Change

Text: Ezekiel 37:1-10

“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”

Simply put,Change means to alter or to modify the cause of something.

The Word of God in Romans 12:1-2 defines Change as a transformation and in Ezekiel 37:7, Change is defined as a shaking.

Types of Change: For the purpose of this discuss, change will be categorised into 2 groups, and they are;

1. The transformational Change: Mark 5:1-19:

“1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, about two thousand; ) and were choked in the sea. 14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. 15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. 16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. 17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. 18 And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. 19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee”

The above account gives us a very clear example of what the word transformation is. The mad man before his encounter with Christ could not be tamed. He broke every chain used to tie him up but when he encountered the eternal King of Glory, Jesus Christ, he was not just healed but he became an Evangelist automatically.

2. The negative or alterational Change: The book of Matthew 13:25 gives us a perfect picture of what this type of change is;

“But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.”

From the above passage, we can see clearly that this type of Change is caused by the enemy. Those who doesn’t want one’s progress. The enemies of the seed. The enemies of God. Dream killers. But today, they will bow in Jesus name!

What Causes Change? The causes of Change will be group into 2 categories. 1. Sin 2. Trials

1. Sin: Put simply, we can say it is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against God’s law. And for the purpose of this work, we will categorise Sin into 3 sub-categories because discussing sin itself can be very broad. They are i. Lies: This is an intentional false statement given by a person or group of persons, agreeing together to give a statement or account that is not true.

ii. Fornication / Adultery: This is the voluntary intercourse between persons not married to each other.

iii. Double Standard: A rule or principle that is unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups. Under this we have, Christians who live fake lives in church and in their social engagement live another.

2. Trial: This can be said to be the assessment of one’s suitability. And it is summed up in James 1:2- 4:

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

From the above, we can clearly draw the line between Sin and Trials. While sin is the intentional violation of God’s laws, Trials are meant to assess our suitability for God’s blessings which are meant to take us to a better level of relationship with Him.

Why do we need changes? Where we are today is most definitely not where God wants us to be, because the sins of Adam altered our position with God.

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (Genesis 3:1-7)

That is why Jesus manifested to redeem us back to our right position with Him. His wish for us daily is that we get to a new and better level of relationship with Him. Also, His desire is to prosper us beyond measure and He would rather we grow together with the blessings as not to be carried away by them when giving to us all at once.

Factors responsible for Change In science, we were taught that catalyst aid in reaction but does not go through the process itself. So it is with Change.

There are factors responsible for changes and they themselves do not under go the change process itself and these factors are spiritual. As we all know, the spiritual controls the physical and the spiritual in this case are divine and demonic, God and devil. That is why we must not flow with every doctrine or prophesies, some are from the pits of hell. The Word of God says to test every spirit;

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

What must we do to effect a positive change in our lives? 1. We must realise and agree with God that we need help. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3)

2. There is a proverb that says the day a mad man realises he is mad, he becomes normal, because he would start making conscious effect to get well.

Once we realise we need help, we must take the first step to effect a change by being born again.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

3. We know that when a baby is born, it must be feed with the right supplements to grow well if not certain defects will begin to manifest over time. So is being born again, after making a decision for Christ, we must feed on the word;

“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” (1 Peter 2:2)

4. Study the Word.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

5. Build a prayer altar / battle for your change. This is one area most Christian take for granted. Some say I have not wronged anyone, no one can harm me. This is as good as saying because you don’t eat lions, lions can not eat you. The enemies of God are desperately wicked and don’t understand what peace, mercy or forgiveness is. As a matter of fact, these are the fruits of the Spirit and its not in their dictionary. Prayer is a weapon of warfare – 2 Corinthians 10:4 The Word of God says:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

“Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:” (Psalms 144:1)

So we must FIGHT for our destiny because the devil wants to steal it – Matthew 11:12 / John 10:10.

In the battle of life, God never gives up on us except we give up on ourselves – Proverbs 24:16. Romans 9:16, 1 John 5:4.

Great men that fought for a Change Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ even at infancy had to be taken to Egypt as not to be killed by King Herod – Matthew 2:13.

Joseph never found things easy but he held fast to his dreams – Genesis 37:1-5

Jabez: As a maater of fact, Jabez’s case was a sad tale. How can someone go by the name “SORROW?” Wherever he went he could only be addressed as Sorrow, but the day he realised he needed a change, he fought for it and it came through for him – 1 Chronicles 4:10.

Jephthah: The some of an harlot who was rejected but soon became an hero. It did come in handy, he had to fight. – Judges 11:1-5, Judges 12:2-3

Changes do not come in a platter of gold, even as believers, because trails only become triumph when we engage them in battles. We must take a stand and fight for a change. How much more someone who does not have Christ in his life.

To win the battle of life, you must surrender to Jesus Christ because He alone can turn the tide in your favour.

If you don’t have a relationship with Christ, why not say this prayer:

Father! I surrender the totality of my being unto you. Cleanse me with the precious blood of Jesus and set me free. Break every sinful barrier in my life and change my story for good, in Jesus name I pray! Amen.

PRAYER POINTS 1. Father! Arise and let your enemies be scattered. 2. Every enemy of my soul, every enemy of my advancement, every enemy of my progress, arise O Lord and scatter them. 3. Its time for my light to shine from obscurity to limelight. Father! Break every barrier for me in Jesus name! 4. Father! You who change the story of Jabez, turn the table around for my good in Jesus name! 5. Father! This is my hour of breakthrough, set me free completely and break me free from the traps of sin and set me up in Jesus name.