CHAPTER 1 - DREAMS AND VISIONS
The Heart of Man
In society today and all throughout history man has experienced dreams and/or visions. Quite often the dreams and visions come from within your heart. When the term heart is used in this write-up we are speaking of the combination of your spirit and soul. We know there are arguments on both sides as to whether the heart is your spirit or your heart is your soul. However, there are scripture supports for each and both. For example in Ezekiel 36:25-27 when the Lord told the children of Israel that He would cleanse them with water and give them a new heart many interpret that to be a new spirit but that is not how the verse reads:
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. KJV
It is reasonable to tie verse 25 to our current New Testament Christian practice of water baptism. However verse 26 clearly states that I will give you a new heart and if you thought that new heart was a new spirit the mention of the words, “and a new spirit” would not make sense. Since we know that when one is “Born Again” according to John 3:3-8 they are born of the Spirit of God it is safe to say that is the new spirit. Keeping this part of the teaching simple we have concluded that the sprinkling of clean water could be synonymous with water baptism and the new spirit could be synonymous with your reborn new spirit. This is all good but we still have not explained what is meant by the term a new heart. There is only one conclusion we can draw at this time which is, “we need more information” for more accurate interpretation. In the study of the Holy Bible it is always better to return to the author in another scripture to see how the same term was used to see if more light could be shone on our question. Now we examine Ezekiel 18:30-32
30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. KJV
In this example we see the prophet pleading with the Children of Israel to repent. Verse 31 specifically states that the Israelites have the power to make a new heart and a new spirit. If we stayed consistent with our previous example it would be perfectly acceptable to keep repentance at the forefront of a new heart and a new spirit. This could be better understood if we separated heart into a category of the mind. Making that substitution verse 31 would read, “and make you a new mind and a new spirit” which would be consistent to how one would come to Jesus today. Generally speaking, the Believer in Christ Jesus has to call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus to be saved. Thus, one must make up their mind to be a worshipper of God that believes in the Blood of Jesus for the atonement of their personal sins. The only reason we use the term mind is because we believe the mind to be distinct from the soul and the heart according to the words of Jesus.
Matthew 22:37
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. KJV
And Mark 12:30
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. KJV
Specifically according to Ezekiel if we thought of heart as the mind the scripture becomes very easy to understand. The prophet is generally stating that when you make up your mind to serve God faithful it will influence your spirit to the point of renewal. This is exactly what happens to a person in the Old Testament because when one starts worshipping God wholeheartedly they bring the Presence of God’s Word into their soul which renews (restores, revives) their spirit. Today, bringing God’s Word into our mind influences us to call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus to be saved which gives us a brand new spirit from God Himself. Of Course we have a better covenant established upon better promises according to Hebrews 8:6. As we know biblical revelations are progressive which means as we progress through the various time frames of the Holy Bible more knowledge of God is revealed. Thus, the Prophet Moses knew more about God, than Job and the Apostle Paul knew more about God through the revelation of Jesus Christ than the Prophet Moses. So today we read the writing of all the ministers of God that were documented by the Holy Spirit over the centuries to paint the complete picture of God. The Holy Bible is the only written testimony of God that summaries exactly what we need to know about The Lord to get to Heaven by successfully doing God’s Will upon the earth. Will the Holy Bible tell you every detail about your life? Probably not, but it will tell you how to live when approaching the Father God through the Lord Jesus to get the answers to the very minute details of your life. This is basically our attempt to get you to see that one person could use the word heart and have one meaning while another person could use the word heart and have an entirely different meaning. What complicates this issue a little bit more is that the heart can also refer to a place. Generally, when people discuss the heart of the matter they are speaking about the main issue. If someone mentions the heart of a tree they are referring to the core of that tree. One could easily suggest that the heart speaks about a place that is located in the center of a thing or a topic. People quite often say when playing sports to, “put your heart into it”. This term is specifically encouraging the players to put everything they have into achieving the maximum result they desire. Just like when sport analysts commonly state that, “to be a true champion one must possess the heart of a winner”. What that basically means is besides just using physical talent a person must have the desire and passion and mental toughness to go the extra distance to win at every level. We (at ihlcc) do believe the physical heart to be located in the center of the physical body. Likewise we also believe the heart of God to be located right inside the middle of your spiritual body. This spiritual place is the abode of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The divine counsel of God is within your spiritual heart so when your soul hears truth the Council of God is right inside of you to confirm it. Equipped with the knowledge that the word heart could be used differently because it has various meanings we will stay open to which definition fits best in it context. In this article we will use all three definitions to describe the meaning that fits best. We are not trying to limit ourselves or you to only one definition because all three references to the heart are true. The Lord is the Knower of all things and we firmly agree that He is in our heart which could easily mean He is in our spirit and in our soul and located in the center of our spirit and physical body all at the same time. Since the revelations of God are both progressional and deep we can accurately conclude that the New Testament saints could build upon the knowledge of the Old Testament saints. It is evident that the words and phrases used in the teachings of Jesus were far deeper than the words used in the message of Apollos in Acts 18:24 and 25 when Apollos knew only the Baptism of John. An example of this would be the scriptures we just read in Matthew and Mark from Jesus.
Matthew 22:37
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. KJV
And Mark 12:30
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. KJV
When examining these verses of scripture in Matthew 22:37 and Mark 12:30 one can clearly understand that Jesus was referring to your spirit in His context for both verses. That is why we are using the term heart to mean both the spirit and soul just to keep matters simple. On purpose we are not being dogmatic about exactly what the heart means because it could very easily mean one thing to one scribe of the Old Testament and something slightly different to another writer of a New Testament epistle. The point is by using the heart as a more general term we keep both sides open to the scripture interpretations later on in this article. This issue will come up again because we must attempt to find the source of dreams and visions, for now we only conclude that all dreams and visions abide in the realm of the spirit. It is important to mention again to keep the scriptures in the context of their dispensation to understand the words of the writer more easily. It is our belief (ihlcc) that since the saints in the Old Testament were not born-again they had to rely upon their soulish capacity to understand and receive from God. This would explain why the Holy Spirit of God had to rest upon the saints in the Old Testament for God to move through them because the inadequacy of their unregenerate spirit. In the Old Testament the Spirit of God came upon certain saints in power for the task at hand and then when the task was completed it would leave the particular saint in frailty where they would often revert back to the natural ways of man. However, on the contrary in the New Covenant we deal with God more through our regenerated spirit which allows us to know God as Father because we have a new spirit crying Abba (Father, Daddy) within us to our Heavenly Fatherly God. Yes, the same spirit of Jesus, as the Son of God, is the same heart we now have abiding inside of us forever. We still have the Holy Spirit of God coming upon us for tasks and assignments but we also have the continuous flow of His Spirit for intimacy after the task is done. The only time frame we are limited to by God is eternity. The Old Testament saints looked for help from above whereas the New Testament saint knows their help comes from within. I am sure that dreams and visions can be viewed by your heart and at various times your heart (spirit, soul and mind including your core beliefs) changes. It is clear that an Old Testament Gentile can see a dream just as clearly as a New Testament Child of God can see one and both need to understand the dream or vision to benefit from it. Therefore we will now examine the source of dreams and visions.