Maraming Kristiyano ang dumaranas ng caterpillar syndrome. Siguro sa tingin mo, ano ang caterpillar syndrome? Hindi ko pa narinig iyon. Sa artikulong ito, tatalakayin ang caterpillar syndrome at ang sanhi at sintomas nito, and what Christians can do to get rid of caterpillar syndrome.
What is caterpillar syndrome?
Caterpillar syndrome is a spiritual condition, that many Christians suffer from. A Christian has become a new creation through regeneration in Christ, gayunpaman, due to caterpillar syndrome a Christian keeps thinking and living as the old creation.
Sila confess with their mouth that they have become a new creation, while in their heart they believe that they are still the old creation. Because of their way of thinking and believing, they live after the flesh as the old creation.
You can compare this with a caterpillar that has become a butterfly but still looks at itself as a caterpillar and therefore thinks and lives as a caterpillar.
Have you ever seen a butterfly living and crawling on the ground?
When you see a butterfly sitting on the ground that slowly moves forward, you know something is off. A butterfly is supposed to fly and sit on flowers, plants, and trees instead of the ground.
When you see a butterfly on the ground, you know that something is wrong.
Ito ay pareho sa mga Kristiyano, who say they are born again but live like the world in sin.
How can you become a Christian?
There is only one way to become a Christian, which is by faith and regeneration in Christ; pagsisisi (and the cleansing of sins and iniquities by the blood of Jesus), binyag, and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. (Basahin mo rin: Anong tatlong elemento ang kinakailangan para sa bagong kapanganakan?).
A Christian is a new creation (just and a saint) and no longer the old creation (isang makasalanan (a.o. Mga Gawa 13:39, Mga Taga Roma 3:24, 5, 1 Mga Taga Corinto 6:11, 2 Mga Taga Corinto 5:21, Mga Taga Galacia 2:16, Tito 3:7)).
Ngayon na, maraming tao, who say they’re Christians, but don’t see themselves as saints, let alone call themselves saints.
They consider themselves sinners and call themselves sinners.
Ngunit isang makasalanan is someone, who is dead to God and lives from his fallen state in rebellion against God in disobedience to His Word.
A sinner doesn’t live holy and doesn’t walk righteousness in obedience to God’s Word in the light. But a sinner lives in rebellion and walks in sin in disobedience to God’s Word in darkness.
Lahat ay ipinanganak ng isang makasalanan, but not everyone stays a sinner
A Christian is no longer a sinner
Every Christian was a sinner, but is saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Isang tao, who became a Christian after the new birth in Christ is no longer a sinner, but has been made righteous through the justification in Christ and has become a saint. ( (a.o, Mga Gawa 9:13, 32, 41; 26:10, Mga Taga Roma 1:7; 8:27; 15:25; 16:2, 15, 1 Mga Taga Corinto 1:2; 6:1-2; 14:33, Mga Taga Efeso 1:1, 1:18, 3:18, Mga Taga Filipos 1:1, 4:21, Mga Taga Colosas 1:2-26, 1 Mga Taga Tesalonica 3:13, Paghahayag 5:8).
A Christian is healed; nakipagkasundo sa Diyos at restored in his position (in the spiritual realm from a fallen position to a perfect position in Christ) and belongs to God instead of the world.
Because a Christian doesn’t belong to the world through the flesh, but to God through the Spirit.
Kaya nga, a Christian shall no longer bear the same fruit as the world (mga gawa ng laman), bilang isang makasalanan (who serves the devil and the flesh), but live as a righteous one, isang santo (who serves Jesus Christ and the Spirit) at bunga ng espiritu.
Some people are ignorant concerning the truth of the transformation of the old creation into the new creation on earth and keep walking unconsciously as the old creation.
Other people know the truth but choose deliberately to live as the old creation, because they love the works of the flesh and won’t and can’t get rid of them.
What is the cause of caterpillar syndrome in the lives of Christians?
The cause of caterpillar syndrome in the lives of Christians is a wrong doctrine from wrong teachers, whereby a wrong mindset and expectation are created.
Many church leaders still are (or live as) caterpillars, because they’re not born again or because of ignorance regarding the truth or they chose deliberately to live as caterpillars. Ganun pa man, they think and live as caterpillars.
If church leaders still think and live as caterpillars, how can they expect the hearers in the church to think and act as butterflies? Imposible na yan! Kaya nga, many Christians live like caterpillars.
The sermons focus on the caterpillar, while the hearers in the congregation are no longer caterpillars but butterflies.
Through wrong preaching the butterflies think and live as caterpillars and don’t do what God has called them to do and created them for and forsake their job to pollinate flowers and bring forth life and sustain life.
Many Christians are destroyed by caterpillar syndrome
They keep eating, but are not filled. They focus on wrong things and are passive and fight against the wrong enemies, whereby they are an easy target for their true enemies that can continue their wicked works and attack and destroy them (eat them).
The butterflies see their wings, but because of the caterpillar syndrome, they’re afraid to use them and to fly. They’re afraid to fall, while God made the butterfly in such a way that the butterfly can’t fall.
And so they move slowly on the ground, trying to survive as butterflies on the ground, while they have wings to fly above the situations and circumstances and dodge their enemies.
The great miracle of the transformation from the caterpillar into the butterfly has worked out nothing, it only ensured that the butterfly looks better than the caterpillar in the reflection of the puddle, pero yun na nga.
God made the new creation by His power
The transformation from the caterpillar into the butterfly is miraculous! No human being can turn a caterpillar into a butterfly. Agham has not succeeded in replicating God and making a butterfly from a caterpillar that doesn’t move on the ground anymore but flies in the sky,
God’s power is needed for this miraculous transformation. Just as God’s power was needed for paglikha at ang mga Pagkabuhay ni Jesucristo mula sa mga patay. And God’s power is still needed for the rebirth of people and the resurrection of the new creation after man dies, whereby man receives a new resurrection body (a.o. 1 Mga Taga Corinto 4:20;15, 1 Mga Taga Tesalonica 1:5).
If we consider the visible transformation of the caterpillar to the butterfly a truth and fact, why do people question the spiritual transformation of the old creation into the new creation?
People doubt and question it, because they are carnal and not spiritual. Therefore they reason from a makamundong isip instead from a renewed mind and the Spirit of God.
Because they are unspiritual and have not entered the Kingdom of God through regeneration, they can’t see, nor understand and comprehend the things of the Kingdom of God. Bilang isang resulta, they don’t preach the things of the Kingdom of God and people stay ignorant.
A caterpillar crawls, a butterfly flies
The caterpillar lives on the ground and lives for himself and doesn’t do anything except eat. But the butterfly that has a new body with wings to fly (after emerging) pollinates flowers.
Just like the old creation lives after the lusts and desires of the flesh, ngunit ang bagong nilikha, whose body is buried in baptism and whose spirit is raised from the dead by the power of God, lives after the Spirit and preaches the gospel and the way to eternal life and call the people to pagsisisi.
The old creation is a sinner and subject to the devil and bound through the flesh to sin and death.
A sinner does sin from his nature and serves the devil, kasalanan ba, at kamatayan. Ang kabayaran ng kasalanan ay kamatayan (Mga Taga Roma 6:23).
The new creation has become a saint (hiwalay sa mundo at tapat sa Diyos) and is resurrected in Christ and the spiritual realm and hierarchy in Christ (who has all power and authority in heaven and earth), above the devil, kasalanan ba, at kamatayan.
The new creation is delivered from the power of the devil and redeemed from sin and death and no longer lives in the covenant with the kingdom of death (the kingdom where the death reigns, but the Kingdom of God, where Jesus Christ is seated on the throne and life reigns.
A change of body (from caterpillar to butterfly) and living environment (from the ground to the air) means a change of enemies. The enemies of the caterpillar are no longer enemies of the butterfly.
We see the same phenomenon in the lives of the people of the Old Covenant (Genesis – John) at ang bagong tipan (Mga Gawa – Paghahayag).
The enemies of the old creation vs the enemies of the new creation
The people in the Old Covenant were unspiritual and lived from their fallen state separated from God. Ang Batas ni Moises not only revealed God’s holiness, Kalikasan, at kalooban, but also sin.
The Law of Moses and all its (Sakripisyo) laws and rituals were needed to atone the sins and iniquities of the people of Israel and to walk holy in God’s will according to the law of the Kingdom of God.
The people in the New Covenant were a new creation, by faith in Christ and regeneration (pagsisisi, binyag, at pagtanggap ng Banal na Espiritu) sa pamamagitan ng kapangyarihan ng Diyos.
They were reconciled with God and became spiritual and lived from their new position in Christ with their new nature after the Spirit, whereby they no longer walked in sin, but in righteousness according to the will of God and the law of God’s Kingdom.
They didn’t belong to the world and didn’t live after the flesh in enmity with God in disobedience to the Word. But they belonged to God and became the enemies of the devil and the world and lived after the Spirit in obedience to God’s Word.
The new man doesn’t wrestle against flesh and blood
They were transferred from the darkness into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and didn’t war from their flesh and didn’t wrestle against flesh and blood anymore, but they warred from the Spirit and wrestled against principalities, Mga Kapangyarihan, Ang mga pinuno ng kadiliman ng mundong ito, and against spiritual wickedness in high places (a.o. Mga Taga Colosas 1:13, Mga Taga Efeso 6:10).
That was their new battlefield and that were their new enemies.
It was the same battlefield where Jesus Christ fought. And the same enemies of Jesus, who didn’t belong to the world and the ruler of the world (ang demonyo) but God and the Kingdom of heaven.
Ang armor and weapons they used, were not carnal (sa lupa) ngunit espirituwal (makalangit).
Through their enlightened eyes, kaalaman, at karunungan, they warred and obeyed the words and commandments of Jesus Christ their King and Highpriest ng Bagong Tipan, and walked on the path of righteousness in the will of God.
Gayunpaman, the enemies of God have not stood still. They have done everything in their might to enter the church and defile the church, disconnect the church from the Word, and make the church passive through false doctrines, which doesn’t bring the people closer to God but further away from Him.
Their false teachings don’t make victors in the spiritual battle but victims, and don’t lead to righteous works and eternal life, but sin and death.
There is a butterfly in every caterpillar
There is a butterfly in every caterpillar. As long as the caterpillar is not eaten by birds, nematodes, or other insects or stepped on by humans, the caterpillar still can become a butterfly.
A caterpillar can’t do it by himself, the power of God is needed. If the caterpillar believes and does what needs to be done, then the caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
Once the caterpillar has become a butterfly, it’s up to the butterfly to renew its mind and change its life and no longer think and live as a caterpillar, but as a butterfly. And to do what a butterfly is supposed to do, namely pollinating flowers so that they’ll be propagated.
In every person lies the ability to become a new creation
In every person lies the ability to become a new creation (ang bagong tao). As long as people live, they can become the new man.
The old man can’t become the new man by his own power; by a confession, studies, following a set of rules, mga tuntunin o hakbang-hakbang na plano, isang miyembro ng simbahan, at iba pa.
Ang isang tao ay hindi maaaring baguhin ang anuman tungkol sa kanyang nahulog na estado, makasalanang kalikasan, at paghihiwalay sa Diyos, kanyang sarili. Si Jesu-Kristo ay kailangan upang maibalik, gumaling ka na, at makipagkasundo sa tao. Ang pagbabago ay magagawa lamang sa pamamagitan ng kapangyarihan ng Diyos.
Sa pamamagitan lamang ng pananampalataya maaari ang lumang nilikha (nahulog na tao) maging bagong likha (bagong tao)
Lamang kapag ang lumang nilikha ay naniniwala sa tapos na gawaing pantubos ni Jesu-Kristo para sa nahulog na tao, at naniniwala sa kapangyarihan ng Kanyang dugo at sa muling pagkabuhay ni Hesus mula sa mga patay, saka lamang maaaring maging bagong nilikha ang lumang nilikha sa pamamagitan ng pagbabagong-buhay kay Kristo.
Hindi pagkatapos ng kamatayan, ngunit habang nabubuhay sa lupa. Dahil ang espirituwal na pagbabago ay nagsisimula dito sa lupa.
Ang niluwalhati ay maibibigay lamang pagkatapos ng kamatayan, gayunpaman, para matanggap ito, ang espirituwal na pagbabago ay dapat na naganap sa lupa.
Ang mga Kristiyano ay nagtataglay ng Pangalan ni Kristo at naging sa Kanya ay isang bagong nilikha, ang mga lumang bagay ay lumipas na at lahat ng mga bagay ay naging bago.
Kaya dapat mayroong edukasyon para sa bagong paglikha sa halip na nakakatuwang mga kuwento sa Bibliya mula sa Lumang Tipan tungkol sa lumang paglikha para sa lumang paglikha.
Ang bagong tao at ang bagong espirituwal na posisyon ay dapat ituro, upang ang mga Kristiyano ay hindi na gumala-gala bilang walang magawa na mga haka-haka na makasalanan sa buong buhay at magtiyaga sa kasalanan at mahirapan na sumulong bilang mga talunan at biktima ng kanilang mga damdamin at kalagayan, at mga sitwasyon sa buhay at ang mga pag-atake ng parehong mga tao bilang mga pamunuan, Mga Kapangyarihan, Ang mga pinuno ng kadiliman ng mundong ito, and against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ngunit ito ay dapat na mga Kristiyano, na ipinanganak ng Diyos, mamuhay bilang mga banal at mga matuwid bilang mga anak na lalaki at babae ng Kataas-taasang Diyos.
Panahon na upang magising ang mga Kristiyano at mailigtas mula sa caterpillar syndrome
Panahon na para mabuhay ang mga Kristiyano, hindi bilang mga biktima kundi bilang mga nanalo kay Kristo. Hindi kasing mahina ang loob, ngunit bilang matapang na mga leon. Hindi bilang mga higad, na walang ginawa kundi kumain ng dahon, ngunit bilang mga paru-paro, na pumunta sa kapangyarihan ng Diyos at lumilipad sa Kanyang hangin at nagpaparami ng mga bulaklak at namumunga at nagpapanatili ng buhay. (Basahin mo rin: Ang buong sangnilikha ay naghihintay sa pagpapakita ng mga anak ng Diyos).
Buksan ang Bibliya at pag-aralan ang Bagong Tipan, kilalanin ang tunay na Jesucristo at ang Ama at ang Kanyang kalooban sa tulong ng Banal na Espiritu. Alamin kung sino ka na kay Kristo at kung ano ang Kanyang layunin para sa iyong buhay.
Magtiwala sa Kanya at maglakas-loob na ibuka ang iyong mga pakpak at gawin ang itinawag sa iyo na gawin sa Kanyang kapangyarihan.
'Maging asin ng lupa’
