II Corinthians 5:17
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
We read and consider this verse with the knowledge and understanding that this transformation does not happen overnight. Indeed, it is a life-long process. God created us to be three fold beings: we are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body. In I Thessalonians 5:23 Paul writes under the unction of the Holy Spirit “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 12: 1-2
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
I remember reading these scriptures as a young girl. I didn’t grasp the fullness of it at that time in my life; however, the Holy Spirit impressed on my mind and heart that it was critically important so I underlined it in my little white KJV Bible. The one that had my name etched in gold lettering on the front. As I grew in the Lord, their meaning continued to grow, too, and I studied and applied them to my life as best I could.
On Sunday of each week, the services were often filled with the presence of the Lord. The Spirit would move in our midst and there was an anointing on the music and the Word. It was exhilarating! Many times I didn’t want the service to end but wanted to bask in His presence and drink deeply at the well. But then came Monday. Time for school. It was difficult to retain that wonderful “feeling” and I would find I would slowly lose that splendid sense of well being. Instead, a sense of failure would take up residence in my heart and mind and the following Sunday I would “feel” like I had to start over; repent and be saved anew.
The “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” part of the Word had yet to bear fruit in my life. Through the years, I have come to better understand how our spirit, soul and body work together. When we are born again, our spirit, which is dead in sin, is illuminated by the Spirit of God and becomes new. Praise the Lord!! However, we still have our soul (our mind, will and emotion) and our body that need to be brought under the authority of our recreated spirit.
Each of these components have “gates” that feed into who we are:
The Body: Sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch
The Soul: Imagination, conscience, memory, reason and affections
The Spirit: Faith, Hope, Reverence, Prayer, Worship
The spirit part of us has experienced a transformation when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and are born again. It is now incumbent upon us, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to deal with our soul and our body. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. In Ezekiel we are told “A new heart also will l give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,”….”and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes , and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Ezekiel 36: 26-27
As our faith is 1) built up through the study of the Word, 2) our hope is in Christ and His death, burial and resurrection, 3) we learn to reverence God in all we do and 4) we make praise and true worship the priority of our life, we will be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. We will be able to come against the evil one and walk in victory. We will truly be free from the law of sin and death. “The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”. Romans 8:2
“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” II Corinthians 3:18
“For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” II Corinthians 4:1
“For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man be renewed day by day.” II Corinthians 4:16
We are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. The reality is, if we are excruciatingly honest with ourselves, most of us spend more time and effort on our soul (mind, will and emotion) and our body than we do on our spirit man. Therein lies the problem. The tools we need to defeat the devil are outlined in the Word. Ephesians the sixth chapter lays out our weapons for us. We just need to use them.
I was thinking about the truths I have endeavored to present here and about how needful it is for us to go from glory to glory, always moving forward toward being the image of Christ. I remembered my struggles as a young girl, wanting to be the best I could be but falling short time after time because I was striving in my own strength. I wanted with all of my heart to serve the Lord and worship Him. As Christians, we are all somewhere along our path of going from glory to glory. It has to be possible for the life of Jesus to be manifested in us because the Word says it is, but the first part of that verse also says we are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake. That is talking about crucifying our flesh. Living a crucified life is not a popular title for a Christian Conference but it is essential to moving from glory to glory. As we immerse ourselves in the Word and enter into the presence of the Lord in prayer and worship, we will find ourselves becoming more and more like Christ. We will have more victories than failures and we will see people as He sees them. We will not be holding them to a standard birthed out of our flesh but will be able to bring them to the fountain of living water, quenching their thirst instead of measuring their walk by what we think they should be doing. Too many are drenched in religion and void of life and liberty. All true ministry comes out of intimacy with God. It has been said that if we want God’s presence, we must lose our own. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When God calls a man he bids him, come and die.”
Yes, there will be mountain top experiences; times of great rejoicing in the presence of the Lord. There will also be valleys but remember that the lily blooms there and the Lord is there with us. Let us commit afresh and anew to stay on course.
Several years ago as I was thinking about all of this, the following came to my mind:
Satan was pondering how he could defeat this “new man” and take away his desire to go from glory to glory. .After much deliberation and thoughtful consideration, he came up with a device to deter man and have him focus more and more on the old man instead. He called his new invention the “selfie”.
afirebynight 