Three Questions

Are you living a changed life?

Can you change your lifestyle?

Is it possible to live changed in the spiritual environment our world is facing today?

These three questions are considered over and over in the minds of people who are dealing with conviction regarding their souls. They wonder can a transformation really take place in their hearts that can make a difference in their life, not just for eternity, but here on earth. They also wonder about some of their family, friends, and associates who always seem to fall into the same trap of the enemy over and over. Some know how to play the game so well that they can act changed to get what they need or want and then the same characteristics that enslaved them are exposed again.

We have all honestly given up on people because they cannot seem to do right and stay that way. They seek empathy or sympathy, but make no effort to really live a changed life. They can put on the Christian act so well that they can fool even the most spiritual people. In fact they do it so often that they push away real conviction power because they begin to believe they can never change. They've gotten so good at making excuses and blaming others for what's wrong with their life that the spirit of sensibility seems foreign to them. I believe some have even been turned over to a reprobate mind because of the constant refusal to allow the Spirit of God to bring a true transformation in their life.

They live in the territory of comparison. They justify their behavior by the hypocritical lifestyles of others professing the faith. They convince themselves they're just as good as the next person when it comes to Christianity and that the things that really matter to pleasing people are more important than what matters to pleasing God. I've heard these type stories over and over in my work as a pastor. They would boldly proclaim their own self-righteousness knowing down deep inside there never was a true lifestyle change. I also saw this behavior frequently when someone outside of the faith was wooing someone in the faith. Once they fell in love and married, then the outsiders true personality would show and many innocent people got hurt because of their false testimony.

With all of this in mind let's answer the three questions I asked at the beginning of this blog:

-Are you living a changed life? If Jesus truly lives in your heart and you repented of your sins you are a new creation in Him. You will live a changed life because your thoughts and goals will be different. You will seek to please Him in every area of your life and lived like you mean it.

Can you change your lifestyle? Yes, you can by the grace and mercy of God. The old man spiritually dies, and a new man is birthed through the shed blood of Jesus. You can change your old habits and keep yourself pure in the sight of God. Not in your strength or power, but through and by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Is it possible to live changed in the spiritual environment our world is facing today? Oh yes again! He has given you power from on high through the Holy Spirit to conduct yourself orderly and according to His Word and given you abilities beyond your natural ones to face every challenge that you face.

So I exhort you to not give up on the ones who have faked change, denied change, or refused to change. When you've prayed until you can pray no more for them, just hold on. God is about to show up and move in their lives in ways you thought were impossible. He turns fakers, failures, and the faulty into real, successful men and women of God!