LORD OF THE CHANGE

LORD OF THE CHANGE

                “I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of
God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1, 2

                I woke from a very short dream this morning. It was like I was standing before a star gate in the vast expanses of the universe and on the outer ring of the star gate were emblazoned the words… ”LORD OF THE CHANGE”

                As we saw from the movie “Stargate” some years back, it took some guts to be the first one to step through that watery veil. That one step, as they found out, took them on a blinding rush to some other point in the universe, to another stargate on a different planet.

                Likewise it is not easy committing to being born again, and if we really understand the new birth, the change is even more radical than traveling through the universe from one stargate to another. Going through a stargate you remain the same person in a new location, but in being born again we become, as the Bible says, “A new creature in Christ Jesus.” Jesus is our stargate. He is our doorway to a new and different existence… and instead of taking us to some different point in the universe; He came from that other point and into our world so that in Him we become something totally new.

                Just like the first intrepid scientists that committed to stepping through the stargate we must offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. There was no middle ground. To step through was to commit to a blinding rush to a new universe… to face whatever unknowns were on the other side.

                Paul calls this “stepping through” a spiritual service of worship. Worship is very popular these days. The new movement of worship began in the 80s with groups like Hosanna Integrity and others and it was wonderful. And it is a great and good thing to extol the greatness of God, but at the same time, there came a sort of disconnect between worship and the offering of our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.

                In many circles they have almost forgotten the “God of the Change.” Stepping into the stargate of the new birth we are not only changed, but transformed… metamorphosis… caterpillar to butterfly changed. And in this transformation nothing remains the same. Instead of being conformed to this world, we are now being transformed, by the renewing of our minds. But this is not a mere change of mind. It is more than a change of direction. It is even more than an about face. We literally become new creatures, squeezed out of our cocoon and given wings to fly away from the conformities of this world to be transformed by something infinitely greater.

                Paul doesn’t leave us guessing just what that infinitely greater something is. In Romans 8: 29, 30 he opens our minds to a whole new universe of thought saying:  “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

                At this point we may say, “Now wait a minute Paul. Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? You are saying that we are glorified as if it has already happened… you are putting it in the past, but in reality we have not yet been glorified right?

                But what we need to realize is that when we received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we received the seed of eternal life. “He who has the Son has the life.” Eternity has been planted in us.

                We often forget this, but it is important to remember. NONE OF THE PROMISES IN THE BIBLE WERE WRITTEN TO US. We are forever claiming promises as if they were ours to have, like the little piece of paper in a Chinese fortune cookie. But that is a pagan idea. No! The promises were not written to us, for as Paul says in Galatians 3:16: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say ‘And to seeds” as referring to many, but rather to one, and to Your Seed… that is Christ.”

                All of the promises were written to Christ so that when we receive Christ we also receive all of the promises. It is all about Him and not about us. We can’t direct God by claiming His promises. We can’t get Him to move on our behalf. Everything He has to give He has given to us in His Son, so that when we have His Son we have the life. He is our tree of life. He is our stargate. He is our point of transformation and to receive it we have to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We do not maintain control of our destiny. We give it all, lock, stock and barrel to Him.

                And in case we get sidetracked in our Christian life, we all have but one goal in being born again and that is to be conformed to the image of His Son. The new birth begins with a complete death to what was. It represents a complete change of kingdoms. Under the first Adam we were born into the kingdom of Satan. We were all born in enemy territory and there is no way out of this kingdom but to die. And we can either die of natural causes and end up sharing Satan’s eternal fate; or we can die at the foot of the cross and be born into the kingdom of Christ where we will share His glorious future.

                But the seed of that eternal life has been planted in us and we need to feed and water that good seed and weed out the cares of this world that could choke it out. That eternal seed that has been planted in us is designed by God to grow by feeding upon His Word and obeying it, by praying in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit and by worshipping God in laying down our lives daily so that Christ can live His life in and through us.

                Praying in the Spirit is a different subject, but if you will study 1 Cor. 14 carefully, you will come to understand that praying in an unknown tongue edifies or builds up our spirit. It is not really intended for public use unless an interpretation of the tongue is offered by the Holy Spirit.

                Evidently the Corinthian people had begun just getting together to speak in tongues and as such they were misusing the gift. One cannot edify the church if no one understands what is being said, so Paul said to limit it to two or three along with interpretation, but that mostly they should prophesy so that people will understand and be informed of the oracles of God. But this does not do away with unknown tongues for Paul says in 1 Cor. 14:13-15. If someone speaks in a tongue let him pray that someone will interpret and then he goes on to say “What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I shall pray with my mind also; I shall sing with the spirit and I shall sing with the mind also.

                But Paul also knew that if he was going to minister the Holy Spirit to the people then he needed to spend much private time praying in the Spirit for it is in praying in the Spirit that His own spirit would be edified, built up. In other words, that Seed of promise that had been planted in us (which is Christ in you the hope of glory) it is fed and it grows by the Spirit and the Word. And Paul understood that if he was to be an apostle that was attended by the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit then He must pray in the Spirit a great deal. After all, the Holy Spirit speaks through us, therefore we must become clear channels of His message and power.

                So he says in verse 18: “ I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all, however in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue. The message must be understood by the mind, but received by the heart and that is why we need to minister by the Spirit.

                Well, since we are on the subject, let me explain this phenomenon in a way that maybe you can understand it. Right now you are reading words in English as I am typing them in a known language. However, if we were to go deep into the computer where the programs are, we would find that we wouldn’t understand what I am saying at all. It is all in binary language of ones and zeros. At that level only the programmer knows what is being said.

                What Paul is saying then is that in our spirit we communicate with God in ones and zeroes and God understands what we are saying because He is the Programmer. But in public, God wants us to speak to each other in English so that we can all understand. However, even though we can’t understand the binary code it is absolutely essential, for without it we wouldn’t have the English either.

                Well, like I was saying, being born again changes everything. We get a new heart and a new spirit. We get a new language too so that we can speak to God in a language that Satan doesn’t understand. And the Holy Spirit adds His incense to our prayers and our spirit grows within us by this two way exchange.

                Now some people may treat tongues like it is a badge of achievement. It is not. When we are born again we are spiritual babies and only the Spirit can make our spirit grow. So how are we to grow in our spirit so that we can minister more than opinions and philosophies to each other?  Well, there are only a few of ways to grow spiritually.

1.       Jesus said: “He who believes in Me", as the Scripture said, "From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit whom those hwo believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet give, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”” That is to say that from down in our spirit where the language is in ones and zeroes are, (the language of the Programmer), there will flow forth rivers of living water. John 7:38

2.       Our Bible is more than mental information, for Jesus said: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” John 6:63. In truth, we should never read or preach the Word without making sure that our spirit is engaged. Mere mental coercion is not enough, we need to receive the word in our spirit and we need to impart that word to others in the spirit so that it will be more than human words. This is a very good reason for praying in tongues before we read and before we teach so that the Holy Spirit will be involved in it. Those who have come to know the voice of the Holy Spirit can tell when they are hearing His voice in others or if they are just hearing dead human reasoning.

3.       Walking in faith and obedience is another means of spiritual growth… and we don’t obey in order to have the Spirit, rather we obey because we are walking in the Spirit.  So when we are walking in the Spirit the fruit of the Spirit will prevail in our lives.

                I remember a time in my life when I was very defensive of my beliefs. If anyone disagreed with me even slightly, I would feel that churning of anger in my stomach and I would want to lash out… kill them with my words… win the day. But the Holy Spirit has done a marvelous and miraculous thing in my life. I no longer feel that way at all; in fact I have an overwhelming sense of love for everyone that I encounter whether they agree with me or not.

                For this I can take no credit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is in me bearing His fruit and I can only be amazed and thankful. I have no doubt that in my flesh I am capable of heinous thoughts and retaliations, but I am not in the flesh for indeed the Spirit of God dwells in me.

                This is why I never tire of reading Romans 8 and why I refer to it so often. Romans 8 is one of those “Stargates” into the realm of the Spirit. It contains the secrets of an overcoming life and I desire above all things to be an overcomer. Jesus made many promises to them that overcome and so we all must hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

                Jesus is the Lord of the change. He is our portal… our Stargate into the kingdom of God and when we step through this stargate everything changes. Amen and Hallelujah!