You can find the video here: https://www.facebook.com/RichlandNaz/videos/241438980337005/
If you’ve ever watched a makeover show on a morning talk show or even something like The Biggest Loser you know that people always love to see massive changes. How the plain woman now looks beautiful, how someone drops fifty pounds. How a man starts getting stronger and changing his diet. Or even those shows of buying a fixer-upper, or having some famous construction and design duo come and remodel a home on tv.
We love these shows because they show us that anything can happen. And that we too might become fit, gorgeous, and slim – or even have the home we’ve always dreamt of. But all of these shows rest on huge amounts of tangible resources. They rest on willpower, makeup and clothes, maybe just enough money and expertise to bring about change. Is there something else that can bring the change of transformation in our own lives? Or should I ask is there someone else that can bring the change of transformation in our own lives?
Luke 1:1-9 (NIV) In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
In light of reading this Scripture, the answer to my question is yes, there is someone who can bring the change of transformation in our own lives. We refer to Him as the Holy Spirit.
The power of the Holy Spirit enables us to go live out and bring others in to experience the benefits of the kingdom Christ has secured through His death and resurrection.
Now if you notice we are not much different from the Disciples. We tend to confuse the message of the kingdom of God with our own kingdoms. While Jesus’s disciples thought He’d fulfill the kingdom of God politically, commentators note this:
“The kingdom of God which they were commissioned to proclaim was the goodness of God’s grace in Christ. Their present question appears to have been the last flicker of their former burning expectation of an imminent theocracy with themselves as its chief executives. From now on they devoted themselves to the proclamation and service of God’s spiritual kingdom” (F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts, rev. ed. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998], 36–37).
It's interesting that even today, we struggle with this same thought or idea. We think we want theocracy, and truly that is God’s design for government. It’s His preferred design, if you go back to the Old Testament, God didn’t want a human king over the people. Ge wanted to be a benevolent dictator over the people.
Still, Jesus takes the time to once again teach here about the kingdom of God. It seems as if Jesus is trying to re-focus the disciples on that which they needed to look at.
Both the book of Luke and the first part of the book of Acts (both are written by Luke) teach about what the Kingdom is about in Jesus’ day. Just like then, today people want and hope for the kingdom of God to replace the oppressive invasion of government. And instead of seeing this military or governing change the Book of Luke and Acts tell how God invades the human experience in unprecedented ways through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ. God’s rule and reign in our hearts and lives outweighs what any government or military power can do.
And that’s why Jesus told them to wait. We know the story of Pentecost, sometimes though I believe we forget it’s significance because we’ve heard it too many times and we treat it with indifference.
Remember – The power of the Holy Spirit enables us to go live out and bring others in to experience the benefits of the kingdom Christ has secured. I cannot tell you how many times
I have had people seeking help for some issue or problem in their life and I start by reminding them or maybe I’m the first person to tell them this; I can give you all the tools in this world that will help you but they are only behavior modification. In other words, they will help you not repeat certain behaviors or learn new patterns to live by but the underlying issues will always still be there.
However, it is only through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit that true healing of the broken image of God within us takes place. And that is the only way I know vital, true, real, authentic, life-Long change happens in our lives.
So – what area of your life do you need to let the Holy Spirit work? What is it that you long for God to transform in you? He can take anything we give Him, WE GIVE HIM, and turn it into something beautiful. And that’s the message, that’s the mission, God wants to create this beauty in each and every person that will allow Him to do so.