"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." Ezekiel 36:26-27
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17
Behavior modification is not the will of God. Only Christ changes you and I. The weighty thought of Jesus saying , "Follow me," wasn't a comfortable walk in the park - it is a call to die.
When we die to our flesh, we begin to look more and more like Christ - change. Do the changes happen immediately? Yes and No.
Yes, because when you repent and surrender your life to Christ, the Helper comes and dwells inside of us - change.
Oneness in Christ is critical here. Abiding in Him makes the change. Not you and I, but Him.
"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5
No, because we slip away from what it looks like to be completely surrendered to Him minute by minute. Apart from Him, "we can do nothing." Are we still a new creation? Yes. We just decided we would let the flesh take a go at life instead of Jesus.
"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." Romans 7:15
You and I, as believers and followers of Jesus Christ struggle between our flesh and in dwelling of the Holy Spirit (oneness in Christ) everyday. The question is, will you decide to let Him change you now. Not self-help books or behavior modifications, but true change in Jesus alone. He can!
I am living proof. That's my story. A changed man in Jesus Christ.
Transformed.
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