Every time a church, organization or business goes through transition they hit this particular crisis. It’s not hard to help people envision the future. It is easy to inspire people about the purposes of God. People love his promises-but not the process which is attached. Generally, people wish to obtain an impartation- that means they can receive without having to be changed. That is not ministry; that is magic. God does not do magic.
When God breaks through in power, we must foul through in process. Process is a series of steps we must take to see something established in our life. The church is full of people we have been touched by God but not changed. To key component to being turned into another man or woman always lies in the mind. Transformation comes through the renewing of the mind-Romans 12: 2.
We must be delivered from the very thing that made ministry inevitable. If we must be set free, it follows that we must have been in bondage. The natural way of thinking is foolishness (1 Corinthians 2: 6-16). because spiritual things cannot be understood in logical terms. God speaks to initiate faith, and we respond with faith, but we can only follow up our response by changing the very mindset that created the deficit in the first place.
If we are not changed, we have not learned. If our thinking has not been seriously adjusted, then our response will diminish over time. If that happens too many times we become negative; weary, pessimistic and even cynical.
We want new, but we cling to the old way of doing things. When God breathes on a structure it inevitably comes apart. An old structure cannot bear the weight of a fresh move of God. A fresh move of the Spirit requires a new wineskin to hold and mature what God is doing.
We think that our first response is our only obligation. Going to the altar is not our response to God, it is our acknowledgement that we are in need and things must change. Our true response comes after our initial agreement with God about our condition. We need to follow through and open our life to an ongoing transformation. The renewal of our thinking is the key to change.
It simply is not enough to accept the new and remain in partnership with the old. Some things must change, or the new will dissipate. We have all squandered too much of God’s blessing without being changed for the better.