Knowing with the Mind and Heart

Bethel Mennonite Church – Gladys VA

There is a difference between knowing and believing truth with the mind, and feeling and believing truth with the heart. People cannot be changed into the likeness of Christ, cannot grow and change, by believing falsehood. According to Scripture, Christ, Scripture, and the Holy Spirit are the sources of spiritual truth. You cannot interpret and apply Scripture in a way that violates the person and character of Christ as revealed in Scripture.

“It feels true to me” beliefs of the heart are learned amid life experiences. “It feels true to me beliefs” are any thought that completes the sentence “it feels true to me that”. Beliefs in our hearts will usually override the ideas and beliefs in our minds. An example of this happening is found in Ex. 2 when the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses at the burning bush and tried to enlist Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. It felt true to Moses that he would get into trouble, that he was unqualified, that the people would not listen to him, and that he was not eloquent. Every excuse Moses gave was an “it feels true to me belief” produced by fear.

“It feels true to me” beliefs of the heart do not change by commanding people to stop feeling and believing the way they do. The factors that make it possible for “it feels true to me” beliefs to change are: talking and praying about the events in which the “it feels true to me” beliefs developed, knowing what is true according to Scripture, giving Christ permission to speak into one’s beliefs, giving oneself permission to let go of the “it feels true to me belief,” and by allowing the Holy Spirit and others to teach us something different than we already believe.

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