What does the Bible mean when it talks about the heart?
In Scripture, the heart is the central inner part of a person that has relationship with the spirit world, not the physical blood-pumping organ. It is where true belief, trust, and faith originate, as opposed to mere head knowledge. God begins and finishes His work in that area.
Les explains that a person can mentally assent to the historical facts that Christ lived, died, and rose again, yet that is not the biblical meaning of believing. Believing does not come from the head; it comes from the heart. The Bible speaks of the heart in the chest area, as illustrated by the stones placed in a pouch on the chest because it was the love of Israel next to the heart, but it is not the pumping organ that moves blood. It is the central part of us that has relationship with the spirit world, and it is where God must begin and finish His work. Les warns that many will miss heaven by twelve inches because they had it in the head but never in the heart. So heart faith is true trust in the gospel, not mere mental agreement, and it involves resting one's whole eternal destiny on it.