Many Christians suffer from caterpillar syndrome. Tera pea e whakaaro koe, what is a caterpillar syndrome? I’ve never heard of that. I roto i tenei tuhinga, the caterpillar syndrome and its cause and symptoms will be covered, 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, hoianō, due to caterpillar syndrome a Christian keeps thinking and living as the old creation.
Rātau 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.
It’s the same with Christians, 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; ripeneta (and the cleansing of sins and iniquities by the blood of Jesus), iriiringa, and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. (Panuitia hoki: He aha nga mea e toru e hiahiatia ana mo te whanau hou?).
A Christian is a new creation (just and a saint) and no longer the old creation (He tangata hara (Aue. Nga Mahi 13:39, Roma 3:24, 5, 1 Koriniti 6:11, 2 Koriniti 5:21, Karatia 2:16, Titus 3:7)).
Inaianei, he maha nga tangata, 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.
Engari He tangata hara 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.
I whanau te tangata hara, 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.
Tetahi, 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. ( (Aue, Nga Mahi 9:13, 32, 41; 26:10, Roma 1:7; 8:27; 15:25; 16:2, 15, 1 Koriniti 1:2; 6:1-2; 14:33, Epeha 1:1, 1:18, 3:18, Philipi 1:1, 4:21, Kolosa 1:2-26, 1 Teharonika 3:13, Whakakitenga 5:8).
A Christian is healed; houhia ki te Atua a 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.
No reira, a Christian shall no longer bear the same fruit as the world (Nga mahi a te kikokiko), Ka rite ki te tangata hara (who serves the devil and the flesh), but live as a righteous one, He Mea Tapu (who serves Jesus Christ and the Spirit) a ka mau i te hua o te Wairua.
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. He ahakoa, 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? Kare e taea! No reira, 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, engari ko tera.
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. Pūtaiao 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 hangahanga me te Ko te aranga o Ihu Karaiti mai i te hunga mate. 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 (Aue. 1 Koriniti 4:20;15, 1 Teharonika 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 hinengaro o te kikokiko 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. Ko te hua, 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, but the new creation, 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 ripeneta.
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, hara, me te mate. Ko nga utu o te hara he mate (Roma 6:23).
The new creation has become a saint (wehea mai i te ao, ka whakatapua ki te Atua) 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, hara, me te mate.
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 – Hone) me te Kawenata Hou (Nga Mahi – Whakakitenga).
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. Te Ture a Mohi not only revealed God’s holiness, taiao, a ka, but also sin.
The Law of Moses and all its (tu tapu) 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 (ripeneta, iriiringa, and receiving the Holy Spirit) by the power of God.
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, mana, nga rangatira o te pouri o tenei ao, and against spiritual wickedness in high places (Aue. Kolosa 1:13, Epeha 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 (te rewera) but God and the Kingdom of heaven.
Te armor and weapons they used, were not carnal (whenua) engari te wairua (heavenly).
Through their enlightened eyes, matauranga, me te whakaaro nui, they warred and obeyed the words and commandments of Jesus Christ their King and Highpriest o te Kawenata Hou, and walked on the path of righteousness in the will of God.
Heoi ano, 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 (te tangata hou). 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, akoranga, following a set of rules, precepts or a step-by-step plan, He mema o te Hahi, Na pera i runga.
A person can’t change anything about his fallen state, Te ahua hara, and separation from God, himself. Jesus Christ is needed to restore, whakaora, and reconcile man. The transformation can only be done by the power of God.
Only by faith can the old creation (tangata hinga) hei hanga hou (tangata hou)
Only when the old creation believes in the finished mahi whakaora of Jesus Christ for fallen man, and believes in the power of His blood and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, only then can the old creation become a new creation through regeneration in Christ.
Not after death, but during life on earth. Because the spiritual transformation starts here on earth.
The glorified can only be given after death, hoianō, to receive this, the spiritual transformation must have taken place on earth.
Christians bear the Name of Christ and have become in Him a new creation, old things have passed away and all things have become new.
Therefore there should be education for the hanganga hou instead of amusing Bible stories from the Old Testament about the old creation for the old creation.
The new man and the new spiritual position must be taught, so that Christians no longer wander as helpless imaginary sinners through life and persevere in sin and have a hard time moving forward as defeated ones and victims of their feelings and circumstances, and situations in life and the attacks of both people as the principalities, mana, nga rangatira o te pouri o tenei ao, and against spiritual wickedness in high places.
But it should be that Christians, Ko wai i whanau mai i te Atua, live as saints and righteous ones as sons and daughters of the Most High God.
It’s time Christians awake and be delivered from the caterpillar syndrome
It’s time that Christians live, not as victims but as victors in Christ. Not as faint-hearted, but as bold lions. Not as caterpillars, who don’t do anything except eat leaves, but as butterflies, who go in the power of God and fly on His wind and pollinate flowers and bring forth and sustain life. (Panuitia hoki: The whole creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God).
Open the Bible and study the New Testament, get to know the Ko Ihu Karaiti and the Father and His will with the help of the Holy Spirit. Find out who you have become in Christ and what His purpose is for your life.
Trust Him and dare to spread your wings and do what you are called to do in His power.
'Kia tote mo te whenua’
