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The Passion of the Butterfly
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The Passion of Christ
I found this story of a Jesuit priest in Peru during the 1600's who saw the Passion Vine and the Passion Vine Butterfly as a symbolic picture of the Passion of Christ. Here is what he wrote:
"The crown of thorns, the nails, the color of Jesus' robe, the whips for scourging, were all seen in the complex structure of the flower now known as the Passion Vine Flower. This plant contains cyanogenic glycosides which release the poison cyanide. When the caterpillar of the Passion Vine Butterfly eats the leaves of this poisonous plant, it then has the ability to form a cocoon and become a butterfly. So too, when we accept the work of Christ's Passion; when we 'eat His body and drink His Blood,' we have the ability to be transformed into a new creation.
"And just as the Passion Vine Butterfly takes a straight flight path as it need not fear predators, so too, we have 'Christ in us, the Hope of Glory' and are now able to walk the 'straight and narrow.' Indeed, if we try to walk in our own strength, we will only be 'faking it' and the mimicry will not fool the prowling lion who seeks one whom he may devour - just like the jacamar looks for the butterfly that can't fly straight.
"Entomologists say that the mimics of the Passion Vine Butterfly use about 20% more energy in flight than the ones they mimic. Are we weary? Let us return to the One who says that His yoke is easy and whose burden is light...light as a butterfly."
What a wonderful picture of our metamorphosis. Through the Blood and Body of our crucified Christ, we are a new creation that now can fly straight and slow...and serene, not fearing our predators that seek to devour us. We have taken the communion of the "passion vine," Jesus Christ, and now we can enter into His true rest.
Apart from the chemical imparted to the caterpillar (that will become the Passion Vine Butterfly), it is not protected from predators, but as it feeds upon this vine it is infused with a protection that allows it, after becoming a butterfly, to fly slow and straight. No longer does it need to flutter up and down, here and there, trying to escape the predator that seeks to take its life.
As we abide in Christ and seek to know Him, we are infused with His precious Spirit that allows us to fly slow and straight, because we know that even our greatest enemy will recognize His Spirit who is within us.
Ask the Lord to give you the confidence that the Passion Vine Butterfly moves in. We no longer want to live our lives "fluttering" in fear, but instead we want to live and move slow and steady, knowing that His Spirit is our shield and rampart. We want to abide in and near the Vine to keep our lives filled with His Spirit.
'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' declares the LORD. 'As the Heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.'"
Isaiah 55:8-9
"God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 5:20-21
If we are one in the Spirit, then when one falls we all must own it and come to a place of corporate repentance. And when one is restored we can all rejoice in a corporate celebration. responding to the Holy Spirit when He moves or not responding to Him is a sure revelation of where our hearts and devotions are. As we are told in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time for everything but when the time comes and we do not respond, we have been deceived. Deception is more than not having our doctrines right - deception is also not being in the will of God.
Most miss the visitations of the Lord because they do not recognize them as such because they did not come in a form that they were expecting or in a form that they approve of. The lukewarm will just miss these, but the cold of heart will almost always rise up to fight it, just as Saul of Tarsus did until he was knocked off his horse by the light. Saul had to be blinded in the natural so that he could see in the Spirit. This is the pattern that the Lord's own walk upon the earth produced, and it is the same every time He comes in a special visitation, so we should not be surprised by this.
Human idealism is a form of humanism, and the religious spirit is the primary enemy of every true move of God. God gives His grace to the humble, and one of the most basic characteristics of true humility is to be teachable - not gullible, but teachable.
Love your Brother in Christ Ace