God will give you a new heart (Ezek. 36:26). It doesn’t matter what was in your heart before you came to Christ. God will give you a new heart. If you’ve been struggling in any area, know that God wants to give you a new heart that is free from bondage.
The Bible says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). God will give you a heart transplant. He will do a miracle in your heart. This is God’s promise through the new covenant.
It started with the people of Israel. God told them, “I’m going to do something inside of you.” Even though it is being taught that once you are a homosexual, you will always be a homosexual, God can still completely transform you. The same is taught about alcoholism: If you were once an alcoholic you will always be an alcoholic. The devil is a liar. I don’t care how much of an alcoholic you were; you can be delivered. And when you are delivered you are no longer an alcoholic. You are a new creature in Christ. When God delivers you from alcoholism, you can’t even stand the taste of it anymore.
When God delivers you from smoking, you don’t even like the way cigarettes smell anymore. You wondered how you ever smoked.
When God changes your heart, you are no longer the same person you were before. There may be temptations that try to pull you back into your previous lifestyle, but you can shut those down.
You don’t have to be a homosexual or a lesbian anymore; you don’t have to be a fornicator or an adulterer. God is saying, “When I do this work in your heart, there is going to be such a miracle that people are going to say they can’t believe it. They will wonder how you left that lifestyle.” The kind of change I am speaking of has to be an inside job.
We have testimonies of transgender people who have gotten saved. Some even had sex changes. We tend to think that if someone goes that far they are reprobate. But nothing is too far for God’s reach. God can do a miracle in the person’s life and change his or her heart.
I want to remind you that there is nothing too hard for God, but pride blocks prayer, worship and the moving of the Holy Spirit. Proud people can hinder the flow of the Holy Spirit; humility is a key to operating in the power of the Holy Spirit.
When we pray, we should always approach God with a spirit of humility. The concept of supplication in Bible verses such as Philippians 4:6 is about submitting a request to one who is in authority over us. God is our creator, our ruler. He is sovereign. He is to be reverenced and feared. He is our ultimate help. But those who operate with a spirit of pride will have the attitude that they don’t even need God, that they don’t need His covering and protection. Pride will cause us to strive and work things out on our own. Pride causes us to lean to our own understanding, which is, at the very least, limited. We cut God’s infinite wisdom and unlimited strength and provision out of the picture, and we set ourselves up for failure and burnout, among other things.
Pride is a mean spirit. People who are prideful disregard the feelings and needs of others. There is no consideration in the way they interact with other people. They speak to them however they want. But this is not how we as believers are to carry on in our day-to-day conversation with others. We should always be walking in love, grace, humility and kindness.
Pride makes you think you don’t need anyone, that you can do everything on your own. It leads you to see people as resources to leverage and use to achieve your own ends. Pride keeps you from experiencing the intimacy of relationship, collaboration and exchanging thought and ideas. It keeps you from seeing the value in others. Pride will lead us to compete rather than collaborate.
Humility is a great weapon against pride, and it invites the grace of God (James 4:6) into the battle. The spirit of pride produces a hardness of heart in people (Job 41:24), making it even more difficult to bring those being used by this spirit to the repentance they need.
The battle with pride is the toughest of all because it’s at the root of our fallen nature. We will not win against this in our own strength. We can win, though not without humbling ourselves before God and seeking Him for deliverance. His Word says that we are new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) and He has promised to give us a new heart (Ezek. 36:26). There is nothing impossible with God, and all things are possible to him who believes. Do you believe that? {eoa}
Prayer Power for the Week of October 2, 2016
This week thank the Lord that nothing is impossible with Him. Ask Him to dispel any doubts you may have concerning what seems impossible in the eyes of man and trust that He is sovereign over all. Pray His will in all things and rejoice that He will accomplish what you ask. Continue to pray for wisdom and safety regarding the upcoming elections. Stand in faith for God’s promises concerning Israel, worldwide revival and the pouring out of His Spirit on all flesh. Pray that believers will unite together in prayer and purpose for God’s will to be done in our nation and around the world (2 Cor. 5:17; Ezek. 36:26).
Joakim Lundqvist