And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2
How do the preachers of today read a verse like this and all but ignore it? And go back to this doctrine of saved by a grace that does not exist in the way they teach it? The religious world kept me from coming to an understanding while always learning for many years, living the lie that once saved always saved, or eating a little piece of bread at mass would save me when practicing my catholic religious faith. And at the same time remaining in my sin and not even thinking a thing of it because we all sin, right?
The reason we all sin and remain in it is because we remain conformed in this world, we do not renew our minds and allow God to transform us. And therefore we never end up doing the good and acceptable will of God, instead we remain in our own will which is full of evil, sin and dysfunction and claim grace and a savior who is our lawyer against the Father.
This is all a lie, the Son never stands against the Father, instead he only does what the Father tells him to do. And the working of the Holy Spirit who is the one who transforms us, leading us into all righteousness. He takes what the Father tells him and whispers into our ear and leads us into all righteousness. Note “ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS” not some or most but all. The problem is not with God it is with us and we do not follow into all righteousness and fall short. And claim this or that bible verse as our reason instead of getting back up on our horse and trying again to defeat the devil and his demons and our flesh.
There is grace for the man who gets defeated by the devil, but not for the one who gives up and just accepts it. But only for the man who goes back at it and fights the good fight, runs in such a way to win the prize…
So the last few days, the Lord was reminding me of the fight I had. And continue at times to have because we never finish until the day we die. Even after achieving the receiving of the Holy Spirit and walking in a different way. There is still a constant barrage of evil coming at you trying to get you back to who you were or some sort of variance of it. Whatever it takes to keep you out of the Kingdom of God. But once you have the truth, the Spirit of truth. That fight is so much easier because of the truth.
For example in my past life in the flesh, sexual sin and drinking heavy were a favorite. I could justify doing it in my mind while reading my bible and going to catholic church. Never felt any sort of conviction, but then I quenched or flat out ignored the Holy Spirit. I recalled the first time I went to a strip bar with a co-worker, and when walking in I had a strong feeling of not supposed to be going in, but because I never heard the truth, I ignored it (quenched it). And we went in. The next time and every time after I never had that same feeling. No one ever told me about the way the Holy Spirit works. And no one told me how the addiction of things work. How once you give into a certain sin, it starts to eat you and consume you. The next time and the next time after gets easier and more enjoyable to you where you go to have it again. It is easy to get addicted to things, and it is not psychological like they push, it is spiritual based on the evil spirits.
A couple of examples of how the Holy Spirit in truth changes things. Keeping in mind the women in my life while going to strip clubs accepted it as OK, my ex wife did not like it, but she did not stop it either. But two things stopped it in my life, both tied to the Holy Spirit and me starting to understand what God was after and then hearing him and obeying.
The first one was when I was with the woman I dated for about 6 years after my divorce. One day when in the middle of having sex, the Lord said don’t do it. And I said back, but Lord I cannot stop or control this and you know it. His response, you can do all things in Yeshua who loves and strengthens you.
And it was true, he started to show me many things and how to overcome it, and in the end it was by his healing power and authority that ended the tyranny in my life of sexual sin.
This second example is when I went on a college football bowl game trip with some friends. We always went to strip clubs, and this time no different. However I was very different this time around and did not sit staring at their nudity. Yes I went in, but then sin is around us everywhere. YOu cannot escape it. But I did not participate. Instead I sat in the back and just watched the men and how we are when we go to places like that. I had a few women come up to me to get me involved but I looked them in the eye and not elsewhere and said no.
It was a test, and I passed. The transformation of my mind was in motion and I was fighting the good fight and winning. Eventually I got to where I never stepped foot inside a club again. And never even go to a sports bar alone anymore, the few times we go is to get food and a beer or two and leave. No more hanging out talking with everyone getting drunk. And the cool thing is all that sounds ridiculous to me now and boring. One after another the Lord took things away from me, including one day telling me to not watch sports anymore nor TV in general. At first I did not see the reason or purpose in it, but later I did when he renewed my mind even more. The time spent staring at a TV is time away from your family and mostly time away from God. Your computer and social media can be the same, it is time wasted mostly. There are parts where it can be used for good, but mostly it is used to promote ourselves and how good our lives are. We show pictures of family and trips and share how great our kids are doing… A true sign of what Paul wrote about latter times when men will be lovers of self instead of lovers of God. When I post the things of God and what he shows me, I get no response, but if a picture or something goes up about a trip or family, I get many responses.
The renewing of your mind takes a lot of work on our end, and is completely a different process from how you lived your life before. And you get attacked from family, friends, and the world as if you are crazy. The world cannot comprehend the things of God, but men of God can. The problem is we do not want to hear the things of the men of God, we want to hear the things of the world, because they do not convict us or make us feel bad for who we are in the flesh. It trumps the little voice in our head saying don’t do that, with a message of what is wrong with it?
The message of this world is much stronger than the little voice whispering in your ear, trying to lead you into all righteousness. And everyone you hang out with will tell you it is OK to be you and you do not need to change. It is like that because we hang out with the ones who are like us. In my old days in the flesh I hung out watching sports and half naked women and always businessmen, I did not hang out with guys who were into drama or band. So of course they never convicted me of being wrong because they did the same things as me.
But when I started to change, and my friends did not, the friendship went away. We do not hate each other, but we have very little in common anymore. And so our communication has all but stopped.
Now this brings up one last point for today. A new friend who is seriously seeking the Lord and his way told me he sees me as guarded. I told him I am. That I guard my life in Yeshua with everything, and anyone trying to come in between it with their religious point of view will end the relationship. I would rather die alone with Yeshua and like he did, than with 1,000’s of people mourning my death and be separated. I have become very much a loner, preferring to spend my time with my family and mostly God than anyone else. In doing this I also know it is my responsibility to disciple the nations to Him. So men like this one who is showing genuine interest in coming to the understanding which will set him free. Of course I will help. But the help from me is minimal, it is the working of the Holy Spirit, the true helper who will do the work. The only part of us as disciples is to tell stories like this one of what Yeshua and the Spirit did in me so they understand the truth instead of living the religious church system lie.
In the end we must “seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, then everything else is given to you!” You cannot sow to the world and expect the things of the Kingdom. But you can sow to the Kingdom and then receive some of the blessings of the world.