Living A Transformed Life
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Living A Transformed Life
Living A Transformed Life
2 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.
pray
Confession of Faith
Confession of Faith
I am not moved by what I see or by what I feel. I am moved by what I believe. I believe the WORD of God! The victory is mine! I have it now! I can see it through the eyes of my faith! In Jesus Name
I am not moved by what I see or by what I feel. I am moved by what I believe. I believe the WORD of God! The victory is mine! I have it now! I can see it through the eyes of my faith! In Jesus Name
Introduction:
Living A Transformed Life!
This doesn’t happen overnight! But every day we must work on allowing the Holy Spirit to change us!
Allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds! Allow the Holy Spirit to focus our minds more and more upon God and spiritual things.
It starts with making a decision to Love God
37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
Many will say, I do love God, but I’m still challenged with the things I think about and the things I focus on!
How do I keep my mind on things that please God!
5 Those who live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about the things the Spirit wants them to do.
6 If people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death. But if their thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace.
Living A Transformed Life
To live this life we must ask the question - what is interrupting my relationship with God and what is hindering my knowledge of God’s will!
3 We do live in the world, but we do not fight in the same way the world fights.
4 We fight with weapons that are different from those the world uses. Our weapons have power from God that can destroy the enemy’s strong places. We destroy people’s arguments
5 and every proud thing that raises itself against the knowledge of God. We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ.
Use your weapons -You are in a war
We are in a war - daily! We are in fights moment by moment! But it’s not a fleshly fight! To live a transformed life - you must accept that you are in a spiritual war!
We are fighting to gain control over our thoughts and actions! It often stirs the believer to discipline and gain control over his mind and thoughts.
We are in a spiritual war. The bible is clear about this:
12 For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
The war is not waged against flesh and blood, against physical and material beings, but against spiritual forces.
Spiritual forces are behind every persons evil behaviour,
Spiritual forces are behind every persons lustful behavior,
Spiritual forces are behind every persons unbelief
Spiritual forces are behind every arguments against God.
Spiritual forces are behind every attack
Spiritual forces are behind every unclean thought and desire
Spiritual forces are behind every selfish and devilish ideas against God!
It’s the energy from these spiritual that drive the evil things we do!
Ideas and thoughts are not physical and material! They are invisible and mental substances.
When we operate in selfishness,
When we do evil things
When we lust that is not the nature of God or Jesus Christ
Those thought and desires are injected into our minds by spiritual forces that oppose God!
Here is my point - we “walk in the flesh”; that is, we live in a body just like everyone else!
But to live a transformed life I can’t war in my flesh! It’s like this - you can’t fight theses battles of the mind and flesh with your own strength!
We know our flesh is weak, the world doesn’t realize that!
You can’t use positive thinking enough to fight all the negative thoughts and desires that creep in you mind and body
You can’t self discipline enough to keep yourself right in all areas!
You know there is a spiritual warfare going on for the minds and lives of people in general and especially God’s people!
The bible tells us there are evil forces of the spiritual world behind …
• sin and evil
• disorder and devastation
• corruption and deterioration
• death and hell
We cannot “war after the flesh”;
There is not one man or any combination of men that can conquer the spiritual forces that tear and eat away at each of us until they destroy us.
Listen, No matter how strong,
No matter how educated,
No matter how scientific we may become,
We cannot deliver ourselves from the spiritual forces that cause sin and death.
To live a Transformed Life - we must use the right weapons in this war!
Our weapons are not physical but spiritual.
Physical weapons would be human weapons of the mind and body such as
• Physical weapons would be your discipline and control
• Physical weapons would be fighting with your strength and ability
• Physical weapons would be fighting with your knowledge and intelligence
• Physical weapons would be fighting using science and technology
• Physical weapons would be your fighting with ideas and thoughts
• Physical weapons would be fighting based on beliefs and teachings
• Physical weapons would be fighting with religious laws and principles
• Physical weapons would be fighting with rules
• Physical weapons would be fighting with your health and esteem
• Physical weapons would be fighting using education and social development
• Physical weapons would be fighting using wealth
• Physical weapons would be fighting using personality
• Physical weapons would be fighting using your appearance and attractiveness
Now don’t get me wrong - we must develop every human or physical power to the fullest extent possible.
But as a believer of Jesus Christ know this - there is nothing in the world that can conquer the spiritual forces that lie behind the evil and death of this world. So we fight the spiritual battles of this life with spiritual weapons, weapons that are of God and are made mighty and powerful by God.
We uses these spiritual weapons to “pull down strongholds.”
Only the spiritual weapons of God can permanently conquer evil
So here is how we live transformed lives
We stop thoughts and imaginations that are uncontrolled,
We stop wild crazy thoughts
We stop evil thoughts
We stop lustful thoughts and desires,
We stop immoral thoughts
We stop wrong, and untrue thoughts
We stop any thoughts that are set against God - here is why
21 What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives.
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.
29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.
30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.
31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.
32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
To live transformed lives we must acknowledge God in every aspect of our lives!
Everything must be put under the obedience of Jesus Christ
5 and every proud thing that raises itself against the knowledge of God. We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ.
We must capture thought and submit it to Jesus Christ!
This creates continued fellowship with God! This is the spiritual objective of transformed life
God created us for fellowship and communion! You must know this to live a transformed life! That’s why we struggle and fight! We know that we should be in constant communion and fellowship with God and when we are not the wars begin!
We must fight to keep an unbroken relationship with God through Jesus Christ!
I struggle when i break communion with God! I struggle when I break fellowship with God!
I am at war when I am not in fellowship with Jesus!
Pastor you’re trippin’ - How is the control of every thought possible?
Only by the Spirit of God and by Him alone.
5 Those who live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about the things the Spirit wants them to do.
16 “Who has known the mind of the Lord so that he can teach him?” However, we have the mind of Christ.
8 Brothers and sisters, think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
Living A Transformed Life requires that we submit it all to Jesus! The bible tells us that God will keep us in perfect peace when our minds are stayed on him!
Quit fighting a spiritual war with your flesh! Come to Jesus with every thought, will and desire as begin living transformed lives!
God Bless you and keep you is my prayer!