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Metamorphosis – Our Transformation Part Five The Worm & The Butterfly
Isa 41:14
Gal 6:15 In examining the wonderment of the process of metamorphosis, there is perhaps no greater and clearer example of our own journey of change and transformation than the journey of the caterpillar. The story of the caterpillar and its eventual change of form into a butterfly has been well documented and volumes have been written about this biological event that should suffice for our readers to have a ready knowledge of what takes place in the life cycle of this creature. But, for us that are living in present Truth, especially those of us that are looking for an imminent change of our own, from our present form of corruption and perishable life into the incorruptible and imperishable life of God, then this particular event has much to speak to us about. It is, in fact, a very precise analogy of our own evolvement into the Christ-Life. For those of us that have been given the great honor to see beyond the soulish interpretation of the scriptures involving what some have come to call “The Rapture Theory”, there is a simple question that we have asked of ourselves. If the church is not going to be whisked away in some future flight through the air into the sky, as it is preached so emphatically by some mainstream churches, then what is the actual change that must come about for the world to see the greatness of Christ in the earth? If we are NOT going to fly away some day, then what is to transpire? In fact, when one takes the time to study the scriptures concerning this present time of manifestation and transformation spoken of in so many places throughout the New Testament, one would have to come to the conclusion that God’s intent is not to salvage a frightened, unfinished Body of Christ from a world of darkness and sin in some sort of last ditch rescue effort of Jesus, snatching us away just before the jaws of Satan swallows our last glimmer of hope, but in fact, God has a much more grand and victorious plan concerning the church and the world. Instead of relying upon a sick, paranoid, stressed-out, beleaguered, faithless, distracted, fat, lazy, carnal “church body” that is so evident today, God is forming a company of overcoming, conquering, believing, reigning, ruling, authoritative sons of God. These sons are on a fast track of transformation, for they are to be the first fruits of Christ, our First Fruit in God. Rest assured dear saints, God is not going to hand the keys of the Kingdom over to some fat cats of the religious systems of this world, whose hearts are far from God and are still participating in the political power struggles of the Babylonian world system. No sir, there will be no flies in the ointment that is being formed in the crucible of God’s operation within the hearts of those that are predestinated and preordained to be called, sons of God. Take note, however, of this great and immutable fact concerning this company that I am writing about. It is not a journey of fame and fortune that we have embarked upon. It is a journey of death and upheaval, not a time of blessings and honor. What awaits us in this stage of God’s plan is not a pat on the head from a patronizing God that ushers us into some kind of paradise filled with lollipops and candy canes. God will become our enemy before this Day is through, mark my words. He must! It is not His joy to deal with our worm, but deal with it He must, and the worm in us must and will give way to the butterfly in us! God will draw it out in us and in His determination He will not stop until we are changed into a new form of creature. The worm will not die, as in the sense of being thrown away for something better, but the worm contains within itself another form, that cannot be revealed until the form of the worm has been disassembled and deconstructed. There are some today that call themselves sons of God, but they have nothing to show for it but the title itself. They think this sonship we are called into is some sort of knighthood, riding through the streets of Jerusalem with their names being called out by a cheering throng. They couldn’t be more wrong! This Day of change and transformation is not a day of kindness and peace. Far from it. This Day has come to take our life, to bring an end to our own will and desire, to cause an upheaval in our being that has no comparison in this world we have lived in. It is a time of earthquake and shaking that will cause the very landscape of our being to change. It is a time of rearrangement for both our body and our mind. Earth and heaven will pass away as we have come to know it in the days of our flesh, and a new heaven and a new earth will rise out of that passing, a new body and a new mind. The new can not come into existence until the old has been entirely disassembled and made formless. That is the journey of the caterpillar into the butterfly. Let us try to place ourselves into the life of the caterpillar and perhaps we can learn from this creature and have faith concerning our own destiny of change. For one thing, the caterpillar has a form that is conducive to a terrestrial existence. It crawls through the world, slow and meticulous in its actions. It is cumbersome but steady as it lives out its stage of existence, seemingly just like all the other varieties of worms in the world. But, there is something special about this particular worm, for it is not precisely just another worm, but in more correct terms, it is a larvae, which distinguishes it from other worms. For other worms, they are born worms and they will die worms, but because the caterpillar is a larvae it holds a destiny within it to become something else that has a greater purpose and a far more superior design than is seen at this stage of its development. Dear friend in Christ, fellow companion and fellow heir of sonship, did you know that you have been living in a form that is passing away? This body that we take care of each day, this life that we have lived according to the boundaries and parameters of the world around us, it is only a temporary form, and we have only been living as larvae in our journey of developmental process. Jacob is called a worm in the scriptures, a fitting title. The name of Jacob means supplanter. He had the nature of one that takes by any means, and he lived his life in such a way, until the worm changed and Jacob became Israel, a Prince with God. But, Israel was always there, inside of Jacob, waiting for an appointed time to be revealed. Jacob died, passed away, ceased to exist, when that change took place and Israel took over that life when the angel wrestled with Jacob until the dawn. Of course, this was all planned and ordained by the Lord, and it should be noted that Jacob had no choice in the matter. We have lived as Jacob in the days of our flesh, and we have struggled with this Truth to see our change come about, but we have no choice in the matter, it is by divine appointment that this change takes place and the where, when and who is not in our hands to quicken or delay its operation. That is another stipulation that applies to the company of sons through which Christ will be revealed. In becoming a new creature in Christ, we give up all of our rights as citizens of the old life. In the old life of mere man serving God, we had choices that we could make, yea and nay was in our speech and we had certain legal rights in God, whereby we could quote the scriptures back to God and demand to have things go our way. The Word of Faith movement has lived by this legalistic manipulation of the scriptures concerning their life in the flesh. The preachers of the Word of Faith movement are nothing short of religious lawyers when it comes to their relationship with God. “Now God,”, they say, “your Word says that by your stripes I am healed, and I demand to be healed according to your Word.” Of course, contractually they are right! The scriptures are a contract between God and man, legally binding. So, God moves for them and performs His obligation of the agreement, regardless of whether it is the perfect will of God for them or not, He stays true to His contract. But, I must emphatically declare to us that so flippantly take on the title of “sons of God” how so very different our relationship with the Father is than the relationship of the servant. The general rank and file of Christians are made up of hirelings, those that walk in a legalistic, contractual relationship with God, the provider of their benefits. His benefits are great concerning this realm of walking AFTER God, and those that are schooled in this relationship are able to draw vast amounts of blessings off that abundant supply. But, with those that are chosen to walk with God as sons of His substance, those that are ordained to come into His throne and sit down there and rule and reign with Christ as He ushers in His kingdom, they are not hirelings and as such, they do not have the RIGHTS of a hireling!! If you are a son indeed, then you have given up all of your scriptural rights, and you have no LEGAL and CONTRACTUAL ground to stand upon. God can do with you whatever He so desires, without your assent, without your blessings, and without revealing to you what it is He is doing. For sons, it does no good to argue with God, telling Him how unfair it is for Him to come into your world and turn it upside down, especially since all of your friends are being so wonderfully blessed and healed and restored and rolling in prosperity. Why, they don’t even know as much about God’s plan as you do, neither have they been so filled with revelation as you have been, so how could God treat you so unfairly as to cause your life to be so hard and terrible? Why can’t you be healed, why can’t you be restored, why can’t you have tons of money? Oh, Jacob, you worm, God will help you. He will hold your right hand and He will give you grace that will be sufficient for you. But, Jacob, it will do you no good to complain or to make a legal claim to having your own way. You are not a hireling, and you will not be paid a fair wage. You are a son, and you will sit under tutors and governors until a time appointed, and not a minute sooner than that appointed time, but not a minute later either. At that appointed time of the Father, you will be released from your limited life into an unlimited life that is already resident within you. Ah, Jacob, you worm, you will be changed and a Prince with God you will surely be! To those that live an earthy life, a terrestrial walk in Christ, the only thing that matters is the present state and condition of their being. God is a good God if they are getting all their needs met, but He is a mysterious and untrustworthy God if a momentary need goes unresolved. For this simple servant of God, there is only the NOW, and this is the spirit that has infected our present generation and has become a cancer in the hearts of mankind. For those that only live in the NOW, they have no vision and live without hope or insight into what is to come. For them, if it isn’t being done NOW, it won’t ever be done. They have lost their understanding of the ongoing and continuous work of God concerning His final solution to the woes of mankind. They have lost the art of making wine, or making a good loaf of bread, as they have taken on the stigma of a microwave generation, without patience and without the sense of accomplishment that comes from seeing something through from beginning to the end. Study the caterpillar and put yourself inside of this creature. While in the form of a worm, it is not in torment, continually asking the Creator, “when do I become the butterfly, how many more days do I have, how long do I have to crawl through this life as a worm, etc. etc.” Some today are showing signs of weariness in the journey and they are trying to find another way into this place of transformation, reaching out to New Age concepts that teach how to deny your worm and visualize your butterfly, but there is no fast and easy process into our final form and design. The caterpillar is not a closet butterfly, going around and telling all the other worms he is actually a butterfly and he in fact never was a worm, but it was only a lie of his worm mind. No, dear one, the caterpillar has an instinctual knowledge that he is on a path of change that will take place without his conscious manipulations or “trying” to be a butterfly. The butterfly will come forth on a specific time and date that is genetically written within the DNA of the caterpillar and until that transformation takes place the worm will not deviate from its process. Like Enoch, who before his translation walked with God and pleased God until that time arrived, the caterpillar will be content in whatever state he finds himself in until the change takes place. It is my belief, that just as we have a genetic code that operates each day within our physical bodies, that dictates certain changes throughout our life, we also as spiritual beings have a spiritual genetic time code that takes place in our journey into our final state and condition in Christ. Throughout our lives, we have had spiritual genetic codes switch on and off that have brought us through the many courses of experiences and revelations in our relationship with the Father. Outside of our control, the Father has prompted many things to take place that changed us in many different ways, both physically and spiritually. Some things took place that only affected us physically, and other things only affected us spiritually, but we are now in a time when God has put His hand to every facet of our being, and BOTH heaven and earth are going through this great metamorphosis at the same time. Such is the case with the grand design of the caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly. The worm enters into the self made womb of change, the chrysalis, with the body and the nature of a worm. While in the form of a worm and living as a worm, the caterpillar is by necessity at peace being a worm, although it carries within it the awesome design of a heavenly creature. Buried within the worm is a new identity and an entirely new creature. In the popular book and movie, The Da Vinci Code, the notion is made that there has been a hidden agenda in the earth since the days of Jesus, a secret that has been passed on throughout the generations that Jesus did not actually die at the cross, but lived a human life which included marriage and physical offspring, beginning a physical lineage in the earth that continues today. While I think this is all a bunch of hooey, (men will be men), spiritually, this has a basis of reality. Jesus did start a new lineage of creature, but it is not a fleshly lineage, but a spiritual lineage that has been like a chalice, hidden within the hearts of men, and will be revealed in our generation as a true lineage to the Christ, made evident by a greater proof than physical DNA, but a spiritual gene of Christ will be put on open display for all the world to see, in a company of SONS! If there is a chalice of Christ, then we are that chalice! If there is a genetic offspring of Christ, then we are that offspring and heirs to the throne of Jesus Christ by birth, which supersedes any legal office of the church systems. Let me put all of the Bishops, Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, Evangelists, Pastors and any other elected or man made office of the religious world on notice, Christ is not going to appear in the fullness of His glory within any of those offices! They are stages of larvae, temporary offices that were instituted as maintenance ministries to the church while living a soulish, terrestrial life, but Christ will only appear in a company of sons that have been transformed, translated, and transitioned into a life that is renewed, restored, reconstituted, regenerated, and resurrected. Nothing else will put Him on open display without spot or blemish. We are that generation! The caterpillar goes into the stage of metamorphosis at a set time in its life cycle. In this critical stage of change, it starts to deconstruct from the form of a worm, into a stage of neither worm nor butterfly. This is in direct correlation with what Paul writes concerning us. Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (KJV) Indeed, in all transformations from one form into another form, there is that moment of time when you are neither, caught betwixt the two distinct forms. This is surely a part of the passion of Christ on the cross, when He realizes He is no longer the son of Mary and not yet the arisen Son of God. What a stupendous moment of dramatic pause must have taken place for Him while hanging on the tree when He instructs the disciple that He loved to take His place in the house of Mary, speaking a declaration that would symbolically remove Him from the house of His mother, “Woman behold thy son!” and to the disciple that He loved, “Behold thy mother!” Now, at this moment, Jesus no longer belonged to the earth, and heaven could not yet receive Him, a state of non-identity. So it is, when we think of ourselves at this point of our transformation, we should see ourselves as NEITHER, yet becoming something else. At this stage, the caterpillar is no longer discernible, its form completely disassembled, but the transformation does not stop here. Something else starts to take shape, a new form that dictates a new state of mind and nature. Yes, dear saints, this is the crucial point we need to understand concerning our metamorphosis, especially those of us that have walked in the message of immortality and life for so long. In times past, the emphasis of the change from corruption to incorruption and this mortal into immortality has focused upon the physical aspect of this “metamorphoo” that Paul writes about to the church of Corinth. In fact, it has become known as the message of immortality, but it really is not about immortality as much as it is about incorruption! In fact, physical immortality is a by-product of the inner change that is taking place in the hearts of the first fruits. If the caterpillar only changed his outward form, from that of a crawling worm into that glorious external form of a winged creature, without having a change of mind that would be able to function in this new form, it would be a travesty of the highest degree! Here would be a creature, with wings and a body designed for flight, locked into the nature and consciousness of a crawling worm, lurching around on the ground with all of the facilities for flight, without the actual faculties needed to make such a design operate. In other words, the worm consciousness had to die out to the consciousness of winged flight, not just the physical form to fly, but the will and the desire to fly! If the butterfly is to truly be a butterfly, he would have to have the heart of a butterfly to escape the world of the terrestrial and live in the world of the celestial. After all, this is the true distinction between the worm and the butterfly, those huge, beautiful wings that open up another world to the creature that once was earth bound, but no longer! For us, sons in the making, there is a great need for a change of mind, not just a change of body. Our wings are not external, they are internal! It is our spirit that soars in the heavens, flying into the heights of God’s presence, allowing us to be lifted upon the breath of God’s sighs for us. For most of us, this has to happen in an unconscious state of dreams or visions, or spiritual trances and extravagant movings of the spirit of God in our midst. But, as the true change takes place in our inward parts, we will be wide awake, with a hyper awareness of all that is taking place in us and around us, viewing everything with an ancient and genetic understanding through a single eye. We really have no idea of what this new man is going to look like or act like. No more than the worm could imagine how many flowers he would visit and drink from and the fields he will visit in one day. How could we possibly put into words how the new man will think or act, since it is a world outside of the limitations of this life? We can speak vaguely about it, use words like ecstatic, glorious, mind-blowing, and so on. None of the words in our language would ever be able to tell the true essence of this which awaits us, and not only those that are the first partakers of such a glorious state, but all of those that have passed before us. For us, we are men and women that are being changed into something that is neither male nor female, bond nor free, Greek nor Jew. In other words, take any extreme points in this natural world we live in, hot and cold, death and life, light and darkness, etc, and then try to think of something neither, yet all of those things combined. For that is what this new creature will be, all of the above, yet neither. Eccl 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. (KJV) That which we shall be is made up that which we once were, but in another form. Corruption is not destroyed and thrown out, it puts on incorruption and mortality is not destroyed, it puts on immortality, defeat is swallowed up into victory, this outer house is swallowed up into the inner house. The butterfly at one time was only a spirit inside the worm, but once the transformation takes place, that which once was only an intent, a design, is now form and substance. The new man in Christ is right now only a Truth that we minister, but in the ages to come, the Truth becomes more than a message, it becomes substance and has a form to it. The Word of God became flesh and now our flesh will become Word again. The cycle will play out in all aspects of our life and our world. Inside of this world, there is another world waiting to take form, neither physical nor spiritual, yet both. Can you see this? If not, in the days to come, we will. As we gain our wings and learn to use them, we will see a myriad of things that are invisible to us in our present state and condition. Those that have laid their body down and have passed from the visible state and form into the invisible state and form know much more than they did while alive in this dimension. However, they do not know it all as of yet. They have to wait for us to be changed in this existence in order for them to come into their final dwelling place in the Father. Without us, they are not yet complete. This is why all heaven is viewing us right now, with great expectations and groaning and travailing, like a woman with child that is nearing the time of birth. We are birthing a new man, a new kind of man, a new species of God-man. By saying that we are BIRTHING this new man, I mean that we are impregnated with Christ, the original Seed of Incorruption. We are carrying that Seed within our heart like a woman carries a child in her womb and just as the pregnant woman has a set time of delivering that child, we also have a set time of delivering this new man into the earth. Jesus is the Pattern Son of this new man and is the original strand of spiritual DNA from whence this new man comes. We have not created this new man within us, but we carry the gene for it within us and we are being changed by it. I cannot help but continue to distinguish our walk of sonship from the walk of the servant, no more than I can fail to point out the difference between the caterpillar and other non-transforming worms. Ours is not a walk of our own faith in God, but we are being moved upon by a genetically imposed WILL that comes from our genetic pattern, Jesus Christ. His WILL is being done in our life! In fact, we have no life outside of that willed life that He is. We LIVE, yet it is not us that live, but it is Christ and we now live because He WILLS us to live. Nothing can take our life, for nothing can disannul His WILL for us, neither old age, nor sickness, nor disease, nor pestilence, nor famine, nor natural disasters, nor men, nor any principalities, powers, thrones nor dominions of any kind can keep us from partaking in His WILL for us, for He is the Supreme Power and WILL in heaven and earth. World events play no part in our transformation, wars and rumors of wars are not our timetable. We are not being moved upon by this metamorphosis by reason of the increasing wickedness of mankind, nor are we marching to a beat dictated by the length of suffering or despair of our fellow man. We are on a timetable that is preset in God from the beginning, which is not liable to the church ages that have thus far transpired. We cannot make numerical predictions concerning when this final stage of transformation will be completed. Try as we may, we cannot study the weeks of Daniel, or the times of desolation, or any other prophetic timetable and come up with an accurate chart of our manifestation, so let us quit trying to do so and start to focus on the task at hand. Let others predict and surmise, sell their books to a curious but spiritually oblivious world and make mockery of the plan of God. We must hang on and give up, let go and grab hold, shut out the old and open up to the new. Before we ever see one cell of our body changed, we will first of all see a change of our thinking and our vision. First things first and all other things will follow. Our thinking must be expanded to see possibilities where only impossibilities appear. Ezek 37:1-6 1 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, 2 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. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. 4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 6 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. (KJV) We must be able to have the sense of the possibility of flight, when there was no possibility at one time. This is critical for the butterfly, and it is critical for us. I pray the Lord will open up our minds and give us vision today, so we may prophecy according to the WILL of God. I pray we will speak not as men speak, but as the oracles of God, with full assurance in His WILL for us. We are on a different path than the religious world, so let us not mimic the former dispensational ministries, but let us speak with the voice of the Seventh Angel, sounding forth the Seventh Trumpet that will initiate the unveiling of the Seventh Dimension of God’s life in our lives. If we continue to speak and think as men (worms) we will die as men. If we will yield to the WILL of Christ in us, and speak as He would speak, we will pass from death into life and the second death will have no power over us. It is the time for our metamorphosis and nothing can save us from the total deconstruction of the world we have made for ourselves. This world and all of its trappings still have a death grip upon the sons of God, and that will have to be broken in us in order for us to cross over to the new life. It is a fine line we must walk, staying in the world, but not of the world, but we can trust the process that has begun in us and will bring us to the completion of it. We have gone way beyond Bible stories and Sunday School. It is time to eat the Word, assimilate it, digest it and inhale it. The Word is not a book of printed matter, it is a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He fills us with His Word. Hang on, chosen one, the Lord has you firmly in His grasp. He has anchored you in Him and the storms of this life will not move you out of your place. Be still and know that He is God. He that has begun this metamorphosis in your life will finish it. You have seen much taken from your existence in this world, loved ones, homes, friends, health, finances, but know that the Lord is still making you and confirming your walk in Him. In the end, when all is said and done, you only need the approval of One, the Light of your life. Let Him fill you now with a new song, wipe your face and cry no more, a new Day is come and it is the time to dance before the Lord. No more blue days and long nights, but rise up now and take your flight, up, up and away, into the heavens go, leaving behind all dread and shame, His wonders to extol. You are a son of God by birth, not by doctrine or philosophy. The proof of your sonship is entwined within the fabric of your being, and it will speak for itself in the days ahead. To Be Continued: Written by Bob Torango
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