Ezekiel 36:26-28 “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone 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 observe my ordinances. You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” This episode is about God giving us a new heart and a new spirit to help us walk in His ways. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God Will Give You A New Spirit
Ezekiel 36:26-28 “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone 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 observe my ordinances. You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
When I read this verse I was instantly in love. I think there is so much in this short verse. “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” The Lord will give us a new heart and a new spirit. That is amazing to me. Do you understand how amazing that is? This is saying that nothing is too much for the Lord. Sometimes we think that our past is too much and so when the Lord is talking about loving us, He is talking about loving others, but not us. When he is asking us to love Him, He is talking to other people. He knows that I could never love Him because I could never love anyone.
I wonder if we all know and realize that God knows all we have been through? God knows about your childhood. God knows about the parent or spouse that abused you. He still loves you! He knows about the sins of our past. He still loves us! He knows about the terrible way we treated others over the years, He still loves us. He knows about that thing that you did that one time that you think no one knows about. He knows, and He still loves you. He knows about that drinking and the drugs. He still loves you! He knows about that unforgivable thing that you did that you would do anything to take back but you can’t. He still loves you! I know I may sound like a broken record because I give you this message often. It is because it is the foundation of everything. If you know that God loves you just as you are, sins and all, then you can love God. If you can’t accept that God loves you then I am not sure if you can love God.
I have heard it said before that we can only love God as much as we love ourselves. I don’t know if this is true or not. Honestly, I hope it is not because I know a lot of people that don’t love themselves very much and it makes me sad to think that they might not be able to love the Lord. Also, it makes we wonder if they can feel the Lord’s love. If we do not think that we are worthy of love, then how can we believe that the Lord loves us? This is why I love this verse! The Lord can give us a new heart.
Maybe our heart has been broken too many times. Maybe our heart has too much baggage and we just can’t seem to let go of it. Maybe our heart is full of unforgiveness. We may have been hurt so much in the past that we don’t want to forgive. We can’t see a way to forgive the horrible things that have happened. We don’t have to, the Lord can give us a new heart. It says right in the verse that He will take out the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. Do you feel like He is talking to you? Do you feel like you have been hurt one too many times and it is too difficult for you love anyone? Have you asked the Lord for help? Have you asked Him for a new spirit or a new heart? Maybe this had never occurred to you. I know I never knew this verse before. But now that I do, I know that all we need to do is turn to the Lord and he will give us a new heart and a new spirit. How amazing is that?
The next part of the verse is one that I need to remind myself of often. “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” The Lord will put His spirit in us and cause us to walk in His statutes and be careful to observe His ordinances. I am constantly thinking that I have to do this all on my own. I turn to God and I ask Him for help. We talk often. And yet, when it comes down to it, I try to be perfect for Him. I am hard on myself if I am not doing what I think He wants me to do. I wonder am I praying the right way, should I be fasting, should I be doing more? I wonder if the Lord is pleased with what I am doing and I wonder if He thinks I am not doing enough. I know that He loves me and that He doesn’t need anything from me. Then I act like I need to do everything on my own.
I like this part of the verse because God is telling us that He will put His spirit within me and He will cause me to walk in His statutes. I don’t have to do it all on my own. God is not saying that He will help me. He is saying He will do it for me. Why don’t I rest in the promise? Why do I strive to be perfect when I know the Lord doesn’t need my perfection. All He needs is my yes. All He wants is for us to be a willing vessel and then for us to let Him do His work. I worry that I don’t have enough faith. Then the Holy Spirit tells me that faith is a gift from the Lord. If I want more all I have to do is ask. I worry that I won’t walk in His footsteps and yet this verse is saying He will give His spirit so that I will. I worry that my prayers are not fruitful and the Holy Spirit tells me that He alone can make them fruitful. All God needs from us is our YES! Yes, I am willing. Yes, I am your vessel, fill me up. Yes, I want my will to be your will. Yes, I believe, help my unbelief. All we need to do is give God permission and He will take care of the rest. Can you do that?
The last line of the verse says, “You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” We shall be His people and He will be our God! I want to leave you with the words of God from our Prayer Group March 2021 because they go so well with this verse and because they are so powerful.
“Listen to your heartbeat. I want to be fully one with you. Draw closer. The Father and I are one, and you are one with me, so you are one with the Father as well. I will pour down my grace upon your heart, your will, your very soul. You will look like me. Trust in me. Follow me. Take time to listen to me, to know my will. Fear nothing. Have confidence in me. I am your Lord and God. I died for you to grow ever closer to me.”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to the podcast today. I ask that you put a new heart in us and a new spirit. Lord, take our heart of stone and replace it with one of flesh. Lord, the world can be cruel and we need a new heart and spirit. Lord, help all those that don’t believe they are worthy of your love. Help them to feel your love and to love you right back. Lord, help us to walk in your ways. We say yes to your spirit causing us to dwell in your ways and we thank you for being so gracious. Walking in your ways is not always easy and we appreciate all the help we can get. Lord we are grateful that we are your and you are ours. We love you so much and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on the journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you on Monday. Have a blessed weekend!