The Spirit of Life

If Christians live under the law of the Spirit of Life why isn’t there more “life”? The deteriorating condition of the church is well documented from the perspective of declining membership and undifferentiated morality of Christians as compared to the secular world. How is it possible that Christians can be immersed in the Truth of the Gospel, but still struggle to achieve transformation for themselves and in their ministries?

The answer lies in understanding the remarkable life changing journey of sanctification God has for us beyond salvation. Clearly, Christ freed believers from the law of sin and death, but Romans 8:2 also says Christians are now under the law of the Spirit of Life. 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 inwardly (Romans 8:5, 29). Remember, Jesus said to wash the inside of the vessel first. Salvation is the first step of sanctification, which is meant to direct the course of the Christian life (II Thessalonians 2:13). It is the path of wholeness and wellbeing and the opportunity to share in the divine nature.

No matter how much we try to be more Christ-like in our behavior, it’s a struggle against the condition of our untransformed heart. 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, they can’t help but act more Christ-like! While people are obviously changed inwardly at salvation, it is the process of sanctification that brings ongoing change in our heart.

There are many characteristics of the heart of Christ. 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; the other takes us into bondage which only adds to our suffering. 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, intermittently crowd out our pain with the world’s solutions, we enter into bondage to an idol. Once in bondage, we add loss of control of our behavior to our suffering.
My personal breakthrough from overeating and other medicating behaviors began when I forgave the abusers of my youth and turned a heart of ministry toward them. After I did so, I began to notice God progressively remove 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. This obedience brings glory to God and greater peace and joy to our life.

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.

The call to have a transformed heart is for all who reside in the Kingdom of God. 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 inwardly (the heart). The “call” isn’t an option for those who share God’s desire 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.” Is there any aspect of a person’s life that wouldn’t 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.

Mid – Life Purpose

“Mid-life crisis” is really about the lack of “Mid-life purpose.” We experience it as a growing concern that something is off, that our energy for life is fading along with an increasing awareness of our mortality. In response, we tend to examine the condition of our life made up of activities, accomplishments, possessions and relationships and we’re left wondering what’s missing.

From there it is easy to be drawn into the seemingly logical thought that if some “thing” is missing then we must need a new thing or a lot more of an old thing. So we convince ourselves that all will be well when we get __X__. Fill in the blank with: new job, new spouse, new car, new house, new clothes, or maybe a new hobby. Warning! Warning! The world has a grip on your “thinker!”

The real answer was discovered long ago by the wisest man who ever lived – Solomon. God gave him wisdom, and because he didn’t ask for wealth God also gave Solomon untold riches. No- the answer is not wisdom or riches.

Despite Solomon’s devoted relationship with God, he drifted away. He used his wealth to partake of every worldly pleasure he could imagine. Solomon concluded that everything he experienced in ruling God’s people that was apart from God was vanity. Vanity is defined as emptiness, falsity, and futility (Amplified Bible).

Solomon’s testimony began with pleasing God, and then fell into progressive withdrawal. He then looked for the answer to his emptiness in the ways and pleasures of the world and ultimately turned back to God. “Painful” is the word Solomon used repeatedly to describe the condition of his heart in the midst of having access to unlimited self indulgences, power and success.

Solomon’s conclusion from all that he experienced was:
“He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy]…” Ecclesiastes 3:11, Amplified Bible

God and His purpose through us is the only “thing” that will satisfy the deep longing for purpose that He built into us. Turning back is as simple as engaging in an authentic prayer of repentance and allowing God back into the driver’s seat. I recommend the prayer below to all my clients. I am also in a season of praying this or some version of it almost every morning. I can promise you that God will honor this request. Pray this as often as you feel led:

Heavenly Father, I am sensing a distance from you and your eternal purpose for my life. Forgive me for crowding you out of my life and acting as if you don’t dwell within me through your Holy Spirit. Lord, I invite you to invade my thinking. I want to live this day as if you are in the room with me. I want to be aware of your presence, your love, and your care for me. I know that if I am living out my desire to please you, I will experience the eternal purpose you want for me. Please relieve me of the pain I have suffered from being apart from your purpose. I pray this in the name of your Son Jesus.

Amen

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 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