Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Your computer has a default mode whereby if you do not actively go in and change it, every document you type will have the default format, layout, font, and size. If you want a different default mode so that you do not have to change it every time, you must go in and put in a new default mode so that mode will automatically go into operation when you turn on your computer. In other words, you must transform what your computer automatically does.
When you are born physically from your biological parents you have a default mindset or mode in which you operate. It comes from the corrupted seed of Adam that came into operation as your default mode when he changed his operating system from being based on My Word to be based on the devil’s word. It is set on self and results in negative behavior such as complaining, whining, cheating, stealing, anger, resentment, revenge, bitterness, envy, jealousy, murdering, addictions, and the like.
“What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.” James 4:1-2.
An operating system focused on self is how you are born, that is, on taking everything for yourself you can get ahold of and having a fit if you cannot get it, with babies and young children this can erupt in tantrums, crying, screaming, pouting, and grabbing. As they get older this pattern of behavior may become more subtle, but if not actively changed, the default mode of selfishness and pride, which are the devil’s traits, will continue.
My servant Paul understood this default mode and I showed him how to reset it to another operating system which will give you the ability to control your mind.
“I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” Romans 7:21-25.
And the answer of how to reset your operating system from the flesh mode (dead to Me and alive to sin) to the Spirit mode (dead to sin and alive to Me) has two parts: (i) be born again from imperishable seed; and (ii) renew your mind. In other words, get the old way cleaned out and then reprogram from the old mindset to the new mindset and match your automatic default operating system based on the devil’s lies to your new heavenly system based on My truth.
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2.
You are born again by receiving Jesus as your Lord. You offer your bodies to righteousness instead of sin, you use your dominion authority for bringing Kingdom laws to earth, and you change your operating system, and then you are transformed. No longer leave your default operating system that formats your life so it conforms to the default mode of the world, which is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. These are of the world and not of Me, 1 John 2:16-17. This mode leaves you back in your fleshly life of crawling with the devil in the dirt. You must be transformed by the renewal of your mind to the reality of your born again nature. You are a new creation in Christ.
When you renew your mind in My Word, which is My operating system, you are not just conformed to it, you are TRANSFORMED (TRANSFIGURED) by it.
In the Greek language in which the various epistles of Paul were first written, the word translated “transformed” is the word “metamorphoó: μεταμορφόω,” which is also translated elsewhere as “transfigured” when Jesus was transfigured on the mountain before Peter, James, and John this was the same word. Metamorphoo means to transform, transfigure. Metamorphóō is the root of the English terms “metamorphosis” and “metamorphize.” It is from metá, “change after being with” and morphóō, “changing form in keeping with inner reality.” In a fuller description morpho means to form, fashion, shape, mold, essentially taking on the form that properly embodies a particular inner-essence.
And this is the process by which a caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly. I have set an example of metamorphoo in nature so you may understand the spiritual. Jesus taught you spiritual truths from considering birds, flowers, farming, and the like so now learn from the caterpillar.
A butterfly lays its eggs by sticking them to the bottom of green leaves. They are hidden from predators but there is another reason for this, they are born to eat until they are full enough to transform to a totally different creation. As soon as they come out of the egg, they begin to eat all day and all night as they crawl about and cling to the leaves.
Jesus told you that man does not live by bread alone but every Word that comes from My mouth. Jeremiah found My Words and devoured them for they were the joy and treasure of heart. And I told Joshua to feed on My Words by meditating on them day and night, letting them never be out of his mouth, walking according to My Words and not deviating from them. The righteous man meditates in My Word day and night. And I told Moses to tell My people to write My Words upon their doorposts and in the their homes, to speak of them when they got up, when the lay down to sleep at night, and while they walked along the way. I told them to keep them before their eyes and write them on their hands. These Words of Mine are not idle words they are your life.
The baby caterpillars eat and grow thereby until they are too big for the outer skin (exoskeleton) encasing them and then they shed (molt) it and underneath is a new and bigger skin. The more Word you fill your heart and mind with, the more you grow thereby. 1 Peter 2:1-2. And I enlarge your heart as I reveal to you more and more layers of richness in My Word. Psalm 119:32 (‘I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.”)
The encumbrances of sin begin to fall off and you expand your knowledge of My Word. Hebews 12:1. You are molting until you are full enough of My Word that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in My image and according to My likeness has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:22-24.
And the caterpillars eat until they outgrow the next layer and again shed it as they molt to a bigger one. The caterpillars repeat this eat-shed-eat process five times until they reach a size where they’re large enough to undergo metamorphosis. Five is the number of grace. The number five is depicted by the fifth letter of the Hebrew aleph-bet and it is the letter hei (ה), of which there are two in My Name of יהוה. Of My fullness you have all received, grace upon grace.
This molting in the caterpillar’s growth is known as an instar. Growth can be measured during each instar. It is also a way to describe a caterpillar’s development. And after the fifth time they of molting they have now eaten enough to transform so they spin a cocoon of silk or molt into a shiny chrysalis from their own bodies and roll themselves up in it like a burial shroud. And that is the end of the old life, I am doing something new. When hatch from the cocoon, they come forth as a new creature. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
And inside the cocoon or the chrysalis, the caterpillar is transforming into a new creature. This requires that the old caterpillar body be broken down and turned into something new. Enzymes are released and literally dissolve almost the entire caterpillar into a nutrient soup. Only a few other things remain: the nervous system, the breathing tubes, and the imaginal disks.
You may be wondering what are the “imaginal disks.” This is very significant.
When they are born caterpillars, I have put something very special inside of them: imaginal disks. These “disks” are just small clusters of cells that match up with the structures they’ll need as adults. The adult form that is the butterfly. There’s one imaginal disk for every adult body part—wing, eye, leg, etc.
Before they just remain hidden but in the cocoon, as the caterpillar dies to its old manner of life, the imaginal disks are free and they start to rebuild the caterpillar into more than you could ask or imagine. The disks move to the correct positions where the legs, wings, eyes, etc. should be, and the cells in the disks start to absorb the nutrient soup to grow and multiply. The new creation is formed from the old. Wings sprout where there were none, and their senses develop as better antennas rise up and large eyes appear, their mouth changes and it sucks the sweet nectar of flowers instead of the chomping on leaves. Butterflies cannot chew or bite, they use their proboscis to drink sweet nectar from flowers. Nectar sometimes resides deep within a flower and the proboscis allows the butterfly to reach this sugary treat.
I put in your mind and heart the power to imagine, to see visions, to dream dreams of great and mighty things. See yourself healed. See yourself prosperous. See yourself in the mirror of My Word. I show you things, visions and dreams, I give you plans, write them down and run with them by faith.
Joseph, the son of Jacob, hung onto the dreams of greatness and I gave him, in the time of his slavery he would meditate and ponder on them. And when his life had gone through thirteen years of death to himself, suddenly he rose anew to new heights of promotion and joy. A new creation based on the vision of two dreams I had put in his heart.
Caterpillars can barely see; they are close to blind. Their simple ocelli eyes can only decipher light and dark. They’re unable to see a clear picture of what’s in front of them. “The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.” Proverbs 4:19. Those who trust only in their flesh are like barren bushes in the desert that do not see good when it comes.
Different from the caterpillar of their old life, I give butterflies amazing eyesight. Their visual fields are larger than other insects. Butterflies sense colors better than any other creatures and see colors on the spectrum that are beyond what most perceive by their physical senses. Butterflies can have up to fifteen different types of photoreceptors and thus can perceive lower wavelengths as well giving them the ability to perceive ultraviolet light.
When you are born again you get spiritual eyesight and insight. Revelation light. And you receive gifts from the Holy Spirit which let you perceive things you would not otherwise know—the Word of wisdom, the Word of knowledge, the discernment of spirits.
You can see not only what you perceive with your physical eyes, but things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. To see them takes spiritual sight. I enlighten the eyes of your heart that you may know the hope of My calling for your life, what are the riches of the glory of your inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of My power in you who believe. Ephesians 1:18-19. I draw back the veil of the flesh and let you see things that are not of this world but of the Kingdom.
Even though the entire caterpillar goes through this whole process, some things do stay the same. Butterflies can remember things from way back when they were just caterpillars. This shows that even though the body is rearranged, most of the nervous system remains intact. Just because you are born again and become a new creation, does not mean you do not remember your past. But be like I am about you when you are born again. I only remember the good and none of the bad. You sins and offenses I remember NO MORE. How can that be? I put them all on Jesus and they are not yours anymore.
By the time the transformation of the caterpillar is complete, the new butterfly is fully-formed within its cocoon or chrysalis. It then hatches for the second time in its life. The new creation will pause to get its bearings and test its new body; its wings and antenna unfurl and harden. Then, it’s off into the air to start its new life full of sweetness and colors and light!
How about you? Keep your eyes on resurrection life. I have placed the symbol of the butterfly behind your eyes deep in your mind. It is the sphenoid bone. A central bone within the skull, it has a very complex shape, in appearance just like a butterfly with a body and two sets of wings—the lesser and greater wings—as well as two pterygoid processes (protrusions that descend from where the wings meet the body).
The sphenoid bone is one of the seven bones that make up the orbit (the space that holds the eyeball), its large gap allows nerves associated with vision to pass through, and helps make up the floor of the middle cranial fossa, the butterfly-shaped depression at the base of the skull that houses the temporal lobes of the pituitary gland and the cerebellum. The cerebellum, which means “little brain,” is primarily involved in coordinating movement and balance, voluntary actions such as walking, running, dancing are all coordinated by the cerebellum. It can also play a role in cognitive functions like language and attention. The muscles also attach there that have to do with chewing and speaking.
If you see with renewed eyes and mind you will find many symbols and signs of resurrection life. Be transformed (metamorphoo, turned into a new creation) by renewing your mind in My Word. You will not be the same.
You are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, you are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:14-16.
I love you. A renewed mind is a transformed mind. And a transformed mind is a controlled mind. You can control your thoughts and words. So lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Set up your new default mode.