Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 155
TRANSCRIPT
Wouldn’t it be great if everything in our lives moved forward in an orderly fashion? I would love it if most of the events in life came in a steady, systematic, predictable, and orderly fashion. You could then move from one event to the next event in a seamless manner without any interruptions or disruptions. You do know what that line of thinking is called? It is called a fairytale. If you have listened to the last two podcasts, you will notice that Cindi and I are trying to help by preparing each of us for the unexpected. In this podcast, we are going to encourage you the best we can to enjoy all of the twists and turns of life by walking in the Spirit of Christ. It will be awesome!
I’m Lee Whitman with Restoring the Foundation and I welcome you into this Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. The Christian Life is often like childbirth. Wait a minute. Where are you going with this, Lee? Come along with me and find out. The verse for today is 2 Corinthians 3:18, which says, “But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” When a woman is about to give birth, there are typical patterns that happen during the process of birth. These patterns have been established over billions of births, so they should be reliable, right? Yet, talk to every mother who has given birth, and there is nothing standard or routine about that birth. Cindi and I have been blessed to have three children. And I can tell you first-hand, ok, second-hand since Cindi did all of the work, that there was nothing standard or routine about any of our kids’ births. With our first child, we labored (Ok, Cindi labored, and I coached) for many hours as she progressed slowly. With our second child, the labor went from mild to intense very quickly and stayed at that level until he was born. With our third child, the labor progressed so quickly that the baby was born without a doctor or nurse in the room. She just came out by herself and almost fell off the bed onto the floor. My point of this story is that with all of the history of childbirth and all of the statistics about how things should have gone, each of our children was on their own schedule.
Our walk with Christ is like that as well. There are many, many books written on how our life in Christ should progress. This growth process is called discipleship and many of these books describe exactly how the process should go. However, each person is unique and different, and their process of growth will be different as well. Today’s verse says that we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory”. We can easily make a couple of incorrect assumptions about this transformation process of moving from glory to glory. The first mistake we can make about moving from glory to glory is that the length of time we are in transformation will be short and equal in duration. When you read the scripture, it appears that you move along this steady pathway from one place of glory into the next place of glory. And unfortunately, some of the books on discipleship make it sound as if you do these certain things, then you will automatically move along a prescribed pathway. As Bishop Joseph Garlington said in a sermon, sometimes the duration is rapid, and it really is from glory to glory. Other times the duration is much longer, and it is from glory “toooooooooo” glory. Oh, by the way it is like the “to” is the hallway between two rooms and sometimes there is, quoting Bishop Garlington, “there is hell in the hallway”. We think the transition should be quick.
Ok, another birth analogy. There is part of the birth process called transition. It is the time when the contractions intensify as birth draws near. This increased intensity of the contractions comes at a time when the mother is experiencing a great deal of fatigue so this increase in intensity is actually helping her complete the birthing of the baby. It is almost always very uncomfortable. I came away from one of our children’s births with fingernail gouges on my forearm.
Many times, God has to use something uncomfortable to move us from one glory to the next glory. We want to stay in the first glory because it is really good. But to experience the fullness of God, we must move from that glory to the next glory. This brings me to my second point about moving from glory to glory. Sometimes we are completely comfortable and satisfied with the place of glory we are currently experiencing. We like our comfort level and do not wish to move to the next level of glory. It is a loving Father God who will spur us on toward the next level of glory, even if we like and are comfortable in the current glory. He knows there is something better for us in the next glory. But as Bishop Garlington said, sometimes moving from glory “toooooooooo” glory is going to take longer than we expect. And it may cause God to use a little stronger motivation.
In the process of transformation, we must live in the balance between enjoying being in the place we are with God, but at the same time continuing to press into the next glory that He has in store for us. On the flip side of that, in our efforts to grow and become all that God has for us, we don’t take the time to enjoy where we are. I think about a child, which is a picture God uses to describe us as His Children. Most four-year old’s enjoy being a four-year-old. Oh, they say things like, “I can’t wait until I turn five” without having any idea what turning five actually means. They simply enjoy the life they are living right now. I believe that many of us in the body of Christ don’t enjoy our relationship with God right where we are because we are trying to move to the next place. We live wanting to continue to grow in our walk with Jesus, but by doing so, we also might miss enjoying where we are in God. Many live with the Ungodly Belief that “When I get to this level with God, then I will be OK.” We can easily put stipulations on our relationship with God as to why we can’t enjoy life where we are. The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:13, “Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, of both having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Notice how Paul says he has learned how to be content in whatever circumstance. I believe that is the key to enjoying the life God has given us. To be content means to be comfortable with something. It carries the idea of being fulfilled in the current situation. It does not mean, however, that we have to be satisfied with where things are.
Let me give you an example. Many people have financial situations that they wish would improve. For them to live in peace, they need to be “content” with their current situation. That would mean that they are being fulfilled by the current situation but continue to work toward making changes for the better. The alternative is to fight against the current situation, causing that person great turmoil and anxiety. For Paul to say that he knows how to live with little, and to live with prosperity, does not mean that he is “satisfied” with either. What he has learned is that life is not about how much we have or don’t have, whether we are hungry or filled. The key for life as a believer is that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Living in Christ’s strength is the key to living in the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit.
So back to my original topic of being transformed from glory to glory. One of the best tools in the process of being transformed from glory to glory is to allow the Holy Spirit to transform the way you think. It is very easy for us to be living out of an Ungodly Belief and not even be aware of it. The reason we might not recognize these beliefs as a lie is that they are so familiar to us. We have believed them for such a long time that it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for us to recognize them as a lie. We talked about in one of our recent podcasts a common lie that is going around in many churches today. People are being led to believe that if something is difficult, then it must not be God. It is part of the easy Christianity that Cindi talked about in last week’s podcast. If someone believes that lie, then when God uses something to motivate them to bring change in their lives, something that is uncomfortable, they will automatically fight against it, and in the process, may be lengthening the process of transformation in their lives.
Let me give you a personal example, not because Cindi and I have made it to that great pinnacle of faith, but because we have walked through much of what we are talking about today and want to use those lessons to help you. 2024 was a very difficult year for us. Cindi had three major surgeries, and I had one major surgery. Having the surgeries was only a part of the transformational process that God was taking us through. Recovering from surgery is the most difficult part. We had to fight an almost daily battle with discouragement and disappointment. We did ask a lot of those why questions, like “Why do we have to go through this?” In the journey, we learned to live in what I am talking about today. We learned to be content with the recovery process but not satisfied. At times, we fought against the process and caused ourselves much frustration and anxiety. However, when we are able to accept the reality of where we are in the recovery process, we experience peace. We are, however, not satisfied with where we are and continue to press into God, realizing that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We know we are being transformed from glory to glory but the “to” is turning out to be much longer than we expected. The key to overcoming this long “toooooooooo” is by dealing with the Ungodly Belief that God has let us down. I believe the root of feeling like God has let us down stems from a deeper Ungodly Belief that God owes us something. The feeling that God has let us down comes directly from the false belief that God owes me something. God owes me quick healing. God owes me a life of no struggle. God owes me happiness. The truth is that God does not owe us anything. We get to experience His grace and love every day, regardless of our circumstances. That is awesome. That is a place where we can live on a daily basis because we are expecting that God is going to give us whatever we need for that day. Is it always going to be wonderful on a human level? No, but it will be fulfilling because God will be moving us from glory to glory.
PRAYER
Father God, your grace is so amazing. You use your grace to transform us from glory to glory. Will you help us not to lose hope when the “toooooooooo” is longer than we expected? Would you also show us anything that is holding us back? Show us any Ungodly Beliefs that might be hindering our moving to the next place of glory.
