Spiritual Awakening

 

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, fin the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on ‘the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV).

 

There are those times when I am reading instructions and plans when I find I’m not as capable as making the conversion between the Metric System and the English System as I would like. I can get close, but there are times when “close” is not good enough. For example, when mixing epoxy resin the charts are always in the metric system. All of my liquid measuring devices use the English system of ounces. Well, close is not good enough if you want the epoxy to truly mix and set correctly. The “conversion” requires I change the basic measuring nomenclature. It now becomes a function of liters. It is the same but different.

 

In today’s reading, the apostle Paul reflects on what Christ has done for us, and he calls us to a change to a new thought process. This is not limited to, but certainly includes the renewing of our minds. We begin to think differently which then leads us to feel different, and thus behave differently. Recently I came across the phrase “the conversion of our imaginations.” I think that expresses a real need for us to become “like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

 

In light of the reports of Spiritual Awakening coming from so many parts of our nation, I want to take the next few days to affirm what I believe the Scripture describes as true revival or awakening. I hope to use many different common experiences to help us understand the work of the Holy Spirit and pray accordingly. For example, snow is not only a white blanket that covers the landscape in cold weather, but it can also remind us of the puri­fying work of the Lord (cf. Isaiah 1:18). This may then serve as encouragement to be a part of the work of God wherever He is and through whomever He chooses. It will also serve to remind us that we must not try to “control” it. The Holy Spirit demands complete autonomy in His work.