Four-part Harmony (Part 1): Who is Talking? Entering & Residing in the Secret Place

Suppose I told you that you could be happy for the rest of your life.  You might naturally think such an offer unattainable, but you would be wrong.  God’s Word affords the BORN AGAIN the power to boldly confess, “today is the best day of my life, and tomorrow will be better!” This confession does not come without effort.  Holy happiness requires a supernatural effort, whereas sadness, depression, and fear all come naturally and without effort.  Unless vigorously resisted in the Holy Ghost, these will dominate and destroy.

Holy and everlasting happiness is not sourced in outside things—such as a spouse, children, one’s career, wealth, health, or even this mortal life.  These things ALL end.  To the BORN AGAIN, happiness dwells internally and is sustained miraculously.  This happiness is discovered in the Kingdom of God, and it dwells within the redeemed.  Jesus speaks of this Kingdom in Luke 17:20-21:

20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

For the blood-bought, this invisible Kingdom is “Christ in you, the hope of glory;” (Colossians 1:27).  It’s not what’s without, it is what is within. 

The Biblical principle that today is the best day of my life and tomorrow will be better is found in many verses, but two in particular stand out in my mind:

✟ Proverbs 4:18:

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

As believers, each day we travel Rt. 7 North (obedience), getting ever closer to our journey’s end, where we will see Jesus and be like Him.  He is called “The Bright and Morning Star.”  He is the perfect day.

✟ Romans 8:28:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

As children of God, everything works together for our good—especially what appears to be bad things.

My path grows brighter every day and all things, even the troublesome, are working together for my good.  Today is the best day of my life and tomorrow will be better.  It’s true. 

Have you yet to be BORN AGAIN?  Would you like to be happy for the rest of your life, and even unto eternal life?  Today, if you follow me in a simple prompt and do so from your heart, all your sin and shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood.  Today, all the devil’s bondages will be broken, no matter how daunting they appear.  Today, old things will pass away, and all things will become new.  This is the offer of a new life and not just simply “turning over a new leaf.” Here is the prompt I promised:  Click onto “Further with Jesus”  for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Luke 10:27:

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 4:23:

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

GOD SAID, I Thessalonians 4:4:

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

MAN SAID: Jesus don’t mean nothing to me!  I’ve got all the answers I need right here on my phone.  Oh, by the way, I’m taking a sabbatical to see if I can find myself!!!

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1071 that will once again contend for the faith and demonstrate the magnificent inerrancy of God’s Holy Bible.  All of these life-changing features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and as supernatural ammunition in the battle for the souls of the lost sons and daughters of Adam.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. 

Thank you for visiting today.  May the face of our God shine upon you with Light and Truth.

The Word of God is utterly life changing, beginning at the marvelous and totally unparalleled place Jesus calls BORN AGAIN, and it continues to change and transform the redeemed day unto day, even unto the perfect day. 

This short series will demonstrate the staggering quickening (life-giving) power of the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The biggest battles you will encounter in the faith will be internal ones.  The revelation you will receive in this series will have the power to bring you into an inner harmony that most of us have only experienced periodically.  This is not only a revelation that will take us to this place, but it will keep us there. 

This feature will address the heart and its part in what we will call “four-part harmony.”  Until very recently, the heart was just a pump, but the academic darkness around this amazing organ is lifting.  The idea of the Biblical description of a heart with highly sophisticated cognitive skills was deemed “Sunday-school foolishness” for the uneducated and easily-led.  Foundational to this short series is the GodSaidManSaid feature “The Heart & Red Faces (You Need to Hear This).”  Excerpts follow:

We are commanded to prove all things.  I Thessalonians 5:21:

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

We need to know it’s true—every jot and every tittle.  Everything totally depends upon it.  The GodSaidManSaid ministry certifies the glorious inerrancy of God’s Holy Bible week after week.  It’s true and righteous altogether.  We contend for the faith, as commanded, in the face of a withering, dark, and incessant onslaught from the carnal “intellectuals” and a cacophony of howls and mockery from Satan’s varied skeptics, but be of good cheer, children!  After billions of attempts to dethrone the Christ of Glory, their success rate is zero.  They will never succeed because they cannot. Their bold, dark saber-rattling is vanquished by the true Light.

The academics mocked the Biblical precept that consciousness lives on, even forever, after a person is pronounced brain-dead , but not anymore.  Hundreds of millions of near-death experiences (NDEs) testify to this fact, and now science has theorized that consciousness does indeed continue on after death, dubbing it “quantum consciousness.”  These “new” discoveries have forced the ungodly to come alongside.  Michael Shermer, one of academia’s focal and vocal leaders, once railed against the Bible’s claim of ongoing consciousness after one is physically pronounced dead, but not anymore.  He now writes: “…the death of your physical body is not the end of your conscious existence.”  Welcome aboard, Mike.

The following excerpt is from the September/October 2020 issue of Discover magazine, from the feature “The Mourning Mind:”

What I hadn’t fully grasped in the early days of my grieving is that the brain and the mind, while inextricably linked, are completely separate entities.  Like the parts of a car engine, the two feed off of each other.

Did academia’s mockers and scoffers release a public statement saying, “Well, what do you know?! The Bible was right after all!”  Did you see any red faces? 

God’s detractors were certain He was wrong when He states in the Bible that the stomach and even the bowels have their own brain, but not anymore.  The latest biological research reveals the stomach does indeed have a brain, and it will often know things the brain has yet to discern.  Thus the phrase, “trust your gut.”  

Did academia’s mockers and scoffers release a public statement saying, “Well, what do you know?! The Bible was right after all!”  Did you see any red faces? 

The story of life begins in God’s book of Genesis.  He said Adam and Eve were the father and mother of all mankind.  They lost their immortality because of sin.  The world’s wise men mocked and scoffed, labeling these accounts “fairy tales,” but not anymore.  Science now knows all mankind on the earth today have one common mother and father, whom they have named mtDNA Eve and Y-Chromosome Adam.  Even the word immortality has entered modern science’s lexicon and it’s being pursued at warp speed.     

Did academia’s mockers and scoffers release a public statement saying, “Well, what do you know?! The Bible was right after all!”  Did you see any red faces? 

Jeremiah 6:15:

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

Could it be? The academics mocked the Biblical precept that the heart actually has its own brain, but not anymore.  In etymology, the study of language, there exists a foundational rule known as the law or rule of first occurrence.  This rule states that a word’s definition is established with its first use.  The first three uses of the word HEART in the Bible are as follows:

💚 Genesis 6:5: And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

💚 Genesis 6:6: And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

💚 Genesis 8:21: And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

Matters of the heart and its independent consciousness are found in a host of verses in God’s Word.  Consider this sampling:

💛 Proverbs 4:23: Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

💛 Psalm 4:4: Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

💛 I Chronicles 15:29: And it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her heart.

💛 Matthew 18:35: So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

Note: GodSaidManSaid first published articles on the heart issue decades ago, but today it is back in the news.  The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature “The Heart Series, Part One:”

A heart can be happy! The thoughts of our hearts will define us and our future.

God speaks of a merry heart doing good like a medicine, and that a broken spirit dries up the bones.  Remember, this passage was authored thousands of years before science began to certify its truth.

The bones in our bodies are key to excellent living and their role is much more than simply structure to hang organs and flesh upon.  Inside our bones is found a spongy, moist tissue called bone marrow where all of our body’s blood cells are produced.  The blood cells begin life in the moist marrow as stem cells.  These stem cells divide and form the various cells that make up our blood and immune system.  Out of this moist bone marrow come red blood cells which carry oxygen and nutrients to the body, and also the white blood cells that fight infection.  Without bone marrow there could be no human life.

The amazing bone is strong as steel but light as aluminum, and inside the cancellous bones of the ribs, vertebrae, sternum, and pelvis is bone marrow, a moist hive of activity.  Imagine, two million red blood cells are being replaced every second and they’re being generated in the body’s bone marrow.  The red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients to the body and the white blood cells defend against disease.  Both find their beginnings in moist bone marrow.

New fields of study have arisen concerning white blood cells and immune system malfunction called “psychoneuroimmunology.”  It is now known that stress, depression, sorrow, grief, negative thoughts, anger, etc.—all heart issues—have a direct, negative effect on white blood cells.  Conversely, happy, joyful, restful, positive thoughts—all heart issues—have a direct, positive effect on white and red blood cell production and activity.  Remember, red blood cells bring oxygen and nutrients to the body, and white blood cells defend against disease and sickness.

Dr. Lee Berk, a researcher at Loma Linda University School of Medicine’s Department of Clinical Immunology, has shown that laughter lowers serum cortisol levels.  Cortisol is part of the body’s fight-or-flight response, but much of it can dampen immune response and shut down the very process that attacks life-threatening microbes or the process that keeps malignant cells from proliferating into an invasive tumor.  Laughter also increases the amount of activated T lymphocytes, increases the number and activity of natural killer cells, and increases the number of T cells that carry helper and suppressor receptors.  Simply put, the immune system is positively benefited by laughter. Proverbs 17:22:

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

Does the heart really think independent of the brain?  Could the scriptures that refer to the attributes of the heart 884 times be accurate in the most literal form?  Of course the answer is yes!

The following excerpts are from Deadly Emotions, by Dr. Don Colbert, published in 2003:

How can this be?  In recent years neuroscientists have discovered that the heart has its own independent nervous system.  At least forty thousand nerve cells (neurons) exist in a human heart.  That’s the same amount found in various subcortical (beneath the cerebral cortex) centers of the brain.  In other words, the heart is more than a mere biological pump.  These abundant nerve cells give it a thinking, feeling capability.

The heart’s “brain” and the nervous system relay messages back and forth to the brain in the skull, creating a two-way communication between these two organs.  In the 1970s, physiologists John and Beatrice Lacey of the Fels Research Institute found a flaw in current popular thinking about the brain.  The popular approach was to assume that the brain made all of the body’s decisions.  The Lacey’s research indicated otherwise.

Specifically, these researchers found that while the brain may send instructions to the heart through the nervous system, the heart doesn’t automatically obey.  Instead, the heart seems to respond at times as if it is “considering” the information that it has received.  Sometimes when the brain sends an arousal signal to the body in response to external stimuli, the heart speeds up, as might be expected.  On other occasions, however, the heart slows down while all other organs are aroused as expected.

The selectivity of the heart’s response suggested to the Lacey’s that the heart does not mechanically respond to the brain’s signals.  Rather, the heart seems to have an opinion of its own, which it communicates back to the brain.

What was even more interesting in the Lacey’s research was the fact that the messages that the heart sent to the brain seemed to be ones that the brain not only understood but obeyed.  In effect, heart and brain hold an intelligent dialogue.  At times the heart submits to the brain, and on other occasions the brain seems to submit to the heart.  The messages from the heart appear to be capable of affecting an individual’s behavior. [End of quotes]

The following information is from HeartMath.org:

Traditionally, the study of communication pathways between the head and heart has been approached from a rather one-sided perspective, with scientists focusing primarily on the heart’s responses to the brain’s commands.  We have learned, however, that communication between the heart and brain actually is a dynamic, ongoing, two-way dialogue, with each organ continuously influencing the other’s function.  Research has shown that the heart communicates to the brain in four major ways: neurologically (through the transmission of nerve impulses), biochemically (via hormones and neurotransmitters), biophysically (through pressure waves), and energetically (through electromagnetic field interactions).  Communication along all these conduits significantly affects the brain’s activity.  Moreover, our research shows that messages the heart sends to the brain can also affect performance.

Some of the first researchers in the field of psychophysiology to examine the interactions between the heart and brain were John and Beatrice Lacey.  During 20 years of research throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, they observed that the heart communicates with the brain in ways that significantly affect how we perceive and react to the world.

The Laceys noticed that the model proposed by Cannon [the autonomic nervous system moving in concert with related physiological responses] only partially matched actual physiological behavior.  As their research evolved, they found that the heart in particular seemed to have its own logic that frequently diverged from the direction of autonomic nervous system activity.  The heart was behaving as though it had a mind of its own.  Furthermore, the heart appeared to be sending meaningful messages to the brain that the brain not only understood, but also obeyed.  Even more intriguing was that it looked as though these messages could affect a person’s perceptions, behavior, and performance.  The Laceys identified a neural pathway and mechanism whereby input from the heart to the brain could inhibit or facilitate the brain’s electrical activity. 

One of their early findings is that the heart has a complex neural network that is sufficiently extensive to be characterized as a brain on the heart.  The heart-brain, as it is commonly called, or intrinsic cardiac nervous system, is an intricate network of complex ganglia, neurotransmitters, proteins, and support cells, the same as those of the brain in the head.  The heart-brain’s neural circuitry enables it to act independently of the cranial brain to learn, remember, make decisions, and even feel and sense.

In terms of heart-brain communication, it is generally well-known that the efferent (descending) pathways in the autonomic nervous system are involved in the regulation of the heart.  However, it is less appreciated that the majority of fibers in the vagus nerves are afferent (ascending) in nature.  Furthermore, more of these ascending neural pathways are related to the heart (and cardiovascular system) than to any other organ.  This means the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart.

It was later discovered the heart contains cells that synthesize and release catecholamines (norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine), which are neurotransmitters once thought to be produced only by neurons in the brain and ganglia.  More recently, it was discovered the heart also manufactures and secretes oxytocin, which can act as a neurotransmitter and commonly is referred to as “the love” or social bonding hormone.  Remarkably, concentrations of oxytocin produced in the heart are in the same range as those produced in the brain. [End of quotes]

The article “See the ‘Little Brain’ of the Heart” was published in the August 1, 2020 issue of ScienceNews.  Excerpts follow:

The heart has its own “brain,” a group of nerve cells known as the intracardiac nervous system.  Now, scientists have drawn a detailed 3-D map of this nervous system in rat hearts. 

The heart’s big boss is still the brain, but nerve cells in the heart have a say, too.  These neurons are thought to play a crucial role in heart health, helping to fine-tune heart rhythms and perhaps protecting people against certain kinds of heart disease.  But this local control system hadn’t been described in great detail, until now. 

Systems biologist James Schwaber of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and colleagues used knife-edge scanning microscopy and genetic analyses to map the nerve cells in 3-D.  In a reconstructed rat heart, nerve cells that make up a heart’s “brain” cluster around the top of the heart, near where blood vessels enter and exit. [End of quote]

The brain of the heart, pictured in the article, sits directly on top of the heart, or upon its table. 

💜 Proverbs 3:3: Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

💜 Proverbs 7:3: Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

💜 Jeremiah 17:1: The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

💜 II Corinthians 3:3: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.

You have read of the heart and the heart’s brain upon its table—wisdom and insights that only the Maker could know.  The world’s academics scorned, but not anymore.

Did academia’s mockers and scoffers release a public statement saying, “Well, what do you know?! The Bible was right after all!”  Did you see any red faces? 

They just can’t blush.  Their ignorance of God and His Word is really breathtaking.  [End of quotes]

Psalm 43:5:

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Have you ever wondered who is talking to the soul in this passage?  There is an internal conversation happening here.  I’m confident most of you will be shocked—as I was—to learn that Jesus not only identifies the four parts of man in His instruction on how to love God, but also that these identified parts operate separately and apart from one another.  We are instructed to bring these four parts into four-part harmony.  Jesus reveals in 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.

Jesus identifies the four separate parts as the heart, the soul, the mind, and the strength. 

When we talk to ourselves, we are communicating to separate, inward parts.  Common phrases include:

🗣 He or she has me talking to myself!
🗣 I asked myself that very question!
🗣 In my heart of hearts…

And so on, demonstrating an inner communication. Consider this passage, Psalm 103:1:

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

The psalmist is directing his soul to bless the Lord, but then also, “all that is within me.”  Included in “all that is within me” would be all four parts.  The inner conflicts we often experience are eliminated when we walk before God in four-part harmony.  Consider I Thessalonians 4:4:

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

What is housed in the earthen vessel we call the body?  The heart, the soul, the mind, and the strength.  I need to know how to possess, even harness, my vessel, including all the separate parts, unto the glory of God.  When I do, my days, as Deuteronomy 11:18-21 declares, will be like the days of heaven upon the earth, especially the dark and contradictory ones.  The principle of possessing my vessel in four-part harmony is large, VERY LARGE!  

Proverbs 4:23:

        Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

God’s Word is giving someone the charge to keep the heart.  Next week, God willing, we will find out exactly who is given the charge, and how to harness our four parts, creating a constant state of inner harmony, and maintaining a oneness with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  Internal conflicts are gone. 

At the place of this four-part harmony:

🎶 All joy is magnified;
🎶 All the weapons of our warfare are magnified;
🎶 All the gifts of the spirit you may have received, including:

🎁 Words of wisdom;
🎁 Words of knowledge;
🎁 Faith;
🎁 Gifts of healing;
🎁 Working of miracles;
🎁 prophecy;
🎁 Discerning of spirits;
🎁 Divers kinds of tongues;
🎁 Interpretation of tongues—ALL MAGNIFIED.  (I Corinthians 12)

🎶 All gifts of ministry, including:

🎁 Apostles;
🎁 Prophets;
🎁 Evangelists;
🎁 Pastors;
🎁 Teachers—ALL MAGNIFIED. (Ephesians 4:11-12)

🎶 All fruits of the spirit, including:

🎁 Love;
🎁 Joy;
🎁 Peace;
🎁 Long-suffering;
🎁 Gentleness;
🎁 Goodness;
🎁 Faith;
🎁 Meekness;
🎁 Temperance—ALL MAGNIFIED. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Everything is magnified here. 

Next week, expect very practical application of God’s hidden manna. It’s time to harmonize. 

GOD SAID, Luke 10:27:

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 4:23:

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

GOD SAID, I Thessalonians 4:4:

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

MAN SAID: Jesus don’t mean nothing to me!  I’ve got all the answers I need right here on my phone.  Oh, by the way, I’m taking a sabbatical to see if I can find myself!!!

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “The Heart & Red Faces (You Need to Hear This)”

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