What is the Veil on our Heart and How to Remove it?
Scripture:
2 Cor 3:13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.
2 Cor 3:14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
2 Cor 3:15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
2 Cor 3:16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Cor 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The veil on our heart, is one of the biggest problems that Christians have. According to the scriptures above, it causes dullness, bondage, blindness, and not seeing any improvements in our life over time (no transformation into the image of Christ). It is the cause of many things including divisions, arguments, disputes, false doctrines, and generalized unhappiness and lack of satisfaction and reality in our Christian walk.
The veil prevents us from seeing, it prevents us from knowing God's will, it prevents us from thinking, feeling and desiring the things that we know the bible says we should. It causes us to be confused and blown about by every wind of doctrine and troubled over many things. It prevents us from bearing much fruit, since we cannot see where we are going, and we wander aimlessly in life doing much but accomplishing little. Removing the veil brings freedom, freedom from the law of sin and death, freedom from bondage, addictions, confusion and doubt etc, through transformation into the image of Christ.
Let's take a look what is the veil and how to remove it?
The short answer:
The veil is our own heart which is not close to Jesus Christ. We remove it by developing and maintaining a person relationship with Jesus Christ.
The long answer:
Firstly some basic facts about the human being:
God created man in three parts - spirit, soul, body.
The spirit is the part which contacts and communicates with God the Spirit. So much so that we believers are joined to the Lord and one spirit with Him (1 Cor 6:17). The main part of our spirit is our conscience.
The soul is the psychological part of us, our mind (thoughts), emotions (feelings), and will (intents).
The body is of course the physical part of us.
What is the heart?
The heart is our soul (mind, emotions, will) with our conscience:
Heb 10:22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
What is the veil?
The veil is our own heart which is not close to the Spirit of the Lord.
The veil on our hearts is our independent self. The veil is our human self concepts, opinions, mindsets, doctrines, traditions, thoughts, wisdom, theologies, philosophies, feelings and intents and plans.....
The veil is our own thoughts, feelings and intents and conscience that operate independently of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our spirit.
How to remove the veil?
To remove the veil we need to get out of our selves by turning to the Spirit.
This veil is taken away when we turn to the Spirit of the Lord. What does it mean to turn to the Lord? It means to turn to the Holy Spirit within us, who is the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit is not a mysterious unknowable power or force.. the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ Himself who we can know and have intimate fellowship with. To remove the evil is by fellowshipping in and with the Holy Spirit. How do we turn to the Holy Spirit? We turn to the Holy Spirit by praying to, calling, praising, thanking, rejoicing in the person Jesus Christ.
We need to develop the habit of setting aside some time every day to contact the Lord and have meaningful fellowship with Him. The emphasis should be upon the quality rather than the quantity. And then to ensure the veil does not come back onto our hearts (by straying from the Lord), we need to maintain this fellowship with the Lord throughout the day wherever and in whatever we are doing.
When our hearts are in the Spirit we will be transformed so that we reflect the person of Christ - we will think, feel and intend more like Him. Also our conscience will be changed - our conscience will condemn us less, and we will know more carefully what does and does not please the Lord.
Scripture:
2 Cor 3:13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.
2 Cor 3:14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
2 Cor 3:15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
2 Cor 3:16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Cor 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The veil on our heart, is one of the biggest problems that Christians have. According to the scriptures above, it causes dullness, bondage, blindness, and not seeing any improvements in our life over time (no transformation into the image of Christ). It is the cause of many things including divisions, arguments, disputes, false doctrines, and generalized unhappiness and lack of satisfaction and reality in our Christian walk.
The veil prevents us from seeing, it prevents us from knowing God's will, it prevents us from thinking, feeling and desiring the things that we know the bible says we should. It causes us to be confused and blown about by every wind of doctrine and troubled over many things. It prevents us from bearing much fruit, since we cannot see where we are going, and we wander aimlessly in life doing much but accomplishing little. Removing the veil brings freedom, freedom from the law of sin and death, freedom from bondage, addictions, confusion and doubt etc, through transformation into the image of Christ.
Let's take a look what is the veil and how to remove it?
The short answer:
The veil is our own heart which is not close to Jesus Christ. We remove it by developing and maintaining a person relationship with Jesus Christ.
The long answer:
Firstly some basic facts about the human being:
God created man in three parts - spirit, soul, body.
The spirit is the part which contacts and communicates with God the Spirit. So much so that we believers are joined to the Lord and one spirit with Him (1 Cor 6:17). The main part of our spirit is our conscience.
The soul is the psychological part of us, our mind (thoughts), emotions (feelings), and will (intents).
The body is of course the physical part of us.
What is the heart?
The heart is our soul (mind, emotions, will) with our conscience:
Heb 10:22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
What is the veil?
The veil is our own heart which is not close to the Spirit of the Lord.
The veil on our hearts is our independent self. The veil is our human self concepts, opinions, mindsets, doctrines, traditions, thoughts, wisdom, theologies, philosophies, feelings and intents and plans.....
The veil is our own thoughts, feelings and intents and conscience that operate independently of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our spirit.
How to remove the veil?
To remove the veil we need to get out of our selves by turning to the Spirit.
This veil is taken away when we turn to the Spirit of the Lord. What does it mean to turn to the Lord? It means to turn to the Holy Spirit within us, who is the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit is not a mysterious unknowable power or force.. the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ Himself who we can know and have intimate fellowship with. To remove the evil is by fellowshipping in and with the Holy Spirit. How do we turn to the Holy Spirit? We turn to the Holy Spirit by praying to, calling, praising, thanking, rejoicing in the person Jesus Christ.
We need to develop the habit of setting aside some time every day to contact the Lord and have meaningful fellowship with Him. The emphasis should be upon the quality rather than the quantity. And then to ensure the veil does not come back onto our hearts (by straying from the Lord), we need to maintain this fellowship with the Lord throughout the day wherever and in whatever we are doing.
When our hearts are in the Spirit we will be transformed so that we reflect the person of Christ - we will think, feel and intend more like Him. Also our conscience will be changed - our conscience will condemn us less, and we will know more carefully what does and does not please the Lord.
