Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 New Living Translation (NLT)
Hello friend. How are you doing today?
This week’s conversation is continued from last week’s closing scripture. You can catch up on the first part of this conversation here:
We already established that the first key to unlocking your understanding of God is gratitude. We also saw God’s kindness in restoring us to original design in Christ.
Every of God’s work should first evoke gratitude in you, even when you do not get it. Gratitude then opens you up to this second response to God and His “doings” —transformation not conformation nor adaptation.
I don’t want to loose you.
In the regular human context, change for the better often follows gratitude for undeserved favours. When someone does something nice for you, after you’ve thanked the person, your attitude towards the person always tends to get better, whether it was alright before then or not. So should it be in your relationship with the Lord. After gratitude should proceed transformation to be a Christian, a better Christian, and ultimately a kingdom-minded believer.
...let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you,
From the opening text, it is clear what God expects from humans that have been re-created in Christ Jesus. God expects that after gratitude, you should allow Him to show you how to live (Phillipians 2:13) by giving Him access to your operating system —your thought life, if He is indeed your creator and redeemer.
It is very true, that man lives out his predominant thought patterns.
In basic biology, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. So is your thought life, the powerhouse of your existence.
Women sleep with employers for jobs because they think that is their only option.
People steal to live because they think the world is wicked and you have to be ruthless to survive.
People kill because they think making their offenders feel their pain by taking their lives is the best option.
People envy because they think they are a more worthy recipient of the blessing that have come to their neighbor.
People are arrogant because they think the world revolves around them.
Women try to gain men’s affection by offering sex without commitment because they think it will trigger commitment from the man.
Men think they can gain women’s affection by splurging even when the woman wouldn’t clearly budge...
I could go on and on.
But you get the gist. You are hardwired to act and execute just to the degree of the dexterity of your thought life. Little wonder the Apostle Paul gave a prescription for it in Philippians 4:8. But first, God already asked you to let Him transform the way you think.
With the experience of the new birth, comes the possibility and capacity for every form of goodness, but most times, what is seen is a struggling believer. This is so because though the spirit man has experienced the new birth, there needs to be a re-training of the soul (Romans 6:13), the seat of your thought patterns, so you can effortlessly live as a new creation.
Observe that I said it is a re-training. Up until you accepted the life of Christ, you did things a certain way that always doesn’t align with the values of the Kingdom you now pledged your allegiance to. On encountering Jesus, you need to make a practice of righteousness(Hebrews 5:14), because it is your new nature. As you make a practice of and insist on God’s paradigms as revealed in His word, that is when you are able to understand God, discern truth from true and walk in the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.
A vital part of your retraining is consistently binging on God’s word and in prayers. God has revealed Himself to you through Jesus and Jesus is the Word of God(John 1:1-5). As you read the word, take it literally. Own what is yours as a believer in Christ, as a child of God and as a heir of the Kingdom.Things that are supposed to occur in your life, paradigms you are supposed to imbibe but are alien to, should be insisted upon by and in prayer till they become flesh in your life.
That is how you can understand God. In trying to understand God, you do not go by your logic or reason. You go by His revealed word. God is more than willing to explain Himself to you than you are ready to understand Him. He has done that already in His word. Just yield to scriptures and insist on it because it is your civilization as a child of God. The word of God needs to go viral in your soul so it can be vital in your life. You may want to listen to this👇👇
so you understand that you are capable of transformations. You don’t have to always be overcome by the systems of this world. You are born of God, you have overcome the world(1 John 5:4). You can live it out, and most importantly, you can reign as ‘’god’‘ on earth when you begin to see and live by the perspectives of YHWH.
I’ll see you soon.
Always with love,
Ada-Helen.
PS:
As you make contact with God’s word and allow it to change the way you think, you will know and understand that God’s stance is clear on every issue pertaining human existence —sexuality, dressing, money, relationships, community, government, etc.
November is often celebrated as sexual purity month. God’s stand is clear about issues on sex and sexuality regardless of how sensualized our world has become. Catch up with our previous posts here and there👇
as we look forward to the completion of the series from last year.
💖