The Transformational POWER of Christ

What holds us back from the transformational POWER of Christ? Can we identify with this list?

©     Doubt that God can REALLY fix what is wrong in us

©     Fear of the unknown in Christ

©     Pressure from others to live in the world

©     Sin that we have not confessed before the Father

©     Anger that burns in our heart so hot that God doesn’t have much room

©     Bitterness that drives ANY kind of good we may desire away

©     Family that is NOT Christian

These are just a few of the things that keep us from believing in and trusting ON the ‘Transformational POWER of Christ’ and yet the Bible is FULL of the promises that are ours if ONLY we do that very thing. In fact in Ephesians 4:17-24 we are told the following:

 ¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

 ²⁰ That, however, is not the way of life you learned ²¹ when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

I find it interesting that Paul tells the Church at Ephesus that he ‘insists on it’ concerning what they must do to lead a transformed life in Christ! I love that. Paul was a leader, respected and known as one that was TRANSFORMED by the Lord! He was living out what God had said and desired so deeply that these Christians be able to have that same kind of transformational POWER, that he ‘insisted’ they get a grip!

He was giving them ‘Instructions for Christian Living’ and bringing to them a promise of what God had for them if they did so!

So often we hear it preached and taught about the need to be filled with the desire to follow after Christ in a hungry way that causes us to be made new. Maybe we should ‘insist’ on it and it would make a difference.

Apathy is eating away the core of Christian belief in our churches today. In fact, it is a growing trend and the really scary part of this condition of the heart is that it causes the promises of God to become minimal and teaches us to become complacent in ALL aspects of life! This is surely a tool of Satan because it robs Christians of the ability to really believe the Lord. It robs us of the ability to be TRANSFORMED in Christ! We have to work hard to keep it from happening.

Satan will use the very tools above that are listed above to make us feel like we are not ever going to measure up in Christ. If we feel we never measure up; then transformational POWER in Christ will never be ours.

I REFUSE TO LET THAT HAPPEN and YOU SHOULD TOO! We should all REFUSE to let Satan tell our minds that we don’t matter and we will never add up. Instead we ought to be hiding the Word of God in our hearts and minds and believe that God CAN transform us.

For every action there is a reaction. This statement is old and proven and it holds true even in Christian realms!

What is your reaction to the above points of why we can’t live out the Transformational POWER of Christ? Here are the exact opposites of what we listed out above. Here are the ways to LIVE out that TRANSFORMATIONAL POWER!

©     God CAN really fix what is wrong in our lives! (Ephesians 5:15) Be deliberate in the Lord! Live wisely.

©     If we truly believe that God is ALWAYS with us; we should have no fear of life!  We should find out what pleases the Lord (Ephesians 5:8-10)

©     When we are transformed in God we should have no problem not living like the world! (Ephesians 5:17)

©     We need to ask God for forgiveness of sin EVERY DAY! We ALL sin and need the forgiveness of the Father in order to be filled with Him! It should happen all the time that we are asking God to cleanse us from sin! (Ephesians 5:18)

©     Get rid of ANGER IN OUR HEART! It just keeps us from the Transformational POWER OF Christ! It does not do anything else for us! (Ephesians 4:26-27)

©     The goodness of God is Transformational! When we begin to replace bitterness with goodness we start to heal on the inside. It is medicine for our souls! We should DESIRE that instead of bitterness! Be deliberate in getting rid of bitterness! (Ephesians 4:31-32)

©     When we become a Christian it is an individual choice and as that; we are on our own journey before the Lord and if our family is not part of that; God calls us to be the LIGHT to them. (Ephesians 5:11) God will let the LIGHT we are living in expose itself to our family if they are living in darkness. He does this by us living in the Transformational POWER of Christ! They will see the truth through the Light shining in you!

The Transformational POWER of Christ is meant to be for every living human on this earth! God desires that we get close to Him and choose to live a different life; Transforming our minds and our hearts before Him! Put off the old self and transform your mind and put on the new self! That is what God calls us to!

To live out this life we have in the days we are living in; the only way to do that is by the POWER of Christ. We cannot do it on our own and it is my prayer that we begin to see the POWER of Christ and what it can do in our lives! Take the knowledge we have in Him and begin to live it out minute by minute and then hour by hour and then day by day and before we know it we have become TRANSFORMED in HIS POWER!