The cure

A second important feature of the phenomena surrounding Saul’s spirit-filling is his receiving of “a new heart...” Here we have a clear connection between Spirit-filling and moral renovation. We also have the connection between the “heart” and the Spirit. It is the Spirit who gives us the ability to live wholly for God, an ability that we lack otherwise. Our hearts are terribly divided, and the imagination by which our thoughts (“the thoughts of our hearts”) are shaped is deeply and utterly corrupted. God expects us to share his character; that is his goal for us. Yet, as the Hebrew people learned to their dismay, there is that in us which seems to prevent us from reaching that goal, sincere though our efforts may be. What is to be done? Here it is: the Spirit of God must fill us, communicating the character and will of God to us, and giving us a heart which belong wholly to God. — Called to be Holy, page 74