Restoring a Hardened Heart to Spiritual Understanding Biblically

Sources

1. John ““He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would turn, and I would heal them.” -- John 12:40”
2. Acts “For this people’s heart has grown callous. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again, and I would heal them.’ -- Acts 28:27”
3. Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Heart, The — Issues of life are out of -- Pr 4:23. God Tries. -- 1Ch 29:17; Jer 12:3. Knows. -- Ps 44:21; Jer 20:12. Searched. -- 1Ch 28:9; Jer 17:10. Understands the thoughts of. -- 1Ch 28:9; Ps 139:2. Ponders. -- Pr 21:2; 24:12. Influences. -- 1Sa 10:26; Ezr 6:22; 7:27; Pr 21:1; Jer 20:9. Creates a new. -- Ps 51:10; Eze 36:26. Prepares. -- 1Ch 29:18; Pr 16:1. Opens. -- Ac 16:14. Enlightens. -- 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:18. Strengthens. -- Ps 27:14. Establishes. -- Ps 112:8; 1Th 3:13. Should be Prepared to God. -- 1Sa 7:3. Given to God. -- Pr 23:26. Perfect with God. -- 1Ki 8:”
4. Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Heart — According to the Bible, the heart is the centre not only of spiritual activity, but of all the operations of human life. "Heart" and "soul" are often used interchangeably (Deut. 6:5; 26:16; comp. Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33), but this is not generally the case. The heart is the "home of the personal life," and hence a man is designated, according to his heart, wise (1 Kings 3:12, etc.), pure (Ps. 24:4; Matt. 5:8, etc.), upright and righteous (Gen. 20:5, 6; Ps. 11:2; 78:72), pious and good (Luke 8:15), etc. In these and such passages the word "soul" could not ”
5. Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Heart, Character of the Renewed — Prepared to seek God -- 2Ch 19:3; Ezr 7:10; Ps 10:17. Fixed on God -- Ps 57:7; 112:7. Joyful in God -- 1Sa 2:1; Zec 10:7. Perfect with God -- 1Ki 8:61; Ps 101:2. Upright -- Ps 97:11; 125:4. Clean -- Ps 73:1. Pure -- Ps 24:4; Mt 5:8. Tender -- 1Sa 24:5; 2Ki 22:19. Single and sincere -- Ac 2:46; Heb 10:22. Honest and good -- Lu 8:15. Broken, contrite -- Ps 34:18; 51:17. Obedient -- Ps 119:112; Ro 6:17. Filled with the law of God -- Ps 40:8; 119:11. Awed by the word of God -- Ps 119:161. Filled with the fear of God -- Jer 32:40. Meditat”
6. Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Affliction, Prayer Under — Exhortation to -- Jas 5:13. That God would consider our trouble -- 2Ki 19:16; Ne 9:32; Ps 9:13; La 5:1. For the presence and support of God -- Ps 10:1; 102:2. That the Holy Spirit may not be withdrawn -- Ps 51:11. For divine comfort -- Ps 4:6; 119:76. For mitigation of troubles -- Ps 39:12,13. For deliverance -- Ps 25:17,22; 39:10; Isa 64:9-12; Jer 17:14. For pardon and deliverance from sin -- Ps 39:8; 51:1; 79:8. That we may be turned to God -- Ps 80:7; 85:4-6; Jer 31:18. For divine teaching and direction -- Job 34:32; Ps 27:11; 143:10. Fo”
7. Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Regeneration — Only found in Matt. 19:28 and Titus 3:5. This word literally means a "new birth." The Greek word so rendered (palingenesia) is used by classical writers with reference to the changes produced by the return of spring. In Matt. 19:28 the word is equivalent to the "restitution of all things" (Acts 3:21). In Titus 3:5 it denotes that change of heart elsewhere spoken of as a passing from death to life (1 John 3:14); becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17); being born again (John 3:5); a renewal of the mind (Rom. 12:2); a resurrection from the ”
8. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, section 9: by God in His Word ( 1 Cor. ii. 10-16 ). It is not, therefore, a revelation of new truths, but an illumination of the mind, so that it apprehends the truth, excellence, and glory of things already revealed. And second, 16 This experience is depicted in the Word of God. The Bible gives us not only the facts concerning God, and Christ, ourselves, and our relations to our Maker and Redeemer, but also records the legitimate effects of those truths on the minds of believers. So that we cannot appeal to our own feelings or inward experience, as ”
9. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 54: the mind the intellectual knowledge of those truths. Both these are essential. The work of the Spirit is with the soul. That by nature is spiritually dead; it must be quickened. It is blind; its eyes must be opened. It is hard; it must be softened. The gracious work of the Spirit is to impart life, to open the eyes, and to soften the heart. When this is done, and in proportion to the measure in which it is done, the Word exerts its sanctifying influence on the soul. It is a clear doctrine of the Bible and fact of experience that the truth”
10. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 5: Augustine — Anti-Pelagian — CHAP. 29. -- GOD IS ABLE TO CONVERT OPPOSING WILLS, AND TO TAKE AWAY FROM THE HEART ITS HARDNESS.: Now if faith is simply of free will, and is not given by God, why do we pray for those who will not believe, that they may believe ? This it would be absolutely useless to do, unless we believe, with perfect propriety, that Almighty God is able to turn to belief wills that are perverse and opposed to faith. Man's free will is addressed when it is said, "Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."[9] But if God were not able to remove from th”
11. Hebrews (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Hebrews 3:8: Harden not you hearts,.... There is a natural hardness of the heart; the heart of man is like a stone, destitute of spiritual life, motion, and activity; it is senseless, stupid, impenitent, stubborn, and inflexible, on which no impressions can be made, but by powerful grace: and there is an acquired, habitual, and voluntary hardness of heart, to which men arrive by various steps; as entertaining pleasing thoughts of sin; an actual commission of it, with frequency, till it becomes customary, and so habitual; an extenuation or justification of it, and so they become ha”
12. Acts (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Acts 28:27: For the heart of this people is waxed gross,.... Or fat; stupefied with notions of carnal and temporal things, and become hardened against, and unsusceptible of, divine and spiritual things: and their ears are dull of hearing; the Gospel, and its joyful sound; to which they stop their cars, as the deaf adder to the voice of the charmer: and their eyes have they closed; and wilfully shut, against all evidence from facts, miracles, prophecies, and preaching: lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and shoul”
13. CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 57: in order to reach it. Nor even when it has reached it does it comprehend what it feels, but persuaded of what it comprehends not, it understands more from mere certainty of persuasion than it could discern of any human matter by its own capacity. Hence it is elegantly described by Paul as ability “to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,” ( Eph. 3:18, 19 ). His object was to intimate, that what our mind embraces by faith is every w”
14. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 7: Augustine — Homilies on John — CHAPTER XVI. 12, 33 (continuea). (part 2): to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness; and to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the power of God, and the wisdom of God;"(1) but to the carnal, as babes who held it only as a matter of faith, and to the spiritual, as those of greater capacity, who perceived it as a matter of understanding; to the former, therefore, as a milk-draught, to the latter as solid food: not that the former knew it in one way out in the world at large, and the latter in another way in their secret c”
15. Ezekiel (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Ezekiel 36:26: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,.... A "new heart" and a "new spirit" are one and the same; that is, a renewed one; renewed by the Spirit and grace of God; in which a new principle of life is put; new light is infused; a new will, filled with new purposes and resolutions; where new affections are placed, and new desires are formed; and where there are new delights and joys, as well as new sorrows and troubles; the same which in the New Testament is called the "new man", and the new creature, Eph 4:24. The Targum paraphrases i”