Good Friday is a global Remembrance Day of the death of Jesus Christ.

You see the death of Jesus was a unique one, different from all other deaths. His incarnation, living on this earth, death, burial, and resurrection are all prophecies well in advance, hundreds and thousands of years ago in the Bible. As a fulfillment of all the prophecies, God sent Jesus to die for our sins in our place. Jesus’s death was the perfect and final sacrifice for humanity’s sin. Unlike the Old Testament animal sacrifices, which were only a temporary arrangement for people to approach God, as God prescribed in it, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ fulfilled the expectations involved in all the animal sacrifices. However, the old animal sacrifices that existed until the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ were the annual reminder of sins. But the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins forever. (Hebrews 10:3-4).

Jesus’ death was truly a sacrifice for sin: Romans 3:25-26 says this about Jesus, “ whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation (satisfaction) in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed;  for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (NASB).

The TLB translates this more simply. “For God sent Christ Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to end all God’s anger against us. He used Christ’s blood and our faith as the means of saving us from his wrath. In this way, he was being entirely fair, even though he did not punish those who sinned in former times. For he was looking forward to the time when Christ would come and take away those sins.  And now in these days also he can receive sinners in this same way because Jesus took away their sins.”

By the temporary setting of animal sacrifices in the pre-Jesus era, which were only a shadow for the perfect sacrifice of Jesus in due time, God passed over the sins previously committed in prior history, until He came and placed all humanity’s sin under the sacrifice of Christ.

Now the full forgiveness of and redemption from sins are freely available by God’s grace by the finished salvific work of Jesus Christ. The salvation that results in forgiveness of all sins and resulting in eternal life in heaven is received by faith in the finished sacrificial work of Christ.

In the old pre-Jesus years, “day after day every priest stood and performed his religious duties; again and again he offered the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.  But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Hebrews 10:11-14).

Listen, “By one sacrifice, Jesus made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” You and I can be made perfect with no condemnation, in and through the only God-given savior of the world- Jesus Christ.

The Bible does not command Christians to celebrate or remember Good Friday. Remember, it does not forbid it either. We should have the freedom in these matters. Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 14 and it says, “One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.”

Christ specifically asked us to remember Christ’s death during the observance of the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:19-20 and I Corinthians 11:24-26). Believers are to remember Christ’s sacrificial death and the resultant spiritual blessings of salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life every day or even often every day and thank God for His blessing in Jesus Christ.

I am also glad and much thankful to God that Good Friday is memorized in all parts of the world and that is a divine and wonderful work of God to bring to mind what God has done in Jesus globally. So I am supportive of an opportunity like Easter to witness Jesus Christ. I am motivated to dialogue with my family, friends, and colleagues.

The first Good Friday when Jesus was brutally crucified was not in any essence a good day. Even the creation and nature could not witness the crucifixion of its Lord and darkness came for about three hours during the time of the crucifixion. The occasion was evil, nothing but good. However, the meaning of the modern word ‘good’ is connected to its etymology.

While the word “good” is now used in many contexts, its core meaning of being “fitting, suitable, or desirable” remains evident in its various applications. 

It was fitting and suitable for God to sacrifice Jesus because He fulfilled hundreds of prophecies He made to forefathers, and as Jesus bore humanity’s sin on his divine and sinless body for a ‘forever salvation and perfection’ as Hebrew writer underlines, now we can stand before and approach the Holy God without fear and in full confidence. The first Good Friday was surely a holy and sacred day. It was a consecrated occasion and as we gazed and reflected on it, we stood in awe on a holy ground to witness God’s surpassing and unfathomable love toward us.

Apostle Paul wrote 13 epistles or letters and became part of the divine and inspired Word of God in the New Testament section of the Bible. However, he was formerly a blasphemer, persecutor, and violent aggressor as he attested in 1 Timothy 1:13.
He wrote although he had all these past negative marks on him, yet, he received mercy because he acted ignorantly in unbelief. Apostle Paul gives people the hope that even though they traveled too far in the wrong direction, God has not finished His good work in you yet, if you listen and come to him in prayer. As the Bible promises God can begin brand new beginnings and make you a new creature, and you will know and experience that the old things passed away and observe new things coming and springing up by His power.

In the letter to Philippians, he points out the navigation secret amid the vicissitudes of lives-unpredictable changes or variations in life, or circumstances, often including difficulties or hardships. This includes job loss, sickness, or financial/career ups and downs.

Paul was a free man who worked with his hands, traveled extensively, and planted churches. However, the circumstances of his life then, when he wrote the letter were not rosy at all. He was in a Roman prison in chains guarded by prison guards. Evaluating his past, he says he was hungry and filled. He was in wants and abundance. He got along with humble means and prosperity times. All because he learned and knew the secret of contentment.

We all are familiar with such alternation of life. If somebody has not yet experienced this, they will have these mutations for sure in life.
Paul is giving the secret of facing down and upturns of life in one sentence and that is this – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13). This verse became the favorite quote for many people throughout human history. My college-going son has this on his wrist chain. I am glad he got the secret early in his life.

It simply means the secret of facing and triumphing over such transformative episodes is through Jesus Christ who strengthens you. If you have Jesus in your life, lean on Him, and seek his face in prayer, you can face such times confidently and come out victoriously. This is because you need God’s diving hand and power that strengthens you to do things that you can’t do by yourself. He is the source of true strength, wisdom, discernment, and power.

Paul ends the book of Philippians with another divinely rich and thought-provoking statement in verse 19. He says, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Provided you are connected to God in the person and work of Christ Jesus, the promise is He shall supply all your needs. Did you notice it says, ‘all your needs’. And when God supplies all your needs, how does He supply? It is ‘according to His riches in glory’. Can you imagine God’s richness in all his glory? I can’t. He is rich beyond measure and all wild imagination. All earth and heaven and everything in it belong to Him and the hearts and minds of all people everywhere are in his hand and He turns the hearts according to His plans. Moreover, God created all you see and do not see by the power of the Word. Genesis 1 which gives the account of all the beginning describes this -He said ‘Let there be’ and ”There was’.

The wrap-up, rounding off, the immutable eternal principle is this – you and I can connect with such a powerful and all-sufficient God quickly and momentarily through the only God-given savior of the world, Jesus Christ.
Also, remember ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ and “my God shall supply all your needs according to His richness in glory in Christ Jesus”. God meets all your needs in Christ Jesus according to His richness in glory.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe the Gospel” Mark 1:15

Labor Day-who is our Master? Whom should we serve?

Three plus One Equals Four.

When you think about it, nothing is stable or constant in this world. Even the places you and I were familiar with do not look the same over the years. When I walk on the roads I walked with my Dad, the streets are still there. However, He is gone from me to the presence of the Lord.

In an ever-changing world, you and I crave something do not change and stays the same. The Bible reminds us of two that do not change- God and His Word in the Bible. Peter wrote, “the grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord abides forever.” 1 Peter 1:25. Psalm 90:1 says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

And Hebrews 13;8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  When we recognize all around us changes, God is everlasting, and Jesus never changes.

None of us wants unhappy days in 2023, do we? What does the Scripture say about a happy and blessed life? Is there a secret to happiness and blessedness? Any prescription God gave to us?

Psalm 1:1-3 gives us three negative and one positive steps as ingredients of true happiness. The verses give three negative steps and one positive step that yields the four most blessed rewards. It says:

Oh, the joys of those who do not
    follow the advice of the wicked,
    or stand around with sinners,
    or join in with mockers.
 But they delight in the law of the Lord,
    meditating on it day and night.
They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
    bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
    and they prosper in all they do. NLT

Three Negative Steps:

Healthy people try to avoid certain things to remain healthy. They avoid addictive habits of drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes which can harm their healthy nature.

Similarly, happy and blessed people avoid certain things to remain satisfied. Three things God prescribes are:

-the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Wicked means ungodly. The ungodly are those who do not honor and fear God. They do not belong to God.

-the one who does not stand in the way of sinners.

-the one who does not sit in the seat of mockers.

Intended Progression:

You will likely notice an intended progression in these verses. It is truly intended to ponder.

Ungodly nature– a sinner, a mocker.  A walker, stander, and sitter.

A walk in the counsel of the ungodly results in sinning. Sinning results in mocking those who belong to God.

The progression is noted in the verbs as well.

Walk-stand, and sit.

A person begins to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. This results in standing in the way of sinners-standing and gazing the way of sinners.  Consequently, he gets comforted in sitting and mocking.

A man starts walking, then stands, and finally sits down.

Do not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Do not stand in the way of sinners. Do not sit in the seat of mockers.

One Positive Step:

The passage also gives one positive step to take for happiness and blessings. What is that?

It says, “but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law, he meditates day and night.”

What you and I delight in tells volumes about you and me. You can delight in making money, gathering wealth, possessions, and human love. What motivates you? God says a happy person delights in the Bible. As a result, he meditates day and night. How often- day and night? This means he reads and meditates on the Bible continuously. Meditating means chewing the cud like cows and bulls.  You read, reflect, repeat, and memorize the Bible verses and God’s beautiful promises.

Four Rewards:

Now, the three negative steps and one positive step described above result in four divine and wonderful rewards. Let us look into the four rewards God promises.

1. Stability and strength.

“He is like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. Firmly planted indicates stability and strength. Trees on streams of water have a wide root system, which gives them strength and stability even amid the harsh forces of nature. The nutrient-rich roots hold the tree in its place to stay stable and strong during severely dry summer and winter weather. Such trees won’t fall and remain standing during the difficult dry and winter seasons.

You and I develop rich roots by reading and meditating the Bible day and night. As a result, God gives the reward for standing firm, stable and strong even in adversities.

2. Fruitfulness.

It says, “which yields its fruit in season.” The nutrient roots produce fruit in season. It has fruit in season. You meditate on the scripture day and night. You will be fruitful. Sometimes we need to forgive- the robust root system supplied by the Bible verses readily gives the fruit of forgiveness. Need to love- it produces the fruit of love. Needing patience, courage, and perseverance, the rich root has the fruit of patience, courage, and endurance.

 3. Evergreen Leaf.

Always green leaf- it says leaves do not wither. Due to rich nutrients and ongoing nourishment of the Word of God, the tree has fresh green leaves. Every day brings new food from the Word and stays in green leaves. A man who delights and meditates God’s Word gets new daily vitamins and proteins.

 4. Prosper in all things.

The fourth reward is that he prospers in all that they do. What is real prosperity? If richness or wealth is the real prosperity, we misunderstood the Word prosperity. People who are rich, wealthy, and celebrities end up suicide. That does not look like real prosperity.

What is true prosperity?

Romans 8: 36-37 says, “Just as it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;

We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”

You see, we may face trials as other people do. We may face failures, get rejected, get sick, hear bad news about our dear ones, and face tragedies. However, amid it all, a child of God becomes more than a conqueror because God makes them thrive. You become a conqueror.

The same idea is presented in 2 Corinthians 2:14 when Pauls wrote, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us reveals the fragrance of the knowledge of Him in every place.

The context is given in 1st Corinthians 1:8-10, For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction which occurred in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who rescued us from so great a danger of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope.”

Also, refer to 7:5-6, “even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts on the outside, fears inside. But God, who comforts the discouraged, comforted us by the arrival of Titus;”

The context is an affliction, excessive burden, despaired of life, a sentence of death, great a danger of death, no rest, afflicted on every side: conflicts on the outside, fears inside, discouraged.

But remember, he wrote in the middle of it all, “thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:14). How often? “Always .”Who leads us in triumph? God. Through whom God leads us in triumph? In Christ Jesus.

This is what true prosperity means. Always, God leads us in triumph because you are a child of God in Christ Jesus. God loves you and delivers you from all peril that comes your way because you belong to Christ. Now that is true prosperity.

Prosperity is not mere richness, wealth, or possessions. It is a broader and deeper concept. God makes you prosper in all things because you avoid three negative steps and keep one positive step described above.

As we enter a brand new 2023, God’s secret of happiness/blessedness is 3+1=4. Three negative steps to avoid and one positive action to take. Three negatives and one positive result in four rich rewards.

Are you ready to enter a brand new year? Keep God’s prescription for blessedness and happiness close to your heart.

Worship is more than Sunday Attendance! Part 4.

“Then you will be able to test and approve God’s will- His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

People often ask how they know and do the will of God. The question is answered here. 

Three things must concur to test and approve God’s will according to Romans 12:1-3. 

One dark and starless night, while crossing the Irish channel, F.B. Meyer, a contemporary and friend of D L Moody, stood on the deck by the captain and asked him, “how do you know Holyhead harbor on so dar a night as this?” He said you see those three lights? Those three lights must line up behind each other as one, and when we see them so united, we know the exact position of the harbor. 

Romans 12:1-2 gives the three prerequisites for testing and approving God’s will in our personal lives. So far, we have seen in view of the mercies of God- how he loved/loves you, saved you, forgave/forgives you, protected/protected you, blessed you-(a) dedicate your body as a living, holy & pleasing sacrifice to God, (b) do not be conformed to the present age but (3) be transformed by the renewal of your mind (by the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Word of God which is the Bible). Then the following sentence is connected by “Kai” which means ‘and then.’ It says, “then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing & perfect will.”

Now, the Bible reveals three kinds of the will of God. 

First is His sovereign will or decree, meaning God’s supreme and sovereign control over all things.

Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.” 

You see, everything in this universe works and moves according to His sovereign will and decree. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. God governs from the throne in heaven according to His will. God’s sovereign will or decree is unalterable. Bible says in Acts 4:27-28, “Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will.” 

Jesus would die, be buried, and rose again was the sovereign, eternal and unalterable will of God. 1 Cor. 15:24-27 says Jesus wraps up the whole history standing at the end of it (History is indeed His story) and embraces all who would come to him in faith by raising and transforming them, that he destroys death as the last enemy to be destroyed and that God the Father has put all things under the authority of His Son, Jesus Christ, is yet another sovereign will or decree of God that would fulfill in the near future. 

Secondly, there is the revealed will of God that includes God’s commands and desires for us to follow or do. 

We can do it or fail to do it, for Example:1 Thes. 4:3-8 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no one violate the rights and take advantage of his brother or sister in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you previously and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in sanctification. Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”

1 Thes. 5:18-22 says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit, do not utterly reject prophecies, but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil.”

Thirdly, there is the personal will of God in our lives. 

Your parents, how God brought them together, your unique DNA, the generation in which you are born, and living are all part of His plan for your personal life. Acts 13:36 says, “For David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his father, and underwent decay.” NLT says, “after David had done the will of God in his own generation, died, and was buried with his ancestors. 

Psalm 139:16 says, “you saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” Isn’t it mind-boggling? Each moment of your life was laid out before even one existed.

Jesus, in his earthly life, lived each moment according to the direction and plan of God. He was not early or late in reaching a place, talking, or reaching out to a person in need. You see, He moved according to God’s clock of the divine plan. It was all pre-determined. So is your life when you think about God’s will for your life. Now, we can live in obedience to His plan, or we can disobey His will. This is where God’s will and our choices either match or do not match. However, it always paired with God’s will and plan in Jesus’s life.

NIV says, “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. In God’s sovereign and revealed will, you and I do not test and approve of God’s will in our personal lives. However, in the individual will of God, you will be able to test and approve the will of God. 

Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; He tested and approved the Father’s will there. There the sweat of Jesus became like the drops of blood falling on the ground when all humanity’s sin was placed on him. In his describable agony and mental anguish, in the garden, Jesus said, “Father, not my will, but yours be done.” The Bible indicates Jesus fervently prayed in agony and thereby tested and approved the will of God for his earthly life. 

Beloved, there will be times like this in our personal lives- that you should test and approve the will of God for your life. You would also say, not my will, but yours be done.” Not easy, but difficult. In a lifelong journey, like Jesus said, picking up the cross-dying to self means dying to our desires to accomplish His divine purpose, to grab hold of something higher and sacred. You see, Jesus, the light of the world, becomes the ruler of your life, not the Devil, the ruler of the present and dark age. He becomes the master and king of your life on a going basis. 

Listen, because of the manifold mercies of God, He poured out on you, which Paul explains from Romans 1-11, it is only reasonable and proper that worship becomes daily and not on certain days of the week. Worship becomes a daily and moment-by-moment life style that includes presenting your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the world (present evil, lustful and sinful age) but be transformed by renewing your mind by leaning on the Holy Spirit moment by moment and meditating on the Bible. Turn from the world’s ways of life to what Jesus and the Bible say. 

This is how you and I would test and approve the will of God in our personal lives. His will is good, pleasing, and perfect for you. 

Remember what the captain said to F. B. Meyer while standing on the deck next to the captain. In these dark and gloomy days of the earth, where the present age system and its sinful, lustful ways destroy many, let the three things of Romans 1-2 line up behind each other. Then we would test and approve will of God, which is good, pleasing, and perfect. 

The Salvation that God prepared in the sight of all nations!

Worship is more than Sunday Attendance! Part 3.

“but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2b).

Last time, we learned the negative command of God that says, “do not be conformed to this world.” Today’s insight gives a positive aspect of it. How can I not conform to the culture, standards, customs, and ideas of the Aion- the present sinful and lustful age? You see, the natural propensity of our mind is to give in to the cultural pressure around us. The transformation should happen inside us to avoid following the present evil age and its standards and lifestyles. And the transformation occurs through the renewal of your mind. Transformation here means a total change in your value system or the way you think, as we listened before, and the renewal of your mind accomplishes it.

The positive aspect of the command is “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” God wants you not to conform to this world but to be transformed by renewing your mind. The question is how I can get this done.

The word ‘transformed’ is the Greek word ‘metamorphoo’. From it, we get the English word metamorphosis. It means a change from one form of thing to another form or type. This word describes an unpretty worm caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly. Metamorphosis is a powerful illustration of being transformed or transfigured. The lay egg becomes a caterpillar initially in the feeding state called larva. The only job of the caterpillar is to eat, eat and eat. Food taken is stored and used in the later adult stage. It is said it grows 100 times its size in this eating stage. 

The next is the Pupa stage, the stage of transformation. By eating and eating, it becomes a pupa. Nothing is visible outside during the scene, and it may look like nothing happens. However, rapid growth happens inside. It develops legs, wings, eyes, and other parts.

Finally, the butterfly stage is the adult stage. The caterpillar’s state is to eat and eat. The Pupa state is of significant transformation inside. The butterfly stage is the final and most beautiful adult stage. It starts reproducing by mating and laying eggs and has a brief life span of a few weeks, generally up to 2 months. 

Let us dig deeper into our verse of ‘be transformed by renewing your mind.’ TPT translates this verse, “but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think.”

Holy Spirit has a significant role in the renewing of your mind. The same original word for ‘renewal’ –ananéosis- is used only in one other place in the New Testament, and that is in Titus 3:5, where Paul said, “He (God) saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and ‘renewing by the Holy Spirit’. You see, the agent who renews our mind so that you do not be conformed to this present age is none other than the Holy Spirit. It says you are saved, not because of anything good you have done, but purely based on God’s mercy. He saved you by washing you from your old sinful and lustful lifestyle and by renewing your mind. The Holy Spirit of God causes, begins, and leads the transformation process by renewing your mind.

Although accurate in teaching the permanent dwelling of the Holy Spirit in a Christ believer, we often underscore or do not teach much about the role of the Holy Spirit in the transformation process by the renewal of the mind. From the get-go, the Bible reminds us to lean on the Holy Spirit and walk by the Holy Spirit because He is who teaches, reminds, guides, and illuminates the truth.  

From the get-go, the Bible reminds us to lean on the Holy Spirit and walk by the Holy Spirit because He is the one who leads us into all the truth. He teaches, reminds, guides, illuminates, reveals, etc. 

However, Beloved, there is another side to the renewal of your mind. Jesus, in his intercessory prayer to the Father, said this, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” The context is Jesus is going back to heaven after his sacrificial death for our sins. However, the disciples are going to be here in this present evil age. So he prays to keep them safe from the evil one because they do not belong to this world any more than he does. Jesus Christ does not belong to this world, and they do not either. They must know the truth, which is the Word of God, the Bible. They are sanctified or set apart for him progressively by the word of God. Let God transform you into a new person by changing how you think by knowing the truth -the word of God, the Bible.

You see, the second agent in the renewal of our mind is the word of God- the Bible. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, ‘beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” The passage says we are being transformed into Christ’s image from one degree to another when we behold the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The same Greek word is used here. How do we behold the glory of the Lord? We do not have Jesus Christ in his body form to look at him as the disciples looked at his glory and got transformed, do we? However, we have the Bible, the word of God- to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. His glory is proclaimed from the first book of the Bible, Genesis, to the last book of the Bible, Revelation. As we continuously look at Christ’s glory in the pages of the Bible, wonder at the work of Christ by hearing the good news of the Gospel and Bible preached and taught, the Holy Spirit who is inside you renews your mind by imparting God’s value system replacing aion or present age value system.

Many true believers in Christ are conforming to the world these last days and not being transformed by the renewal of their minds, not because they do not have the Holy Spirit inside them. God saved them by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. However, they do not let the Holy Spirit get control over their life. They allow the flesh and present age value system to influence them. Knowingly and unknowingly, it happens as they live day by day. Secondly, the word of God- the Bible- is dusty in their bookshelves and sanctified by the word of truth is not happening on an ongoing basis.

Beloved, if you have not accepted Christ as your savior and Lord yet, there is no potential for transformation by the renewal of your mind. Why? It is because the renewal of mind and transformation happens through the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the world of God. Jesus said, and it is recorded in John 7:39, who would receive the Holy Spirit. He said this, The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He said in reference to the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. If you believe in Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit. And if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, you do not have the Holy Spirit inside you. Listen! Per Jesus’s words, when you come to Him and believe in Him, He gives the Holy Spirit inside you freely as a result of your belief in Him and initiates the transformation process. 

Got a moment for today’s prayer? “Father in heaven, Thank you for the Holy Spirit you gave me. Thank you for the word of God-the Bible you gave to me. Please help me not to conform to this present and evil age value system. Help me to get transformed by the renewal my mind by the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. I believe Jesus died and rose again for all of my sins. Please forgive me and save me today. In Christ’s name, I pray. Amen. “