Becoming more like Jesus: Transformation and Character
Becoming more like Him: Transformation - character
Transformation is the process of becoming like Him, and character is the result of that process
Read: 2 Peter 1:3-11
We start the process from the point in which “His divine power has already given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him”
2 Cor.3:18 as we, with unveiled face, mirror the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image, as by the Spirit of the Lord
Jn.1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ
- The veil that was mentioned in 2 Corinthians 3:18 was the law
- The veil is removed when we come to Christ
Transformation - metamorphosis (Gr.) - a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one.
- A life cycle of a butterly: an egg (you can see a caterpillar through an egg; just like God sees us already before we were born, before we were born again) -> a caterpillar (the life purpose is to eat; when we come to Christ, we have a hunger to get to know Jesus) -> cocoon (the caterpillar builds a cocoon, and stays for a certain amount of time – it looks like nothing is happening; surrendering your heart to a process and staying in that hidden place, Prov.4:23 Guard your heart) -> Out comes a butterfly, which has a totally different dna than the caterpillar
Read: Romans 12:1-3 The Passion Translation
A key to spiritual transformation is surrender (stop resisting, give over)
A butterfly, which doesn’t build a cocoon, will become overweight – and die. This is an image that we keep on feeding our flesh.
Read: 2 Cor 5:17
- You are already a new person, now your mind needs to align up with the truth
Read: Eph.4:22-24
- allow yourself to be made new in the attitude of your mind, by surrendering – we are being made new by the Spirit of the Lord
- A butterfly only pushes themselves out of the cocoon, when the transformation is complete – as humans, we want to avoid pain and have the temptation to stop the process when the most difficult part is over, but that is not the end of the process
- After coming out, the butterfly does not crawl like a caterpillar, it will fly – the limitations of the caterpillar stage are not there any more.
In 2 Peter 1:5-7 The spiritual transformation could be illustrated as a gym;
- Every piece of equipment is like all those promises God has given us
- We already have the spiritual muscles, but without exercising those muscles, we are not going to receive those promises
Gal.5:22, 23 The Spirit produces the fruit, the character of Christ in us
- Focus on the things above
Character activation:
- The science shows that it takes 21 days to change a thought/ belief
- Ask the Holy Spirit to show you which old thought you should focus on changing, ask the question, “Where do I believe my needs for security, value and purpose are met?”
- Only focus on one thought at the time
- Let the Holy Spirit remind you of a new thought/ Scripture that you will keep on meditating for 21 days
- Joshua 1:8 Meditate all day long; set up an alarm to remind you at least 7 times a day
- Take a moment to meditate that new thought every time the alarm goes off
