I am so excited- I am speaking at a women's retreat this weekend. Please pray for me!! The theme verse for the retreat is Romans 12:2:
"Do not be conformed to the patterns of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then, you will know the will of God, His good, pleasing and perfect will."
If you would like to read part of this talk, please scroll down.
Thanks for your prayers!
Our theme verse for the conference is “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Ladies, if I have one prayer for you tonight is that you could get a hold of this verse and make it your own. I pray that the Holy Spirit would quicken it in your spirit. I pray that you would live it out.
You may be familiar with John 8:32, “Then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” But it NOT just the words on the page, the head knowledge of the verses that brings freedom. It is when the truth is believed in and acted upon. "Then you will know the Truth, and the Truth believed in and acted upon will set you free.” You have to believe this Truth with your heart and you have to live it out. Are we going to believe this Truth with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? Will we walk it, talk it, live it?
I heard Creflo Dollar say once, “The Truth can get boring if you just continue to fill up on it. It gets exciting when you start doin’ it! Let’s be doers of the Word, not just hearers!”
HOW DO WE “DO IT??”
Well, how do we live these verses out? What do they look like in our lives?
When I read these verses, I get so excited! They hold such promises- I want to be transformed- that’s thrilling! And, I want to know what God’s will is for my life!
I love cause and effect verses! Let’s read the verses backwards.
How can you test and approve God’s will?
By having a renewed mind. How can I have a renewed mind?
By being transformed! And, how am I transformed?
By NOT conforming to the patterns of the world.
Wow! But, what are the patterns of the world? What does that mean?
I love the Amplified Bible. It says, “Do not be conformed to this world (age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the entire renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you.]"
When I study and ponder these verses, I begin to see there is a connection between the WAY I think, my mindsets, and my transformation. And, when I look at this, I cannot be CONFORMED and TRANSFORMED at the same time!
CONFORMED/TRANSFORMED,
CONFORMED/TRANSFORMED.
I cannot be both- but one or other. When I think of conformed, I think of fitting into a little box. When I think of “conform”- I think of Spandex! When I think of “transformed” I think of a butterfly being transformed from a lowly caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly, flying free in the sky. But, before we ponder this verse, let’s back up to verse one. Paul says,
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.”
OK, let’s take a look at this.
Because of God’s mercy, because of the blood of Jesus, because of His sacrifice and our gift of salvation, because of His mercy and grace, we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
Whoa! That gets us right there. I don’t want to offer myself as a sacrifice. That’s gonna hurt! That is going to be unpleasant! I don’t like that.
You see, that is what the enemy of our souls wants us to believe! He wants us to avoid this. He wants us to believe submitting ourselves to Heavenly Father, offering our lives and our bodies as living sacrifices will be the most dreadful experience of our lives.
Ladies, who is the author of Romans? Paul! Paul who is full of praise and thanksgiving! Paul is full of JOY- he describes his joy as boundless, exceedingly, abundantly full of joy. How many of us would describe our lives as full of boundless, exceeding, abundant joy? You see, Paul understood that in the offering, we would find joy and peace.
OK, so what is the sacrifice that Paul is talking about? How are we to offer ourselves as living sacrifices?
The next verse tells us:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
Paul understood that NOT CONFORMING would be difficult at times and take on purpose kind of living.
DYING TO FLESH, SUBMITTING, SURRENDERING
I have a middle schooler who is really going through all of this right now. He wants to fit in, be cool, be popular, be like everyone else. Being a Christian is real challenge because he doesn’t want to look weird, different. But that is exactly what the Bible tells us- we are strangers and aliens in this world. But, the temptation to be cool- to be important, to be socially successful is great.
Andrew has to be confident in who he is in Christ. He has to find his worth in Christ, not on the acceptance of others and their opinions of him.
One huge key to all of this is to believe these verses from Peter- that this world is not our home. We need to remember that our true home is heaven. This life, here and now is just a blink of an eye. The life to come is eternal. We need to become eternally minded. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
We lose sight of our future hope, our inheritance, and we start caring too much of the here and now. We accept the customs and behaviors of this world as our own.
The rest of the verse says, “Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make your self cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego for the expense of your soul.” Have we become too cozy in this world? When we accept the ways of the world, when we are comfortable with it, we allow ourselves to be CONFORMED to it, influenced by it. And, as we begin to conform to the world and it’s attitudes, we begin to see God differently. We begin to question Him and His Word. We begin to wonder if what the Bible says could possibly apply to us.
We become confused, and what we see on TV , MEDIA, INTERNET and hear others say becomes reasonable.
That is why Paul warns us, “Do not conform to the world.” Don’t make your values and beliefs fit into what the world says is good.
Romans 12:1 in the NLT says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” God doesn’t want us to THINK the way the world does. Have you ever copied the customs and behaviors of this world when you knew in your heart, in your spirit, that they were in direct violation to what God was telling you? Ladies, I look around and see us, as Christian women looking to the world to define us. We are looking to the world to shape our ideas, our attitudes, and our beliefs.
We look to Oprah for the books we read, the malls to dress us, to Hollywood to tell us what’s “hot and what’s not.” We look to the media to tell us what to watch on TV, what music to listen to, what we should be doing with our time, and how we should be living our lives. We are filtering our Christian beliefs, values, and God’s Truth through the lens of the world.
And, when you are not conformed, what happens? You will be TRANSFORMED, TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND! God transforms us into a new person by changing the way we think! Once I start seeking God with all of my heart, and concentrating less on what is popular, God will begin renewing my mind and transforming me! In order to seek God, we have to start spending more time with Him! We can’t know Him without getting to know Him. We need to make room in our busy lives for time with Him. If we want to renew our minds, we need to spend time with Him, in His Word. It is a relationship with the Lord that brings transformation!
Again, thanks so much for your prayers. And, I would love to come speak at your next women's event. Blessings!
Exciting News! 
