“I will take away your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)
Think about it. God says your problem is that the capacities of your soul have been petrified: “You have a heart of stone, but I will give you a heart of flesh.” The question is how does this happen?
Think about the incarnation—God becoming man. The Son of God took our flesh, but His becoming man meant more than taking our flesh. It also meant that he assumed all the faculties of a human soul:
Think about the mind of Christ, a mind that learned the Scriptures.
Think about the heart of Christ that was moved with compassion.
Think of the will of Christ, setting his face to go to Jerusalem, submitting His will to the will of the Father as He prayed in the garden “Not my will, but your will be done.”
Think about the conscience of Christ. We usually think of conscience working retroactively. You do something wrong, your conscience tells you afterwards. Jesus never knew that, because he never sinned. Conscience also works proactively—like a spider’s web alerting us to approaching danger.
Think of the imagination of Christ—how He used parables to bring the things of heaven down to earth.
Think of the memory of Christ, how on the one hand He could forgive, and how He kept affirming the goodness and faithfulness of God.
Imagine if His Spirit could enter your soul!
That is the greatest promise of the gospel—that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ comes to your soul. Think of it, the Spirit of God comes into the boardroom of your soul, and occupies that vacant seat at the table.
When He comes, He comes as the Chairman of the Board. He comes to preside. When He comes, He summons the other members of the Board:
“Mind,” He says, “we need to get you renewed.”
“Heart, we need to get you changed.”
“Will, we need to get you redirected.”
“Conscience, we need to get you educated.”
“Imagination, we need to get you focused.”
“Memory, we need to get you trained.”
The new chairman begins to direct the members of the Board. There will still be battles in the boardroom. The Spirit of God can be grieved, but He comes as the chairman, not as the dictator.
Where He is welcome, change will begin. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory…” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
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This LifeKey is based on the message “Avoiding a Shallow Life,” by Pastor Colin S. Smith, delivered January 6, 2002, from the series “Battles From the Boardroom of the Soul.” Colin currently serves as Senior Pastor of the The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He is committed to preaching the Bible in a way that nourishes the soul by directing attention to Jesus Christ.
