Isaiah 49:18 Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.

Hurricane Maria ran the length of Puerto Rico leaving the island absolutely powerless to help itself. The lives of everyone on that island has been changed. No one is untouched by the destruction.

“What do you need?” I ask. The answer is obvious, all you have to do is look around and know the answer is everything. But I ask what do you need because for the individual has their own perception of what they need the most. We are not here to tell people what they need, we are here to give them what they need most even if they do not know it.

Love.

If you truly love the lost, you don’t tell them what they need. You love them by speaking to their fears, anxieties, loneliness, and anything that they perceive as a need in the rubble of a life destroyed. We need to see beyond the devastation and speak to that part of a lost person that cries out the most.

The hurricane of a life destroyed is a metaphor for seeing a life ready to surrender to God. It can be found anywhere at any time and the signs are not always the wreckage of a home. It is discovered in a heart that has been exposed and laid bare. That can only be seen in close personal contact by asking, what do you need.

I opened with this passage from Isaiah for this one reason, we are the bride of Christ. We are the love of Christ in a lost and lonely world. We are more than the hands and feet, we have His heart.

Romans 6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. ESV

The Spirit asks you to consider the truth, to believe the truth, to act in a manner which reflects your belief. In Christ you are dead to sin and alive to God. Sin no longer has the ability to command you. If you truly are dead to sin, and the truth says you are, why do you sin?

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Old things died. How many old things died? All things become new. What do you cling to from the past that does not consider itself new? Memories, our new creation in Christ retains the memories of a past life, but memories are not who you are in Christ.

The Spirit of truth asks you to consider that you are not your memories. How you thought in that old dead life is not how you should think in Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

Unfortunately reshaping thoughts in a renewed mind is difficult because the memories of what we were in that old life is still a strong memory. The enemy will try and use those memories to shape your identity in Christ, but it is a lie.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Ephesians 4:22-24 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.