And We Are Changed

For some of us, the change comes softly, slowly. For others, it comes through the noisy violence and the painful trauma of our own making. And for others still, it is the crushing and squeezing weight of indifferent circumstance, that comes upon us like a wine press. For those who are called according to His purposes, the change comes.

We are all of us born with dead, stone-like hearts. Desiring to make our own way in this world, we are convinced we know all things. We stand reveling in our own achievements. We are enamored with the life we have built, not knowing that we are dead men walking.

And then, in a time convenient to Him, The Word speaks. The heart hears and produces a small fissure in the cold, rocky place we call our heart. And into that dark fissure, a lifeless void really, a seed is strategically deposited.

The Word speaks again, and some life-giving water flows deep into the fissure. And the seed drinks in and bathes itself in the water of life. And time passes.

When all seems lost, The Word speaks again, and something startling occurs. The tender sprout of increase silently splits the seed wide open. Roots develop and break up the cold, stony place and create a rich, fertile soil. The living shoot reaches up for the light of The Word, its source, and growing upward, overtakes the void… and then you can hear a sound.

The sound is like a muffled drum. Quiet at first, it becomes steady, regular. The stone is gone. The darkness has fled away. New life pulses through the heart, for it has now become flesh like. The heart is now warm and full of life and light. Functioning tirelessly and beating now with purpose. And we are changed!

Ezekiel 11:19 TPT
I will give you a new, undivided heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stubborn heart of stone and give you a tender heart that responds to me—a devoted heart of flesh.

—Paul