SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/14/2015
10:18 PM
My Worship Time Focus: God’s Transformation of His People PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
36:26-30
Message of the
verses: We continue to look from
this section in Ezekiel (36:24-38) how the Lord transforms a believer’s life
through His Son Jesus Christ. In this
section from Ezekiel we also see how the Lord will transform His people Israel
in the last days.
Our second way of transforming through Christ is “A New
Heart” “"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within
you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart
of flesh.” When we look at this in the
case of Israel it was the Lord’s desire for Israel to have this new heart
before they entered the Promised Land, but it did not happen so now the Lord is
promising that they will receive this new heart in the future, in the end
times. Let us look at a similar promise
from Jeremiah 24:7 “’I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD;
and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me
with their whole heart.” Also in
Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 31 and following we see that he speaks about the
New Covenant that God will make with Israel and this is also seen in the book
of Hebrews where the author copies the text from the Greek translation of the
OT. Dr. Wiersbe writes “A ‘stony heart’
is a hard heart, one that doesn’t receive God’s Word and nurture spiritual
growth (Ezek. 2:4; 3:7).” When a person
understands their need of salvation through Christ alone they are given a new
heart, one that will want to follow the Lord.
Next we will look at the third way God will bring
transformation and that is He will give the Holy Spirit to them and will also
give the Holy Spirit to all who come to know Christ as their Savior and
Lord. “"I will put My Spirit within
you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My
ordinances (Ezek. 36:27).”
The Holy Spirit is the One who accomplishes these
miracles in the hearts of those who trust Christ as their Savior and Lord for
salvation. Dr. Wiersbe writes “He gives
us a new heart and a new spirit and also a new desire to love the Lord and obey
Him.” The Holy Spirit will produce the “fruit
of the Spirit” in believers as seen in Galatians 5:22-23, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control;
against such things there is no law.”
Dr. Wiersbe goes on to say “The witness of the Spirit in the heart is
proof that the person has been born of God (Rom. 8:9, 14-17; Eph. 1:13-14).” The reason that we have a desire to act like
a believer is because of the Spirit’s work in our hearts which gives us to live
like a believer. “No one who is born of
God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because
he is born of God.”
Next we look at the fourth part of God’s transformation
of Israel and applying it to those who have been born into God’s family. God will again claim Israel as His people “"You
will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I
will be your God Ezekiel 36:28).”
I mentioned the New Covenant that Jeremiah and the author of the Hebrews
writes about, and when this happens in the end times God will again claim them
as His own. As far as for believer’s
today we look at John chapter 10 where Jesus said “John 10:16 "I have other sheep, which are not of
this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will
become one flock with one shepherd.”
The fifth part is the Lord will cause the land to
flourish as seen in verses 29-30 “29
"Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will
call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. 30 “I
will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you
will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations.” I remember a long time ago the first Pastor
that I had after becoming a believer said that there was a particular store he
would go to buy oranges at because they were from Israel and everything grew
bigger in Israel because God blessed the land.
This is a true statement and in the end times it will be seen
again. As we speak of believers fruit we
can go to the 15th chapter of John’s Gospel were we can read what our
Lord said about the production of fruit in a believers heart: “1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is
the vinedresser. 2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes
away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more
fruit. 3 "You are already clean
because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 “Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so
neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches;
he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you
can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does
not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather
them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 “If you abide in Me,
and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8
“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be
My disciples.” All believers produce
some fruit and this what can tell if a person is a true believer. Believer’s hearts are like the land spoken of
in Ezekiel, as they will produce fruit.
We will continue
this in our next SD.
4/14/2015 10:55 PM
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