Page 50 - Overcoming Addiction

A magnificent thing happens in the life of this creature we call a caterpillar.
After a period of time in his fleshly state, he enters into a cocoon. This cocoon
serves as a hidden chamber where a marvelous transformation occurs. What
happens is hidden from sight, but after emerging it is apparent that something of
profound substance has taken place. So too do we find that the work of the Spirit
in our life is largely hidden from sight. Yet when the Spirit has completed His
work we will be as radically different from the men and women we were formerly
as the caterpillar is distinct from the butterfly.
A butterfly truly is a new type of creature. A butterfly has wings while a
caterpillar does not. Therefore a butterfly is no longer bound to the earth. It can
now soar in the heavens. This speaks of the spiritual life of the Believer. It also
speaks of our being able to rise above the captivity of the old Adamic nature which
was captive to sin. The butterfly has appetites for different things than that of a
caterpillar. Caterpillars are largely leaf eaters, while butterflies live on the nectar
of flowers. This too contains a symbol. The new creature in Christ is now drawn to
those things that are beautiful in the sight of God, and we feed on that which is
sweet, even the word of God.

Psalms 119:103
How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my
mouth!

The natural man has no appetite for the things of God, but the spiritual man
craves that which comes from God.

I Corinthians 2:14
A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually appraised.

In the cocoon a remarkable transformation occurs. The fleshly form of the
caterpillar disappears, and a new creature adapted to life in the heavens arises.
This is a parable of what the Father seeks to perform in the lives of men and
women. The old man we were in Adam, with its fleshly appetites, its captivity to
earthly things, and its sinful nature must be diminished. The new creature born of
the Spirit that seeks the pleasure of God must increase.
Our growth as spiritual creatures parallels our growth as natural men. No
one is born as an adult. Life begins with the implantation of a seed into the uterus
of the woman. This seed begins to divide and multiply, and divide and multiply
again. Over time it begins to resemble that which it will one day be. Even as the
natural man must pass through these formative stages into infancy, then
childhood, until it arrives at a mature man, so too must the spiritual seed pass
through these stages until we come to the fulness of the stature of Christ.
As Christ is being formed in us the old man is being diminished. Even as it is
impossible for both a caterpillar and a butterfly to emerge from the cocoon, it is
impossible for us to take on the likeness of Christ while still being the old creation