There is a saying heard occasionally among the Christian faith community that says that God loves us enough to take us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way. There is a great deal of comfort in that saying, especially if one is prone to occasionally be overcome by their imperfections.
Another encouragement that goes hand in hand with the one above is, “God is not finished with me yet!” We take great joy in that proclamation, and it certainly is the truth, but while it is unquestionably a cause for celebration, it is also a statement worthy of serious consideration.
The Father is changing us from what we are (though admittedly that’s not much), into something we are not; something more; something else, and apparently He is not done yet!
Paul writes in Philippians 1:6:
"being confident of this very thing: that the One having begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ."
This then calls for a couple of questions. First, what is His final goal for us, and second, how does He intend to accomplish it?
The answer to the first question is stated beautifully in the Message Bible in Romans 8:29,30
“God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.”
It is the Father’s intent that we are shaped, transformed into the very image of Jesus. The goal sounds impossible and it would be if God were anyone else besides God, but because He is who He is He can do whatever He wants to, however He wants to, to whomever He wants to. He can make mountains into canyons! All it takes is the right ingredients and time.
This brings us to the second question of how He intends to accomplish His goal, and once again all it takes is the right ingredients and time.
"And I will request the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth, Whom the world is not able to receive because it does not see nor know Him. You know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans. I am going to come to you. But the Comforter (helper, counselor), which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:16-18,26
It is not the mission of the Holy Spirit on Earth to make life less boring, or more miraculous, or even more Holy. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to make our lives transformative; to effect or bring about change in the people of God. While this is always cause for celebration, it is not always conducive to happiness. There are all types of things that bring about change: birth, death, suffering, self- sacrifice, gain, loss, revelation, discipline, just to name a few.
The Holy Spirit, who is able to be everywhere at once, and able to hear and respond to our individual prayers and cries simultaneously, also knows exactly what we individually need and creates a unique curriculum and life path for each of us. How does it work? Happily for some, unhappily for others; but familiar to most all of us, it is just like school!
In school we are placed in a controlled environment where our time and circumstances are engineered to maintain our physical safety while allowing our minds and imaginations to grow and mature. To make this happen we are supplied with a teacher who gives us lessons to learn, fitting examples to help us learn them, homework to help us get familiar with the concepts and finally tests to make sure we have mastered the material. If we fail to gain that mastery, the teacher backs up, presents us with new examples, tweaks the explanations trying different ways to make us understand and then tests us again. If we fail again to learn the lesson the teacher must go back and find new and more teachable illustrations and find better ways to communicate the ideas in the hope that learning will take place. And if we pass, then the teacher gives us a new lesson and we start all over again.
This is also how God accomplishes His goal for us. The world is our classroom. It is a controlled environment in the sense that nothing can happen to a Jesus follower unless it is part of God’s lesson plan for them. Our teacher is the Holy Spirit who lives with us and dwells in us and who assigns our lessons either personally through revelation, or through our textbook, the Bible. We learn by studying our subject; observing how He lived, how He acted, interacted, and reacted to people and circumstances around him. We learn by life intruding into our personal spaces and applying the same pressures to us as was done to our Lord.
We study the lessons He was given; learning obedience through suffering, winning through ultimate self-sacrifice, humility through foot washing and so many more. And the Spirit is faithful to present us with each lesson we will need for today and the future. He gives us the lessons and teaches us the principles behind them, and then He administers life tests to us using real people to demonstrate how well we make them our own (have grasped the concepts).
If we fail to learn the lesson (or fail to live the lesson), then the Spirit gives us more examples, more illustrations, more opportunities to learn, until we do. And if we pass, well then He gives us the next lesson! And He won’t give up and He won’t stop, because time is all on His side and His goal is clear. He is going to cleanse us from the mud and blood of this world and produce in us the image, that is an exact replica of Jesus Christ.
But be encouraged! God is not finished with you yet. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.
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