Ezekiel 36:26 – I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
The work of the Holy Spirit in our soul is incomparable to anything else in this life. He transforms us by putting a new nature within us, Ezekiel prophesied by the Holy Spirit saying that the New Covenant would be marked by God’s people receiving a brand new heart. Our old heart was dead, decimated by the fall and incapable of following the Lord. This new nature is different, created anew in the image of God. Ezekiel also spoke about a new spirit. This new spirit is the spirit of man united with the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit actually comes to live inside of us. Paul said that we become new creations or new creatures in Christ. Here is how Matthew Henry describes this.
“That God will give them a new heart, an inner disposition that is excellent in itself and vastly different from what it was before. God will bring about an inner change in order to produce a universal change. This shows us that all who share in the new covenant and belong to the New Jerusalem have a new heart and a new spirit, and these are necessary for them to walk in newness of life. This is the divine nature that believers share in by his promises. That, to replace their heart of stone, a hard and insensitive heart, disinclined to receive any divine influences and to respond with any heartfelt devotion, God will give a heart of flesh, a soft, tender, responsive heart, one that has spiritual senses exercised, conscious in itself of spiritual pain and delight and submitting in everything to the will of God. This shows us that renewing grace produces as great a change in the soul as the turning of a dead stone to living flesh.”
So the question I have to ask you is this, have you received a new heart and a new spirit/Spirit within you? How would you know? It all starts with the heart or the things that are important to you. This new person has a hunger and thirst for God. It is clearly seen in a love for the Bible and a love of gathering together with other believers for worship. Allow that thirst to deepen inside of you, the more you drink of Him the more these changes will become evident.
