10/02/18 CHANGES AND TRANSFORMATION
I HOPE YOU WILL READ THIS ARTICLE I JUST WROTE.
(it will take about three minutes to read, but it could result in a lifetime and eternity of benefits.)
Being a Christian requires changes and transformation in our lives.
(then again, being a sinner involves critical changes in life)
I use the word "change" in reference to PERSONAL CHANGES WE MAKE, as well as THE CHANGES GOD MAKES in our circumstances, AND I USE the word "transformation" in reference to THE MIRACULOUS WORKS OF GOD IN US.
We must be WILLING TO MAKE changes and we must be WILLING FOR GOD TO MAKE changes, and we MUST BE RECEPTIVE to Divine change and transformation.
There will be changes IN US, TO US AND AROUND US.
Changes can be uncomfortable, difficult, inconvenient, costly.
Even good changes or Divine changes may come with negative impact.
Some changes are negative in nature and obviously, other changes are positive in nature. In this case I am using "Negative" to indicate, "taking away" and "Positive" to indicate, "adding to."
Negative is not always a bad thing. When we have sin taken away, that is good, but it is accompanied with adding "righteousness," which is also good.
God provides every good thing in our lives, even when it is a negative. God is the Giver of every good and perfect gift.
God gives us the ability to trust and obey, which is CHANGE that leads to more CHANGE.
Sometimes God allows bad things to happen, in order to bring about something good. All things WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD to them that love the Lord. Not everything that happens is good, but God uses even the bad for His own purposes.
Even the good changes we make are because of the grace and enabling power of God. God enables us to make choices to do good things, to do right things to do that which is pleasing in His sight. God then enables us to act on those decisions.
If we want to be pleasing to God, there are changes we must make on our way to salvation, as we enter salvation, as we walk in salvation.
The miraculous intervention of God that transforms us are both instantaneous and gradual. Conversion and Entire Sanctification (the filling of the Holy Spirit) are instantaneous, while growth in grace is gradual.
John Wesley described Entire Sanctification as something that we approach gradually, enter into suddenly and grow in forever.
No one is Entirely Sanctified (purified by the fullness of the Holy Spirit) gradually. Purification, just like life itself, is an instantaneous, momentary act of God. Being born again is an instantaneous, miraculous, Divine work of transforming a dead man into a living man. Entire Sanctification is an instantaneous, miraculous, Divine work of transforming a carnal believer into a Spirit filled, holy believer.
Positive changes in our lives, changes brought about by Divine intervention in this life, always deal with negative changes. Divine changes are for our eternal good, while rejecting these changes may result in eternal loss.
A commitment to Divine will is a commitment to change and transformation.
