Ezekiel prophesied what Jesus called being born again, or spiritual regeneration, looks like. It has captured my attention for the last several years. The Holy Spirit inspired him to describe salvation as, 1) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And 2) I will give you a new heart, and 3) a new spirit I will put within you. And [clarification of the first one] I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And 5) I will put my Spirit within you, and 6) cause you to walk in my statutes and be CAREFUL to obey my rules(Ezekiel 36:25-27, ESV emphasis added). The captivating part to me is the observable carefulness planted in a person when authentic spiritual regeneration occurs. We are only very careful about things on which we place a high value. Jesus illustrated this value system when telling of a man finding a treasure in a field. He valued it so much he sold all he had to buy the field.
I love to see someone genuinely acknowledge their desperate need of God’s salvation and observe how God plants a powerful passion in their heart to know more about God and obey His rules. What is so sad is to see that same person several years later and discover they had followed the lead of other believers in allowing their blazing inner passion for God to reduce into a feeble flame, even allow it to go out. How could that happen if they followed Jesus’ words If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples (apprentices) (John 8:31b, ESV)?… unless, of course, they followed other believers instead of what Jesus said.
What is it about humans that when we have an exceptional experience with God, we come to take God’s gift for granted and neglect to feed that flame He planted within us? The original desire to know and love Him more is the priceless gift intended to not just sustain our new life but bring us the most abundant life possible. The Psalmist wrote, Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways (Psalm 128:1, NIV). Do we falsely assume taking time to study God’s word to discover His ways is something beyond our ability? Or could it be we are like one of the first three soils Jesus talked about in His parable of the seed and the soil (Mathew 13:18-23)?
There is a serious disconnect between hunger to know more of God’s ways and truths and being a happy camper in His Heaven. The core values Jesus practiced while on earth, provides a working model of what the culture being practiced in Heaven looks like. The motivations, convictions, knowledge of God and His kingdom are starkly different. Is it possible for the modern Christian to genuinely find pleasure living in Heaven that will be so culturally different? Or do believers expect there will some form of a cosmic carwash that we will go through that will wash off all our spiritual adultery before entering Heaven? If so, there is nothing said about that carwash in the Bible. I am more inclined to believe that if a person is not in love with Jesus Himself while on earth, assuming they make the trip, he or she will experience PTSD upon entry.
It will best serve us in the future if, today, we take Jesus’ words seriously when He said, Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually DO the will of my Father in heaven will enter (Matthew 7:21, NLT2 emphasis added).