Transformation

Hello everyone.  I pray that this Sunday found you in the house of God.  What a marvelous way to start the week.  We had a wonderful time of praise and worship, and there is nothing more precious on this earth than spending time in God’s sweet presence.  Pastor Nathan’s message today was entitled Transformation.  It made me think about how everything in nature right now seems to be in the process of change.  The flowers are sprouting, the trees are budding, and the birds are preparing for their young ones.   In less than 2 weeks of warmth, the earth has come alive.  

So, what is transformation?  The world often talks about change, but any change without God is counterfeit.  Only God can give us new life.  Pastor Nathan started his message in II Corinthians 5:17.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  The old has gone, the new is here!”   Often it is human nature to resist change, but if we surrender our life to the Lord Jesus Christ, we will find that he will give us new life.  Becoming a new creation can be described as becoming a new species of being.  When we lay down our lives, God can radically change us into what He called us to be.  Jesus gives us two great examples of the necessity of transformation in Matthew 9:16-17.  The old and the new cannot live in harmony together. Connected they clash, cause strife, and are ruined. God never intended to just patch you up for you to tear apart again.  He wouldn’t fill you with His life for you break under His power.  God also doesn’t throw us away because we are broken.  Rather, He transforms us through His son, Jesus Christ, so that we can be newly clothed and constantly filled with the newness of His Life.

“I can see why we need to be clothed upon from above, for the life that is in me is a thousand times bigger than I am outside. There must be a tremendous expansion. I see, and cannot help seeing, that this thing cannot be understood on natural lines; no natural reason can comprehend the divine plan.” Smith Wigglesworth

Most of us can readily see our faults, but we must also learn to look at our faults through the lens of the precious blood of Jesus.  Animal sacrifices in the Old Testament could never do anything more than cover over sins, but now we are a new creation in Christ!  When the Father looks at us, He sees us in Christ.  Even time itself or how old or young we are makes no difference to God, for He is eternal.  Our body is simply the vehicle that keeps us here on the earth while we serve Him.  However, we do not have unlimited time on this earth.  We must make our choice to serve Him with all that is in us.

In order to embrace the new, we must turn loose of the old.  The only way the “Old” can dwell in us is through an “Un-Renewed” mind.  Being born-again, we are a brand new person spiritually in Christ.  Our only attachment to “Old” is when we refuse the commandment of God to renew our minds by His Word and Spirit (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:23).  Titus 3:4-6 talks about this renewal.  ”He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior..”  It is the will of God that we be continually filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18, living in a constant state of renewal, and being transformed into the perfect image of Christ.

“Our only safeguard from dropping back into our natural mind from which we can never get anything, is to be filled and yet filled again with the Spirit of God and to be taken on to visions and revelations on a new line.” Smith Wigglesworth

In conclusion, Pastor Nathan took us to Isaiah 43:18-19.  ““Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”  If we are to embrace the new, we must forget the past and look forward. With a new spirit and a renewed mind, God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us!  (Ephesians 3:20).  Get ready!  Transformation is here!  We are putting on the mind of Christ and the Spirit is taking us to new dimensions in God!