Pattern of Salvation, Blessing and Growth

UV 2796/10000 Pattern of Salvation, Blessing and Growth
I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
Ezekiel 36 v 29

Mankind is constantly striving to transform our external conditions with a hope that it will lead to a change in our internal condition. But God reverses the pattern: He first works on a change in the internal condition and then that leads up to a change in the external conditions. The pattern of salvation is that the Lord first saves a person from the power of sin. He then saves a person over his lifetime from the presence of sin. The Lord is the One who transforms a person from within. He gives us a new heart and a new spirit which is continually connected with Him. The unbelieving and unfaithful heart and spirit of man becomes a believing and faithful heart and spirit. He changes the heart of man so that it is no longer stony and unfeeling and it beats in resonance with the very heart of the Lord. Scripture says that the heart of the godly is like a continual feast. We enjoy a continual feast of joy, love and fellowship with the Lord. He sends the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and cleanse us from all that stains our souls. He not only saves us from eternal condemnation but saves us from our individual pattern of sins. He calls for blessing and abundance in our lives.
The heart of the ungodly, the unsaved is inured to sin and does not feel any remorse or does not even realize that he has sinned. This separates man from the presence of the holy and righteous God. It also brings in “hamartia” or all kinds of curses or shortcomings in the lives of the ones with stony hearts. He calls the famine of blessings upon himself and it is not as if the Lord curses or punishes him. But a person who receives Jesus into his life, receives a new heart and develops a new perspective on life. He becomes sensitive to the presence and the move of the Lord in His life. Instead of curses or shortcoming or hamartia, He receives the blessings of increase from the Lord.
The uni-verse promises that the Lord will not send “no famine” upon His chosen ones. Instead, they will enjoy a flood of blessings, of “hyperbole” instead of “hamartia”. The uni-verse says, “ I will call for the corn”. The corn is a symbol of what satisfies human need. The Lord will command an increase of whatever is required to satisfy our need- spiritual, intellectual, emotional, relational, professional, financial and material. The increase of corn is also a metaphor for growth: that the believer in Christ will grow in all aspects all his life on earth. No increase in our lives happens by accident or purely by our natural efforts. It is willed by the Lord.

Prateep V Philip