Hebrews 4:12 – Part i – Discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart

Hebrews 4:12 – Part i

Discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. (2 Kings 5:11)

The Living Word Revealed

   The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth: to the man that is reading his Bible, is the Bible reading you and your heart? This must be the path of the Word of God; it must penetrate to my very soul and conscience. God has designed His Word to reveal any wicked way in me. The Word of God is like a skilled surgeon cutting the entangled malignancy of sin out of soul and spirit, and covering it with the balm of His grace in Jesus Christ. The Lord wants His word to completely reveal the Living Word, which is His Son, in the redeemed man. This divine book of God is a discerner of our every thought and the intents of our heart.

Why Naaman as an Example ?

    I picked Naaman as an example of the wisdom and thoughts of man. Naaman thought that the prophet would do some great divine act and remove his leprosy. Naaman was looking to the prophet and not to God as Naaman had a preconceived idea of how he should be healed. God, however, would use a place of death and rejection in the Jordan river to heal Naaman. This was not a light thing for Naaman for he exhibited wrath against the prophet. After all, Naaman, was a mighty man and a man of valor, but he was a leper. Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. (2 Kings 5:1) In Naaman’s case, he was a mighty man, a man revered by his country, and a great conqueror. His thoughts and the intents of his heart would have left him in his leprosy, but God through His Word, given by Elisha, directed Naaman to wash in the river Jordan seven times. (2 Kings 5:10) So with Naaman we see the contradiction of his thoughts and his intents of heart against his own soul. It is only through the direction and the revelation of God through Elisha that this man could be healed. The religious man, or men of renown, desire advice or even counsel at the Word of God; and yet, these same men do not want to see what God reveals about the thoughts and intents of his own heart. The Word of God is given to examine us (to reveal in me) what Adam has left behind. Adam has passed the leprosy of sin to all his descendants. The Word of God declares that my only hope is in God, and my only salvation is through Jesus Christ. There are many Naaman’s today who hearing the truth still want to find some other path for their salvation. They do not want to enter into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. They do not want the Spirit of God to reveal their true heart and the true condition of their soul.

I Thought

   God takes us, by His Word, to the very center of our thoughts, and when they are revealed, and we are exposed with our sin before an all-righteous God, we make a choice. We can either be wroth with God, as Naaman was (after all our thoughts are not God thoughts, our ways are not God’s ways), and therefore, Naaman declared, I thought. No one finds it pleasant to be up against a two-edged sword; yet, God declares His Word as this sword because there is a need to cut the very leprosy of sin out of the soul and out of the heart of man. God needs this drastic method to convince man of his sin and alienation from God. Man is enmity against God. This brings in disgust, hatred, and rebellion against the Almighty God. Even a man under conviction of soul screams in his inner man, ‘not today, maybe tomorrow or the next day I’ll deal with my sin.’ Oh, the tragedy of saying, ‘I’ll will wait till tomorrow to be saved;’ not knowing that there may not be a tomorrow. The emphasis of God has always been, believe today or this hour of your salvation. When the Holy Spirit is using the Word of God to convict you of your sin and try your soul in light of the cross of Christ, that moment, that time, that second could be your final call. Is your imagination of a higher value than the need of your soul? Like Naaman, are you going to tell God your plan of salvation, or your time of salvation? You must understand that in Hebrews, Chapter 4 we have the redeemed of the Lord entering into God’s rest. What is the word that ends verse 11? The word is unbelief. So, in verse 12 God presents His Word, and His way, to true belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the very Word of God that convicts the heart and soul. The Spirit of God uses this divine Word to quicken the soul. The religious man puts all his attention to the outside of his being. He dresses up, he goes to church, he is there on time, he gives of his wealth all openly before man; the Word of God, however, does not look on the outside. The Word of God burrows deep within the soul of man and reveals to every man that he is a child of Adam, and he possesses the leprosy of sin; and when this leprosy of sin is finished, it brings forth death. God divides the soul and the spirit. This is a drastic move that God has to perform as He is trying a man unto salvation. In the Old Testament, the leper was to shout out that he was a leper, and when one would see him, the leprosy would be revealed. At first the leprosy would only take the extremities, but as this dreaded disease progressed, in the end it brought forth death. God used leprosy to show man how vile the sin of the flesh is, we must evaluate our own life based on this leprosy of sin. With Naaman, God sent him to the Jordan because the Jordan was recognized as a place of death. The Israelites understood this because they had passed through the Jordan when God led them into the promised land. Naaman would have to wash seven times, and when he was healed, he still carried the burden of leprosy in his flesh for his flesh was made as white as snow. Even though he was healed by God he would always be known as Naaman the leper.

White as Snow

   And so, the leprosy of sin must be taken out of the way by the death of the Son of God on Calvary’s cross. He saves us when we commit and give our soul and heart to God’s plan of salvation. When we are washed in the blood of the Lamb, we are white as snow before the Almighty God. The world will still see us in our flesh, they will look on the outside while the Holy Spirit is working on the inside using the Word of God to conform us to the image of Christ. This is not what man sees, it is what God the Father sees in us in the value of the Son of His love, the Lord Jesus. The Word of God declares that we have been changed, that we are a new creation, and just as the creation of the heaven and earth we have come forth with all the divine power of God in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. We have been raised in newness of life in the very resurrection of the Son of God.

The Fire That Cannot be Put Out

   I have heard men deny the inspiration of the Word of God. Some men from their seminaries, and their pulpits explain to people that the Bible is just a mere book of legends; however, they never tell their audience that when they read it, it brings against them the very wickedness of their own souls. The Word of God is a fire of redemption that cannot be put out, and for this cause the Spirit of God was depicted on the day of Pentecost as a raging fire. Men rebel against the very Word of God so that they can deny their sin. When their sin comes into question, they always have an erroneous answer. Sin chokes the truth out of man. He can hide it for a while, but as sin chokes him it brings forth death. There was a group of young men mocking the Bible, one said, Let’s read it so that we can know where it is wrong. As they were reading, one of the young men threw the Bible down and gasped, it knows me and my sin. Well, that Bible study was quickly terminated; however, one soul was weighed in the balance and found wanting. How many young and old alike kick against the pricks of the Word of God. They are like Saul of Tarsus, in his journey to Damascus. Little did he know what the Living Word had in store for this persecutor of the Church. As the Lord Jesus blinded him and took him to his knees, the Lord exclaimed to Saul, Why persecutest thou me.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: (Acts 9:3)

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (Acts 9:4)

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:5

   Saul was a highly revered religious Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, taught of Gamaliel (Acts 5:34; 22:3) and had a superior knowledge of the Old Testament. Paul quoted from the writings of Moses extensively also from the psalms of David. Yet, he lacked one thing, he knew not Jesus Christ as his Savior. He knew not the Man in heaven that was now speaking to him on the Damascus Road. He knew not the divine Head of the Church, but in a moment of time this was changed by God’s sovereign grace and Saul became Paul, a chosen vessel of the Lord.

Higher Than the Heavens

   What is lacking today is the actual meeting of the soul and spirit with the Man in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. There seems to be many kinds of salvation under the name of ‘Jesus,’ and many profess another Jesus and another gospel. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him]. (2 Corinthians 11:4) But very few know the Christ in glory. They have never met the Man in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. They have never received, like Paul, the unction of the Holy Spirit. It is by this Spirit of Christ that we communicate with the One, the Savior of men, who is higher than the heavens. He is higher than the total creation, both heaven and earth are under His subjection; and it was through the One who is higher than the highest that Paul received the wonderful divine revelations concerning the new birth, and the divine organism that we call the Church. When one enters into the divine Church of God, it is by creation, and not membership, nor by birthright. When one is a new creation in Jesus Christ through the Spirit of God they are brought in and linked with every living believer on earth, and every living believer in heaven. This is the foundation of God that standeth sure and cannot be overthrown. (2 Timothy 2:19) For it is a new creation in the Person of Jesus Christ. As Moses received divine revelation on Mount Sinai as God directed him through the articles of heaven: all the divine furniture, the altar, the laver, the candlestick, the table of shewbread, the altar of incense, and within the veil, and the ark of the covenant crowned with the mercy seat. All these articles were revealed to Moses that he might reproduce these articles so that God could come down and dwell amongst men, which in this case was the nation of Israel. Paul, also, was taken to the heavenly sanctuary, he traveled to the third heaven and received divine revelations concerning the holy salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul ascended to the third heaven (1 Corinthians 12), and as John at Patmos saw things that could not be told. All three of these men: Moses, Paul and John have revealed so much to us concerning the heavenlies, and all the revelations that these three men received are to point us to the man in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The True and Pure Sanctuary Revealed — Past, Present and Future

   With Moses we have the heavenly sanctuary, and its types in the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was to display the glory of God and allow man to approach. When man approached God with the blood of the sacrifice, God would look on the blood on the mercy seat and be satisfied. Through the writings of Paul, the Holy Spirit takes us up to the holy sanctuary in heaven. He presents to us our great High Priest, the man Christ Jesus as the Lord Jesus fulfills His eternal priesthood, as the heavenly Priest, the Son of God. He walks as Melchisedec in the heavenly sanctuary among the angels with His glory shining forth through all His redeemed. And now, as the Man, Jesus Christ, He fulfills as the new Man, but of the same priesthood and fulfills His priesthood after the order of Melchisedec. As Moses saw the sanctuary above, he also saw the Priest of the sanctuary. Paul takes us closer and presents a more intimate view of the true High Priest of heaven. In the Book of Hebrews, the eternal Spirit show us the Christ of God as the eternal Priest after the order of Melchisedec. John, through the Holy Spirit, in the Gospel of John, reveals to us that there was one sent by God the Father to be the divine sacrifice. He was the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John in his gospel starts at the very beginning. He takes us beyond our comprehension as man, and divinely reveals to us the divine life of the Son of God. It was the Son of the Eternal who walked on earth among men. It was His purpose to fulfill the will of God the Father. In all things He was in perfect harmony with the will and purpose of His Father in heaven. This same John, when on Patmos, was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and as the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, swept across Patmos, He found John and began to reveal to him the very Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a day of communion with Christ, this was a day of communion with the High Priest after the order of Melchisedec. John received the revelation of the High Priest, the Son of man, walking amongst the candlesticks. The Son of man is the divine light of the Church. He ministers through His Spirit to the people of God. He is the minister of the sanctuary. He is the eternal mediator of God. He is the light bearer and His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, who fills the oil in the lamps to keep them burning on this earth in each and every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a Man in heaven, and this Man is our great High Priest. He has all the power of divine revelation so that His people can receive directly from His hand. He is the eternal and divine seed who went into the darkness of death to bring forth life and fruit for God. He is the One who pours in the water of life freely that we might grow in grace in the true vine which is Jesus Christ. The Word we have under divine revelation is given to us by the Spirit of Christ. We are told in the Scriptures that even in the Old Testament the Spirit of Christ spoke unto the fathers. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we have a Savior who is separate from sinners, and yet united to His redeemed. The Spirit of Christ is with us and within us, and Christ, as Enoch, is walking us through this world and will take us to His eternity. Christ is the Living Word, and ministers to us as the great High Priest. And this Word must be quick and powerful in a dark world sold into sin. When one comes to know the Lord Jesus Christ in that moment all the power of the God of creation is given. The redeemed are snatched from the darkness of death and sin to live in a righteous and holy Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. With the Word of His power, He has infused His divine light into us, in our new creation we have Christ within to trim the wick, and to pour in the oil of the Spirit of God. He, the divine Head of the Church, has all the power of His Word to keep and hold us, to correct us, to chasten us, and to separate us from this ungodly world.

The Sword —Two Edges of the Sword

— The Written Word, The Living Word—

   The Word of God is also called the sword of the Spirit. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6:17) The sword of the Spirit comes with the helmet of salvation praying always in the word of truth. The work of the Word and the Spirit of God is to cut out all that is of the flesh till there is nothing left to separate us from Christ, the Word. Both Christ and the Word works as one, the two edges of the sword are both the written word and the Living Word. And both are used by the Spirit of God to prepare a people for heaven’s glory and the eternal state. The written word of God is just an extension of the Living Word of God in heaven. The Son of God may pierce the heart of man as He did with Peter when He asked Peter, lovest thou me more than these? The words of the Savior were very effective, they pierced Peter to his bones. He had denied His sovereign three times, and now it was brought before him with whether he loved the Savior or not. This drove Peter to say, And he said unto Him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. This was not a work done to the outward flesh of Peter, for the words of the Savior went right to his heart. This was the work of the spoken word given by the Living Word. The word went within Peter and examined him. And he, in himself, cried out that the Lord knew all things, and knew that he loved Him. The word of God goes within turning and trying, finding the dross, and heating the fires of purification. These fires do their work and draws the saint closer to his Lord. The Word of God also is a washing action. It cleanses our walk and bathes our feet in the waters of sanctification. This is the washing by the Spirit of God within us using the word of God as it is written. This divides within us the bone and the joints and the marrow, examines everything that is hidden from sight, and brings to our conscience and our heart anything that opposes Christ.

The Framework

   This is our frame, all rests on our bones and joints, our muscles, our tendons, all fastened to our bones. Our flesh and sinew rests upon the frame, and all our nerves are woven throughout our entire body. This is where the Word of God does its eternal work within the man. Man has turned against God’s spoken word, His written word, and the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam turned against the spoken word in the garden of God, and ever since, man has been taking sides against the word of God. We could write volumes of how man attempt to detract and to deny the Living Word and the written word. Man is full of guile and uses that guile in all forms to attack the very words in God’s book. This book has been written to examine the heart of man, and to purify those of us who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have faith in the Son of God, and we are part of the seed of Christ. The resting place for the book of God in its pureness should be in our hearts. If we allow it to pierce our being it will reveal Adam and his sin, and how this sinful DNA has traveled through all mankind. All men, in all times, have been under the sway of Adam’s sin, and the sinfulness of man will continue until all sin is put down by God’s dear Son, Jesus Christ. Although the redeemed have been freed from the power of sin by the death of Christ on the cross; the world that denies Christ still carries the burden and the judgment of their sin. There will come a time when Christ will exercise the word of His power from the great white throne. He will judge those who have rejected Him and have rejected His payment for their sin on the cross of Calvary. He will then cast them into the lake of fire where the false prophet, the man of sin, and Satan will be tormented with them throughout all eternity. But we, who are of Christ, look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells, and in this new heaven and new earth God will be all in all. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. (Revelation 21:1)

Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (2 Peter 3:12)

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13)

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. (2 Peter 3:14)

And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; (2 Peter 3:15)

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16)

   This new heaven and new earth will be created by the Son of God and will be created for Him who liveth forever. It will be the Living Word, the Son of God, our Savior who brings forth this perfect work where men who have been justified by Him and made perfect will dwell with Him throughout all eternity. The shed blood at Calvary has covered the greatest of the sin of man. All has been covered by God, and this will allow the Son of God in complete justification of a new creation of a new heaven and a new earth. There will be no sin, man will be surrounded by the righteousness of God, the lost chord of praise will be continually sung to the Lamb of God. And knowing all this: man in our age would rather have the world and its sin rather than the glories of the Prince of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. God in His infinite power raised the Prince of life from among the dead. This gave us the risen Man in all His perfection; the Man, Christ Jesus, the risen Savior anointed with the oil of gladness above all powers and principalities, He is raised above the very heavens for He has been raised higher than heaven itself.

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) (Ephesians 4:10)

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. (Hebrews 4:14)

For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; (Hebrews 7:26)

   This same Jesus is the author of the eternal word and upholds that word with the word of His power. He sits on the throne of eternity higher than the heavens. He has proven the effectiveness of both the written and the Living Word of God. The written word of God is maintained and preserved by the Living Word. Consider Psalm 119, where Hebrews 4:12 divides the very soul and spirit, and joints and marrow of the bones so too Psalm 119 takes us deep into the soul of man and shows us what his belief should be. For it examines us in every way by the words that God has given. In the section of zain of 119 we begin with verse 49.

ZAIN. Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. (Psalm 119:49)

This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.(Psalm 119:50)

The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law. (Psalm 119:51)

I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself. (Psalm 119:52)

Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. (Psalm 119:53)

Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. (Psalm 119:54)

I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law. (Psalm 119:55)

This I had, because I kept thy precepts. (Psalm 119:56)

   The word of God analyzes the soul. The giver of the word searches the heart of His servants. He pours out the word to direct and counsel His servants. The word of God becomes so important that the servant declares Remember the word unto thy servant. And it is the Giver of the word who has caused His servants to have hope in the word, thou hast caused me to hope. Where would we learn so much about our being, and who we are if it was not for the word of God. The word of God continually examines man in all his life. We see this examination especially in the Psalms. Consider Psalm 139:23 and 24.

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:(Psalm 139:23)

And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:24)

   Psalm 139 is a psalm of David. It is a lesson to David of God’s complete sovereignty over man. God examines David’s heart and soul as He examines my heart and soul. My life is an open book to the most high God. His word is directed by the Holy Spirit of God, and searches me, and tries me that I might understand when God the Holy Spirit tells me that the word of God in Hebrews 4, verse 12 is to divide me, and instruct me, and correct me so that I might walk in the path of righteousness. I must let this divine word do its work in me for it has been given for the perfecting of the saints to bring us to the image of Christ. We hear so many sermons on the power of the word of God dealing with the outside of man, when it is the inside of man that needs the glorious change in the new creation. All things must become new, we belong to a new Man and this Man is in heaven, Jesus Christ. There needs to be a connection with our heart to the Man in heaven, and this connection to Christ will truly reveal to us the power of His word working in us. It will make the change, and the Spirit of Christ will conform us to the image of God’s dear Son. We must let the word of God do its holy work within us: the Spirit of Christ, the Word of God, drawing us closer and closer to the One we love, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

© Copyright 2017, Michael Haigh

Article may be used, but not for gain. Freely ye have received, freely give.

All Scripture references are from the King James Bible. (KJB)