God’s Uncommon Vision for You

God expresses His vision for all of His people in Romans 8:29: to be molded inwardly so as to reflect the image of Christ — to be like His Son and share in His divine nature. How totally amazing!!
It is an uncommon vision because it comes from the Creator of the universe, who wants you to be like his Son, the perfect representation of God Himself.

It is uncommon in that there is no supreme vision – none that could possibly trump it. It is the highest possible calling for mankind. It is also the highest calling for any entity laboring to advance His kingdom.

It is uncommon because it differs from the vision of the Church, which is more focused on training oneself to force Christ-like behavior rather than having His heart, which is the only way to authentically change.

You might disagree that the Church does not share God’s vision. Have you ever witnessed a person who claims to live by a set of beliefs and values but proves otherwise by his lifestyle? Ever been involved with an organization that had a great vision but clearly failed to follow or achieve it?

Our churches appear to have the vision of transformation but they try to achieve it using behavior modification tactics. This has brought us to a place where the behavior of born-again believers is no different than that of the secular world they are trying to save.

To share in God’s work we must share in His vision and His strategy. His strategy is to mold us, and His tool for this project is leading us to repent of anything in our hearts that does not reflect the heart of Christ. Christ’s heart is characterized by forgiveness, humility, loving God more than anything, truth, complete trust in the Father and more. As we progressively reflect these characteristics, we become more like Christ. After this happens, the fruit (our behavior) will come.

To yield apples you must plant apple tree seeds. From the dust of the earth comes a tree with the natural character to yield the fruit. We can hang apples on any tree, but no one is fooled, especially not the world Christianity wants to save. Our offerings are commonly deemed suspect by a world that is ready and willing to condemn our advances. The sustained life change we want and an effective body of Christ the world needs will come from adopting God’s uncommon vision as our own.

Simon says, “No!”

Simon of Acts Chapter 8 vividly reflects the flesh driven desire to be fixed at no cost and to be disobedient at any cost. Instead of responding in obedience to God, we are tempted to default to pleading with our fellow Christian to pray off the consequences of our behavior. In response, driven by the desire ranging between compassion and wanting a fix for the sufferer we usually comply. How many times have you been asked to pray for someone with a failing marriage or a self destructive behavior when you knew there was clearly something that person needed to deal with God about? Ditto for Simon the magician. Peter was silent to his plea and rightly so.

Fresh to Christianity, Simon the renowned magician tried to buy the right to administer the Holy Spirit. In this first recorded attempt to pioneer the concept of franchising, he crossed Peter and the will of God. Peter forcefully responded with a diagnosis of what was wrong in Simon’s heart and predicted it would lead him to destruction. This is where Simon’s heart angst began.
Peter then called for Simon to repent as the only way out of reaping the predicted destruction. He encouraged Simon by letting him know that God wanted Simon’s heart healed and pleaded with him to do the right thing. Simon responded by rejecting the opportunity for absolute healing through obedience. Instead he took the “low road” in begging Peter to pray off the consequences of his sinfully motivated heart. We can only conclude that Peter said “no”, because the next passage after Simon’s plea simply reports that Peter left town. Thus proving evidence of the ancient origins of tough love!

Amazing! Simon did not repent, and Peter did not pray off the consequences. Peter did implore him to do the right thing and reminded Simon that God loved him and wanted his heart healed of its evil intent. Repentance is the necessary process of having our heart transformed to reflect the image of God. To pray off the consequences would have gone against God’s will for Simon. When ministering, we need to pray for God to reveal the necessary repentance and mercy in the process. However, to pray off the God-allowed heart pain that results from disobedience is to attempt to pray off the very will of God. Probably better to leave town.

Discipleship on Steroids – Part I

A number of years ago, I began ministering to substance abusers at a rescue mission. I will never forget the shock I felt when I learned that many of the men we had worked with in the seven-month program were either high or stoned by sundown of graduation day. The following weeks revealed how truly futile my ministry efforts had been. One by one, most of our group fell back into their old life. Yes, I would have done it to help just one. However, the absence of sustained life change in most of the men after months of caring investment brought on demoralizing self-doubt.

Determined to try harder, I committed to deliver the Truth of God’s Word with as much hope and energy as I could muster. A year later, however, found me defeated, with my head down on my desk, praying to God to show me what was missing. I quickly had a strong impression that played out in my mind like a conversation with God. It started with a question: “Why don’t you weigh 300 lbs. anymore or get drunk 3 nights a week like you used to?” After a moment of confusion, the answer came. God had rewired my heart so that it no longer drove me to eat beyond the need of my body or drink to excess. That brought to mind the scripture, Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…”

I understood! These men needed the same heart change God had worked in me. Instead, the hearts we checked into the program were virtually the same as the ones we checked out seven months later! Their old hearts took them back to their old lives.

www.johnrobinmurphy.com
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Discipleship on Steroids – Part II

Without heart change there is no sustained life change. Everything else is behavior modification that is rarely sustained outside of the program. The men were confessing Christians when they entered the program. The new nature that each had received upon their conversion was presumably in place. Over the next 7 months, they were immersed in worship, teaching, devotionals, church, preaching, book studies, 12-step groups and more. But were we transforming hearts? Our goal and the goal that energizes every ministry, donor and volunteer alike is the transformation of the most challenged people in our society into self sufficient, faith-filled Christians. However, fostering sustained life change is actually the most elusive outcome of ministry.

As I began to look for evidence of sustained life change in other ministries, I discovered that our results were typical even in church settings.

 Across faith-based and secular programs for addiction, incarceration, smoking, or any self-destructive behavior, the failure rate is typically between 75 to 95%

 Many prominent ministries, churches, and denominational leaders such as Prison Fellowship Ministry and Willow Creek Church strongly suspect or have research evidence to prove that they are not transforming hearts and achieving sustained life change the way they had hoped.

It is also evident from research that the truth of the Gospel as it is commonly presented does not guarantee that hearts are transformed, even for those who receive the new nature promised by God at conversion:

 Statistically, born-again believers have a moral failure rate equal to that of the secular world. Barna Group

 85% of young people between the ages of 16 and 29 believe that Christians are judgmental, hypocritical and un-Christ-like. Barna Group

 Willow Creek Church studied itself and it’s 350 affiliated churches and found that the correlation between church activities and the development of spiritual maturity was 0%! Willow Creek Church

The question we must wrestle with is: how it is possible that Christians can immerse themselves in the truth of the Gospel, but still struggle to transform themselves and apparently those to whom they minister?

The answer lies in understanding the difference between salvation and sanctification. It is clear that Christ freed believers from the law of sin and death, but the Word also says Christians are now under the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2.) Christians are required not to move in the ways of the flesh, but to work in cooperation with the Spirit to be molded into the image of Christ outwardly and inwardly (Romans 8:4, 29.) The focus must be on the “inwardly.” Remember Jesus said to wash the inside of the vessel first.

www.johnrobinmurphy.com

Discipleship on Steroids – Part III

No matter how much we try to be more Christ-like in our behavior, it is a struggle against who we are if we do not change inwardly. On the other hand, if a believer’s heart is transformed to increasingly reflect the heart of Christ, then being more Christ-like comes naturally. Actually, as someone’s heart is increasingly transformed, he or she can’t help but act more Christ-like!

There are many characteristics of the heart of Christ. Let’s consider forgiveness to illustrate the point. Extending forgiveness toward others is a fundamental requirement of God. When we comply, we have a heart that is more like the heart of Christ. If we refuse to comply, however, we are promised the suffering of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:35. He was turned over by the King to be tortured for his unforgiveness. Jesus concludes this parable by saying that God will bring torment to those who refuse to forgive.

Whenever we suffer torment for opposing God’s will, we have two choices. One is the path to freedom and the other takes us into bondage. We can give in to the urging of the flesh and embrace worldly distractions like food or drugs to medicate our heart angst, or we can go before God on our knees and repent of our unforgiveness. When we repent, we are calling upon God in faith to remove the source of our torment forever. If we choose to temporarily and intermittently crowd out our pain with the world’s solutions, we enter into bondage to an idol. When we are in bondage, we add loss of control of our behavior to our suffering. When behavior is out of control, there is some place in our heart that rejects God’s will.

My personal breakthrough from overeating and other medicating behaviors began when I forgave the abusers of my young life and turned a heart of ministry toward them. As I did so, I began to notice that God had removed tormenting bitterness from my heart. From that point, I was increasingly able to manage everyday temptation instead of giving in to my emotionally driven lust for food. Later, I also repented of having food as an idol which gave me more relief. After forgiveness and repentance, anyone’s heart will more resemble the heart of Christ. And sustained life change follows the new heart.

www.johnrobinmurphy.com

Discipleship on Steroids – Part IV

In ministering heart transformation, we need to help people understand how they are opposing God’s desire for them to have the heart of Christ and lead them to comply. This method of heart transformation has been successful in churches and ministries, including a maximum security prison, women’s and men’s prisoner reentry programs, and discipleship and drug addiction programs.

In the mission where I worked, we found that the more we focused on heart transformation in the addiction program, the more the men began to experience lasting breakthroughs. One man who had not slept through the night for 10 tormenting years began to sleep soundly every night. Another man, intensely frustrated because he could not comprehend scripture, became able to quote passages and discuss them with understanding after addressing his heart issues. Overall, those that genuinely pursued a transformed heart faired better than those who didn’t. And even though these profoundly addicted men continued to struggle, the occurrence, depth and duration of their failures were notably less self- destructive as they worked on transforming their hearts.

Of course the call to have a transformed heart is for all who reside in the Kingdom of God. It is not just for Christian addicts. Romans 8 uses words like “obligation”, “debt” and “requirement” to describe the importance God places on His desire to mold all of His Children to reflect His son’s image outwardly and inwardly (the heart). The “call” is really not an option for those who share God’s desire for them to have a life of peace, joy and wellbeing. Our ultimate hope and blessing is described in II Peter 1:4: “becoming sharers of the divine nature.” Can you think of any aspect of a person’s life that would not be improved by progressively sharing in the nature of Christ?

For our heart to more reflect the heart of Christ it must reflect less of the characteristics of the world. It must be less dominated by the flesh. The person we are today must make way for the heart of Christ. Withholding forgiveness is an example of a flesh urging encouraged by the world. To forgive like Christ forgave, requires dying to that urge and allowing the Light of Christ to invade that part of your heart. The Holy Spirit who leads us in this process of transformation is planning a funeral for the person we are today. He knows that for us to truly be free we must first obey, and to truly live we must first die.

www.johnrobinmurphy.com