The “In Christ” Metamorphosis
- Vanita George (20/04/2005)
(WOV Fire Group)
Introduction:
The title for my message today is “The ‘In Christ’ Metamorphosis”. I did my Bachelors in Zoology and I guess that’s where I’ve picked this term ‘Metamorphosis’. Most of us must know what it means but it simply means the process by which a ‘Worm’ or ‘Caterpillar’ turns into a beautiful colorful ‘Butterfly’. When a Caterpillar, the Worm is enclosed in a Cocoon, which is a shell that is a little hard so that the worm inside is protected. But as the worm GROWS, it begins to break out of the shell, shake itself and FLY away as a butterfly with beautiful wings. Hallelujah! I guess you already must be getting the implication of where I am going. At one stage of my life, when I was walking by myself, in my spirit I literally felt like I was breaking out of a cocoon and taking off as a butterfly – there was a real change happening on the Inside of me and it has been good. I haven’t really been having much time on hand and as I was meditating on the Lord and asking Him for a Word to share today, He dropped this into my Spirit real clear and I believe that He will minister through this Word to your hearts today.
My key verse for today is Isaiah 52:1,2: “Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion”.
As the Holy Spirit laid this verse in my heart, He wanted me to prophetically tell someone over here that from the time you were conceived in your mother’s womb, from the day you were conceived in the heart and mind of God – He saw you “BEAUTIFUL”. And you’ve gone here and there, got yourself muddled and dirtied up trying to fill and satisfy the emptiness in your soul, and the enemy has had a ball at your expense and you feel battered within and helpless and the Lord wants says, “You are Holy unto me. Shake off the dust from yourself, remove the bonds and wear the garments that I have sown for you with my blood, with my self and my life”.
Firstly, I’d like to talk about the ‘Worm’, about ‘You’ and ‘I’:
a) Fear & Weakness: The Bible says in Isaiah 41:14 “Fear Not, you Worm Jacob”! When I say Worm I mean someone who is a newborn, who has just had an encounter, a revelation of God. Jacob as we all might know means “the Deceiver”. Once Jacob had an encounter with Jehovah, he then became an Israel. The Deceiver now became known as the House of God. When we first accept Christ we are ‘birthed’ into the kingdom of God. The scriptures say that we become a new person, renewed after the mind of Christ. That means we have shed darkness and we have decided to walk in the light. God has removed the heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh, writing His Word thereon.
Self-testimony – when I didn’t know the Lord it was as if I was lost and life had no meaning. I constantly questioned Him about the Purpose of Life and why things were happening to me the way they were. I didn’t know why I was born, I didn’t know why I was living and I didn’t know where I was heading either. I lived because I had to. But then, I met the Lord, and believe me when the King steps in, He does step in with style. Before I knew Him it was my own righteousness and not His, but after I knew Him, I felt “the worm” that I was. I would sleep myself and write in my diary saying, “If there is a God answer me” and even at that stage I was going to the traditional church the whole time. Even my very countenance would look real sad and I was confused.
b) Recognition of Need: The Worm can’t really do much by itself. When I came to the Lord I recognized my ‘Nothingness’ with Christ and my NEED for this God. I was still muddled up and squirmy but I had made a beginning, a fresh start. I still was in the ground, finding my way and had not yet dared to soar high.
The first step to knowing Christ is “recognizing” that in your own strength you just can’t do it and need this Jesus, you see yourself as a WORM needing direction, help and guidance, from someone, from the King. As you go closer and closer to God, you stop feeling like a worm but this need and dependency on Him gets stronger and stronger.
c) Staying Connected: The Worm is initially connected and draws nourishment from its cocoon. We need to constantly stay connected with our source ever since we are born into the Kingdom of God. We need to stay connected to Him and to believers around us. And that’s what Women of Valor is all about. It’s about birthing and caring for the new souls and it’s about keeping fellowship with those that already have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
For Example, there was this wonderful sister in Christ that had called me up and she is a nice person. She is going through some rough times and wanted to talk to someone so gave me a call. After a while she kept talking and then didn’t even wait for me to say a yes or a no to what she said. I had a lot of things to say to her about how she could handle her situation but she was keener on talking and so I let her. I needed to excuse myself and cater to my son who was crying but that fell on deaf ears so I left the phone and picked my son up, took the other receiver and she still hadn’t noticed that I wasn’t responding to her. Later I understood that she was in a very tight and difficult situation and wanted someone to listen so I finally got to pray for her but couldn’t really tell her much about what to do.
The same it is with us as children of God. We dial in to God and then we talk and talk and talk to him about our “problem”, when He already knows our problem and is waiting to give us a “solution” to our situation. He knows the end from the beginning and He is the One that can change our situation so we must be WILLING to LISTEN to HIS VOICE and OBEY what He has to say. Then instead of going in circles we’ll get to the point straight. Hallelujah!
We always also need to be connected to our Leaders and those in authority. Like in an office situation, you cannot go past the boss! Of course, there is always a process that we can’t bypass, like the Worm can’t immediately fly as a Butterfly, but then we need to stay connected to our King, to our source.
Secondly, you are in a “Cocoon” and need to break loose:
a) Comfort Zone: The Cocoon is the environment in which the Worm is housed, has lived and known all along. To the Worm the cocoon is “familiar” ground. So much so that the Worm doesn’t want to leave the Cocoon. That’s ‘comfort zone’ and no one desires to leave their ‘comfort zone’. Like the saying goes, “a known devil is better than an unknown one.
God wants us to ARISE and go forth from our familiar grounds. He wants us to step out in faith into unknown territory. He does not want us to make excuses for staying in our comfort zone but rather He wants us to step out of our boats and walk on the water. He needs us to have faith. The Bible says “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe”.
As a worm we might expose our weaknesses and keep hiding behind them but as mentioned in the first part of the key verse, it says, ARISE oh Captive Daughter of Zion, Wake up from your sleep and slumber, wake up in Jesus’ name.
b) External Circumstances: The families that we have been born into are not of our choice and it is definitely God ordained. I can’t decide whom my children or husband’s family are going to be – they just “happen”! And similarly ‘External Circumstances’ are not of our “Choice” or “Desire” but situations that we have been put into. No one wants an abusive father or an incestuous brother but if that is the circumstance they’ve landed in then its ‘external’. External circumstances can have a very strong influence upon an individual’s life and most of the times that’s what tends to determine a person’s character, behavior and personality, tends to almost determine their destiny.
This is what Christ wants to change – He wants to change your destiny. Amen & Amen! Like bondage and chains around your feet, as a cocoon, your external circumstances tend to tie you down and dictate your future to you. There will be people that will good intentionally have you as a “baby worm” inside a “cocoon” instead of letting you soar high and flutter your wings as a pretty butterfly. You’ve got to get out of the cocoon.
I’m here to tell you to break free from all the circumstances that life has brought across your path and to shake yourself, O captive daughter of Zion, put on your strength and march forth in Jesus’ name. If someone speaks negatively and condescendingly to you, “BREAK FREE”, if your friends do not build you up but tear you down “BREAK FREE”, if you are being abused or see adultery and fornication trying to lock you up “BREAK FREE”. These are only chains that want to hold you down so that your beauty cannot be shown!
c) Internal Circumstances: When saying Internal circumstances I mean the actual, real person – YOU, Your internal makeup, your personality, your likes and dislikes. These are in your hands to change. Of course it is definitely influenced by all that happens around you but this is ONE thing YOU CAN CHANGE. Sometimes there are certain behavior patterns in our lives that keep setting us up for defeat instead of success and its not anyone else’s fault but our very own and we need to break away from that cycle once we recognize it. For example, grumbling and murmuring is something that we can change and replace with gratitude.
Years back I was a really negative person, very unhappy too. Anything that ever happened, I could easily pick out the negative from it instead of the positive. I could see what shouldn’t have happened instead of the good that is happening. And I needed to change “ME” and my perspective and see things through God’s eyes. I needed to break from the cocoon of negativity and fly in the air of positivists and faith. I am enjoying where I am right now. Hallelujah!
What are the Internal Circumstances that you are waiting to break forth from? Are they tormenting you as you lay down to sleep at night? Do you want your very nature to change? Jesus Christ can do that in a jiffy only if you stay connected to Him.
The Inside Person you can either change or make the Cocoon a Tomb or a Grave, else you can use it as a launch pad to get closer to God, to draw near to the Lover of your Soul. You can let it KILL you or Break free and CHANGE you.
Thirdly, you are ready to fly as a “Butterfly” and spread your Wings:
Taking Off: It is beautiful to watch the planes shoot off into the air from ground. They go slow and then off they are to fly great heights. The worm lingers low for a season, goes through a process and then takes off as a butterfly, fluttering her wings ever so gently. And how beautiful butterflies truly are. As the key verse states, “Put on your beautiful garments”, we need to actually “PUT” on the garments of Christ. We need His blood to clothe us and put on the complete armor of God.
Taking off, as a butterfly does not necessarily mean that you start a church or preach off the pulpit, it is experiencing the peace of God that passes all understanding. Only the person that has been disturbed and their minds have been a battlefield will know what I am talking about, the one that has experienced hurts, deceit and has experienced torment of soul, knows what it means to ONLY, just ONLY rest in His Presence, abide with Him and just stay in tune with Him. Taking off is about getting to that place of constant REST and PEACE with the King!
Show your Colors/Talents: Once you’ve broken free from the cocoon, dear sisters in Christ, there is NO stopping you. The beautiful you that Christ saw in the beginning have just begun to emerge and you will do exploits and great exploits for His Glory alone!
I believe that every child of God has a purpose and is gifted, except that our gifts are all different and very unique. When you’ve reached the Butterfly stage, all that you have to do is “FLUTTER your WINGS”! Hallelujah! You don’t have to go here and there asking to be used, God Himself will use you, your talents will automatically used because now you are moving in a different realm where you are not looking to please man, or waiting for man to open doors, but you are fluttering your wings in joy and your very presence carries the fragrance of Christ and you naturally begin to minister and fulfill the Call of God upon your life.
My dear sisters in Christ, you are a Woman of Valor, and that’s how God sees you. So though you might be in a process, rest assured that soon you will flutter your wings as a butterfly and not only will you be blessed but also be a blessing unto those around you. In Jesus’ name! Amen & Amen!
