I am confronted with a reality again this morning,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s that only God can change me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regeneration is not a work of man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter how well I will desire to change,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Change must come from above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regeneration means \u201cto generate anew,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I cannot generate a new lifestyle or new way of thinking or new nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I cannot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Made available to those who believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because I believe, I am a candidate for regeneration,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I must never equate my faith to the regeneration,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As though my faith was the power that brought regeneration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We must come to the point of total dependency,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The point where we know that even our best wishes and best efforts cannot bring change in our nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our hard work and intense discipline may control external behavior,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we must differentiate external conformity to inner transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A dog may stop eating bones out of a strong discipline to change action,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it may actually start eating grass for a season,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the inner nature of the dog has not changed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And its deepest longing for bones has not evaporated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It endures the eating of grass but deep within,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It knows that this is not who it is and what it is meant to be eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regeneration has not taken place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Desire has not changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The old nature has remained intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dog may eat grass like a cow,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the dog is still the dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discipline is good but regeneration is better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regeneration changes the inner nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regeneration transforms the heart desire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regeneration digs deeper and changes roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regeneration really \u201cre-creates\u201d a new person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the beauty of the work of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus did not come to create conformists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus did not come to call us to become moral gurus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus came to redeem and then to regenerate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I must not stop at redemption and forgiveness of sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s more in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I must long for and believe that regeneration is God\u2019s will for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God did not send Jesus to raise a generation of crippled believers who limp through life, barely surviving the temptations and seductions of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God sent Jesus to raise a brand new creation of humanity whose nature are totally aligned with heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My entire being is redeemed and regenerated into the life of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is my portion in Christ Jesus<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I will not settle for anything less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And guess what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because I believe in this truth and I want it,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God is committed to do what only He can do which is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCreate a God-life in me that is above anything this world has to offer or anything that this world can take away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My life is above the world because my life is regenerated into Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halleluya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am confronted with a reality again this morning, And that\u2019s that only God can change me. Regeneration is not a work of man. No matter how well I will desire to change, Change must come from above. Regeneration means \u201cto generate anew,\u201d And I cannot generate a new lifestyle or new way of thinking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-heartcry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Heartcry.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5715,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5713\/revisions\/5715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}