Being Transformed

            Speaking of last week’s blog, “Walking with the Lord”, I want to talk about keeping Jesus as a constant presence in your life, and what it does for us. Most of us are fairly familiar with Romans 12:2- “Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
I don’t know about you, but it causes me to ask another question: “How do I get transformed?”
            The beauty of God is that He never leaves us to guess about such things, but He does want us to look and search… Proverbs 25:2 says, after all, that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search it out. In my searching of the Bible to find helpful instructions about my transformation, I found 2 Corinthians 3:18- “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
            We are all being transformed, and it is determined by what we behold. How, you may ask? To answer that, let’s look at the meaning of “behold.” Does it mean to look? No. Behold means to “fix your gaze on something and take in (absorb) what you see.” The key to our transformation is our ability to fix our gaze on something. If you fix your gaze on something of the world, you will be transformed into a worldlier person, and likewise if you fix your gaze on Jesus, you will be transformed into more like Jesus.
When we behold Jesus, we are fixing our gaze on Christ as if He were image we see in the mirror. Can you imagine how a selfie would change if we were taking pictures in order to behold the Christ who is hidden within each of us? What I’m trying to say is we shouldn’t be focused on ourselves nearly as much as we should be focused on Jesus. We must be consumed with the “Christ in us”, in order to “be transformed.” We must truly abide in Him, and He in us. We must be His Temple, where His presence resides at all times. We must have a secret place- a place where you and He spend time together, and it must be a place that is always before you in order to be transformed in to who God always wanted you to be. I’m not talking about a physical place when I say secret place. Scripture tells us that it is actually the place where we rest in His shadow, waiting upon the Lord as He renews our strength.
            The more you look on Jesus, fixed on Him, receiving/absorbing/taking Him in, the more you will be changed in His image. As someone once said, “The Holy Spirit operates from where He occupies.” Paul was occupied with God- consumed with Jesus. This was the key to his transformation, it is the key to my transformation, and it is the key to your transformation. If you desire to grow in godly character, for example, fix your gaze on Jesus, and absorb/take in what you see. As you do that, Holy Spirit will transform you into the same image of glory- the image of your creator- Jesus. Be blessed

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