Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…I hope you all had the opportunity to engage with your family and friends during the Thanksgiving holiday. And if you were brave enough to venture out into the Black Friday shopping fiasco, I hope you survived that experience too…all the time remembering, of course, that we are called to “love our neighbor.” That charge – many times – is a challenge, but Black Friday has to magnify that challenge at least ten-fold. I know that first-hand because on the way home from spending Thanksgiving Day with Pam’s family in Jerseyville, Illinois, we stopped at a store. Wow! We both vowed that would be our first and last time to engage in such mayhem. I know some people love it, so if you fall into that category, my prayer for you is…please say a prayer before you venture out again next year.
I recently met a young man who was directed my way by a mutual friend. He was struggling with some life issues, so after talking for a while he set-up the right time for me to ask this question: “Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?” His answer brought a smile to my face, because it is really not an uncommon answer. He said, “Yes I have, but nothing seemed to happen. I am basically living the same life I lived before.”
There is a week-end radio show that is broadcast in our area called, “Intentional Living.” As the name implies, it is about engaging in the process of change. “Change” is the result of us being intentional about the way we do things. For instance, Phillippa Lally is a health psychology researcher at University College in London. In a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Lally and her research team decided that on average, it takes about two months for a new habit to become automatic. In other words, we have to participate in the process of change.
Like so many Christians who give their life to Jesus Christ, once the euphoria of the moment subsides, life still happens. In other words, everything that plagued us the day before our conversion still exist the day after our conversion, rather it be relationships issues, financial issues, health issues, job issues or a myriad of temptations that took us down before. 2Corinthians 5:17 tells us about the “great exchange” that takes place at our conversion: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here”. That verse is talking the empowerment that we receive. “The old is gone” tells us we are no longer slaves to our sin-nature. “The new is here” tells us now we have been set free because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. But here’s the key. We have to participate in the process. We have to call on the Holy Spirit to do for us what we have here-to-fore been powerless to do: to resist our sin-nature and to rise above the world around us.
This is part of God’s loving salvation plan for his people, (“those chosen by him long ago…even before the world was created”. Ephesians 1:4) But, he knows how weak we are. Psalm 103:14-16 explains this beautifully: “For he understands how weak we are; he knows we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone…” But His gift of the Holy Spirit empowers us to do the work; to rise above the world around us to become the “masterpiece” referenced in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
I believe the misunderstanding of so many Christians – and my friend referenced above in paragraph two – is that something is going to miraculously happen “at conversion” that is going to change their life circumstances. It’s almost as if they expected some “God dust” to be sprinkled on their problems, and “voila…everything would be fixed.” Unfortunately, that’s not how it happens.
God’s plan is about transformation. It’s about transforming us from the inside out. Indeed our spirit has changed, but the challenge now – and one in which we must intentionally participate – is bringing our soul (mind, emotions and will) and our flesh in line with our new spirit. Apostle Paul talks about dying to “self”, which includes tackling these attitudes (which can turn into actions) head-on: anger, covetousness, deceit, lying, jealousy, envy, hatred, lust, lack of self-control, ego. Notice that all of these emotions and/or thoughts are driven by satan, so we are certainly facing a formidable foe.
God wants us to succeed, so he gave us the Holy Spirit to ensure that would happen. That statement is confirmed by 1John 4:4: “He that is me (the Holy Spirit) is greater than he (satan) that is of this world”, and also by Jesus’ statement in John 16:33, “I have overcome the world.” Because Jesus has overcome the world, we too – because we are in Christ – have overcome the world. Those two statements tell us we are already victorious!
But we have to understand what those two truths mean for us and how we can effectively use that truth. The Holy Spirit does not act independently of our will. Just as God does not trump our free-will by imposing his will on us, the Holy Spirit springs into action only when we call on him. That’s why understanding the intentionality of our “new creation” can mean the difference joy, peace and serenity and “nothing seems to have changed.”
Once we have made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have only taken the first step in our new journey. From this point on it is imperative that we participate in the process of becoming more Christ-like. That is the goal of being a Christ-follower, and it is a life-long process. Remember, prior to our conversion we did what came naturally, meaning we satisfied our own will and conformed to the patterns of this world. Apostle Paul highlighted that error when he stated in Romans 12:2: “Don’t conform to 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 know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.”
James gives us his perspective on trials and tribulations in 1:12: “God blesses those who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” Apostle Paul shares his thoughts on this subject in Romans 5:3-5: “We can rejoice too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us – they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
“The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.” (Ephesians 1:14) Therefore, when we are facing life’s problems, we can call on the Holy Spirit to empower us to overcome our challenges in a way that brings honor and glory to God, OR…in a way that helps us become the “masterpiece” he created us to be. If our reason for calling on the Holy Spirit is rooted in either of those two motives, His promise to us is that we will overcome.
“So how do we call on the Holy Spirit”, you might ask? It’s easy. We ask him in prayer to empower us with the wisdom, courage, strength, humility, patience, or perseverance -whatever it is we need to overcome the issue we are facing in a way that honors God. Jesus has conquered the world. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we too will conquer the world and become more Christ-like in the process.
I will close with one of my favorite passages from Galatians 5: 16-18: “So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just the opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other and your choices are never free from this conflict. But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to your sin-nature.”
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May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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