In an earlier post, we shared the letter for a silk called “Transformed.” Today, we’re following up to share an extension of that letter for the painted version of this silk. We also have a wonderful testimony about this silk that you can find on our Dyed4you blog called “Transforming Confirmation.”
Painted Silk: Transformed
Your silk has had a prophetic painting added to it. The detailed meaning behind it is below, but in summary it has been prophetically painted with butterflies, representing God’s complete transformation. This silk is designed to be a beautiful reminder of the amazing truths of complete transformation by God.
The paint colors on your silk are:
- Citrine green representing new beginning and emergence to new life
- Pearlescent emerald representing bursting forth in new life and vibrancy of new life
- Sunset gold representing His glory in the transformation and being filled with Him
- Pure sparkle representing effervescent joy of being the new creation
- Pearlescent blue representing beauty in complete transformation
- Indigo representing free indeed
- Halo violet gold representing His workmanship
- Pearl representing pearl of great price and purity
- Pearl turquoise representing life-giving flow of the Holy Spirit
- Pearl violet representing royalty
- Iridescent blue representing revelation knowledge
- Iridescent purple representing new creation of intimacy
- Metallic silver representing reflecting the splendor of your Creator
- Bronze representing strength in Him, steadfastness, and strength for the journey
The scriptures that go with this painted portion are:
- Ephesians 2:10 (AMP) For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above- spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God has prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set] so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us]
- Ephesians 4:23,24 (TPT) Now it’s time to be made new by every revelation that’s been given to you. And to be transformed as you embrace the glorious Christ- within as your new life and live in union with him! For God has re-created you all over again in his perfect righteousness, and you now belong to him in the realm of true holiness.
A prophetic download from Becky Eddy is connected to this. It’s called “Complete Transformation.”
Recently, God has been speaking to me about the lifecycle of a butterfly. But let’s begin by looking at 2 Corinthians 5:17 (TPT), which reads, “Now if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Everything is fresh and new.”
God is speaking of COMPLETE transformation here. And this connects to the solid, amazing, life changing, invigorating truth that God revealed and astounded me with as I researched the butterfly process. This truth is so wonderful. I never saw the depth of this amazingly beautiful yet grotesque and magnificently designed truth until I researched the butterfly and learned the details of its transformation story.
Though I had read scripture many times about being transformed – and I knew it meant radically changed, I still had trouble believing and applying this truth to myself. Though I understood it to a degree, it remained a lofty, unattainable and out of reach goal for me. I could see it for others, but it remained a clouded partial truth in my heart. But, as God is so faithful to do, He has provided a wonderfully detailed and crystal clear picture of this complete transformation. When He says we are a NEW creation in Christ and the old is gone, that is EXACTLY what He means!
Yet because of my past, my internal beliefs that I was different, made less than, didn’t belong, and wasn’t worthy, discolored and clouded my ability to understand and see the fullness of this truth. In my thinking, transformation applied to everyone else, but was out of reach for me. I thought it rested in me “making” it happen. Thus leaning on my own efforts to transform.
Let me share with you the astounding revelation, about the transformed butterfly. Recently as I have been painting this process on Dyed4you silks named “Transformed,” God has me showing every stage of the butterfly’s transformation, which serves as a reminder, and testifies that in Christ, we are COMPLETELY transformed!
So here is the magnificent yet also horribly gruesome process of the butterfly. It begins as an egg is deposited on a leaf. It is full of potential – in more detail than I had imagined. Right from the start as an egg, long before it becomes a butterfly, God has placed within it some special cells, called imaginal cells. Through the caterpillar stage, these cells are present, but do not grow as they are awash in a juvenile hormone that keeps them from growing.
But the caterpillar develops, and it emerges from the egg with the main job of being an eating machine. As it grows and continues to digest leaves, it molts it’s skin about 5 times. At the 5th molting, it is a fully grown caterpillar. Then it hangs upside down on a leaf or twig. This final molting is into a hard, shiny chrysalis. Inside the caterpillar’s body hormones release enzymes that actually digest the caterpillar! In a sense, he eats himself! All the parts of the caterpillar disintegrate into a nutrient-rich caterpillar soup. Nothing remains of the caterpillar that we would recognize.
Yet the potential that was placed in the caterpillar from the start as a tiny egg, those special bundles of imaginal cells begin to grow rapidly in the nutrient-rich caterpillar soup. Each of these cells grows into their pre-designed butterfly part – a butterfly leg, tip of a wing, eye, or antennae. Once the cells have matured, the butterfly breaks through the chrysalis in a completely different form! The old is gone and the new has come! The caterpillar has completely transformed to the butterfly.
So the caterpillar was transformed from the inside out and has become a whole different creature – that is truly mind boggling! With the transformation of its body also came a total transformation of its character and behavior.
The new butterfly cannot behave as a caterpillar; for example, it lacks the caterpillar parts to crawl as the caterpillar did – now it has wings. A caterpillar was designed to eat leaves and grow. The butterfly has a completely different mouth, or proboscis, that can’t chew leaves, but can only sip nectar. With the new butterfly form and parts, the butterfly cannot revert to caterpillar behavior.
Scientists say there is evidence that the butterfly may remember some of what it learned as a caterpillar. I did not research that finding any further, but found it to be an interesting parallel for us as new creatures: we may remember some of our past and what we learned through that time, but we are designed for God’s act of complete transformation, changing from the inside out in form, focus, behavior and purpose.
God has placed within us right from the start a potential to be completely transformed – we carry the image of God from our beginning. He has marked us for regeneration. A complete transformation that releases us from the earthbound caterpillar to soaring heights of a butterfly, but it is all in Him. Will we choose to embrace that truth and allow ourselves to be completely transformed by Him? And to personalize this I had to ask myself, “Will I let go of the lies and misbeliefs that have bogged me down and held me captive, choosing to set my eyes and heart on Him, letting go of the old identity and soar with Him into the adventure of the new identity?”
Whereas I thought the transformation depended on my abilities, I see He means a complete and utter transformation that rests in Him. The old has been swept away, and the new order is here. I can choose to leave the earthbound caterpillar perspective and grow from the nutrient rich past. (Experiences, self-image planted by God; truths there, but shrouded in the earthbound beliefs and understanding I might carry from my caterpillar, leaf eating, twig crawling perspective.)
Our transformation in Him leads to so much more! We can soar above the earth-grounded caterpillar view to lofty new perspectives and truths in Him. There is much freedom, joy, revelation and new space here. We are free to float, flutter and fly with Him in new ways. The sense I have from this astounding process is that we are totally entwined with Him as a new creation, full of freedom and new life to explore and live.
So even though the caterpillar stage may prove messy and even painful, our encouragement is to not settle for the life of the caterpillar. God has far more for us if we hold onto Him and allow Him to transform us into who He designed each of us to specially be. Embrace the new butterfly parts and character. Savor the sweet nectar you were designed to feed on; float, flutter and fly even closer to Him on new wings, fly in His freedom of complete transformation.
Death and resurrection is a central part of the gospel message. As we look to the cross, we are reminded to crucify our old life with Christ. And yet, as we look to the grave of Christ and the stone that was rolled away, we can also hear a call to rise to newness of life.
Sometimes through the transformation process, it can be hard to focus on anything other than the suffering and loss we experience. It can also be hard to see what may be ahead. But beloved of God, there is purpose in the pain! Grasp hold of the promises God has spoken over you. He is speaking life over you by His Spirit! Remember, you are letting go of the old in order to make room to embrace the new that will come through your transformation!
A Word called “The Place of Preparation” from author Elisha Freeman is connected to this.
We may not always expect our place of preparation to be a pit as it was for Joseph (starting in Genesis 37), but such was certainly the case for me in my walk.Something my son Jonathan said to me some time ago comes to my mind a lot. When I spoke of how God seemed to use me more than I would have expected when I was in the pit, Jonathan’s reply was, “To you, it was a pit, but to God it was a place of preparation.”
My pit was having to deal with mental illness for so many years that appeared to have no end. It was made of dark days and nights of suffering to the point of suicide attempts, self-harm, self-hate, and total hopelessness. There were trips to the mental hospital and years in psychotherapy with meds and diagnoses that were placed on me. There were so many days I hated to open my eyes from sleep (when I did sleep). So much of the time, my mind and body did not feel like my own, as I never knew from moment to moment how my mood would be, what might happen next, or who I would become. To think back on all this, I never would have imagined that this dark pit was a place of preparation.
For some reason, my son’s words hit me so powerfully and have stuck with me, words that cause me to look back and see that all the struggles I experienced indeed held purpose. The many years of looking up from that dark pit that held me captive and far out of reach from the light above, I had no idea that all along what God was doing.
That pit of preparation is where I had dreams which, at the time, I did not know were prophetic. And I see now how I was drawn to press in closer to the Lord. While looking through my journals from that time, I saw how much I was actually talking to the Lord. I yearned and cried out to Him while searching His Word. The Lord reached me in my darkest places and put songs in my heart. And through my poems where I expressed myself, I saw Him. I came to know in my heart that He was with me.
During those long, isolated periods is when the Lord began to deal with the layers of my soul. The process was long and difficult, but as the Lord removed, He replaced, giving me beauty for ashes. He gave me a heart that had compassion for the hurting and began to build up an intercessor within me.
Thank You, dear Lord, for even the hard times and struggles being purposeful and useful to You. Many times, we may not see or know the way which You are taking us, but, through it all, may our hearts truly know and grasp that we can trust that You will bring us out. And those chains that held us for a season must give way when You speak, “IT IS TIME!” Glory to God!
Purposeful (adjective) 1. Having meaning through having an aim. 2. Serving as or indicating the existence of a purpose or goal.
Give way (Verb) 1. Stop operating or functioning. 2. End resistance, as under pressure or force. 3. Move in order to make room for someone for something. 4. Break down, literally or metaphorically. (Sage Dictionary)
What the enemy means for our harm, to kill, steal and destroy (and to keep us captive), God means and uses for His good intent and purpose.
John 10:10 (NLT) The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
Genesis 50:20 (NLT) You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
Psalm 33:11 (MEV) The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
NOTE: If you’re wondering why I’ve shared this silk letter, I explain on my personal blog in a post called God Speaking Through Silk why I began sharing these on my personal blog. Later, I felt led to share some on the Dyed4you Ministries blog as well. So I share some here and some there (you can find the ones there in the silk words category). To find out more about the words we birth – including how they are created and what is typically included – visit our About Our Silk Letters and Art Words page.