Transformation Awaits!
Part 11:
Up until that August day at Edna's in 2004, I'd stayed busy, living my version of a "good" Christian
life by trying to love God and others. I'd lived this way because deep down in my soul, I thought
I had to earn God's love by doing "good" things. I thought I didn't deserve God's love and therefore
needed to work for it. That lie went so deep that I interpreted all of Scripture through its distorted
lens, so that even God's Word, meant to bring freedom, held me in bondage.
That lie expressed itself in the life I lived; I raised our four children in bondage to it. Because
I didn't understand God's love for me, I couldn't share His love with them. They grew up going to
church but not knowing the unconditional love from parents—which helps build a foundation for
receiving God's unconditional love.
It has taken time, but now I am coming to better understand and accept Jesus' incredible,
unfailing love. As the trials and sins in my shattered life pushed me to Jesus, I began just spending
time again with Him—like I had when I was 16. And He began healing me from the inside out.
Initially, when I felt Jesus saying, "Mary, I love you," I would respond with something like,
"But I messed up ..." Then I would tell Him what I hadn't done that I should have or what I should
have done but hadn't. "But," "but," "but …" In my mind, hundreds of things I had done wrong
in the past, was doing wrong now or might do wrong in the future excluded me from His love. I
wouldn't accept His love because I didn't feel deserving of it. Each "but" was like a brick in the wall
that sealed me off from receiving Jesus' love.
Jesus didn't give up on me though. He continued dismantling the wall brick by brick. For
every "but," He had a response. "Mary, don't listen to the lies." "There is no condemnation for those
who are in Me." "I love you."
Over time, as I grew to understand more of His love for me, I was able to come to Him with
greater and greater boldness. Knowing His love for me freed me to open hidden places in my soul,
which previously I had not even known existed. Psalm 139:23–24 became my daily prayer. "Search
me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way
in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
And always His response brought life and healing. "Mary, it isn't about 'good' and 'evil' as you
see it. You can't be 'good enough' to earn My love, and I'll never withhold it from you because you
are 'bad.' The battle isn't between 'good' and 'evil' as you see them, it is between life and death as I
see them. I want life for you—because I love you.
"Mary, My dear one. Stop struggling and trying to figure it out. Only believe. Breathe in My
love as you breathe in the cool, crisp air. Don't fight it. It's all around you. Just rest ... and breathe
... and live."
Today His love continues to wash my soul of hurts, anxieties and guilt by removing the
wrong thinking to which they cling. The very framework of my life is coming into alignment with
Him. My mind is being transformed—my soul renewed—as I let the love of God embrace me.
This is so exciting! In life now, I am actually coming to love others with God's love!
God loves you with an infinite, sacrificing love! Nothing, absolutely nothing, can stop Him
from loving you! And you can love others with the same love He lavishes on you! Incredible prom-
ises await!
God doesn't love us because we are good, He makes us good because He loves us. His love
makes us good—as He created us to be. God made our hearts with holes that can only be filled
with His love. In His design, like a pair of magnets, Spirit and soul are drawn and locked together
in the life-giving love of God. Our souls long to understand the words, "I love you." Knowing the
truth of these words brings transformation.
In Romans 12:2 Paul tells us, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind [soul], that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God." The word "transformed" is from the Greek word metamorphoo. Through the process
of metamorphosis, an lowly, crawling caterpillar is transformed into a beautiful, flying butterfly. And
so we also are meant to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (souls). Such transformation
will allow us to manifest God's perfect, loving will.
Our soul—our mind, will and emotions—was designed to know and experience God's love.
God created us to be led by the Spirit—with our souls in willing surrender to the love of God.
When led by the Spirit, the soul rests from its works. In that rest of abiding love, we become
our true selves. We become God's channels to the world. We bear His image. We express His
nature. We radiate His glory. We express God's heavenly, spiritual love by loving others in earthly,
physical ways—just as Jesus did.
Jesus taught us to pray, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"
(Matthew 6:10). God's will comes to earth when we let it find a resting place in our mind, will
and emotions—in our soul. We rule on earth, as Adam was created to, by letting God in our spirit
be Master of our soul. God's will—His glory and nature of love—comes to this world through us.
And as He shares His loving nature with us, His glory will be over all the earth. Isaiah
60:1–3 encourages us. "Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen
upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth. And deep darkness the people; but the
LORD will arise over you. And His glory will be seen upon you."
Satan opposes us in horrible ways to try and shake us from believing in and experiencing
God's complete love for us. We do not see the vastness of God's love promises. We have not em-
braced the truth that "love [really] is the fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13:10). To step out of
the box of our incomplete Christian belief system requires a foundational shift in how we think of
God. It requires that veils be stripped from our eyes so that we see God as He really is.
During the time of the Reformation 500 years ago, Martin Luther battled similar unbelief
as he fought his way out of the mixed-up, partial belief system of the medieval Catholic Church.
With resolute faith, he stood firm on God's Word that everlasting life is a free gift to those who
believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That truth is clear to us today because those in Luther's time
blazed a trail.
Now is the time for transformation. At this time in history, God is raising up a people to
make clear the way of love and right living on earth. We hold up God's Word, stand firm in faith
and live a life of loving others. We live in obedience to Jesus' New Covenant command, "Love
one another as I have loved you" ( John 15:12). We become living proof of His transforming love.
Multitudes will follow when we, as fishers of men, cast our nets on the other side (see John 21:6)
and fish for souls in this new way.
In God's love, victory is assured. "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). Nothing can hold us back because nothing can
separate us from His love that makes it all possible. "For I am persuaded that neither death nor
life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor
depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38–39).
Onward, Forever Loved!