Reformation

P 3215 Eternity starts now.

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“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT.

What we think about affects how we handle our days, and so this transformation process is a progressive thing. The more we act on what we believe, the more our thoughts become tied into what the bible says. Eventually this process produces an automatic response in us, and in the end, transformation is seamless, and we don’t even notice it is happening – now we are too busy falling even more in love with Jesus. 

I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but the biggest problem many people have is that when they read what the bible says, they agree with it, maybe even smile because it is so accurate …but THEN –– they don’t take the time to find out how to apply what they’ve read, into their everyday life. Application is the key that opens the door so we can participate in His kingdom. Let me put it this way, the language of the Lord’s kingdom is faith – we don’t need faith to do what we can already do! We need it so we can participate in the impossible!! And change can seem impossible.

OK, let’s look at some verses. The bible says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit …” Matthew 5:3. In order to ask for help you need to know that you need help! We must recognise that knowing we are poor in spirit is not a bad thing! Doing nothing about it, however, is not good. God says we are blessed when we live aware of this reality. Poverty of spirit looks like this: you can see what is required is beyond your own ability to change yourself. We need His help – this is a good time to remember that we already have it! Just don’t wait to feel like you have it. Step out in faith.

Now, I want to look at another scripture and it’s about holiness. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8. This means we make a quality decision to choose to become aware of where we have not lived in purity of heart, and talk to the Lord about it. Then we repent and repair things. At the same time, we need to be real and aware of the kind of pressures we live under in today’s society — ghastly thoughts tormenting us don’t make us a bad Christian, it’s what we DO about the torment that matters. 

Part of transformation is the realisation that just because something exists in my life now, that does not mean God is not dealing with it. It also does not mean He likes it or wants it!  Timing is a key factor in God’s Ways. Let’s remember that Jesus never let what was going on around Him sway Him from His God-appointed ministry. I picked purity today to look at, because in today’s atmosphere it is impossible to remain pure without His help! 

Jesus’ devotion to what His Father wanted was His priority – so we also need to continue to assess our priorities. Because we follow Him, purity needs to be our priority too. Jesus answered His enemy’s remarks with God’s Word, because He already knew what the bible said. The Lord has the right word to give us when we are attacked too. However, we can quote scripture up one side of the hill and down the other. Remember, we will always need His help! We need a specific word from Him, for us, at that moment … ‘an apple of gold in a setting of silver. ‘

When our aim is to hear from God about whatever He wants from us, sometimes we will have to wait. He is not at our beck and call, we are here for Him. Our Father knows what stretching does for our faith. He will never postpone His answer to hurt us, but He does want to see growth in our character and hearts. Often all we want is a short cut that shows us the way through these learning processes quickly. Most of us are ‘allergic” to difficulties – not hardened to them. (See Isaiah 42:10) 

Let’s look at another scripture that I think ties in well with the one above: Psalm 24:24:4-5: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”  So what do we ACT on? We need to watch what we say, and be careful to be truthful. 

Here’s another one: “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”  Philippians 1:9. Loving others has to be a tangible, seeable, thing – not just a theory. And our knowledge of what is excellent also requires our participation but the bible has lots of suggestions! So we need to step away from things that will contaminate a pure life. 

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8. Discipline in our thinking helps, and that part is up to us. Our Wonderful Father does not just say, ‘don’t do this,’ —instead He says: “DO, DO THIS.” 

He is always preparing us, helping us to live in His Presence. He is not just interested in us living with Him in eternity, down the road when we are dead. ETERNITY STARTS NOW.  We will all be pure of heart in heaven because we will be changed to be like Him. It’s what we do TODAY that’s important.. Bye.👋

P 2485 God’s word is made visible through us.

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Ephesians 3:16-20: “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen! 🙌 Please note: the Apostle Paul just prayed for US!

This ability to comprehend and obey God, that Paul is speaking about in Ephesians, makes God’s word visible.  However, a piece of paper in a book only has one dimension. When what God said is on a page in the bible, it is simply a collection of words on a piece of paper! BUT, because HE SAID IT, when we OBEY what it says, because we love Him and others:  we give it height, depth, width, and length. It is no longer a collection of words on a page – we bring it to life! Those Words become living words not just a theory on a page. It then becomes ‘seeable or visible” to us and anyone else. “The word of God is living …” Hebrews 4:12a. We bring it to life when we love others and obey what He said.

That’s what the bible is about, it is not just about stories, or nice sayings, it comes alive when we act. It is to be experienced as the Lord leads us, and that means other people can see and experience it, too. What we have been given by God through Christ’s sacrifice, is not theory, it is highly practical – other people experience the love of God and see Him loving them! When Jesus walked this earth as a man, (Who was just like us), the Kingdom of God exploded all around Him. He took what God said and acted on it. (John 5:19)

God’s Word became real: it fed people, it diagnosed and healed what was wrong with them, it healed physical illnesses for others, it even challenged those who were stuck focussing on those pieces of PAPER, trying to analyse their meaning. Plus it got rid of evil just by the Lord turning up! The kingdom of God is more than a piece of paper in a largish book with great promises written on it – it comes alive when God Himself flows out from INSIDE YOU AND I. We are carriers of His Loving Presence. That’s why His kind of LOVE is important! Ya might want to pause and think on that! 🧐

I love this scripture: Philippians 2:13: “[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energising and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.”  We can’t do anything lasting without Him, but when Christians act on what He said in the book, His love is released and the world around us transformed.

We need to stop living the same-old, same-old life we had before we met Him, and simply take the instructions we read in His book seriously. Start by forgiving everyone you can think of … teachers, friends, work mates, spouse/s, children. Forgiveness is powerful. Ask Him and them to forgive you for holding grudges etc. as well. Christ’s death proves to all of us that forgiveness is powerful. We are all saved from hell because of what He did as a pure, loving, blameless, obedient human being. Then after we forgive others, we need to move on into doing good to those who despitefully use you. That just means you ask the Holy Spirit for ways to bless the people you used to curse, or try to avoid!

God always has a better plan than we do. It’s that simple. When horrible things happen, tell Him that you know that even this … awful thing … can be transformed by His Grace for good. That’s the hope we carry, we know that trouble is not fruitless, it bears astonishing fruit when we water it with love, faith and hope. We can transform evil into good by holding fast to our belief system, if we hold on tight to Jesus and refuse to give up our hope …”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”Romans 8:28. His purpose is for us to obey Him and love others. Our inner attitude matters – it needs to be transformed by obedience and His Grace.

It never even occurred to Jesus that whatever He was doing wouldn’t work. Jesus Christ had incredible faith in His Father’s goodness and He remained true to His Father’s Words. That’s why we need to pay attention to, and use God’s book to renew our minds, so we can always have, and give away, a heavenly perspective! What we give away to others, using our faith – is not a theory – it is life-changing. The words on the page become living realities when we use our faith.

Our God is way more than just approximately 1500 pages full of nice sayings and interesting stories. We have the privilege of bringing His multi-dimensional glory into this ordinary realm, by acting on what it says, for ourselves and others. We make His Word visible to everyone around us by letting that Word transform us. Bye. 👋🏻

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT

P 2371 Transformation.

/ DVH

Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT

Jesus Christ did not just provide our redemption on that cross – His death provided us with TOTAL lifestyle TRANSFORMATION. Now we have the POWER and ability to grab opportunities to figuratively and literally change our minds. To change our thinking, change our reactions, change and transform the way we were taught by family, life and the people we’ve associated with – into something life giving and redemptive. 

You and I don’t have to be the same old cranky easily provoked grump we always were. Now, we have the power and the Person inside us Who will help us to get that soft word that turns away anger! (Proverbs.) We can be transformed by believing what it says in the book – and acting on it, using our faith. If you wait to feel like it, you will never feel like it – trust me!  The power to change is in the Holy Spirit’s Presence in our lives. We have to put away the idea that this life is about the Holy Spirit AND …EG: the Holy Spirit and what I want. We can’t have both options. Dead people don’t have options or opinions.

I have learnt that if I find myself resistant to transformation, that is an indication of how rebellious I have allowed myself to become. I love this illustration of how inner transformation works: “There is a legend of a grandfather or elder using a metaphor of two wolves fighting within him to explain personal inner conflicts to his grandson. When the young person asks which wolf will win, the grandfather answers “whichever one you feed.” Whichever one you feed!? So, what are we feeding our thought life on?

People freak out and say that you should or shouldn’t watch this or that, or you shouldn’t go here or there if you are a ‘good’ Christian. But the truth is obedience is about Who you are actively following. The real question is this – what will help me to obey the Lord and what will lead me away or distract me from thinking about Him?! Christians love Jesus but they do not necessarily foster that love as the most important thing in their life. The everyday humdrum things-that-need-to-be-done stuff swamps them, and they forget about Him and start living this life like everyone else.

The secret to total transformation is in the book:“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23&24.  We are not working for a man anymore – we are working for Jesus in our school, home or job. That other person is HIM to you and I. That’s how deeply the Lord Jesus identified with mankind. So if you are yelling at someone else – you are yelling at HIM! “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’ There is no accidental or incidental happenings in His kingdom! Everyone we bump into is sent.

It doesn’t matter if you are doing the washing-up or teaching your kid how to tie their shoe laces. That other person is Jesus standing there. We have so much power in our choices. Unfortunately, in this generation, our wills have become weak because we give in to them all the time! Instead we need to stand on the Word and refuse to go the wrong way. Ask for His help to resist the temptation to act like you rule the world, and yield to the ONE WHO ACTUALLY RULES THE WORLD. This world will not explode if you acknowledge that you do not know how to do everything – remember His strength is made perfect in weak people!

We have His book. The bible tells us His thoughts about behaviour and life. We do not have to remain ignorant. We now have the power to overcome the things we have probably deliberately cultivated along the way in our lives. Before we met Him we did stuff to protect ourselves and make us feel good about who we are. Ask yourself, do I see myself as a victim or a servant? The answer will diagnose your position before the Lord. 

We have mistakenly tied Christ’s Presence in our lives, entirely to our behaviour, not to what He has already done. His Grace propels us into obedience, it empowers us to make right choices. Our behaviour actually changes because we want to live and remain in His Presence, rather than roll along day after day, doing what we want. We are His servants. We’ve been left here to serve Him and serve Him by serving others. And transformation comes from obedience to His word as He leads us – – and BTW if you read it then you are responsible for your response.. 👋🏻