God’s good news for us is that He has come to restore. This includes every facet of your life—spiritual restoration, physical restoration, relational restoration. He has come to heal and to restore us to Himself and to the abundant life that He created us to live (learn more about the abundant life here). So many of us avoid seeking out the spiritual healing of God because of a deep-seated worry that it will involve the pain of reliving the past. This comes from a misunderstanding of how God actually works. God doesn’t use a therapy model. He doesn’t require you to sit in your pain. Instead, He offers true healing— a healing which transforms. This healing doesn’t dwell in the past, and it doesn’t cause pain. Instead, it is a process of trusting God and allowing Him to transform our hearts. There is a huge difference between facing our troubles alone and walking through them hand in hand with the God of the universe. While God does require us to recognize our own brokenness, He doesn’t leave us there. This moment of recognition is brief and it leads you into His abundant life of joy, peace, and exceptional living. God’s restoration process is a hopeful place, not a painful place.
Paul writes that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17). When you walk with God, you experience this freedom while He is bringing healing, truth, insight, wisdom, and answers to prayer into your life. The spirit is life; it’s not heavy. God brings life into the midst of your restoration.
Deliverance from our patterns.
God’s restoration process for you is individual. He will speak life into you in a way which is unique to you and your situation. However, there are ways in which we tend to contribute the the chaos in our lives and block ourselves from experiencing God’s restoration. This block is the result of the patterns we fall into as we attempt to deal with our struggles on our own, instead of in the power of God. For example, a lot of people struggle with a pattern of anger. When we experience this pattern, we find ourselves getting angry at the problems we experience, and when we get angry we are drawn to act upon our anger by treating people harshly. This treatment of the people around us causes our relationships to devolve into chaos. We tend to think this are the result of all the troubles we are facing, but underneath it actually lies our personal responses to the chaos we experience, and the patterns that have been created by the woundedness of our hearts.
But the chaos is so prevalent… how are we supposed to handle it?
God asks you to let Him change your heart and your understanding of the soul, so that you can become free from the burden of frustration. His concern is not about the problem; rather, it is about healing. There is transformation to be found in abiding relationship with Christ. When God does the work in us, it frees us so that we can enjoy life, regardless of the things that are going on around us. As you’re finding truth in the middle of chaos, remember that your patterns only create more chaos. Let Him heal those and start bringing order to your life.
In short, true transformation comes when you allow Christ to transform you, instead of desperately trying to transform yourself.
Transformation.
When you think of metamorphosis, what do you think of? For most of us, the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly comes to mind. This is actually a great metaphor for us, as Christians. One interesting thing about caterpillars is that their transformation technically requires them to die. They go into a tomb—the cocoon—and then they are reborn in a brand new nature. Can a butterfly go back to being a caterpillar? Absolutely not. Why? It has been completely transformed—it’s a new creature. So, does transformation look like the caterpillar hitching a ride on something that can fly? No, that would be ridiculous. It would still be a caterpillar. When the butterfly gets transformed, it gets completely transformed. When its transformation is done, it is completely finished. It will never revert back into a caterpillar.
Why is this metaphor relevant to us? Well, for many of us, dealing with our patterns of sin means trying to manage it ourselves. When we do that, we set up boundaries and accountability partners, but somehow we always wind up back in our pattern of sin. Eventually, we just go to resignation. We say, “I guess I’m just going to be a caterpillar in this area. This is just my struggle.”
God asks, “Do you want to be healed?” Most of us would say yes. If this is you, your job is now to learn how to abide and how to let the power of the Word transform you. It’s not about managing your sin; it’s about being released from your sin. To be released means you’re completely free of it. When people are freed by the power of the Word, they no longer have any problem with their struggle at all. It is literally God changing your appetite, or your heart, so that you don’t even desire it anymore.
John 15:7
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Jesus says that if His words abide in You—His rhema word to you, what He is speaking to you personally—He will take you to freedom. If you allow Him, through His rhema word, to instruct you, lead you, and transform you, you will find incredible freedom. And He will do it step by step. So, will we be transforming for the rest of our lives? Yes. But as you grow, it gets deeper the longer you abide with Him. In our world of fast food, high speed internet, and two-day shipping, we are often tempted to desire the same immediate gratification from God. We are so interested in the end product that we are not willing to go on the journey and do the work ourselves. We have to remember that intimacy is all about walking with Him–staying with Him. At first, you will be going over the basics of His love and truth in your life. But God says to enjoy this time and to continue to rest in Him. It’s His job to get you to where you need to go, and it is through this relationship with Him that you will start to experience true and complete restoration.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
The Spirit of the Lord is liberty—freedom. It’s really cool that the verses are in that order. If God had put verse 17 after verse 18, we would have read it and said, “okay, so I get transformed, and when I get transformed I’ll find the Spirit of the Lord. Freedom comes when we get transformed.” We often believe that we have to first resolve the issue, then we’ll have freedom. Further, we believe that until that complete restoration, we have to struggle with our issue. God says it’s the other way around. He put verse 18 before verse 17. He will bring you restoration. And while you’re receiving it, you’ll have freedom. Even while you’re in the midst of your struggle, you’ll experience His freedom. It’s an interesting and hard thing for us to get our heads around. So many of us have believed for our whole lives that we are burdened by our issues and that it is a struggle to get into the Word and be transformed. But there’s no freedom in that approach. God says, if you start letting Him do His work, you’ll begin to receive freedom immediately. He is your sufficiency! And that is great and wonderful news.
As you seek the Lord and His transformation in your life, you will undoubtedly come up with questions. Don’t keep these to yourself! Talk to a fellow Christian you trust, and know that we are also always available for questions through https://abideministries.com/contact-us/.
