Category Archives: Healing, Overcoming, Pain, Restoration

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Middle: Spiritual Transformation, Part 3 of 5

I began to look for answers.

My personal journey into authentic belief, into Christian belief that is real, into spiritual transformation that energizes, started with my search to know God. This search is ongoing and will continue until I meet my Savior face to face in the next life.

Spiritual transformation is a process that takes both you and God. It takes honesty with God, transparency with God. You have to have some skin in the game.

  • It takes looking in the mirror of God.
  • It takes a decision to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from Him.
  • It takes putting your false self aside by not pretending anymore.
  • It takes seeking God to know Him.

The end result is you become authentic.

I want you to get a taste of what it is like to be spiritually transformed and to live an authentic Christian life. How far you want to go with this, depends on your willingness to seek God with an open heart.

Heather, in her latest book Called to be Me, says it this way. “Fly, little butterfly, … fly!” That’s what spiritual transformation looks like after you’ve been on the journey a while.

When you change, you become beautiful, and you get to fly.

I wrote this on Twitter last month.

“One of the most freeing things I ever did was to ask God to heal my memories. I didn’t know if God could heal them. Through a process, God met me where I was at and He cleansed my memories. The sorrow and submerged pain left. That was 19 years ago.”

@nlbrumbaugh

God did what I could not do.

God does what we cannot do. Every time God meets us in our place of sorrow and pain, He takes us further than we were before. When you get discouraged, look back at your back trail and see what God has already done in your life.

God is doing something in you.

Your spiritual transformation may be very slow. Don’t quit. Don’t allow discouragement to overtake you. Don’t turn aside and think it’s not worth the effort. Trust in God takes time to develop. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

God is doing two things in your life (and maybe more). He is deconstructing what doesn’t belong (which is painful and thorough). He is constructing what does belong. Both take time. God is developing a living relationship with you. One that speaks life to your soul. Hang in there.

Invite God to minister to your soul. God is willing, able, and delights in drawing close to you. When you begin to open up and draw upon God’s good favor toward you, you will experience divine mercy, loving tenderness, and spiritual enlivening.

You are becoming a friend of God.

Next in series: Changing: Spiritual Transformation, Part 4 of 5

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Photo by James Morden, Unsplash

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An Uncanny Realization

A thought has come to me. Opposite of the unfettered, unrestrained human appetite which increases when fed, comes a different, alternate spiritual passion that can be awakened, energized, and explodes into an ever-deepening awareness. This passion is a hunger for God which replicates and thrives in being.

The following consideration is most uncanny.

When a person develops a keen awareness of God which initiates a relationship with God that is real — really real, so real that the relationship eventually becomes a true friendship, such a friendship gives to us day by day and is the source of internal joy and happiness, unparalleled in intensity and duration.

The seeker begins to find God.

Seekers hunger and thirst after righteousness. Their desires convert to godly ambitions. They increase in knowledge and spiritual understanding. In time, wisdom covers them as a garment. Their passion for God defines them down to the innermost details of their interior life. The world loses its pull and attraction. Material possessions lose their gloss and importance. Status and power are of no consequence.

God is what matters.

Love for God and His love for them has become a powerful force with a multiplied effect — as seen in the great martyrs of the faith. These faithful followers of Christ counted it a privilege as they rose victorious to suffer unjust treatment and/or tortuous death for the glory of God.

God uses our emotions, intellect, and will.

Our emotions intellect and will work together. They have combined in a set pattern that continues to go deeper and fuller in Christ. But even in this there is a danger. Some believers get off track. They become enamored with what God is doing in their lives. They create a following. It is a small step to start exchanging truth for self-honor and the misleading of people into following a person and not the Christ of the person.

The seeker keeps focused and humbled.

Christ fills their thirst to over-flowing from out of his well of abundance. He is enlivened within them. Their passions are for God. He is their end-all. Jesus is Victor in their lives. This passion grows in intensity and breadth. People that live it, breathe it, give it, and show it. These followers of Christ have the real deal. They have that which is real despite a terribly fallen world. Praise be to God.

Kingdom saints have a kingdom heart.

You can be on this journey.

Less than a week ago I was in a prayer service. One elderly woman brought her father, who was quite elderly. I didn’t know him or her. He sat there and said nothing. When it came time to pray, I didn’t know what to expect from the gentleman. I didn’t expect much, if anything. But he did pray, and when he prayed, O how glorious. He was enthralled with Jesus. He spoke words of grace with a reverence for our Lord. I knew by the way he prayed that he loved God. It poured out of him from his heart, mind, and soul. It seeped from his being.

That is what I am talking about.

You can trust Christ as your Savior. You can give Him your life and give Him your stuff. You can love Jesus Christ and obey Father God. You can allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and fill your spirit to overflowing.

Yes, that is how it happens.

God will give you what you need, when you need it. You will grow as much as you want to grow… and that is a beautiful thing. I hope you will come up to me some day and say, Jesus Christ transformed my life. He will if you let Him — and it is sooo worth it.

You can go deeper with God.