Romans 12:2
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.
Romans 12:2 NKJV
There is something that is happening in today’s Church.
There has been a failure.
There is conformity. Not a righteous conforming to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We have conformed to what is good and acceptable and perfect to the will of our culture!
Do not conform.
Conform means to resemble. To look like, to act like. To blend in.
We are not called to pattern this world or the things in it.
I know that sounds very legalistic.
Followers of Christ, true Followers, are being told that we are taking things a little bit too far. But really, how far is too far?
What are you willing to do to be Holy like Jesus is Holy? Is it too much to just do what the maker of Heaven and earth has told us to do?
Is it really that hard to put Him above everything in your life? Is it too hard to not worship idols? Of course it is.
Because we don’t put on the Mind of Christ. Having the mind of Christ means that we understand God’s plan in the world.
We must know good from evil in accordance with the One that defines what good and evil are.
But in order to have the mind of Christ we have to have that free gift of Salvation. The Holy Spirit indwells and enlightens the believer, giving us and saturating with wisdom, His Discernment, His Knowledge! The mind of Christ!
When we ask for the Holy Spirit to guide us we only allow Him to take us so far. As long as it doesn’t interfere with what we think is right.
We must allow the Holy Spirit to lead and transform and renew our minds.
The enemy of our soul has done a very good job of making evil, wicked things seem innocent and harmless. It is Satan’s duty to ensure that what The Lord calls good is made to be evil and evil good.
We forget to be Holy, we fall into his trap every time. We cave to the guise of this truth rather than the truth of the Gospel!
Sadly, many have forgotten just what the Gospels say.
The twisting of God’s Word has been reduced to a few motivation quotes. Just enough Jesus to make us seem pious. I have found that this is sometimes out of fear. We would rather reject the God of Heaven and His Promises and submit to a culture that goes against Him!
We start to rationalize in our minds. “Oh that’s not what God really meant”.
Then we start to change His Word to fit our lives.
Do not open doorways to the enemy that can curse your household for a lifetime. There’s a certain seriousness about this. Some really don’t take this seriously at all.
The greatest deception we face today is the mentality that eating at the Table of demons and drinking of their cups is OK and acceptable.
Do we really consider this to be something that in the eyes of the Lord is acceptable.
Is God ok with us going back and forth eating a meal at His table then going to the table of demons for dessert!
Jumping back and forth to have just enough fill of forgiveness, holiness and righteousness going from table to table?
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we provoking the Lord to jealousy by our thoughts and actions?
“you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God”!
The jealousy of God is a Good thing.
God is jealous when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to Him. Our Praise, our worship, our time and energy and ultimately our whole lives. What He is jealous of belongs to worship and service belonging to Him alone, and are to be given to Him and Him alone. So when we come to a different table to have a meal to have a drink, we are saying that He is not enough. Because we are conforming to something that is not of God but of the world.
These are those basic concepts that maybe some of us haven’t learned. Or maybe we know them but ignore them because we have chosen to conform to this world rather than the God of Glory!
How do we change this?
“do not be conformed to this world”.
Many will say that we have to put on the full armor of God to get through these Spiritual Battles, because that is exactly what it is. There is a battle for our minds, our bodies and soul.
True.
But we must first clothe ourselves with Jesus Christ. We must first put on Christ before we can do anything else. No other garment will fit properly or be used properly without the first covering of our Grace, Mercy and Salvation found in Christ alone!
This is the first step of not conforming to this world. We have to think as Christ thinks. We have to see and understand what’s Holy and unholy, righteousness and unrighteousness! We will never be able to see this with our own polluted minds but only that of Jesus Christ!
This is when the transformation of the mind starts to happen. When you put on Christ then the Holy Spirit does a work in you. He will start to purge you of those thoughts, those ideas and the mentality that we have all once possessed, thoughts of this world.
Now we can start to have Heavenly pure thoughts. We can start to think clearly without the cloudiness of confusion that conforms us to this world and culture.
Be set apart! Put on CHRIST! Then and only then can we prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Think about this today.
Stephen was martyred for no other reason than NOT conforming to this world. He chose Jesus and Him Crucified over all other thinking, over all other worldly religions and culture. Stephen’s mind was totally and completely transformed, even when the culture came down to take his life for not conforming!
As He saw the heavens open ready to receive him, this was proof what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God! Putting on Christ!
Today decide which table you will sit and dine at. Then ask yourself, to what or whom are you conforming to!
Make a conscious effort to first clothe yourself with Christ before anything else. See how this will change everything!
Pastor Ed
