Change. 5 small letters that can transform a life. One syllable that can alter a life’s direction. Now, I’m not talking about a new haircut, losing 5 pounds or getting some new clothes, I’m talking about real change….Soul Change. The purest and most permanent form of change that a human can possibly undergo. A change to who we are, how we treat others, how we give love and how we relate to God. I think if we are all honest with ourselves, we want this kind of change. We strive to always be closer to God no matter where we may sit on the “God closeness scale” today. We all want to be closer to God, closer to others and more effective for God’s Kingdom. In order to do that though, one major thing has to happen…soul change.
Our purpose here on this planet is simple. Love God, love others, serve God and become more like Christ. In fact, they’re kinda like a dog chasing his tail, if you’re chasing one you’ll more than likely discover the others. But in your pursuit of this purpose how do you really change? I mean the deep, change that will wake you up in the middle of the night with a scripture on your mind. The deep change that will drive you to sell stuff to make money to serve Him and others? The resolute, deep change that will make you do things for God that causes others to call you crazy?
In the last one full year, I have undergone an experiment. In the recent past, there was a rash of documentaries where people would put themselves directly into the experiment to see just what would happen. I remember seeing one called “Supersize Me” where a guy lived solely on McDonald’s for one month to see what would happen to his health. I didn’t go that far…I went farther. If you’re all not familiar with the creation of the 5MC, I encourage you to go read the story at the 5MC.com under “The 5MC Explained.” I look back and see the invent of the 5MC as nothing less than a miracle in my life. It’s the foundation of the miracle of change that I write about this morning. It spurred me into this life challenge. What would happen if I read, studied, and wrote on God’s Word for exactly one year? That's 7 days a week for 52 weeks. 365 days in a row. What would happen to me? Would it affect me? Would it change me at all? Anything? Would I just simply memorize some verses? Would I finally memorize all the books of the Bible in order? Folks, what I saw coming was not what I was expecting. At all. Radical change by association with God the Father.
In essence we are just simple spiritual creatures. God gave us a physical body and that is to get us around here on this Earth as we serve Him through serving others. But this body is not meant to last. This body is not our home any more than this planet is our home. As a child of God my citizenship is in Heaven. This body is temporary, it has already begun to wear out, and will one day just simply stop functioning. Don’t let this shock you, NASA just did a multi-million dollar government research study and found out that 100% of all people that are born in fact, actually die. (I’m kidding…about the study that is) So time spent building your body and changing your appearance is basically in vain. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t eat healthy and exercise, our body is a gift from God and we need to take good care of it so that we can serve Him well. But what I am saying is that the change I’m talking about goes deeper. Much deeper.
Over the last year, I experienced this change. True change. Soul change. I sit here this morning and simply revel and awe in God’s ability to change us. We can all experience this change and it can alter the course of our lives. But how? How do we initiate this change in our soul that will direct our paths to mirror the path of God?
I was asked to speak to some 11th and 12th grade boys at church last Sunday and in preparation I got up super early one morning and met with God. My question to God? What wisdom do I possibly have to impart to these young men? Surely, I don’t have anything ground shaking to share with them. God’s answer was very humbling…”you’re right YOU don’t….but I do.” I’d like to share with you the ways that God spoke to me that morning and how He has used them to change this life in the past year. I strongly believe that He will do the exact for you. The only caveat? You’ve gotta do it.
'Want to' is always there for most of us but execution is our hurdle. We all want it but who will go get it? The prize is at the finish line but who will run the race? As I look back at the past year, I can’t tell you how many times I did not want to get up at 5:30, read one chapter of God’s Word, then 10-15 pages of commentary and then sit and write for 2 hours. I’ll be honest, I’m just like all of you, there were days I just didn’t feel like it. But I did it. What I noticed was how hard it was to start. To get the momentum going. It’s like a car that won’t run. It would take many of us to get it rolling but once it got going I could keep it going myself with nominal effort. Getting started is always the hardest part. Studies show that you need to do something 66 times to effectively create a habit. That means you’ve got 65 chances at failure. Beat the 65 and win the struggle. It was a struggle for me and it will be for you too. Just be prepared to fight the good fight, it’s worth it. Also be aware that you’ll have an instant enemy in this journey. Satan will not like the fact that you are growing closer to Christ. The closer you are to Christ the more of a nemesis you become to satan. Be aware and ask God daily to rebuke the evil one from your path.
So please let me share with you the 3 things that have changed this life. The things that I never went looking for, but that God revealed to this simple mind in a loving way. I once heard that if you hang out in a barber shop long enough, you’re going to get a haircut. Well if you hang out with God long enough, He’s going to work on you in a powerful way. That is the last year of my life.
1) Engage in a deep, daily study of God’s Word. Did you ever take algebra in school? Calculus? Geometry? Trigonometry? For me these were the bane of my existence from 16-23. I am not a math guy. I dropped so many college algebra classes you would think they were coated in baby oil. But when I finally saw that I wouldn’t get my degree without these classes it all changed. I got serious and I studied. The material didn’t change. The books didn’t change. The professor and the classrooms didn’t change. I changed. I got serious, started really studying and passed the classes with flying colors. How I treated college algebra was exactly how I used to treat God’s Word. I would occasionally pick it up. Occasionally. And when I did, I would just read it, the same way I would “read” my algebra textbook. I wasn’t studying God’s Word, I wasn’t learning God’s Word and I wasn’t practicing God’s Word, I was merely reading it. The 5MC changed my life. I was graciously given a full Bible commentary set written by Dr. Vernon Mcgee, and it changed the way I read the Bible. It now allowed me to STUDY the Bible not just read it. But since the 5MC started out as a group activity and we were all commenting on what we read and thought about the day’s verses, I began to write. I think back about God’s logic and how He tricked me into a deeper walk with His Word. (just kidding, He didn’t trick me, He just had me do something that I had no idea I was doing..ha) Just a month into the 5MC I found myself in a pattern of thoroughly absorbing God’s Word, studying the commentary as an accompaniment and then expounding upon how God spoke to me in writing. This process has brought soul change. Think about when you’re truly learning in school. What do most teachers/professors have you do to prove your learning? Write. Stories, papers, theses, dissertations. When you learn, process and then write about it, it solidifies the learning process and creates true apprehension and understanding.
Now I realize that not all of you will start writing a blog that cover 14,000 characters a day, but don’t sell yourself short. You can journal, you can start a Word Doc and keep it for yourself, you can just write a few sentences in a notebook, you can keep it short. There’s something about putting pen to paper that makes it real. I’ve never known anybody to write down what’s not important to them. We will only write down important things, right? For me, my deep study of God’s Word is not complete without the physical exposition of what and how He has spoken to me.
Now it’s also super duper important to note here about how this process is fueled. By the Holy Spirit. I will not pick up God’s Word without prayer first. You read that right, try it. Do not pick up your Bible without first praying. It is a Holy Book and it is the Holy Words of God. You nor me, nor anybody else can truly grasp the Words of our Creator without great amounts of help from the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit is called the "helper" by Jesus himself in John 14:16. Without the Holy Spirit explaining and guiding me in God’s Word I would be lost. Sure, I could read it and understand the words, but we can never go deep without the Holy Spirit. This is my first step to changing your soul and becoming closer to Christ, a deep, daily study of God’s Word.
2) Meet with God daily. If I were to call up any of you reading the post today and schedule a lunch for next week, what would happen? We would set a day, a time, a place for lunch and maybe even set an agenda for what we would be discussing. We would mark our calendars, put a reminder on our phone and maybe even put a sticky note on the fridge. On the day of the meeting we would get up, get ready, comb our hair and leave the house with plenty of time to get there. All of this to just meet a friend. I’ve got a hard question for you. How do you meet God? My answer to this question one year ago makes me cringe today.
Folks, if you want to truly grow closer to God, you have to meet with Him. A real, true, bonafide meeting. Not a quick panicked prayer in the car, not a passing thought as you brush your teeth, not a desperate plea for help as your life falls apart at work. I mean meeting with God every day no matter how your life is going. If your life is humming along nicely, meet with God. If you just lost your job, meet with God. If you just had your first child, meet with God. If you were just diagnosed with cancer, meet with God. I am very sad to say but early in my walk I would meet with God only when I needed something from Him. If life was going great, why did I need God? Sad but true. This all changed with the 5MC and the daily, deep study of His Holy Word.
I started the meeting process by selecting a place. A nice quiet, comfortable place in my home. The place to me is very important because I am meeting God there every morning. I would not have a job interview in my car so I will not have a meeting with God in my car. I would not have a board meeting laying in my bed at 10:30 at night because at that time, I’m tired from the day and can’t focus, so I will not meet with God here. Are you getting my point? I’m not saying that you cannot talk to God anywhere you are, but this is more. This is important. This is valuing God. This is making a time, a place, and setting a location and then saying to God, “I love you, I value you, I need you. I have set this meeting for us, will you please meet me?”
I see this as one of the single biggest problems in our world today. We all want God’s blessings, but we treat Him oh, so poorly. If I were to look at how I scheduled meetings with God versus how I scheduled meetings with customer and clients years ago, God would have never done business with me. I gave Him no time, no respect and no notice. Folks, this has been huge for me and I know it can be for you to. Meet with God daily. Make it during the peak time of your productivity. Give God the best time of your day, don't give Him the leftovers. And then this is VERY important…FIERCELY protect your meeting time with God. I would never cancel on a good friend because I’m tired, why would I do the same to my Lord and Savior? You MUST fiercely protect your meeting time with God. The devil will be all over you to make sure these meetings will get broken, cancelled or forgotten, but you must fight for them. The single most impactful moments of my last year has been simply sitting down and meeting with God in the still of the morning. Rising early while it is still dark out. Opening in prayer and then being still and listening for the voice of God. He never fails to show up for our meetings. Oh, what a Savior we have, that He will meet with us anytime, anywhere and for any amount of time. But YOU must schedule the meeting. The ball is in your court.
3) Passionately protect your fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our link here on this Earth to Jesus. In Acts 14:16-17 Jesus tells us, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate (helper) to help you and be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
Our direct link to Jesus and to the Father is through His Holy Spirit. How is your relationship to the Holy Spirit today? Did you know that you can “quench” the Holy Spirt and dull His effectiveness in your life? “Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.”
Have you ever had a big falling out with a good friend? One minute everything is hunky dory and the next thing your not talking to each other? What happened? Some wrong was committed in the relationship and now it is severed. Temporarily broken. Did you know we can do the same thing to the Holy Spirt? You see, when we accept Christ as our Savior we are gifted (anointed) with the precious gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes the things of God real to us. He guides us, teaches us and shows us the reality of God as we walk here on this Earth. Since the Holy, Righteous Spirt of God is living inside of you, guess what? Yep, you can hurt the Holy Spirit with your sinful actions.
Not to make light of the relationship but think of the Holy Spirit as your best friend. What happens if you tell a big lie to your friend? Do you still enjoy the same level of closeness as before the lie? Nope. The relationship has been changed. If you hope to repair the relationship what must be done? You apologize for your wrong against them and you ask for their forgiveness. It’s the only way to repair the relationship. The longer you withhold the apology the more the problem festers. It smolders and burns until it can eventually destroy the relationship. Folks, it’s no different with the Holy Spirit. I have struggled with this throughout my adult life until this last year when God finally instilled the power of this truth to me. You cannot meet with God daily if the relationship is strained due to sin in your life. You must address the sin in your life, admit it to God and then ask for forgiveness. There is no other way to protect the fellowship with the Holy Spirit. You must also be specific in dealing with the Holy Spirit. If I told a lie and it hurt someone, I must specifically admit and ask forgiveness for that lie. When I sin against God I must also be specific in the admittance of my sin. If I had lust in my heart, I must admit it and ask forgiveness for it. If I spoke to Margie in anger I must confess it immediately and ask for forgiveness.
Folks, this is super important and can greatly affect your daily time with God. Even though the blood of Jesus has covered our sins, they can still have a devastating effect in our lives. You’ve got to resist sin fiercely, but when it does creep into your life, you have to dump it like a hot potato. Admit your wrong and ask for forgives in the very moment. Passionately protect the fellowship you have with God’s Holy Spirit, He is your lifeline to Jesus.
Engage in a deep, daily study of God’s Word, meet with God daily and protect your fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Three things that God has shown me that brought about true change. A change of heart, a change of purpose and a change of focus. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, if you’re looking to be truly changed by God, take that first step today.
God bless you all in your journey to be closer to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I'm so blessed to walk through this life by your side. You light up my life!