"Lean not on your own reasoning or understanding; in all your ways be intimate with Him and He will direct your ways".
Romans 10:10 - "a man believes with his heart".
So faith, the faith for miracles, is in the heart. Also, unbelief is in the heart, so where people have been rejected, and they come to a conclusion: I'm not good enough - it's hard for them to believe for any miracles for themselves, because inside their heart is conflicted with what the word of God says. The heart needs to be healed. The word of God is sewn in your... Heart! It can bring forth fruit, or not bring forth fruit, depending on the condition of your heart.
Most people, when they hear that Parable of the Sower and the Seed, put themselves somewhere. They never think: I might be the wayside; no, I'm here in church... and I wouldn't be the rocky ground. No, no, I'm here every week! I wouldn't be the thorny ground, no, no, I'm serving in the church. Isn't it wonderful how we hear: 30, 60, 100, and think: I'll just be modest, I'm 30-fold. So we put ourselves in there, not really thinking that actually: in one part of our life, we may actually be really bearing fruit, but another part really barren, hard, hard ground - and often that's in family. It's the heart. It's really important.
I will just give you one more scripture... In the last days the condition in the earth, of hardness of heart will be so great, that God has to send a revival to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the fathers to the children. He would not send an end time move like that, unless there's a major issue with hearts - disconnected relationships in marriages and families. It will be so great, that it will need a revival to repair the damage! Elijah had to confront what was the substitute for the reality of God's spirit and love, which was a controlling power. So whenever the heart is damaged, if we don't get it healed, we will come under a controlling spirit, and we will become controllers.
So the heart is where you experience and carry the presence of God.
Ephesians 3:16-17 - "His prayers will be strong, strengthened with might in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your... Heart, by faith"
Our spirit is joined to the Lord, but the manifestation of His presence, where we feel Him, is in our heart. But if your heart has got walls, then you don't feel the presence of God. You know He's there by faith, in your spirit, you're born again; but you don't feel it, because the feeling of God is in the heart. The emotions that you feel are a reflection of your heart speaking.
Romans 5:5 - "Now the love of God is shed aboard... out of our hearts."
Where is the love of God felt and experienced? In your heart - and it flows from your heart, if you have revelation of it. So all ministry should be flavoured with the revelation of the love of God, not with agenda to be important. So your prophesying, if there's no love in it, is like 'clanging', because people feel: I see what you're doing, but actually something's missing. I don’t feel the love. I see what's done, but I don’t feel the love. The love is the heart part in it.
The love is the investment of the heart. This is one of the reasons relationships break down - we don't feel the love, because the heart has become hardened by all kinds of things: disappointments, and griefs, and setbacks, and other things; so the flow is reduced.
#6) The heart is the place where sin, or faith, is conceived. In Matthew 5:28, we saw that adultery is conceived in the heart; and finally, the heart is the center of your motivation. Your motives are the motives of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 it talks about the word of God being sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the diving asunder of soul and spirit, and the intents and motives of the heart. So the intentions that drive you, the motives that drive you, really come out of what's going on in your heart.
If you don't connect with your heart, how will you know what really moves you? That's why we've got to be tender in the presence of the Lord, and allow Him access to our heart, so He can show us the places where actually, there's a hidden agenda behind a lot of what we do - so we can represent Him accurately. God has no agenda except to love you. His love is a gift to you, but we kind of get caught up with this thing where actually, I've got a leverage in here, I want to get something, that's why I'm doing this, and this, and this. That's what makes it all political, and it makes it something missing in it - and you can actually feel it.