Nancy Taylor Tate
“…be conformed to the image of his Son…” –Romans 8:29
Last month, in “Valuing God’s Blessing,” I contrasted Jacob and Essau’s responses to pressure. Today, I’d like to share the way this teaching impacted my life.
How sad to have outward conformity with no inward change. We may look good and sound good and do glorious things. But unless Christ is being formed in us in the process, though others may be blessed, we will have missed the mark of the high call of God on our lives (1 Corinthians 13:1–3).
Early in life, because of the strictness of the setting I was in, this could have happened to me. But the Lord intervened, putting a deep love for Jesus inside me, with a desire to know Him more. My passion became to please Him; my longing, to become more like Him.
That longing opened the door for the Lord to work in my life in deeper ways, changing me from the inside out. Today, it’s not a mask I wear. I am not the same person I used to be, thank goodness!
“God is love” (1 John 4:8b). To be loving is not only something God does, it describes His very nature. 2 Peter 1:4 talks about becoming “partakers of the divine nature.” This way of being is to be formed inside of us, so that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, it is Christ that is seen in us. The Lord is looking for a harvest that resembles His Son.
We are to be conformed to His very nature. How does this happen? Through choices we make. Then, in time, it becomes not just my choice, but my very nature to respond differently than the way I used to.
The strength and wisdom to make right choices comes in our prayer closets and through God’s Word. Then, through the impartation we have received through our times in His presence and times in His Word, His Spirit rises up within us, and at points of pressure, we find ourselves making right choices.
Each time I make a choice, character forms inside me, be it good or bad. As I make right choices, good character is being formed. Beyond even that, I can believe for godly character, as I keep my eyes on Jesus.
Years ago, I had a specific area I wanted victory in. I kept trying to change myself, but I kept failing. I fell into a cycle of repentance, trying, failure, and repenting again.
Then there came a point in my life where I began to wait on the Lord. I came to an understanding of the importance of choice and of choosing God’s blessing, as Jacob did when he was under pressure. Over and over again in my prayer closet, as I spent time with the Lord in His presence and in His Word, I would choose His blessing.
Then one day when defeat was again knocking at my door, instead of reacting, to my surprise I heard myself cry out, “I choose Your blessing! I choose Your blessing!” Something broke inside me, and I was set free. From that point on there was an inward change in me, and I was never totally defeated again.
Later, the Lord showed me that though I had a desire to overcome, I had been trying to make that choice in my own strength. As I began to spend more time in His Word, in prayer, and in waiting on Him, the Lord heard my desire and filled me with His divine enablement. Consequently, when that pressure point came again, His strength, which was being imparted to me through my times of being with Him, rose up inside me and brought me into victory.
His strength is made perfect in weakness! (2 Corinthians 12:9). That choice I made through His enabling grace was the beginning of a transformation that has continued to grow in me for many years now. There came a point where I no longer had to make a deliberate choice; my response flowed from who I had become. Inwardly, I had changed!
Our times of waiting on the Lord are so important. As we learn to rest in Him, He is able to work in us and fill us. We are able to receive the impartation of spirit and life that we need to run our race victoriously.
“Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” (Song of Solomon 8:5a).
That change He brings into our lives is our testimony! Paul testified, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
There are choices we must make in this life. 1 Corinthians 15:31b says, “I die daily.” But in Christ we also resurrect daily! As we choose rightly, we die to ourselves and resurrect in Christ Jesus. We can learn to live on the life side of the cross, in newness of life, because of His resurrection life and power inside of us.
For those who believe, we are a new creation! “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We have been born again through faith in Christ Jesus. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Now we are to mature and grow as we take up our cross and follow Him. “Then Jesus said unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
May the Lord perfect us, as He also uses us for His glory. Though He blesses others through us and uses us for His glory, may we stay ever mindful of our own yieldedness to the Lord, that He might work within our own hearts, bringing inner change.
May it be Christ who is seen in us! … in this life, and when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
“Christ IN you, the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1:27b).