Holy Spirit will transform you into a new person by changing the way you think!
00:00 Introduction
1:44 The Way of the Caterpillar
2:08 The Way of Man
2:50 The Caterpillar Creates a Chrysalis
4:05 Our Chrysalis
5:24 God’s Process to Transform Us
9:45 Learning to Live in God’s Strength
11:33 Activation
Romans 12:2 NLT “ Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” This is Biblical. You can have this. This is how you become like Jesus.
This is not you or I trying to change ourselves.
No. It’s God. God is the only one who can change us to be like Him. We don’t have godliness – his supernatural character to give to ourselves. We have to receive it from God.
God’s process to transform us into new people.
The original Greek word that scholars translate “transformation” is metamorphoo – from which we get the English word metamorphosis.. It’s hard to believe a butterfly was once a caterpillar.
God wants to make that level of change in you. He wants people to look at you, shake their heads, and not believe it is possible for a person to change so totally, so wonderfully.
The Way of the Caterpillar
The Way of Man
The Chrysalis
But a caterpillar reaches a stage in its life when it loses its appetite; the things that have always satisfied it no longer do.
The caterpillar stops its frantic life. It goes off by itself and creates a safe place to change – a chrysalis. The chrysalis is safe but transparent. Others will see the messy process of transformation the Caterpillar is about to go through.
Get Still and Surrender
Now begins the most amazing process in all of nature. The caterpillar gets still, surrenders and dies as a caterpillar.
When it surrenders and closes the chrysalis around itself, powerful enzymes break down the body of the caterpillar. The caterpillar is forever gone, dead. But powerful life-giving forces are at work in the goo that was the caterpillar.
Imaginable discs, DNA, placed within the caterpillar from the time it was an egg but dormant until now, come to life and direct the creation of an entirely new creature from the goo that was the caterpillar. Every part of the caterpillar is replaced with a new creation: a new heart, new eyes, wings instead of feet, new appetites - everything.
The old caterpillar has passed away, a new butterfly has come. A Completely new, unmistakably different creature comes to life. And that new creature has a new purpose. It brings life by pollenating flowers and brings beauty everywhere it goes.
People Who Lose Their appetite for the things of this world
Christians are those who at some point in our lives, heard Jesus talking to us. We felt His love. Somehow, we came to know He is real and He loves us. We become dissatisfied with our lives.
We realize that the deepest desires of our hearts aren’t being satisfied by things, fame, money, power or people. We lose our appetite for the things of this world. Not all at once, but gradually, over time.
And we find in Jesus what we’ve been looking for all along. We surrender our lives to Jesus.
We enter God’s Chrysalis
We all know that many Christians are saved and will be in heaven, but they are still broken and definitely have not been transformed into people with the heart and character of Jesus. These Christians are in pain and they can cause great pain to others. Often without even realizing it.
Romans 12:1-2 tells us to let God change us. But we must be willing.
If we are willing, we go to God and find a safe place to be changed. Time alone with God’s is our chrysalis. What we surrender to God begins to die.
2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Like the caterpillar in the chrysalis, we are being transformed. The caterpillar has imaginable discs that break down the old caterpillar and from the goo that now is all that remains of the caterpillar, the imaginable discs create an entirely new creature. Some discs form an eye, others, a wing. The caterpillar’s role is to be still and be transformed. Then, the new creation – the butterfly must break free from the chrysalis and begin its new life.
Our role is to go to God, be alone with him, and stay there as he changes us that’s our chrysalis.
We certainly don’t cause our transformation – but we either enable it or stop it.
Romans 12:1-2 NIV
God’s Process
In 2 Corinthians 12:10 he wrote:
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Unlike the caterpillar, this isn’t a stage of our lives. It is a life-long process of renewing our minds, surrendering our weaknesses and failures, and letting Holy Spirit transform us to be like Jesus.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
ACTIVATION