Ezekiel 36:26 - I Will Give You A New Heart And Put A New Spirit In You.
Ezekiel 36:26: I Will Give You A New Heart And Put A New Spirit
In You.
Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV) I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you
a heart of flesh.
WORD STUDY
New Heart. When Jesus speaks of the new heart, He means the
mind, the life, the whole being. To have a change of heart is to
withdraw the affections from the world, and fasten them upon Christ. To
have a new heart is to have a new mind, new purposes, new motives.
What is the sign of a new heart? - a changed life. SD100
Heart of Flesh. "Flesh" in the OT is often a symbol for weakness
and frailty (Isa 31:3); in the NT it often stands for the sinful
nature as a God-opposing force (as in Ro 8:5-8). Here it stands (in
opposition to stone) for a pliable, teachable heart. [NIV SB]
INTRODUCTION
God had finally had enough. He had sent prophets to his
people, pleading with them to turn from their wicked ways, but they
refused. Ezekiel 11:22-23 describes God's glory leaving the Temple and
the city. You'd think it was over. You'd think God had given up.
However, God had made a promise and he had a big plan. God had promised
to Abraham that he would bless the world through him (Genesis
12:3); to David he had promised an heir who would reign over his people
forever (2 Samuel 7:16). God would not give up on his people. So in the
face of certain judgment shines a glorious promise of restoration.
When you became a believer, God took out your stony heart and
gave you a tender, responsive heart. He has made you his child. What
awesome love is this, that God would call you his own! He will never
give up on you. [The One Year Bible for New Believers re
Eze.11:18-21]
God promised to restore Israel not only physically but
spiritually. To accomplish this, God would give them new hearts for following
him and put his Spirit within them to transform them and empower
them to do his will (see Ezekiel 11:19-20; Psalm 51:7-11). This was a
promise that looked forward to the new covenant, ultimately to be
fulfilled in Christ. This would be a covenant between God and a people
transformed from the inside out. They no longer would need a law enforced on
them by some outside authority. They would live by a law written by
God's Spirit on their hearts - the law of love (Matthew 22: 37-40).
God's Spirit is working in you. Have you thought about that?
As we follow his leading, he changes our desires and the choices we
make (Philippians 2:13). He also produces in our lives good works
that benefit others (Galatians 5:22). As we live by his Spirit, we
are free to "serve one another in love" (Galatians 5:13).
Think about how God wants to use you for his purposes. It may
involve changes in your heart and actions, but thats why he's given
you his Spirit. Are you spending time paying attention to his
leading? [One Year NLT SB]
Ezekiel wrote that God will "take out your stony, stubborn heart
and give you a tender, responsive heart" (Ezekiel 36:26). You
received a heart transplant when you became a believer. You had to,
because you can't live the Christian life in your own strength. God
never expected that. Instead, he wants to live the Christian life
through you. When you realize that, you begin to catch a glimpse of the
awesome love of a God who wants to keep your personality, your character
traits, your gifts, your likes and dislikes, and yet make you holy
through his presence in you. [The One Year Bible for New Believers]
Natural and acquired endowments are all gifts of God and need
to be constantly held under the control of His Spirit, of His
divine, sanctifying power. You need to feel most deeply your lack of
experience in this work and put forth earnest endeavor to acquire needed
knowledge and wisdom, that you may use every faculty of body and mind in
such a way as to glorify God.
"A new heart also will I give you." Christ must dwell in your
hearts, as the blood is in the body, and circulate there as a vitalizing
power. On this subject we cannot be too urgent. 7T189-190
COMMENTARY
Suppose you really blow it. You feel quite certain that God
could never forgive you or use you or care whether you get up the next
morning. Where do you go from here?
This portion of Ezekiel has the answer. As you read, notice
the Jews' change in attitude toward God. Once they were hardened -
now they're repentant. The tone of Ezekiel's prophecies changes to
match. The people begin to listen, and God responds. Here is the
turning point: God's enemies will be wiped out and good times will
return. Restoration and new life lie ahead.
Thirty-two chapters of Ezekiel record how Judah, and many of
the surrounding nations, would be punished for their sins. At first
none of the people listened to these divine rebukes. Finally God's
people admitted their guilt and set aside their stubborn rebellion. But
then they felt overwhelmed by their sorrow: "Our sins are heavy upon
us; we are wasting away!" (Ezekiel 33:10). God responded by saying
that he would not punish those who repented (33:10-12).
God doesn't enjoy punishing people, nor does he abandon us
when we stray from him. In every warning he calls us back. He prefers
that we turn from our sins, seek his forgiveness, and begin to follow
him again. No matter how far we've gone astray, we can always come
back to God, because he wants us back.
When you sin, don't resign yourself to a pitiless fate of
isolation from God. Simply confess your sins and acknowledge his right to
guide you. Don't let past disobedience ever keep you from returning to
God. [The One Year Through the Bible Devotional by Dave Veerman re
Eze. 33-39]
We often approach God with a sense of futility. With motives
as mixed as ours, how can we expect Him to give us the blessings
promised to the wholehearted? With faith as weak as ours, how can we
expect Him to reward us with answers? With tempers or cravings or
agendas as strong as ours, how can we expect Him to hear us without our
sins getting in the way? The standards seem so high for that
flourishing, superspiritual, ask-and-receive relationship experienced by so
many great saints. We never seem to measure up, and we know it.
The greatest blessing of the gospel of grace is that God
gives us all we need for life and godliness. If conditions are
required of us to receive from Him - like faith or desire, for example -
He fills in where our hearts are lacking. In the verse above, God
spoke through Ezekiel to people who were in exile. They would need to
seek God in order to be restored, but they weren't in a seeking mood.
That's okay - God was going to give them a heart to seek Him and know
Him. Their restoration was conditional, but God would give them the
means to meet the condition. Ultimately, their only requirement was to
not rebel against what He was doing in them and with them.
Paul wrote that God is at work in us shaping our desires and
our actions (Philippians 2:13). He is not only the intended end of
our search, He is the means to the end. Yes, our approach to Him
would be futile - if we were approaching Him with our own resources,
our self-produced faith, our own stirred-up desires, and so on. But
we aren't. We approach Him with a heart that He has given us. And
that heart is designed to measure up.
Father, I need that kind of heart - the kind You give. Fill
me with Your desires, Your faith, and anything else that pleases
You. [The One Year Experiencing Gods Presence Devotional by Chris
Tiegreen]
If a cat wanted to become a dog, it would take a lot more
than learning how to bark, dig, and slobber. It would require having
the heart and mind of a dog, taking on the entire canine lifestyle,
being doglike - not just because that's how dogs behave, but because
it's who the cat has become. It would take a new set of instincts, a
genuinely transformed nature that results in new behavior.
A cat can't become a dog, of course; it's impossible. But so
is the transformation from a person who does the right things
because they are right to a person who does the right things because
that's his or her nature. It's one thing to do good because we're told
it's good and therefore we obey. It's quite another to do good
because we're good deep down inside and goodness is what naturally flows
out. That's the new heart we're promised and the new nature we're
given by God's Spirit. That's what it means to partake of the "divine
nature" (2 Peter 1:4).
That's also the process for hearing God's voice. We often
look to Him for information, when really He is transforming our inner
nature so that the direction and motivation we seek comes out of who we
are deep inside. He is after a deep, inward relationship, not just a
conversation about facts. And as He transforms us, we find more and more that
His voice comes from within us, because that's where He resides.
This is our goal - not merely a voice from beyond, but a voice from
within that springs from our new nature. This is where God reveals His
heart.
Lord, I want to hear Your heart and share Your heartbeat. I
want to carry Your voice within me, not just hear words. Please plant
Your will deep within me. [The One Year Hearing His Voice Devotional
by Chris Tiegreen]
ILLUSTRATIONS
Nicodemus was not like the other Pharisees. He didn't want to
confront Jesus in the daytime, surrounded by nosy witnesses. He wanted to
meet with the real Jesus and ask heartfelt questions about why God
had sent him.
To Nicodemus's questions Jesus replied, "I tell you the
truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God"
(John 3:3). This was a new concept to Nicodemus. As a religious
leader, he would be familiar with the imagery written by the prophet
Ezekiel concerning God's capacity to transplant "a new heart. But he
sincerely didn't know how a man could return to his mother's womb and be
born again. So Jesus put it in terms he could understand: "I assure
you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water
and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy
Spirit gives birth to spiritual life" (John 3:5-6).
That night, Jesus went on to share what may be the most
intimate and memorable words of the entire Bible, including truths about
the world's darkness and God's light and the much-revered verse John
3:16.
We can't be sure what happened to Nicodemus. But he does
appear two more times in Scripture. On the Jewish high council, he
makes a bold stand for Jesus' legal right to a hearing (see John
7:50-51). And after the Crucifixion, he joins Joseph of Arimathea in
asking for Jesus' body to provide a proper burial (see John 19:38-42).
It appears that the night of that fateful meeting, Jesus may have
given Nicodemus a tender, responsive heart after all.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee and Jewish leader in Jerusalem. His
story is told in the Gospel of John, chapters 3, 7, and 19. [The One
Year Bible Live Verse Devotional]
Our neighbor's dog was a sweetheart and everyone in the
neighborhood loved her. But she had a talent for getting out of the yard. One
day, she managed to escape and was hit by a car, leaving her badly
injured and lying in a ditch. We rushed to help her, but as so often
happens with injured animals, she lashed out at us, growling, barking,
and snapping. The dog's owner wouldn't take no for an answer though.
He pushed past his dog's hostile response and took care of her -
because he loved her.
I have had times in my life when I was the one lying in the
gutter, broken and hurting. God came to me there and pushed past my
angry and hostile reactions - because he loves me. In spite of my
restless behavior and my foolish protests, he stuck with me, healing,
restoring, and changing me.
God has big plans for me, too big to leave me lying in the
gutter, licking my own wounds. He had a plan to get me back on my feet
and make me productive for his kingdom. He's given me a new heart
and a new spirit, and he'll never give up on me - because he loves
me.
Father, thank you for picking me up and putting me back on my
feet. Thank you for loving me so much that you helped me even when I
fought against your loving care. In Jesus name, Amen. [Celebrate
Recovery Daily Devotional by John & Johnny Baker]
God gave me this verse at a time when I had been looking for
happiness in all the wrong places. My marriage was falling apart, I was
addicted to drugs and alcohol, and I had a hard and heavy heart. God
brought me to a place of total brokenness, and through this promise of
removing my stony heart and giving me a heart of flesh, he began the
chiseling process that helped me see others through his compassionate eyes
of love.
Another turning point came soon after. This time it involved
repairing not only my spiritual heart but also my physical heart: A major
blockage required open-heart surgery and a long period of recovery. God
used that time and the interaction with medical personnel, family,
and friends to help me realize that I needed to accept others just
as they are and love them right where they are. As he opened my
spirit, he filled it with his Spirit! He healed me emotionally,
physically, and spiritually. My heart beats stronger"both physically and
spiritually"every day; and with each and every breath I take, he continues to give
me new and right desires to love others and to share the story of
God's own loving heart for the world.
Dolly Daso, who came to the Lord later in life, is a wife, a
mother of three, and a grandmother of seven. [The One Year Bible Live
Verse Devotional]
LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT
Most Important Decision in Life:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WGnEuGwvXqU?rel=0
Seeking God Made Real: http://vimeo.com/31489782
Prayer Made Real: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc8VdMV26VE
LINKS FOR BIBLE STUDIES AND SEMINARS
Restoring The Power by John Bradshaw:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRogO1SxoZN15Boa7BMon4BouVMdteVaq
Glow Tract Video Bible Studies: http://www.bibleresearch.info/
ABible.com: http://www.aBible.com
