Romans twelve. We began some weeks ago on the
subject we're calling Transformed. Somebody say, "Transformed." Do you like the sound of that? Transformed. He said in Romans 12:2, "Be not
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Everybody read it out loud with
me. Be not conformed to this world. Now the Lord tells you that,
what should you do? Don't be conformed to this
world. The word conformed means to
fashion alike. It means to conform to the same
pattern. The world that we live in is
pressuring us, and everybody in it, to conform to ungodliness. You hear the terms peer
pressure. Well, it's a spiritual reality. Unbelievers on-the-job,
unbelievers in the workplace, unbelievers in the neighborhood,
in the community, those that don't believe in God, the very
fabric of society, the very environment of the whole planet
-- the Bible says Satan is the god of this world. And we are just reading in 1
John, weren't we? And the fifth chapter talks
about that, that the whole world lies under the power of evil
one. Well, that's a pressure and
influence. And that's why when you get
born-again and you stand up and say I love the Lord Jesus, that
their pressure will come to bear to shut you up. And you don't want to do sin and
that sin. You don't want to participate in
this or that, there will come pressures to try to make you
feel like oddball, to make you feel like something is wrong
with you, and you need to conform. You need to hush and be quiet
about Jesus and this God stuff and let the world shape you into
its self. But something ought to yell from
the inside of you and say no, no, I am in the world but I am
not of this world. I am not like this world. You know there are whole
religions and movement that try to say well we're all brothers
and sisters, and that's not true. That's just not true. There are two families in the
Earth. Jesus talked about it
extensively. There's the family of Satan. Jesus told some of the most
religious people of His day, "You are of your father the
devil." Didn't He tell them that? How many think the Lord knows
what He's talking about? He's right. And unless you have been born
again, you're in that family. And you are a child of darkness. People don't notice it because
we're living in a world of darkness. And that is the spirit of the
whole thing. But, when you been born again,
you've been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the
kingdom of God's dear Son, and you're different. You're different. You are changed and the Lord
tells you, "Don't conform to this ungodly world." And you're supposed to say, "Yes
Sir, I won't." Don't be conformed. It's trying to mold you. It's trying to shape you into
its self. And you're not to allow it. You're not like them, you're not
supposed to be. They need to become like you. "Boy, that's conceited and
egotistical." It's the truth. If you're not born-again, you
need to be. Conformed. Don't be conformed to this
world, but what? Instead of letting the world
squeeze us and shape us into the likeness of itself, there's
something else that could happen in us. Not conformity, but
transformation. Now this word is from the Greek
word will we get our word metamorphose. Metamorphosis. What happens when a caterpillar
turns into a butterfly. It means to change into another
form. And this is for born again
people. See, just because you got
born-again, doesn't mean that your mind automatically thinks
right. That's why He tells us here you
need to be transformed, and how it's going to happen, the rest
of the phrase says what? By the renewing of your mind. Now think about what He's
saying. You'll be changed into another
form as your mind is renewed. You'll be changed into a
different person. Do we believe this or not? Now, there's been an error with
a lot of folks in church trying to get people changed that need
to change, but only doing it through prayer, or through
laying on of hands, or some of the things that they consider to
be the most spiritual. And obviously we believe in
prayer, obviously we believe in laying on of hands, but He
didn't say transformed by prayer. He didn't say transformed by the
laying on of hands. Because a whole lot of times
people are wanting you to, "Just pray for me and fix it for me." And you can't, unless you can
get their mind changed, they're not going to change. "Well, just pray for me. Pray for me until my mind
changes." I can't. I can pray for you, I can join
with you, but your mind is in your control. And the Lord is not going to
make you stop thinking wrong things and start thinking right
things. And the devil can't. Now, he will do his best to
convince you that you can't help but think things you don't want
to think. And if you buy into that, you're
in trouble. I said, if you believe that lie,
you're done. But, it's a lie. Your mind is your mind. And you can think on what you
choose to think on, and not think on what you choose to not
think on. That's the truth. And that truth will make you
free. Now there are some things you
could do to make it easier or harder for you, but don't doubt
that truth. Everybody say it out loud, "My
mind is my mind. I don't have to think anything I
don't want to think. I can choose to think anything I
choose to think. My mind is my mind." Glory to God. And so there hasn't been enough
emphasis sometimes on this and people think I just need y'all
to pray for me more. I just need y'all to lay hands
on me. No. Do you want to be changed into
another person? Come back to the Bible. The Bible said that
transformation happens by what? By the renewing of your mind. Well then let's don't cast the
Word aside and try to get it done some other way. How many know you're going to
get in trouble ignoring what the Lord told you, trying to do it
another way. "Well, I'm just going to pray
until it happens... I'm just going to fast until it
happens... I'm going to go to every meeting
and get people to lay hands on me until it happens..." No, if you ignore what He
told you to do, you'll get frustrated because you get
everybody and their brother to pray for you, and you'll do all
this stuff, and you'll still be in bondage, and you won't be
changed, and you wonder why, and people will get mad at God. "Why won't you help me... Why won't you do this..." Well no, why won't you do what
He told you do? How many have figured out God is
not your problem? He's not the One holding us back
and if we'll just talk Him into doing something for us, we could
get somewhere. No. You know the biggest hindrance
you've ever had? The person you see in the
mirror. You can't even blame it on the
devil because he's limited in what he can do without your or
my cooperation. Do you understand if the devil
could control you and destroy you, he would have already done
it a long time ago. He's limited in what he can do. He must have our cooperation. But now, he's very crafty, he's
very subtle. He doesn't come to the front
door and say would you cooperate with me? No. He will bring thoughts to you,
he will bring feelings, he will endeavor to influence you, and
his preference is that you don't even know it's him. He'd prefer you don't even
believe in the devil. It just makes his work easier. But no, that's trying to conform
us to something else that we're not supposed to be. We can be transformed by the
renewing of our mind. Say it out loud, "Transformed. Changed into another form by the
renewing of my mind." Are you interested in getting
your mind renewed? Are you hungry? Tell the Lord and say, "Lord,
I'm hungry. I'm desirous. I want my mind to be renewed. I'm willing, I seek You. Show me how in Jesus' name." Thank You Lord. Well, that's what we're doing
right here. Right now. Now we've already covered some
ground, and if you haven't been with us before, let me encourage
you. Go back in the Word Supply. Go online and download it for
free, get the previous messages. It will help you to get more out
and be able to hook and go forward with what we're doing
now. Go with me if you would to the
Book of Acts and the fourteenth chapter. I want us to pray together and
believe further for just a moment here. This is one big subject. How big is the mind of God? We're touching some things that
are ancient from eternity past in God and extend to eternity
future in God. We don't even know how to think
about that. But, it comes to bear with what
we are, what we are, how God has made us and what He's made us to
be, and how we will operate throughout the ages to come. Did you know your future does
not involve pain, and struggle, and sweat of your brow? Did you know that? Well, how are you going to
operate if not that way. It's not going to be the way the
Earth is now. How will we function? How will we operate? We're going to function like
sons of God. How do sons of God function? Like God who they are sons of. Even in this life here now we're
told to be imitators of God as dear children. God is not grunting and
straining or sweating. How has He done what He has
done? And how will He do in time to
come? Well, we know He did it by His
spoken word, but what is a word but a thought expressed. A word, I'm speaking words to
you right now, but if I started speaking in another language
that you didn't understand, what would it mean to you? I would be saying the same
thing, but what would it mean to you? Nothing. Why? Because the sounds bouncing off
your ear drums are not conveying the thoughts. So, you could see the Lord has
had us on words on Sunday, and this is the perfect companion,
isn't it? Because what are words? They are thoughts spoken. Thoughts expressed. If you were here last time we
spoke on this, I asked you a question. What is a thought? Anybody remember the question? Did you get the answer yet? What is a thought? We throw the words around, we've
lived with it our whole life. People talk about, "I'm
thinking... I had a thought... What are you thinking... We got together and talked it
over and thought about it..." What does that mean? What did we do when we thought? What was going on? What is a thought? Where do they come from? How do they exist? What is their purpose? Say it out loud, "What is a
thought?" Before we go to Acts, go to
Psalms. I think we have to work our way
to Acts. Psalm 139. Psalm 139:1 he said, "O Lord,
You have searched me, and known me. You know my downsitting and my
uprising, you understand my thought afar off." He sees and knows and
understands our thoughts from a distance. He sees us getting to a thought
before we get there. He knows where we're going and
where that thought is coming from and where it is going to. Do thoughts matter? If thoughts were inconsequential
and unimportant, would God bother to know your thoughts
afar off? One of the first steps towards
getting our mind renewed as we must acknowledge and embrace and
believe that thoughts are significant. Thoughts are not nothing,
thoughts are important. And it matters a great deal
whether we think a thought or don't. Keep reading. He said, "You compass my path
and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my
tongue, but, lo, O Lord, You know it altogether." He saw the thought before you
got to it, and then He saw the word before you spoke it. And what is a word? It's a thought spoken, a thought
expressed. "You have beset me behind and
before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me; it is high, I cannot attain to it." In our present state it, for
lack of a better word, it boggles us to try to comprehend
what doesn't have a beginning and what doesn't have an end,
because everything we've ever come in contact with has a start
and a middle and a finish. But we're dealing with things
bigger than that. We're a part of things bigger
than things that have a beginning and end. "Where shall I go from Your
Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your
presence?" And he talks about how the Lord
is everywhere. Verse seventeen notice this. "How precious also are Your
thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are
more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with
You." God's thoughts are awesome. How can you describe it? They are too wonderful for mere
words. And yet they are expressed in
different degrees through words. This Book, what is it? Somebody said, "It's God's
Word." Okay, but what does that mean? Some of these letters that are
grouped together mean nothing to different people in different
countries. Right? What is this Book? It is a collection of containers
of God's thoughts. You can read them, you can hear
them, and a thought that came up in God can come into you. And we can think God's thoughts. Is that big? How big is it to think God's
thoughts? Now this is another evidence
that we are not just a more highly evolved animal. Your puppy, as great as he may
be, is not thinking God's thoughts tonight. Nor is your cat. They're not in the same class of
being that we are. They're amazing creations,
they're amazing, but they're not us. We're not even Angels. You hear people talk about God
took this one because He needed another Angel in the choir. We're not Angels. We're in a different class of
being. We have freedoms Angels don't
have. We're created in the very
likeness and image -- I'm getting ahead of myself a little
bit - what is an image, of God. Jesus is the Word of God. He's also the image of God. The express, exact image. The Word expressed the image. And you and I are born and
predestined to be conformed to the same image. Glory to God. Those last statements came right
out of my spirit; didn't even touch my mind. Glory to God. He's answering our prayer. Glory to God. I want you to read this verse
out loud, verse seventeen. Say it for yourself. How precious also are Your
thoughts unto me. Is that true? Who are you talking to? O God! How great is the sum of them! People are hungry to read the
latest novel, to watch the latest movie, to get the latest
gizmo, gadget, technology. We ought to be hungry to hear a
thought of God. Shouldn't we? That ought to be the greatest
hunger we have is to find out what God thinks. Because there's power in His
thoughts when we think them to renew our insides and cause us
to be transformed into something else than what we were. Glory to God. I'm a different person than I
was twenty years ago, thirty years ago. I'm believing that I'll be a
different person next year than I am now, and the next. How will it come to pass? Transformed by the renewing of
our minds. Thank You Lord. Somebody say thank You Lord. Say it again, verse seventeen. Say it again to the Lord. How precious also are Your
thoughts unto me O God. Hallelujah. You ought to lay in your bed
tonight and tell Him that again. You ought to get up in the
morning, go down the road and say oh God, Your thoughts, Your
thoughts are precious to me above any material thing. Your thoughts, Your thoughts. Do you know why you're
born-again? Do you know why you're even
saved? Do you know why you're not going
to hell? Anybody know in here? Somebody preached words and you
heard those words and the thoughts, oh, what a thought. The thought of the truth that
the Redeemer came and the Word became flesh. God became Man, hallelujah. And He took your sins, and He
took mine, and He died on the cross, and He paid the price,
and He raised from the dead. There was a time you didn't know
those thoughts. There was a time you had never
thought those thoughts. What did those thoughts do to
you? You heard those words and as
you're hearing those words, you're thinking those thoughts. And your heart was agreeable to
it, and you opened yourself up to it, and the Holy Ghost came
and got in the chair with you. And convicted you, and moved on
you, and you might have cried, and you might have laughed, and
you might have praised God, and you gave your heart to the Lord,
and you were born again. Hallelujah. The Lord told Cornelius go to
Peter, he'll come and he'll tell you words whereby you and your
house will be saved. Why? Because those words contain
God's thoughts. Now there are other thoughts in
the Earth that are not of God and the world is full of them. And if you think them, just like
God's thoughts will transform you, if you think these wrong
thoughts, perverted thoughts, evil thoughts, bad thoughts,
they will conform you to the ungodly world. If you are transformed by the
renewing of your mind, how are you conformed of the world? By failing to renew your mind,
thinking the wrong things. Down at the end of the Psalms in
verse twenty-three, the psalmist prayed this. You and I should pray it, too. He just got through saying a few
verses earlier how precious are your thoughts, and here he says
in verse twenty-three, "Search me, O God, and know my heart:
try me, and know my thoughts," now we know He already said He
knows them afar off. Verse twenty-four, "And see if
there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting." Do you want to know if you've
been thinking wrong? I have prayed quite a bit about
this in recent months. Join me in this. I believe your heart is the
same. There is so much said about God
that is wrong. There is so much, even
preaching, and talking, and teaching about God, that is
absolutely wrong. It is misrepresentative of God. And there are so many people
that don't -- religious people, they don't know God until they
assume that nobody knows God any better than they do. And they don't know Him. So they can just create anything
they want to imagine is God, and say God said this, and God did
that, and God is like this, and God is like that, and thousands
of people will run and shout about it. And it's got nothing to do with
Him. I have a desire to be rid of all
that is not Him. Every goofy, twisted, distorted,
religious concept and idea that's got nothing to do with
God, I want it out of me. I want it away from me. I want to see Him the way He
really is and know Him in truth. My job is ministry. I prayed this many a time over
the years and it is such a desire of mine, Lord, help me to
not misrepresent You. Help me not to tell anything
about You or leave a wrong impression about You. I believe it's happening. I believe the Lord is helping
us. He's teaching us, helping us to
get purged of the junk. See, a lot of stuff you grew up
with. Your parents, their parents,
their parents before them. And if something has been in
generations like that for that long, you can not even notice
it. And there's a whole lot of stuff
that people just assume. I don't want to assume, do you? If I've been assuming, I want to
know. I want the Lord to help me, get
me by the nap of the neck and go, "No, I'm not like that. No. I didn't say that. No. I've never been like that. No, I've never done that. No, that's not how it works,
that's not Me." I want to know, don't you? I want to know. And I'm believing He's teaching
us and showing us. And in that happening, what's
happening? We're thinking God's thoughts
after Him. Can you see the mind is getting
renewed and getting changed. And what's that going to do to
us? We're going to change. We're going to quit doing some
stuff we were going to be doing and we're going to change. And we may start doing some
things we weren't doing, why? Because we're not being
conformed. Somebody said, "Being conformed
to the world." Yeah, but a whole lot of the
world has gotten into the church. Just because it's religious and
got melodious organ tones and stained glass, doesn't mean it
has anything to do with God. Are y'all with me? And you can dress up, and you
could fix your hair, and you can put on a tie, or this or that,
and say hallelujah, glory and amen, and not have one thing to
do with God. And I just despise all of that. How about you? Life is short. We don't have time to play with
junk. And if the Lord is not
interested in it, I'm not interested in it. If He doesn't care about it, I
don't care about it. If it's important to Him, I want
it to be important to me. That's what we're talking about. Being renewed so that we think
like He does. And we see things like He does. Is He real saints? Come on, is He real? Is He real? He's not a figment of somebody's
imagination. He's not a bunch of religious
junk. He is real. God, the Almighty, is sitting on
the throne right now, tonight. He created the heavens and the
earth, He's real. He's real. And He is knowable. I said, He's knowable. Jesus, as a Man, walked in close
fellowship with the Father. Did He show us how it's done? And what He knew of the Father
made the religious world so mad, they killed Him. Didn't they? And He had to tell them over and
over again. He said I know Him and if I said
I didn't know Him I would be a liar like you. Because you say you know -- and
some of the most religious people He said no, you're of
your father the devil. God is not your Father. Well man, they were the high
priests, they were the most regarded people in the whole
area. And He's telling them they don't
even know God. Isn't that awful? Preachers, leaders of the
people, don't even know God. Awful. But it does not have to be. I said, it does not have to be. We're about to pray this. Let's believe and allow the Lord
to teach us and show us what is not Him and what is Him. Are you willing saints? If you'll do this, He'll show
you some things that you were just sure was God for the last
forty years of your life. But let's not be content and
stay in the dark. We're getting renewed in our
mind. We need some stuff erased, we
need some stuff inputted, new. And what will it do to us? What will it do to us? It will transform us into
different people. Verse twenty-three, pray it out
loud sincerely to the Lord. Say, "Lord, search me, O God,
and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if
there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting. Show me what is You and what is
not You. What is Your truth, what is
men's ideas. What is right, what is wrong. In Jesus' name. Hallelujah." Thank You Lord. See, all this stuff that men
have come up with about God is in the way of the real thing. If you're full of that, spending
all your time with that, it's displacing the real. And you have to turn loose and
get rid of the junk to make room for the real. And let's not love tradition
more than we love the Lord. If He shows you something that
you and your folks and your group, any of us, myself
included, thought and said that you were so sure was right, if
He shows you that's wrong and it's not Him, what are you going
to do? What are you going to do? What if you yourself preached
over the last ten years? You're so strong on it you'd
yell it from the rooftop. What are you going to do? Help me out. Will you humble yourself? Will you repent? Will you admit that you were
wrong? If you will, you can be
transformed. You can become a different
person. Glory to God. Somebody say glory to God. Transformed. Thank You Lord. You know, you ought not amen
everything? You ought not amen everybody. Thank You Lord for having mercy
on us. Thank You, thank You, thank You. It's not about who's right, it's
about what's right. We know Who's right, God is
right. His Word is right. Amen. You still have Acts? Don't be conformed but be
transformed by the renewing, renewing, thank You Master,
renewing of your mind. Thank You Lord. What is a thought? I'm not quite ready to read
Acts. What is a thought? Go to Genesis, how about that? We'll have to work our way to
Acts. Genesis the sixth chapter and
the eleventh chapter. Genesis 6:5, then we'll go to
Genesis eleven. We need to answer this question,
what is a thought? "God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth," this was right before the great
flood in Noah's time. And He saw what? How did the world get to the
place where it just needed to be destroyed? It was so foul, and so
perverted, and distorted, that God Himself said this thing just
needs to be wiped out. Here He tells you. "The wickedness of man was great
in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually." Did you hear that phrase? Every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. What were people thinking? They were only thinking and
imagining evil all the time. I mean, where ever there were
groups of people in camps and cities and tribes, if you could
have flown around the earth at that time and you could have
touched down over here and saw what people were thinking, they
weren't thinking about God. They weren't thinking about
doing any good or helping anybody. They were thinking about
stealing, and lying, and adultery, and fornication, and
perversion and murder. And you go over here to this
part of the country and it would be the same thing. Over here, the same thing. It would be like in the US going
to New York and the same thing, Florida the same thing,
California the same thing. Everywhere you went, the only
exception on the planet was Noah and his family. Everywhere else everybody was
just continuously thinking and imagining perversion and evil
and ungodliness. How did the world get to such a
state? You can see the work of the
enemy, can't you? Something was going on to
influence the whole world to think that way. Wasn't it? Hold your place there and go to
2 Corinthians three. Actually we'll read the fourth
chapter, and then we might back up to the third chapter. Second Corinthians four. Did it matter what they were
thinking? What they were imagining? That's what got the whole
population of the planet to the place where it was destroyed. Second Corinthians 4:3. He said, "If our Gospel be hid,
it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world
has," done what? He has blinded what? "The minds of them which believe
not..." Now, the Gospel has been
preached some on this planet. Hasn't it? How is it that there are still
millions upon millions unsaved? How is that? It's because there is an
influence in this Earth that is working to block these glorious
thoughts in the words of the Gospel from the minds of those
who so desperately need it. The god of this world has
blinded the minds of them which believe not, "Lest the light of
the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the," what? "Image of God, should shine unto
them." Hallelujah. Thank You Lord. Through the preaching and
teaching of the Word, the Holy Spirit uses those words, He uses
those thoughts, and if a person will open up their mind and
heart to it, the light will shine. Glory to God. And they'll be enlightened to
their lost condition, their need of Jesus to the truth of the
Gospel. And if they'll receive Him,
they'll be saved, they'll be born again. That's what happened to you,
that's what happened in me. But there is something trying to
prevent it. There is darkness over the whole
face of the planet. There is a pervasive darkness
that is just blocking the minds of millions. And people see things, and hear
things, but they never saw it and they never heard it. The truth is being preached. Thank God, how much preaching is
going on TV now? TV and satellite and meetings
and churches. Not everything is being preached
perfectly, but the basic message of the Gospel is going out in a
big way. So how is it that all of these
people, some have heard it so many times, they despise it. And when they come across the
channel they go, "Oh, another preacher. Blankety-blank blank. Change the channel." How are they still lost? How did they not see what you
saw when you heard it? What I saw when I heard it. How have they not seen it? Their minds are blinded. Blinded. Somebody say, "Blinded." Blinded. And that's why you can see that
pervasiveness over the whole world in Noah's time. Everywhere you would go, you
could look at the people and they are scheming. Everybody is scheming how to get
ahead, how to take this from this person, how to get this
person's land or money, or take this person's wife or husband,
get what they want, get ahead of this one. They are scheming, lying,
stealing, deceiving, murder, whatever it takes. And the whole planet -- until
God was just fed up with it. He spoke judgment and the whole
thing was flooded. Thoughts. What is going to make heaven,
heaven? Soon we'll see and know. I heard a man give a testimony. He died in a crash and was dead
for some time. And you heard a number of these
stories. I'm surprised at how much they
have in common of people that were from different ages and
groups and continents of the world and yet how many -- how
many of them have you heard that they said they saw this bright
light? And they were just irresistibly
drawn to the light. Did you know who is light? God is light. And this one man described how
he was taken to heaven and he described some amazing things. And he said he was there for a
few minutes and he was just awestruck with things, but then
he realized there's no heaviness here. There's no darkness because
there is no sin. It hit him, he had never been in
a place like that because this Earth is heavy and dark, and
everything has been tainted and affected by sin and the curse
and death. And thoughts are real. And when people are thinking
wrong thoughts, it taints the very atmosphere. You may not know everything that
people are thinking, but it's real and it affects the very
environment around them, and their houses, and their places
of work. We know more about this than we
think. You come into a place and you'll
just go wow, this is a great place. This is a fun place. What's happening is there are
beings of light in that place, thinking thoughts of God, and
speaking words of God, and it changes, it transforms
everything around it. And you go to other places and
you've never even been there, and you just get off and walk in
the door and you go whoa, this place is... feels weird. And you don't even have to know,
you could just look at people and look at their eyes and you
can tell they think perverted stuff all day and all night. And they put on a smile and go,
"Hi. May I help you?" But it's unclean in the whole
area. Because these things are real. They're real. What is a thought? When it said in the passage that
their thoughts and imaginations were only evil continuously,
you'll get one of the main definitions of the word thought. It means to weave, to fabricate. The word thought here means to
weave, to fabricate. The word imagine means to mold
into a form, to squeeze into a shape. What is a thought? A thought is a shaper. A thought is spirit substance
that shapes. You see the language in Romans,
don't you? Don't be conformed, don't be
molded, don't be pressed into a cookie-cutter of ungodly sinner
folks. But instead what? Be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. Why? Because God's thoughts will
shape you into something else. Not ungodly, worldly, something
else. Conformed into the image of the
one Who came and died for you. Hallelujah. So that more and more every day
of your life, every month of your life, every year of your
life, more and more you think like Jesus. You act like Him, you talk like
Him, you respond like Him, you pray like Him. Come on, is this your desire
now? This is your calling. This is your destiny. You are destined, predestined to
become completely conformed into the image of the Holy One. You are. That's where you're headed. And by the grace of God you will
get there. You might not look and sound
exactly like Him, or some folks might not look and sound thirty
percent like Him, or three and a half percent like Him, but He
said you'll get there. Jesus Himself is believing for
you to get there. And His faith works. He prayed that we would get
there. Have you read John? He prayed and believed and
released faith that you and I would get there and we will. We will. You just got through reading 1
John. The Bible said it does not
appear yet what we shall be, but when we will see Him, what are
we going to see? When we see the glorious Master
coming with the clouds of glory, we will see Him and the Bible
said we will be alerted and aware that we are like Him. Because as He is, so are we. Am I quoting Scripture saints? So are we in this world. We're going to look up and go... And He's going to say, "I told
you. I told you. You are like Me." And so for the few days until we
get out of here, we are to be what we are. And not let the world tell us
we're not in not, and not let the ungodly world mold us and
try to press us into what they are, we're not what they are. Say it out loud, "I'm being
transformed by the renewing of my mind." Oh, thank You Lord. Thank You Lord. What is a thought? A thought is a shaper. A thought is a spiritual form, a
shaper. We talked about this. In fact, go to Jeremiah, how
about it? Go to Jeremiah and let's talk
about this. The words are used that describe
this passage; the definitions of these words. In Jeremiah eighteen. While you're going there, I'll
read Isaiah 64:8. You're going to Jeremiah
eighteen. Isaiah 64:8 says, "But now, O
Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our Potter;
and we all are the work of your hand." This describes what thoughts do. It's exactly what a potter does
with clay. Jeremiah you're holding your
place there in the eighteenth chapter, verse two. Jeremiah 18:2, the Lord told the
man of God and said, "Arise, and go down to the potter's house,
and there I will cause you to hear My words. Then I went down to the potter's
house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of
clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again
another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came
to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as
this potter? Saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are you in My hand," hallelujah, "O house of
Israel." Have you ever seen a potter on
TV or some kind of video representation of a potter with
some clay and the wheel is spinning? Have you ever seen some of the
vessels that some of these highly skilled artists can
produce? And yet, it started with a big
clump of clay. Now this beautiful, ornate vase
or vase depending on where you're from - where was that
before it got on the shelf? Somebody said, "It was in that
big lump of clay." That was just clay. Where was that vase? It was in the thoughts of the
potter. God tells us that is exactly how
we are with Him. How did we get here? Where did we come from? People talk about the
unanswerable questions of the universe. No, they're already answered in
the Book. Where did we come from? We were in the thoughts of God. He conceived us. Not millions of duplications;
every one of us is as individual as can be. He could've made us all carbon
copies if He wanted to. Every one of us was first a
thought in Him. Glory to God. And now here you are. You see the picture of it so
clearly with the first man. Where was Adam before there was
an Adam? He was in God's thoughts. And what did God do? He reached out with His hands
and what He had in here, He made arms, and legs, and noses, eyes,
ears, intestines, lungs, knees. He had all that in Him and He
made it. Glory to God. Before it was here, it was in
Him. And of course, all of us have
come from Adam and Eve, and so when He made them He made all of
us. Because we were all in them. The complexity of the billions
on the planet was in Adam, the first man, when He made him. That's why God didn't have to
make another one, and two, and three, and 5000, and 5 million,
because the ten billionth one was in Adam when He made him. Glory to God. But then Adam, Eve, disobeyed
God, sinned, fell, so there needed to be another Adam. And He is the last Adam. And when the Word was spoken,
Mary conceived. She didn't conceived from a
human father, she conceived from a Word which carried a thought
from the Almighty. The angel carried that Word that
had the thought of God in it, and he brought it and gave it to
Mary, and Mary didn't understand it but she said, "Be it unto me
according to Your Word. Behold the handmaid of the
Lord," and conception occurred in her. The Word literally became flesh
and grew in her womb and was born. And lived and walked and showed
us how to live and be representative of God, and
please God, and went and paid the price. And when He was raised from the
dead without going into all the Scriptures, I hope you know
them, the Bible teaches us that we were raised. Doesn't Romans talk about in
Adam all die, in Christ all are made alive? Just like the billions were
physically in Adam when God made him, all the redeemed
throughout all the ages were in Christ when God raised Him from
the dead. He raised me, He raised you, He
raised everybody that would ever believe on Him. Glory to God. And the seed, the incorruptible
seed of the Word of God is in me. And in you. And that seed will produce after
its own kind. Glory to God. Where are you in the Scriptures? What is a thought? A thought is a spiritual form
that shapes. Go to 2 Corinthians again the
third chapter and I think maybe we can close with this. Thoughts are spiritual substance
that has the power to shape. Where was that vase? What gave the potter the power,
the knowledge, the ability, to shape that into the form? He or she knows exactly what
it's supposed to look like. They can already see it when all
you can see is a big lump of clay. And we're not talking about -- I
know some people make little things that look goofy, I'm
talking about an artist that some of these vases are
centuries old, and you'd look at them and just in our day of
industry and machinery think how in the world could you create
something like that with the latest, greatest equipment and
machinery? How did they make that? It was in here, and it was in
here. And that thought was the
spiritual shape, and gave them the knowledge, the wisdom, the
skill, to know exactly how light of a touch, how heavy of a
touch, how fast the wheel to spin, exactly how to decorate
it, or to paint it, or to put the gold leaf, or whatever on
it. That was in here, but it got out
here. Why? Because while that thing was
turning and you're seeing clay, they're seeing something else. And they just kept working until
what they saw in here, appeared here. And what they're looking at
here, looked exactly like what they saw here when there was no
vase. And God tells us that is exactly
what's going on between Him and us. But He needs our cooperation as
to how hard this is to take place, how long it takes for it
to take place, how arduous and difficult. Because there is another
influencer. There are thoughts that are not
from God. What are they? They are also spirit shapers. There are perverted works,
books, movies, things that will show you how to sin and how to
be evil. And if you think about it, what
will it do? It will work in you to shape you
into that. If you think on that junk night
and day, it will cause you to begin to talk like it, and use
the same inflections, and see things the same way, and
approach things the same way, what's happening? It's shaping you. It's shaping you. The devil wants to conform all
of humanity to his wicked, perverted self. He wants to create the whole
world in his likeness and image. See, he has a God complex. He wants to be God. And he ain't God, and he never
will be God, and will never get close. And he knows it and his time is
so short, and that's one reason why he's so mad. Because what he so wanted, we
get. It's happening for us. God didn't make us Angels or
animals. He made us to be conformed to
His exact image. Like Father, like son. And when He looks at you and me
now -- see the devil will try to get you to focus on your
mistakes, and your shortcomings, and your ignorance, but did you
understand your Father is looking at you through the
righteousness of Jesus? He sees you -- that the only way
we could ever approach the throne of God. He's looking at us through that,
and He's going to keep looking at us through that, until we are
formed into that. We might look like a great big
ole wobbly lump of clay clomping around on the wheel, but you
know He sees? He sees a priceless, one of a
kind of vessel that is just like the Master Jesus. And it doesn't matter if it
takes ten years, 100 years, 10,000 years, you're headed that
way. And He will keep looking at you,
inasmuch is you'll yield to, He'll mold, and He'll molds, and
He'll shape, and He'll bring His thoughts into you, and you'll
think them and things will change. And it may not seem like much is
happening all at once, a great big old clump will fall off, and
you will get free and you'll go whoa, this is so much better. Hallelujah! Second Corinthians three
describes it. Second Corinthians 3:16. Again He talks about people's
minds being blinded. Verse sixteen, "Nevertheless
when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Now this has been used and
bantered about and it is true, it's true. But keep it in context. What's He talking about, where
the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty? He's talking about people being
blind and then people being able to see. He's talking about people being
in darkness and then people having light. And keep reading. "But we all, with open face,"
nothing covering our face, "beholding as in a glass," or a
mirror, "the glory of the Lord," like what do you see when you
look in a mirror? You see your own reflection. When you look in your mirror at
home you see this. Flesh. Maybe it makes you happy, maybe
it doesn't. But this is what you see. But when you look in this
mirror, you see the exact image of Christ that you have been
born again to be and made. There are no pimples, or
wrinkles, or sin, or junk, or perversity. And you're looking at you
because you are in Him and He is in you. Come on, are you listening
saints? And as you behold this Book --
you know we talked about this earlier about how so many folks
have gotten away from the Word and they talk about all kinds of
things about God that is not really true and real, look in
the Epistles and how Paul people prayed for the people he
ministered to. Again and again he's not
pleading with God to do something for them, I didn't say
he never asked the Lord to do something for them, but again
and again he's not asking God to do all the things that you would
think. Do you know what he says? "Lord, enlighten the eyes of
their understanding that they may know what is the hope of
Your calling, and what the riches of the glory of Your
inheritance in the saints and exceeding greatness of Your
power." What's he saying? Help them to see what You've
done for them, and what they are, and who they are. Help them to see it and to
realize it. Fill them with the knowledge of
Your will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That's the way he keeps praying
for them. Why? Because everything that needs to
be done, has been done. Jesus did it, it's already done. And we need to quit begging God
to do stuff and realize what He's done, and who we are, and
how are we going to be transformed? Not by begging, not by pleading,
not by breaking records, and making confessions, and fasting,
but by our minds being renewed. And as we behold like in a
mirror the glory of the Lord, tell me what happens. What happens? Tell me what happens. What happens to us? "We are changed into," what? Into what we're looking at. We're looking at Him, but we're
looking at us. Because we are in Him, and He is
in us. How do we look at Him? We've been looking at Him all
night tonight. We think His thoughts. We hear His words. We let Him tell us what He has
said, what He has done, what He has thought, and while we're
sitting and drinking in and thinking His thoughts, we begin
to see Him. We begin to see Jesus. And as we see Him, that's us. And as we're beholding, what
happens? We are transformed. We are changed into the same
image. We are changed into the same
image. It doesn't all happen overnight,
it happens from glory to glory. It happens progressively, and it
happens by the Spirit of the Lord, Who is bringing liberty in
all these areas. Well, I preached myself happy. Everybody stand up. Stand up on your feet.
