True Christianity #143
143. The producing of these powerful effects is the "Holy Spirit" that the Lord sends to those who believe in him and who modify themselves to receive him. The producing of these powerful effects is also meant by "the spirit" in the following passages:
I will give a new heart and a new spirit. I will put my spirit within you and I will make you walk the path of salvation. (Ezekiel 36:26-27; 11:19)
Create a clean heart in us, O God, and renew a firm spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and let a willing spirit sustain me. (Psalms 51:10, 12)
Jehovah forms the human spirit within us. (Zechariah 12:1)
In my soul I awaited you at night. In my spirit, which is within me, I awaited you in the morning. (Isaiah 26:9)
Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 18:31)
And so on.
In these passages, "a new heart" means wanting what is good and "a new spirit" means understanding what is true. The reference to God's giving a soul to those who walk the path of salvation makes it clear that the Lord has these powerful effects on those who do what is good and believe what is true - those who have a faith that is connected with goodwill. This is also clear from the mention of a "willing spirit. " The necessity for us to do our part of the work is clear from the following words: "Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?" [Ezekiel 18:31].
Ezekiel 35
1
Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
2
Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it,
3
and tell it, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment.
4
I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
5
Because you have had a perpetual enmity, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end;
6
therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you: since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue you.
7
Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns.
8
I will fill its mountains with its slain: in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses shall they fall who are slain with the sword.
9
I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
10
Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Yahweh was there:
11
therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I shall judge you.
12
You shall know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they have been given us to devour.
13
You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard it.
14
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate.
15
As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do to you: you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
