Transformation
begins the moment our heart says yes to the Father’s call, and never stops
unless we throw the free will circuit breaker, disconnecting from God’s plans
and purposes. We evidence our salvation by change in the things that really
matter, the inward appetites that drive our outward choices. Salvation means
the desires of our inner life are dramatically changed. Like dinning in a
restaurant, we no longer are drawn to liver and onions, desiring orange roughy
and asparagus instead. The simple self-examination of personal salvation is
this: “Has the things that really matter to me changed from my desires to God’s
desires”? Now we won’t peel the whole onion in one day, salvation is a lifelong
transformation process... a continuous turning away from Self and the pleasures
of this world, while turning toward God and His Kingdom life. Our Father, the
master surgeon, trims the callus around our heart with great patience and loving
care – but He never stops cutting!
We sometimes forget
salvation is a supernatural experience, not a recited prayer, declaration of
faith, ministerial proclamation, church membership, but a supernatural
experience... a supernatural process! Through union with Christ we are
reconciled to God, a new creation who has been freed from the enslavement of
sin and death. Having died to sin’s rule we are willfully enslaved to
righteousness, and willing to crucify Self daily, allowing the Christ-life to
emerge. Submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ energizes the Holy Spirit
within to both will and do of the Master’s good pleasure. Inward transformation
is manifested as the Fruit of the Spirit outwardly, bringing forth God’s reflected
glory as light to a dark world. Our new life has become a spiritual journey
into God’s Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Led by
the Spirit of God we are bondservants, Love-Slaves, abiding in the Koinonia of
the Holy Spirit, desiring only to obey and please our Lord, to be a delight to
our Daddy. How could we be “saved” and not be dramatically changed? How indeed!
Salvation should
produce dramatic immediate evidence and continuing ongoing evidence of Christ’s
indwelling Spirit, if we are truly saved. God’s goal for us is not a label,
“Christian”, but a lifestyle embedded in holiness, reeking of “Christlikeness.”
The Apostle Paul said it best: “Examine and test and evaluate your own selves
to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of
it. Test and prove yourselves. Do you not yourselves realize and know,
thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience, that Jesus Christ is in
you--unless you are counterfeits, disapproved on trial and rejected”?(2 Cor.
13:5, Amp.) An “ever increasing experience” of the Christ life... the Fruit of
the Spirit, flowing forth from within as a river of living water! Now that is
hard to miss. Salvation without change? You know the old proverb, “No Tickee No
Washee”, well... No Change No....
REEKING OF
CHRISTLIKENESS
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