Listening to the Holy Spirit:
I have given you a new name. Your past is no longer. If you truly believe and live as My disciple, you are made new. Those surrounding you may call you down into the depths, a place familiar but now unfit for My beloved. They do not see, for the change is not yet completed. You know Me and the voice of My Spirit, but still you are changing. Do not look back to the way of the old man, unhealed, unrepentant. What formerly was, must now be forgotten. I call you to a new life in My Name. Strengthen your walk as I strengthen your legs. Live anew from your infirmities; no longer do you carry the sin. Repent and see clearly where I call you. For life is new. See now what awaits. Walk not as in former days. Greater you will be, and greater they will see.
John 9:8 (ESV) – The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV) – 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.
2 Cor 5:17 (ESV) – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Phil 1:6 (ESV) – And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Taking It to Work:
Some changes are absolutely amazing. I remember as a kid, watching a caterpillar hang itself under a leaf, and right before my eyes, in maybe a matter of a minute or two, the outside of his body hardened and got sort of shiny, and the little leg he was hanging from turned into a weird thick stem. Back then my eyes were sharp, and even saw sort of spiral path of glistening material that sparkled like a thin gold chain. Now I didn’t hang around long enough to see the real miracle of the butterfly, but I saw enough that now fifty years later, I still remember how impressed I was with such a shocking change, right before my eyes.
Read the scriptures for today. We are in the midst of a shocking change ourselves. People see it, and if you stop and look, you will see it too. We may not be the butterfly yet, but we are not the caterpillar we once were.
Your life is being made new, including your work life. Your ethics, your honesty, your desire to give your best; your better language, your friendlier demeanor, your growing willingness to serve and forgive others; all of these and more are the beginning of the metamorphosis of what God is doing in you. Look how far you have come since that first day of your promise. You are a new creation in Him.
Don’t forget to take that new you to work, as His Word continues His work in you, today.
