Lillian Yeomans said, “God delights in his children stepping out over the aching void with nothing underneath their feet but the Word of God.”

The reason that many people are defeated is that they accept it. But God’s Word says, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (I John 4:4). The Holy Spirit rises up in us and we know we cannot be conquered. We know because we believe!

Memory Text: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).
Faith in Action: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only ….” (James 1:22).

Previous Lesson – Kenneth Hagin – What It Means to Believe With the Heart (Part 1)
Next Lesson – Kenneth Hagin – Confession: Key to Unlocking Faith

Comments

  1. O LORD, teach my growing heart to grasp this fast and contribute my quota to this foreign land called Earth for your own glory. Daddy Hagin, your teaching has enabled me in my walk of Faith. I will continue studying until d perfect day. God bless u.

    1. This teaching is SO IMPORTANT to WALKING BY FAITH and not by sight! Glory to God, I’m trusting God the Holy Spirit to supply ALL my needs, our needs.
      Phil. 4,:17-19.

  2. O LORD, teach my growing heart to grasp this fast and contribute my quota to my this foreign land called heart for your own glory. Daddy Hagin, your teaching has enabled me in my work of Faith. I will continue studying until d perfect day. God bless u.

  3. O LORD, teach my growing heart to grasp this fast and contribute my quota to my this foreign land called heart for your own glory. Daddy Hagin, your teaching has enabled me in my work of Faith. I will continue studying until d perfect day. God bless u.

  4. I have finally found what I have been looking for all these years. Thanks you
    ABBA my FATHER for your servant brother Hagen. It was like a miracle. I was praying this morning and The Holy Spirit led me to Brother Hagen post
    And I got hooked. For years I was trying how to pray by faith. How to understand God’s word, how to walk in faith….This is marvelous, I will hold be holding on to this, from today on I will be walking by Faith and not by sight.

  5. After reading what the word of God says through papa Kenneth Hagin and the way he taught Gods word.

    It was like this is what I have been waiting for, this moment was like a bride connecting to her bride groom, finally after a twenty year court ship.
    it is what has been missing in my twenty years born again experience in you Lord.
    I AM now 53 years old and finally i have clear knowledge of living life in the Holy Spirit and my spirit and doing things Gods way-the Kingdom of Gods way here on earth, more assuredly walking on the word of God like Jesus.
    HOOOOORAAAY
    No wonder I was not getting anywhere in my walk with Jesus living on the inside of me. [I was living disconnected]
    No wonder God was limited by my lack of knowledge and his power was limited also.
    You are such a faithful God, God. My physical heart warms when I think on God.

    God thank you for your servant Papa Kenneth E Hagin, for teaching, and teaching Holy Spirit truth of your word I trust myself to you God to be taught by Papa Kenneth E Hagin and the way he teaches your word truths.
    I love you God and I love your faithful servant Papa Kenneth E Hagin. He is one of my solid as a rock grand daddy’s in the last days church, The Remanent people’s of God the Bride of Christ.

    I look forward to being with you Lord God and all of your great men and woman, sons and daughters of God heaven bound where you are.

    But for now, My Lord God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob creator of heaven and earth and everything in heaven and earth belongs to you/me including the air that we breathe whom i adore, there is work to be completed as it is written in your word.

    Lord God I need all your help and everything You have In your throne room. Holy Spirit I give my inner spirit to you, for my inner spirit man to be useful to God . . and trust worthy..

    1. Wow, OH yes AMEN!!!! That is all I can say, I must say that your prayer goes right in the same direction with my Heart, Oh God, Thanks for you Word of Faith, thank you for the Truth that set’s US free. Thanks For using Bro. Haggin so Mightily!!!, Glory be to You Daddy, in Jesus name. Amen!!

  6. This article gives me a much better understanding of, What believing in my heart means.
    Thank you so much for this understanding.

  7. I love the Lord with all my heart. If only I could touch the hem of his garment I would be made whole. My time on this earth is few but made of trouble. I live for the Lord. I give my whole self to the Lord, for some day my time will be no more. No More sickness or pain. My lord will lift me up. For my mansion is waiting for me. As also for you. God is good all the time.even thru the good as well as the bad, God blesses me each and every day. Thank you Jesus, thank you for dying on that cross for my sins. So I would be made whole.

  8. I am richly bless I wish every Christian will hear this and be bless thanks.

    1. I have seen reality at last. Now am like a god; no limitations. Everything the word of God says is possible for me! Come over hither all ye!

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