We all have this one thing or another we struggled with when we first accepted Christ, you might be having it still. When I got born again, it was totally a new experience, although prior to this time, I had always been a consistent church goer because I’m privileged to be raised by christain parents. A lot of us has translated religion to mean being born again, no it’s not. You have to believe and confess the Lordship of Christ- this is how to be born again. (Romans 10:9-10).
I had his crazy anger issue, that I thought would disappear in a jifi because of the new life I now have in Christ, but it didn’t. I was so quick to anger, swift to speak, all manners of abuse were loaded in my tongue, I was never patient. Shakespeare once said, ‘hell has no fury like a woman who is scorned’, I guess he was referring to who I was. Then my dad would say to me”and you call yourself a christain” he hammered it so much that guilt overwhelmed me every time I gave in to anger, I felt I had dissapointed God, misrepresented Him to men, I would doubt my salvation and cry to God for forgiveness. I became so ‘anger conscious’, the more I tried not to do it, the more I found myself doing it. Well, sin consciousness is worse than sin itself. I read it in scriptures that ‘the wrath of man does not work out the righteousness of God’, I saw in Ephesians 4:31 to put away wrath but it seemed a little impossible….
Little did I know, that I when I got saved, it was my spirit that was recreated, not my soul, not my body, some of the things I struggled with were habits that had been formed over time in my soul(mind) before I got born again. The New birth exerts influence only in your spirit, it has no relation to the mind or body, it only removed the sin nature producing the sin actions. I began to fellowship with scriptures that opposed anger. I stumbled on Romans 12: 2- Do not be conformed to this world but be TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Transformation in this scripture is translated as ‘metamorphoo’ from it, the word metamorphosis was formed. It means to CHANGE INTO ANOTHER FORM. You don’t stop sinning by trying not to sin but by total transformation. Transformation is for your mind not your spirit, you spirit was already recreated in the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness(Ephesians 4:24).
Transformation is not an overnight process, even in animals, it sometimes takes days, months or years depending on the specie and the enviromental condition, but the most important thing is it’s a work in progress. So also, you must not lose focus until you are totally transformed. How does this transformation takes place? I know you are almost getting bored because the post is long, it’s part of the habit you need to break…*winks*
2 Corinthians 3:18- But we all with open face BEHOLDING AS IN A GLASS, the glory of the Lord, are CHANGED into the SAME IMAGE, from GLORY TO GLORY, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
‘CHANGED’ in this scripture is also translated ‘METAMORPHOO’ in Greek, it means the only route to transformation is to behold the word of God. The word of God is the mirror that reveals who we are in Christ, ho we ought to be in our souls, beholding it changes us into this very image. To behold means to look, fix your gaze on it, continue in it. Take a particular scripture that deals with the habit, study it,read it, hear it, meditate it, pray it, confess it till YOU HANDLE IT. 1 John 1:1-That which was from the beginning, which we have HEARD, which we have SEEN with our eyes, which we have LOOKED UPON, and our hands have handled, concerning the WORD OF LIFE. The Word of God must go through these processes in your life, to change you. You must hear it, see it, (look upon means behold it), pray it, meditate it, confess it till you manifest it. Bless you.