The power and purpose of Transformation
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters ~ Romans 8:29
Transformation is a process that helps us to become our authentic selves – the people who God created us to be. Transformation is and has been the plan of God for us since the beginning. When we come into the kingdom of God, we are messed up and without much knowledge of who God is and who we are in Him. And so God begins to work on us and He doesn’t do it while we are busy chasing the desires of our flesh out there in the world. Salvation, which is the first works of grace for every believer, is essential for our transformation. Esther had to be within the confines of the palace, and not outside, for the king’s servants to be able to work on her. Once we get into the kingdom of God, He turns us over to the Holy Spirit who uses the word of God to change us from within.
Transformation involves the renewing of our minds through reading and meditating on the word of God according to the book of Romans 12:2. Our spiritual growth and development as believers is tied to the process of transformation. The reason why it’s a process is because it doesn’t happen overnight. It took an entire year for Esther to be ready for the king. For us, it is an everyday process. When it stops, we become stagnant in our spiritual lives and growth. It’s a process that helps us to know God and ourselves better. As a matter of fact, it helps improve our relationship with Him, because it gives us a better and deeper understanding of who He is in our lives.
Every believer, no matter where they are in their journey of salvation, has the responsibility of pursuing transformation. We cannot be in a position to fulfil and accomplish our divine assignments unless we are transformed. Since it involves reading and meditating on the word of God, our spiritual diet must change. For us to be transformed, we need to choose what we meditate on. The enemy is always ready to feed us with his diet which is worldly and fleshly and this cannot help us at all. Just like Daniel, we need to choose what is of God and consume it.
Transformation is God’s master plan to maturing and changing us into becoming more like His Son Jesus. Most of us struggle in our salvation and personal lives because we do not actively pursue transformation.
In Juanita Bynum’s words: “If our minds are not transformed then the ‘miracle heart’ that God has placed in our hearts will never be able to manifest in our lifestyle. This is because our minds, which are comprised of our soulish emotions and intellect, wants to run and rule. When the new heart is neglected, the mind assumes control through the old, carnal nature. This is why we struggle so much in our own personal lives and constantly war with the flesh – our minds fighting against our hearts and our hearts fighting against our minds and in most cases cannot bring our thoughts and emotions into subjection to our converted hearts.”
This constant struggle throws us into a life of cycles – cycles of the first works of grace alone. This means that we stumble back and forth between sin and salvation, darkness and light, separating from God and reuniting back with Him. Anyone living like this cannot be stable in their walk with God. It’s a state that most believers are in and the one the devil loves so much.
In Dr. Cindy Trimm’s words: “We literally become like soldiers who have powerful weapons, but no ammunition–Christians who are ‘saved’ in eternal sense, but who do very little damage to the Kingdom of darkness here on earth, people with big dreams, but no plan of action to accomplish them, people who are righteous in the eyes of heaven, but who fail to exercise heavens authority upon the earth.”
The difference between a believer who is not transformed and a transformed one is that the believer who is not transformed, though saved, is still dwelling on the natural. Though they have accepted Jesus, they are still under the power of the flesh meaning they are the same as they used to be while still in darkness. The transformed believer, however, has allowed his heart to be circumcised spiritually and this kind of a believer sees things differently from the first believer. For the people of Israel to cross over and possess the land of Canaan, God had to remove the reproach of Egypt from them. They had to be circumcised; circumcision is when you remove the foreskin or the unwanted skin.
Change must come from deep within us. There can never be permanent change in someone’s life until their heart and mind are changed.
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves for the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to any good work ~ 2 Timothy 2:20-21
