Why is True Spiritual Transformation So Elusive?
We live in a time when people, politicians, government, community organizations, companies and even churches over promise and under deliver. They say trust me, vote for me, give your money, buy our product, take this pill, do this exercise or attend our church and your life will be transformed. Do these things and you will have the life you always wanted. But we try the idea, vote for the candidate, buy the product, do the exercises and invest ourselves in the vision of the leader only to find our lives are essentially the same. Our ability to love, our sense of happiness and inner peace, our struggle with harmful thoughts and desires, relationship issues and lack of purpose in life remain for the most part unchanged. The result is disillusionment and a wonderment at whether life can really truly ever be different than it is right now?
I have already alluded to the suggestion that I believe we are guilty of this in the church today as well. We tell people, believe in Jesus, read your Bible, attend church, join a small group, go on this retreat, attend this seminar, operate in the prophetic, heal the sick, worship in this way and your life will be transformed. But we do all those things and find we are essentially the same as we were five years ago. Except now we are disillusioned and wonder can I really expect to experience the kind of life that the Bible promises to every follower of Jesus Christ? An abundant life filled love, joy, peace, meaning and purpose in spite of current life circumstances?
The answer is yes, true spiritual transformation, becoming more Christlike, is within reach of every believer in Jesus Christ. However, we must understand and cooperate with God’s established pathway for renewal. I will lay out my understanding of how I believe God works spiritual transformation in a future article but this month I want to begin with listing some of the major obstacles to our ever getting to God’s pathway. If we don’t resolve these issues first, we will never truly embrace God’s way. Some of these issues are as follows.
We believe that actually obeying Jesus is optional- In many churches there is a 2-tiered approach to the message of the Gospel. Often, the implied message is one can “receive” Jesus by professing belief in Him, attend church, read your bible once in a while, pray occasionally and you are a follower of Christ. The main emphasis is on the forgiveness of sins and the promise of heaven one day after you are done living your life here on earth. While the activities of discipleship, actually following Jesus by hearing His voice and obeying Him, are optional pursuits for the zealous and the professionals. The problem with this thinking is the New Testament knows nothing of it.
The Gospel message presented in the New Testament is about our opportunity to live in the kingdom of God, now, and the way we do that is by becoming a follower, an apprentice, of Jesus. Beginning with John the Baptist the message was “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). The invitation always has been that those who would follow Jesus, become His disciples, do so by leaving everything to follow Him, and embracing His teaching and His ways of living. The word disciple literally means learner or apprentice and speaks of us actually becoming like Jesus in thought, character and behavior. To reject this understanding, cuts us off from the only real source of change, Jesus, who has the ability to effect real and lasting transformation in our lives. Responding to the Gospel is to accept the invitation to follow Jesus by doing what He says and live in His kingdom now, today, not some day in the future.
We never correctly define what spiritual transformation looks like- When asked most people define transformation in terms of knowledge and behaviors. You need to know certain things, profess certain beliefs, and you need to behave in a certain way. Normally this gets defined in terms professing to believe what Jesus taught us to believe and acting as Jesus did when He was present among us. This thinking was popularized by the expression what would Jesus do?
This is of course correct as far as it goes but as a definition or goal it is lacking a very important dimension, the piece that addresses the state of one’s heart or inner life. God directed spiritual transformation is the actual changing of one’s heart to be in alignment with our professed beliefs so that Christ like behavior comes as a natural outgrowth of who we are. To focus on the right behavior is to set up a never-ending battle for the will between the old nature that is weighted down with all kinds of sinful desires and the standard of Christ like righteousness. It is this lifestyle that Jesus condemned in the Pharisees and religious leaders of His day. The practical outworking of this focus on changing behavior is to become tired, frustrated and discouraged with one’s spiritual life. To anyone who finds themselves here Jesus says, “come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
We believe spiritual transformation should be easy- Given the culture we live in and the rhetoric of leaders who paint a picture of an easy journey, it is easy to get sucked into the implied message that Jesus will do it all. The promotional messages say the completion of 6 steps to a happy and fulfilled marriage actually make it so. Or eight easy steps to financial prosperity and you will never need to worry about money again. The messages are so inviting because we desperately want them to be true. You add to that when we are speaking about spiritual things we know God is involved and that transformation is His work, we misapply the doctrine of God’s grace and assume there is nothing for us to do. We expect we just need to sit back and let God do His thing. We want it to be easy so the message finds a receptive audience. Genuine spiritual transformation is God’s domain and happens by His grace but this does not mean there is nothing for us to do or it will come easily. Most of the time we have to fight the good fight of faith in order to appropriate the abundant life Jesus has promised each of us.
We believe spiritual transformation should be quick- Like the idea that transformation should be easy this thought is driven more by exposure to our culture than a study of the Scriptures. We live in a time when we don’t have to wait for much anymore. Most of the things we desire come in a matter of seconds, minutes or sometimes days. Waiting longer than that for anything is rare and usually we don’t need to do much to have it happen. But when it comes to life change, long held, core ungodly beliefs, along with the hurts and iniquity that secure them, will not disappear because we hear a sermon or attend a retreat. Rather they are replaced over time as our minds are renewed and our hearts are healed through meditation on God’s truth at the direction of the Holy Spirit. Genuine spiritual transformation can happen in a single encounter with Jesus but that is the exception and not the rule.
We try and do it alone- It is common in our culture to take an individualistic approach to life, an approach that comes naturally to most. We want to decide on our own, do it our way and not have to be concerned with the thoughts and concerns of others. Sometimes we are successful, or at least appear to be successful but most of the time we fail or fall short of what we could have accomplished if we worked together with others. The rule of synergy often applies in life.
When it comes to experiencing life change, of any kind, being in community with others often determines the difference between success and failure. It has been proven time and again that addictions are best broken when sharing life with others. Spiritual transformation is similar in that very few people can take a new truth, receive it, begin to live out of it and follow that through to it becoming a core life value without the input and encouragement of others. The enemy of our souls loves to see people isolated and struggling for is then they are truly vulnerable. Genuine spiritual transformation happens best under the direction of Holy Spirit guided shepherd or mentor and in the context of a community of people seeking to live the same values and lifestyle.
Most of us have ways of thinking, ways of reacting to people and circumstances that remind us we are not yet fully mature followers of Jesus. Issues like anger, unworthiness, unhealthy desires, worry, anxiety and the list goes on. They are often deep, core life issues that we have tried for years to address by doubling down on self-effort and trying one more human remedy. But it has ended in failure often enough that we now believe real life change is not possible. Could it be your thinking and therefore your expectations have been shaped by one of the above beliefs? If so, your success has been sabotaged before you begin.
In John:8 Jesus reminds us of His promises “if we abide in His truth, the truth will make us free” and if the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed” (John 8:32, 36). True spiritual transformation is available to us today as we choose to become a disciple of Jesus, living in the His kingdom by obeying Him.
Author
Pastor Bruce is the Executive Director of God's Living Stones. He lives in Omaha, NE, with his wife Barb. They have two adult children.
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