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Holy Spirit

Now here is good news. God can’t see our old heart. God can’t see that we are dirty and need to be scrubbed clean. We have a new heart to help to live the way God wants us to. We are now exceptionally clean.

And even better news. It is a heart that is God-willed not filled with our selfish ways. This is a stunning reality. Our old heart has been removed. We have the Holy Spirit as a seal to show it is true. The evidence is obedience to the will of God and His way.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new Spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.[1]

(Ezekiel 36:26-27)

In Ezekiel 36:26 “a new heart to you, and a new spirit” Develops the promise from Ezekiel 11:19–20.

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 21[2]

Yahweh’s cleansing entails a total transformation of heart and spirit. From a biblical perspective, the heart was the seat of the mind and will, not just emotion. Ezekiel uses heart and spirit in tandem to refer to a person’s whole being.

We have good news! Want to know how to be saved? Click here or here for more.

“I will remove the heart of stone” The people’s arrogance and stubborn self-reliance had hardened their hearts, making them unable to respond to Yahweh as they should.

“I will give my spirit into your inner parts” The new spirit is Yahweh’s Spirit. Total transformation from rebellion to obedience requires divine intervention. Acts 2:4 and Romans 8:9 give a more concrete example, with God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in those who believe in the Messiah. An immediate application demonstrating the life-giving effects of Yahweh’s Spirit comes in Ezek 37:1–14 (Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones).[3]

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eze 36:26–27.

[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eze 11:19–21.

[3] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Eze 36:26–27.