Caterpillar Is Dead……….Butterfly Forever
CATERPILLAR IS DEAD……….BUTTERFLY FOREVER
(Having the Right Spiritual Mind-Set)
PART ONE
Do you know when you gave your life to Christ, your old nature the “Old Man” was crucified with Him and now the “new you” is all God can see.
He sees only the future, not the past.
When God looks at you, He sees your “New Man”, the new creation.
He sees you as He created you, like His Son.
When God deals with you, He is dealing with your New Man.
When He points out something in your life that is not quite right, that is the place of your next miracle.
He only sees this side of the cross, the resurrection life.
This thought might be new to you but believe me, it is life changing when you get it.
Let’s look at it another way: When I see a butterfly, I smile and follow it with my eyes until it is out of sight. I see beauty in the butterfly; colour, grace, joy. Summer days are brought to mind. It leaves me with a good feeling.
I never think caterpillar, struggling through life, crawling from meal to meal with no purpose and leaving destruction in its path.
I see sunshine and flowers, the fruit of summer, and the promise of the harvest to come.
Because of the transformation in your life through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, you are a new creation.
You are like the butterfly.
God is working with the new creation.
He is not working with the caterpillar.
He is not working with your sin.
He is not working with your behaviour.
He is only working with the butterfly, because the caterpillar is no more.
It is gone, replaced by beauty, transformed into Grace and life eternal.
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.
PART TWO
Romans 8:29: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be firstborn among many brethren.
Don’t be negative about your shortcomings. Don’t put yourself down.
Focus on the new and you will go forward.
You are a dwelling place of God (think about what that means)
Don’t dwell on the things that God doesn’t even see.
You need to cultivate this spiritual mind-set of knowing who you are in Christ.
Then you need to make the right choices; after all, our lives are made up of our choices
You make your choice to walk in the anxiety or to walk in the anointing.
Everything God does to you is always training you for Son-ship.
When stress comes, the Holy Spirit comes too. We seem to forget that somehow.
The right mind-set is the key to healthy emotions.
Negative emotions have a huge negative impact on your thinking and anxiety brings exhaustion.
I can hear you say, “I’ll be glad when this is over”. In your mind, this means you cannot be happy until it is over.
God wants you to live your life, in the present, whatever that is.
Our way of seeing our problem is the problem.
The right mind-set is a mirror that enables us to see His image in us and ours in Him.
Focussing on the problem gives it power to grow and, dominate our thinking, to dominate us.
We need to partner with the Holy Spirit.
The 2 best questions in the bible are:
- What does this mean?
- What must I do?
Not, Why me? & Why did this happen?
When we go round the mountain again it is because we are doing it our way.
God wants to change us so we start to see His point of view.
God doesn’t condemn you so don’t condemn yourself.
GOD DOESN’T CALL US OUT, HE CALLS US UP!
He gives us Grace that enables us everywhere we go, to be above all conditions and circumstances.
Our lifestyle with the right mind-set, enables us to overcome, in difficult circumstances.
When the enemy opposes us, Grace is enough to deal with it.
Remember, the Grace that overwhelms us overwhelms the enemy too. Hallelujah!
God’s Grace is sufficient for you but we limit God.
He is with us 24/7, not just when we pray or worship.
Grace is like raising a standard, like pulling up the drawbridge.
Grace is being content in any circumstance or situation.
Grace is our place of safety in the Lord Jesus.
You are growing in Grace, standing in Grace.
Grace, cannot fail.
Even on your worst day you are more than a match for the enemy.
However, you have to apply these things. Encourage yourself in the Lord like David did in the Psalms.
God wants you to know the power and dominion and authority you have.
So, stop focussing on the things you get wrong and focus on your strengths.
THE CATERPILLAR IS DEAD…….BUTTERFLY FOREVER!!
START
Prayer:
Father we thank you there is none like you. No one loves us like you love us. No one understand us like you understand us, and no one has ever been more committed to us than you. We thank you for this new life in Christ, and Holy Spirit come and do what you do best, teach us, touch us, move in our hearts. Open up our understanding and make our hearts glad. Amen
Romans 6:3-11
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the)glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:14-18
14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
God has reconciled you to Himself. And what He is saying to us is, “if you want to have fellowship with me, you have to see yourself the way I see you.”
I’m the same to