How does the Holy Spirit transform your character? I think it's true that as we go through life, we become more acutely aware of our character deficiencies. And it's also true that the longer we're in a relationship, or the more deeply we invite people into our lives, the more acutely aware others become aware of those same deficiencies.
In the book "Imitation of Christ" Thomas Kempis observes, "If each year should see one fault rooted out from us, we should go quickly on to perfection. But on the contrary, we often feel that we were better and holier in the beginning of our conversion than after many years of profession."
With social media, our deficiencies can go viral, and instantly gain a larger audience. And young people are shocked to realize how the twittered and instagrammed indiscretions of their youth are later discovered by prospective employers.
Nothing is deleted. Not only does God see you, but who you are is digitally and permanently stored in the cloud. The cloud is the global network of memory that stores your every photo, online purchase, and phone call. It stores your relationship history, status updates, Pandora and Netflix likes, Google searches, and even the GPS coordinates you visit!
There is no privacy-- only the illusion of privacy. Who you are is well known. But suppose you want to change your life and become someone different, a better man, a better woman, a better mom or dad, or a better person? How do you make permanent change in your life?
Apart from the Holy Spirit, there are many ways that we attempt to unlearn an evil habit or put to death an evil desire. We can think of these as human powered approaches to life change.
Human powered approaches to life change
We use pressure to try to change people.
Maybe you've been following the story of the disgraced owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Because of racist remarks, he's been banned for life from the NBA, fined 25 million dollars, ostracized by sponsors, picketed by protestors, made the butt of late-night jokes, harassed by the paparazzi, and demonized by news outlets. No one is asking you to feel sorry for him or to defend him. But pressure doesn't change the heart. In his first interview after the scandal broke, the owner of the Clippers expressed regret, not for his racist rant, but for not paying off his mistress to buy her silence!
We use fear to try to change people.
As a kid I used to watch that show "Scared Straight" where they'd take juveniles into a maximum security prison and confront them with the harsh realities of prison life. The problem with using fear to change people is that most people believe they are invincible. "I won't go to jail. I won't get caught. I won't get a disease. I won't get in a wreck while I'm texting."
Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon titled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" that led to a great awakening throughout America. In stark terms he painted the hellish reality that awaits every unrepentant sinner. Fire and brimstone barely evokes a yawn today. We have the attitude that not even hell can touch us.
We use shame to change people.
This is the approach Christians have taken with pornography, promiscuity, teen sex, fornication, adultery, gay/lesbian behavior, abortion, and sex offenders. The thinking is that if we can shame or stigmatize a behavior, we can stop it. But that isn't at all what happens!
Shame hardens the heart. It drives people farther from God. It inflames their hostility. It pushes them deeper into rebellion and sin. It causes them to seek shelter and validation in accepting subcultures. It severs family relationships that otherwise might normalize them over time. And too often, shame drives people to suicide.
An example of a shame-based approach to change is a youth leader telling girls in her small group that if they've lost their virginity, they'll be like used chewing gum that someone spat out on the ground. Shame destroys souls. It reduces people to less value than a piece of gum. Satan doesn't have to shame people to destroy them because ignorant Christians are all too willing to do this work for him.
We use therapeutic words to change people.
For 2000 years the Church spoke the life-giving, sanctifying words of the living God over people's lives. But now pastors have abandoned God's word, and instead speak therapeutic words and assign therapeutic labels to people. "You're depressed." "You're stressed." "You're suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome." When we tell people they're depressed, they become more depressed about being depressed. But when you sit down and share the scriptures, that same person is filled with hope, and learns to navigate the darkness and function again.
We use self-love to change people.
How many times have you heard someone say, "Learn to love yourself because God loves you just the way you are." I can assure you that God does indeed love you. But he doesn't love you just the way you are! The way you are grieves his Holy Spirit. It caused God to send his Son Jesus to die! No, God loves you so that you will no longer be just the way you are. He loves you so that you'll become a new creation in Christ, so that the pattern of sin in your life will be destroyed, and so that you'll turn from darkness! Jesus doesn't ask you to love yourself. He invites you to deny yourself and to take up your cross and follow him.
We use self-help to change people.
We tell people the following advice. "Just do it." "Make the choice." "Will it into existence." "Try harder!" Let me tell you, God isn't going to do it for you, nor will he do it with you. If we could perfectly mortify every deficiency in our character, then Christ didn't need to die. The law would have been enough. But no, we can make cosmetic changes to our lives, but we can't change our fundamental character.
We use hyper-love or hyper-permissive behavior to change people.
This is where we accept everyone and everything. We abandon all conviction and simply hope for the best. In reality, this is tolerance. Tolerance is a pseudo virtue, not a real virtue. Tolerance is a cancer that erodes character. Tolerance hasn't bred virtue. It's destroyed all virtue.
So all of these examples are human powered or self powered approaches to change. Of all these approaches, which were you most influenced by? Which do you rely upon? God's indictment against these approaches to character change is that they create an appearance of godliness, while denying God's power.
A word for the discouraged
Before we continue, let me remind you of a few things. If you're feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, you can find shelter in God's grace. God offers to be your rock, to be your mighty fortress, and to protect you from attack. Psalm 18:2 (ESV) says, "The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold."
If you've been living in fear, and find yourself unable bear the hell you've created for yourself in this life, and can't imagine the hell that may await you in the afterlife, Jesus offers to rescue you. 2 Timothy 4:18 (ESV) says, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen."
If you've been carrying shame, God is ready to clothe you with mercy and grace. Isaiah 45:17 (NLT) says, "But the LORD will save the people of Israel with eternal salvation. Throughout everlasting ages, they will never again be humiliated and disgraced." One person said, "Jesus did away with the penalty of sin (justification), the power of sin (regeneration), the pollution of sin (sanctification), and Jesus took away the shame of sin, bearing it all on the cross."
For those who've lost hope in therapy, Jesus invites you to abide in his love, to abide in his words, to abide in him, and to abide in his Father, God. God speaks different words over your life than professional clinicians speak. He says, "I'm your Father. In Jesus you are blessed, chosen, predestined, holy, blameless, adopted, forgiven, enlightened, redeemed, sealed, washed, forgiven, and made a new creation." Life comes by abiding in Jesus' words.
Let's continue on. What eclipses human powered approaches to life change is a Spirit powered approach to life change.
The Spirit powered approach to life change.
The testimony of scripture is God telling Zechariah in Zechariah 4:6 (ESV), "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts." It's Jesus telling his disciples in Matthew 19:26 (ESV), "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Okay, so I've indicated that God's words are more powerful than man's words. What does the Bible say about character transformation and the Spirit's role in character transformation?
Ephesians 4:17-32 (ESV) says, "Now this I say and testify in the LORD, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
Ephesians 5:1-21 (ESV) continues, "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, 'Awake O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.' Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."
Notice two key pieces of advice. First, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God..." (Ephesians 4:30). Second, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:18).
Who you most want to please is who you yield your life to. If you want to please God, you refuse to grieve him, and you yield your life to him. If you want to please yourself, you refuse to grieve yourself, and you yield to your sensual desires. If you want to please your friends, you refuse to grieve them (say no to them) and you give yourself over to drunkenness, or whatever foolishness charms them. God wants you to please him in everything, and be filled and led with his powerful Spirit.
How character change works
Let me offer an analogy of how God transforms us. Imagine a blacksmith who is working with steel.
The steel represents the heart of a man. God can change the metal of a man. He can change the hardest hearts. He can change the most stubborn minds. Nothing is too impossible for God if we'd yield our lives to him.
The fire represents the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist promised that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire. Isaiah the prophet was told in that the Spirit would judge and burn and wash away all the filth. (See Isaiah 4:4) The fire refines, strengthens, forges, and purifies the steel. The fire makes the hardest steel pliable, changeable, and bendable.
The hammer represents life with all its adversity. Notice how the hammer strikes the steel. As a believer, it's not a matter of if you'll receive blows in life. What matters is what gets fashioned in our lives as a result of those blows. If you are a believer, the hammer is in God's hand, and he promises that in everything that happens to you, the beauty of Christ's character will emerge. We'll be conformed to the perfect image of his Son. Or if you are not a believer, the hammer is in Satan's hand. With every blow, the ugliness of humanity will emerge.
The anvil represents the word of God. The word of God refers to two things. First, there is the written word of God. 1 Peter 1:25 tells us that the word of the Lord remains forever. We can allow God's word to shape our lives, or we can break ourselves against God's word. But second, there is also the living word of God, Jesus Christ. We can allow our lives to be shaped into the likeness of Christ Jesus, or we can reject God's work altogether.
Here is my challenge to you.
First, accept God's grace in Christ Jesus. Jesus paid the penalty of sin. Let him be your justification. Jesus gives you power over sin. That's regeneration. Jesus takes away the pollution and shame of sin. That's sanctification.
Second, don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Make it your choice to want to please God in everything you think, do, or say.
Third, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Yield to him. Surrender. Saturate your heart, mind, body, soul, and relationships with the Spirit inspired word of God. Walk in the word, abide in word, memorize, meditate, and be conformed to the living and written word of God.