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Kingdom ways
Transformation Series
Lesson 1: Transformation A Matter of the Heart
Transformation Total transformation is possible for every believer. But the process is not easy, it will require continual
death and rebirth (see 1Thess.5:23).
The eyes of the church should be opened to understand that there is a vast difference between specific sins and the hidden
sinful practices in the flesh that lie at their roots. As we go on in this series of transformation lessons, we need to clarify our
usage of the term flesh. In this context, we use it to describe our sinful impulses we have inherited from Adam.
Sin needs forgiveness. But our flesh, which births to sins, can only be dealt with by our own death on the cross.
Forgiveness is done for solely by Jesus. Death on the cross requires our participation. It is not enough to pray for forgiveness
and fail to call the flesh to death on the cross. Unless we are aware of how to reach to the heart to accomplish death and
rebirth where those sinful practices and behaviours were formed, daily dying to self on the cross and repenting from sinful
behaviour are not enough. Total transformation of our hearts cannot be fully realized until we lay the axe to the roots. Roots
lie hidden, beneath the surface. The greatest lack of the church is, not knowing how to transform our hearts at the deep level
of causes, dealing with sins and inclination toward sin. True sanctification and transformation cannot be fully accomplished in
the body of Christ without dealing with the level of roots.
We have all been like children, fumbling unwittingly with the key to the door of sanctification. We must comprehend that
full vision of inner transformation can only be accomplished by continual death and rebirth. God does not want only to restore
men to the abundant life but He also wants to raise perfect sons.
The ministry to the inner man is not merely a tool to heal a few troubled individuals; it is a vital key to the transformation
of every heart of every normal Christian. In this transformation series, we will understand that transformation requires more
than just accepting Christ as Lord and Saviour. We will learn to apply the cross of Christ, through prayers and counsel, to
sinful structures built into our heart over a lifetime. Although every sinful deed was fully washed away when we accepted
Jesus as Lord, not every part of our heart was able to fully appropriate the good news of that fact immediately. We will look to
entire life, especially to the transformation of the flesh. We will learn the steps for reaching to the depths of your heart with
the power of the cross and resurrection so that we can effect a lasting change by continual death and rebirth.

Dealing with the Heart

The major missing element in the churchs life and ministry, in the light of the continuing perversity and weakness in the
church despite the presence of the Word, the Holy Spirit and the gifts, is its lack of comprehension of the necessity and ways
of inner sanctification and transformation. In short, the heart has never yet been effectively dealt with (Jer.6:14; 8:11: Luke
4:18-19; Rom.12:2; Col.3:5, 9, 12; Heb.12:15; Matt.23:25-26; 1Pet.2:5-6).
The sanctification and maturation of every member of the body of Christ, done by the Holy Spirit, by all, for all was not to
heal specific memories, nor does He want to merely forgive particular sins. He purposed to raise up a john-the-Baptist ministry
to lay the axe to every root of every tree (Lk.3:9). He is raising up His messenger to purify the entire Church and the world
(Mal.3:3; Eph.3:8-10).
The picture of transformation can be represented by the frame of a man in which crosses could be superimposed upon
sores here and there until the entire man was cleansed and became whole. As the Lord transformed one area of trouble after
another, we would become better and better, holier and holier, until at last we arrived at the perfect man, which is promised
in Ephesians 4:15-16.

Slaying the Power of Control

The Lord intends to bring us to the fullness of death and make us new. Transforming the inner man does not once and for
all fully reform our flesh on this side of physical death, but rather it slays its power to control us, while clothing us with the
righteousness of Jesus (1Cor.1:30).
The Lord heals that we may have confidence and rest only in His ability to keep us, not in the strength of our character or
our will to do right. Paradoxically, we are healed by being taught to put no confidence whatsoever in our own flesh, simply to
rest in Him. The permanence of our change is in His steadfastness, not something supposedly solidly built or changed in us
except a fresh ability to trust in Him (Phil.3:3).
Psychologists would mend our self-image so that we could have confidence in ourselves. But Christ would slay all our
fleshly self-confidence so that our only selfimage becomes, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me (Phil.4:13).
A self-image is something we build, in which we falsely learn to trust.
A self-image necessarily sets us into self-centred striving - to live up to it and to make sure others see and reward it; we
must defend it, build, build and rebuild it, and so on. But a Christians identity is a gift, something God builds in us, not having
to be seen, rewarded, or defended.
True healing comes, then, not by making a broken thing good enough to work, but by delivering us from the power of that
broken thing so that it can no longer rule us and by teaching us to trust His righteousness to shine in and through that very
thing. Those who heal by restoring the self-image cause people to trust in something repaired in their flesh, merely reshaping
their old carnal practices, which sooner or later dooms them to failure, whereas the lord heals by leaving the broken part there
in place, and overcoming it by His nature. Our trust as Christians can only be in His righteousness in us and for us always!
Thus the world is turned upside down! The world would fix the broken thing and rebuild personal pride and confidence.
The Lord says, Well fix it by not mending it at all! Well use that broken thing to give glory to God, and from that awareness
of sin we will build a trust every day anew in Gods Holy Spirit to sing the beauty of Christs nature through us for all to see.
We do not have to say, Well be careful to give You all the glory. Once we fully understand our death to sin, He already has
done it all! We do no good thing. He accomplishes all. Thus, for the soul, there is in that sense no healing only death and
rebirth. Though the Old Testament speak of restoring the soul (Ps.23:3; 19:7; etc), but Christians continually need to translate
that to mean death and rebirth in Jesus righteousness (Rom.6:4-8).
Whoever seeks to rebuild another self-image (apart from Christ in us) works against the cross (see Gal.6:12-14).
All this could sound as though we ought not to, in the world or in Christ, attempt to build a good character. It is all
doomed to fail anyway, so why try? Though God may destroy that which we have built apart from Him, He never discourages
our own character-building attempts. God knows that sooner, the harder we try, the earlier we shall discover our need of a
saviour. He knows that when what we have built ripens to disgust, it will fall back to death, and then whatever was of wood,
hay, or stubble will be burnt up in the fire leaving in the process the trace of wisdom that will enable Him to build us anew
with precious stone and silver and gold (1Cor.3:11-15). So God loves a stable home that builds solidly in the soul. Though He
can, and does turn failure to glory, how much more He prefers to turn a beautifully formed character to death and rebirth, for
then it has not only the glory of wisdom but also the beauty of the ages in its inheritance.