Ezekiel 36:22-24, 25-27 TPT 
“Therefore, say to the people of Israel what I, Lord Yahweh, say: ‘I will not take action for your sake, people of Israel, but for the sake of the honour of my holy name, which you have caused to be slandered among the nations wherever you have gone. I am going to magnify the holiness of my great name, which you have greatly dishonoured before the eyes of foreign nations. And when I magnify my holiness in you before their eyes, the nations will know that I am Yahweh. I, Lord Yahweh, have spoken.’ I will sprinkle purifying water over you, and you will be cleansed from all the filth of your past. I will wash you clean from the defilement of worshiping false gods. I will graciously give you a new, tender heart and put a new, willing spirit inside you. I will remove your hard heart of stone and give you an obedient, responsive heart instead. I will put my Holy Spirit in you to empower you to keep my laws and to live by them.”

I want you to imagine that just yesterday you got married and you were now having breakfast with your new spouse. And as you finish you say to your new spouse “I am actually finding being with you too intimidating, too scary. Could you please give me book with a summary of your life up to now, your future plans and a list of your expectations of what a spouse of yours should do and be. It should have everything you think I need to know to be your spouse. And if you could post it to my minister’s house he will give it to me. Then we can go our separate ways now because then I will have all I need to know to act as your spouse.”

Can you imagine anyone saying that? Can you imagine a distance marriage relationship like that? Does that not seem crazy?

After God had freed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, He led them to Mount Sinai. And there the elders of Israel recommitted the nation to follow God. Then God told them through Moses that He was coming to meet with them personally so they could hear Him speaking to Moses.

But when it came to the actual event, the people were so terrified by God’s Presence they said to Moses; “”You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” (Exodus 20:19 NRSVUE) 

The upshot of this was that Israel remained at a distance and God dictated the Old Testament Law to Moses. Israel then committed to following the law.

And if you read the history of Israel in the Old Testament you can see this distanced relationship worked about as well as you might expect. 

Hence in Ezekiel 36:22 God told Israel they had slandered His Name in the way they lived.

And the prophet Isaiah said: “This is what the Lord says about these people: “They come near to me with hollow words and honour me superficially with their lips; all the while their hearts run far away from me! Their worship is nothing more than man-made rules.” Isaiah 29:13 TPT

But, before we are tempted to get critical of Israel, you should know that since the reformation of the Christian church in the mid 17th Century, much of the church has adopted and taught Cessationist theology. This teaching says, that now that Scripture is complete, all the supernatural expressions of God’s Personal Presence, like prophets, apostles, miracles, visions, speaking in tongues, and God speaking personally to people, have ceased. Now, most churches effectively teach that reading the Bible is the only way we can have a relationship with God. 

Hence, shortly after I became a Christian, when I asked one of my youth group leaders, “What happens next? How do you live the Christian life?” He answered, “You read the Bible and do what it says.” And I replied, “That’s it?” And he answered, “Yes”.

I knew my sins had been forgiven by God through Jesus death on the cross, because my church taught that, but living the Christian life was presented as obeying rules set down in the Bible, rules like the 10 Commandments, or women should not speak in Church. 

As for understanding most of the Bible or finding a relationship with God through it, I remained in the dark as to how to do that. There was so much that happened in the Bible that I never saw happening in church and so much that happened in my life for which the Bible seemed to have no answers. By the time I was in my mid thirties I was feeling my worship and my relationship with God had become simply a set of man-made rules. I felt very distant from God and was unhappy with that but could not see a way forward.

That was when God came to me in church and told me He wanted me to go to Bible College. I had no doubt it was Him because I recognised His Presence and I had not ever had the slightest thought of going to Bible college. I had trained as a scientist and that was where I expected to stay. So much so, that I thought I could obey God and yet get out of going to college by being honest with the college principal about where my spiritual life was at. I went to see her and told her how God had told me to come and then explained that I did not read my Bible or pray, except when I had to at Bible study group. I found those occupations to be of no use. And I expected her to tell me come back when I had sorted myself out. But instead she just smiled and said, “We can deal with that.” So I began a Bachelor of Theology. 

One of the first subjects I did was the basics of sermon preparation and our first assignment was to write down the preparatory information we needed for a sermon on Ezekiel chapter 37. And one of the first things we were told to do was read the chapters that went before and after it so I did. 

And in Ezekiel 36 (TPT) as I read verses 25-26: “I will graciously give you a new, tender heart and put a new, willing spirit inside you. I will remove your hard heart of stone and give you an obedient, responsive heart instead. I will put my Holy Spirit in you to empower you to keep my laws and to live by them,” those words were lit up in my mind as though they were displayed in Neon Lights. And I recognised God was making a personal offer to me of a new heart and a new spirit, joined to His Spirit. I knew my heart had hardened to God but recognised that this was the next step I had been looking for for 20 years. So I immediately said, “YES PLEASE!”

So, you might say, what does it actually mean? How does it happen?

The first thing that stands out in this passage is that it is ALL about what God is going to do. God is saying:

I AM going to cleanse you from all sin

I AM going to remove your old hardened heart and give you a new tender responsive heart

I AM going to put a new willing spirit inside you

I AM going to put My Holy Spirit in you to empower you to live as my holy people.

God is saying He will recreate His people from the inside out in a four part process: cleansing from sin, the gift of a new tender heart, the gift of a new responsive spirit and the gift of His Spirit living in us.

Now, if you have spent any time in a Christian church you have probably heard a lot about how Jesus death on the cross has cleansed and freed us from our sin and that is part of what the water baptism we practice represents. “For he  [Christ] died for us, sacrificing himself to make us holy and pure, cleansing us through the showering of the pure water of the Word of God.” Ephesians 5:25b-26 TPT

And this is where I was in terms of understanding when I was told to just read the Bible and do what it says. 

But if that is where we stop how do we become more like Jesus and have an intimate relationship with God? Does the responsibility for change rely solely on my willpower and my understanding of what the Bible teaches? Has Jesus saved me only so I can go on floundering about trying not to sin just like I did before I was a Christian?

Thankfully that is not where God stops in this passage. Just like a telemarketing add, God is promising more, much more than cleansing from sin.

Now when the Bible uses the word heart, it does not mean just our emotions. The word translated as heart is a word that is the name for the seat of the will, everything that goes into our decision making and actions. So it covers thinking, understanding, learning, experience and emotions, the core of who we are as humans. And God knows our hearts become hardened to Him, damaged through our actions and the actions of others which hurt us. 

So as well as cleansing from sin, He is offering to give us a brand new undamaged heart that is responsive to Him. A heart that is free to love God and others just like Jesus did.

Then He is offering to give us a new spiritual self that is also responsive to Him. 

It is an offer to remake us from the inside, to restore the image of God in us that has been broken by sin. 

And finally and most importantly, to seal the deal, to give us a permanent and intimate relationship with Him, and empower us to live His holiness He is offering to put His Holy Spirit in us, just like it is in Jesus. He is offering to seal us into the intimate relationship of the Holy Trinity! You can’t get closer or more empowered than that! This is how God wants to magnify His holiness in us.

And ALL this is His work!

So you might say, what happened next? Was it all done and dusted in the instant I said yes? What difference did it make?

When we went to live in Germany in the 1980s we really had no idea what it would be like, and though Steve had done German at school, I knew no German. It was a steep learning curve in how to live in a foreign country. It had never occurred to me that so many ordinary things in life could be done differently. For example when you rent an apartment there you are literally renting just that space in a building. There is no guarantee that it will contain light bulbs, floor coverings, cupboards or any built in kitchen or bathroom. We were lucky to find one with a kitchen sink, bathroom handbasin and bath. But gradually over time we learnt more of the language and culture and how things worked. And now when we go back there it feels like a second home. 

And learning to live in and use these gifts from God are like that. It is a process of discovering and absorbing God’s culture and God’s way of thinking and doing things.

The most important thing God has taught me since then is how to have conversations with Him and be confident I am hearing His voice. So now I know I can discuss Bible passages with Him and learn directly from Him. And because of this the Bible is no longer a dead book to me but a significant part of God’s communication with me.

Some times God will suggest things that I need to address. In a prayer time one day He told me He wanted me to forgive a person who had hurt me a great deal. I had not even thought about it, was not even aware of the need. And when He said it I replied, “No Way! She should’ve known better; She DID know better. I can’t do that.” And God replied, “I am not asking you to do it in your strength, I am asking you to let me forgive her through you.” And I replied, “OK. You can do that if you want but only if it requires no effort on my part!” And that was where that conversation ended and I thought no more about it. But a few months later I was sitting next to just that person in church when the minister was preaching on how God can restore relationships. And as she preached I felt as if a sword had been run right through the middle of me, releasing something and I knew the work of forgiveness had just been done by God. And not surprisingly it healed my relationship with that person. It also taught me the critical lesson that changing the way I think and act is God’s work and all I have to do is give Him permission to do it. That has been a very real relief and blessing.

So now I know I can ask for that sort of change in advance. For example I once had to confront a church leader about how they had been bullying someone in a public teaching session. And I knew my automatic response would be to just tell them they had been a bully and it was not acceptable. And I knew that that approach was rarely successful. So I asked God for a different approach and what came to mind was how a prophet used stories to confront King David about his adultery and murder. So when I finally spoke to the leader I said I simply wanted to describe how I had seen the meeting unfold. And when I finished she said, “It sounds like you think I was bullying him. No one has ever accused me of that.” “I replied, “That would be one way to describe it.” She then said she would have to think and pray about it and discuss it with the person involved. And we left it at that. There was no anger and nothing else I needed to do or say. And I left amazed and grateful to God at how gentle the process of confrontation could be.

So, yes the Bible is important, a critical tool through which God speaks, as He spoke to me in this passage in Ezekiel, but living as God wants us to, is SO much more than just reading the Bible and following laws. There is a journey God wants to take us on to know Him personally and intimately. To be empowered by Him to live His way. And it is tailored to individual needs so your journey will be different from mine. But it begins with accepting His gifts of cleansing from sin, a new heart and spirit, and His Spirit coming to live in us. His restoration of us from the inside. And then asking Him to teach us how to unpack, understand and live from those astounding gifts. It is our choice and His work. And I can honestly say it is a choice that has blessed me beyond what I ever thought possible. 

The freedom to live in intimate relationship with God and do life His way is an astounding gift of love and grace and it is available to everyone now.

As Paul wrote to the Ephesians 4:24 TPT
“be transformed as you embrace the glorious Christ-within as your new life and live in union with him! For God has re-created you all over again in his perfect righteousness, and you now belong to him in the realm of true holiness.”