Transformation is a change of life form. How are we changed into another person?
James 1: 21Wherefore , lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted (émphutos; to implant, from emphúō – to implant, which is from 1- en -intimate union with 2 phúō to germinate, to grow or spring up, produce)word, which is able (continuous action, to have power) to save your souls.
When we are born-again our spirit is saved but the soul is usually still a mess. Our mind, emotions and our will have to be saved and that is a process.
The word has to be united to our heart, so that we become one with it. Then that which is not like the Spirit of God in us has to be separated from us so that we are no longer one with it.
As this separation takes place, what use to be a characteristic of our personality, is just a thought with feeling that is trying to manifest in us, which we resist until it has no more power to influence and become a part of us.
James 1:21 says receive with meekness. It uses the terminology here the engrafted word, which is able then to save your soul.
Receive with meekness, with humility, without resistance the engrafted word which is able to save our souls.
The engrafted word of God is a living thing, it is not just a mental concept, it is something which is living and when engrafted into us, grows into whatever that word is.
We need to grasp this and then it goes on to say that it is able to save our soul. The word save in Greek is sozo, it means in every aspect, to heal, to preserve to make you like Jesus. Sozo is a very broad Greek word which means salvation in every area of life. The engrafted word when it is implanted into us will grow into that.
Whatever that word is, it is part of Jesus, it is part of His personality, it is a part of the Lord. We need to grasp this truth. We really need to get a hold of this, because many Christians live on audios and videos and books. And spend hardly any time really meditating in the word of God until it becomes real to them, until God quickens it to them and because of that they don’t change.
The engrafted word has the meaning of an implant. If we have a bad heart and we have a heart transplant. Someone else’s heart is sown into us. A transplant is sown into our life as a living thing, it is alive. But it has to be engrafted into us; our body cannot reject it and has to become one with it.
This is the meaning of this word. The engrafted word of God sown into us as a living thing, is an actual part of the Lord Jesus himself. Now it is not just a word, it’s not just a concept, it’s not just truth and the essence of truth. The word is a person.
The engrafted word is sown into our life as a person. There is a transplant; an implant takes place, when we receive it with meekness without any resistance.
Usually resistance comes with reasoning and unbelief instead of just acceptance, because our brain, our computer has been programmed wrong.
You take a common wild rose stem, you cut the top off, the flower head, you got a stem and then you can take a bud from a more sophisticated rose and you cut a notch in the old and implant it, just bind it up and what happens is the new rose grows out, a different kind of rose, a different color, a much better rose, it’s a stronger rose because the thing that was implanted in it, took over.
When was the last time you had an engraft? When was the last time you had an engraft from the word of God. You received it, it was quickened, it was made real, it came into you, it was sown into your life as a seed. Once that comes in, it will grow, it will grow, it will become whatever that word is, it will grow in your life, it just takes a little time, nurture, and it will grow and save your soul.