Tuesday 19 October 2021

Radical Transformation

 Scripture:  Romans 12 v 1 - 2: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

In this world, and particularly in the South African political spectrum, radical economic transformation is still the buzzword, long after Bell Pottinger's demise.  That company originated it together with the other national buzzword 'white minority capital' to try to deflect attention away from the massive looting the governing party have indulged in.

The only way to transform this terrible destruction of our nation's assets is to have a change of government.  It is necessary to stop the rot and make some radical changes.  The former president is waging a political war against the reigning president, causing massive division in the ruling party.  If the former Prez was to split from the ANC, his party would be called Radical Economic Transformation.

It's like Brexit.  Boris Johnson was like the proverbial bull in a China shop as he determined to do the only thing that matters.  The British Referendum voted
Leave and he did just that no matter what it cost.

The majority of the British Parliament, 75%, did not want to Leave the EU, and actively blocked the Brexit plan, to extend, delay, or even stop the process altogether.  Therefore, those who sided with Boris to make this radical transformation, were the true servers of the will of those who pay the taxes.  The people.

When we get born again there is a great radical transformation that takes place in our spiritual lives. We are first changed from death to life, our spirits are resurrected and we experience God, Jesus and salvation in a hugely different way. Our darkness changes to light, as we read the Bible it becomes like a personal correspondence from our Heavenly Father.

We become a part of the new creation, which gives us a stature that is no longer only human.  We are being changed into the likeness of Jesus, as His Body on Earth.  When Adam and Eve needed fig leaves it meant that every descendant of theirs, including us, was fully exposed to the Pandora's Box of sin, disease, degradation, evil power and death.  Only the second Adam, Jesus Christ, could close that terrifying Box again.

We no longer have any fear of death as our eternal lives began when we were born again.  We already have one foot on the path to Heaven.  The Cross is at work in us, bringing death to every worldly, carnal thing that distracts us from the goal of bringing as many souls with us into His Kingdom.

The distractions are overwhelming and continuous and it takes a radical mental and emotional transformation to cope with them and refuse to be pulled into their sinful, octopus-like tentacles.  We have to find a way to avoid compromise, lies,
self-justification, arguments and fantasies to be obedient to the will of God for us.

The Apostles of Jesus who knew Him in life, death, resurrection and ascension, were very radical.  They were changed from being timid to being very bold and determined.  Peter exposed the duplicity of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 and it cost them their lives as they had lied to the Holy Spirit and conspired to deceive the brethren.  Instant death, no reprieve or appeal to a judge.  No second opinion, or the mercy of the Governor.  No legal leg to stand on.

We are used to seeing people sitting on death row using appeal after appeal to avoid the lethal injection.  Many years go by while families wait for justice for the hideous crimes committed upon their loved ones.  In the Old Testament these criminals had no hope of ever changing their nature and died by stoning.

In the New Testament we can offer a radical transformation through the new birth and the power of God to deliver people from demonic strongholds.  This takes hard work and much commitment, and enough people willing to do it.  It takes loads of experience to do this work but it can be done.

We have seen wonderful changes in the lives of people who were "written off" by all who knew them.  We once prayed for a man who had enormous guilt issues because he had been in charge of the gas chambers of Auschwitz and sent many Jews to their deaths during WW2.  He was trying to make peace with God and be forgiven but his mind could not believe that God could ever forgive him.

1 John 1 v 7 - 9: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from ALL sin, and ALL unrighteousness.  All means all, and he finally believed it.  It was not easy to pray for him but the love of Jesus found a way.  It would have been much easier to consign him to death and Hell, and feel justified doing so, but it would be contrary to the will of God.  He did a radical transformation in that man, and showed me that this scripture applies even to the worst of sinners if they are genuinely sorry.

Jesus, while dying on the Cross said, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing.  He was not just talking about those who crucified Him but the whole human race.  

Until we are born again, and Jesus said so in John 3 v 3....You must be born again...to perceive the Kingdom of God, we are dead in spirit.  We are a living soul dragging a dead spirit which was killed by sin before we were conceived in our mother's wombs.

Before this world was founded our spirits existed in another realm where we were held hostage by Satan who fell from Heaven in a huge flash of lightning.  In this realm, which I call the Six Days Realm, because God was making Earth habitable while we were captives, we were brainwashed, tormented and compromised, blackmailed, threatened and severely abused.  We became acquainted with sin and we made pacts with the Devil.  Then our memories were wiped.

Ecclesiastes 1 v 11: 
"There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after."

The 'former things' in the King James Version of the Holy Bible, refer to this captivity in Satan's realm.  However, this too shall pass, when it has all fully manifested here on Earth we get......

Revelation 21 v 3 - 4: "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

Micah 5 v 2: 
"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

This prophecy of the birth of Jesus includes the words......whose goings forth from Heaven were from everlasting or eternity.  Jesus left Heaven before time began, to do a rescue from Satan's clutches.

Revelation 13 v 8 - 9: "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9  If any man have an ear, let him hear.

Everyone who is not saved will worship the Beast.  Your name must be in the Lamb's Book of Life which only happens if you are born again.  No other religion, culture's or lifestyle can put your name in that Book.

Jesus was slain in that domain of Satan as part of the rescue plan to save us.  Each one of us is a fragment of His broken body.  Each fragment is a soul.  When He instituted Communion at the last supper He said, This is My Body broken for you, do this in remembrance of Me.

Jesus is trying to restore our memories of those days in Satan's realm.  His body was not broken on the Cross.  His Body was slain and broken into the fragments that became souls, us.  If any man or woman have an ear, please hear!  This is why He said we do not know what we are doing.  This Earth experience is a slow motion action replay of those forgotten days.  One day there equals a thousand years here.

2 Peter 3 v 8: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

Revelation 10 v 6 - 7: "And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets."

When the final or 7th Millenium ends, which is the thousand years of restoration of Earth with Jesus the Creator, reigning in Jerusalem, there will be time no longer.  Time is a warp of eternity that was created for the existence on Man upon the Earth, and it will end because since 2001 we have been in this last Millenium.  We are awaiting the Rapture which is at the Father's perfect timing, as only He knows when that will be.

It sounds crazy when we hear of the very evil doings of many criminals, dictators, Satanists, militants, cults, monsters, paedophiles, etc.  But Jesus made a way for radical transformation of every soul back to the way He created us.  If He can change each one of us, He can change anybody.  

However, He cannot overturn man's will.  If a person does not want to change, shows no remorse, is full of pride for their evil doings, then they are on their own and must face the consequences of their sins.  Our task is to try to help them understand that they can change.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You love us so much that You sent Your Son into that dark realm to start the journey to first be born of humans, as humans, in sin, and then You sent Him to Earth, to cancel our sins, and be born again to be a new creation, with Jesus as our prototype, to be even better as we follow Him back home to Heaven.
Ephesians 1 v 3 - 5: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 
4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."
Thank You, Father, for a greater love than we can ever imagine as You radically transformed us to be like Jesus.  Amen.