Transformation, Union With God, and the Love of God.

Hello my friends; We are working on a new series of teachings that will mentor you into the purest, highest, and most needed of God’s calling and ministries, that of transformation into the image of Christ and union or oneness with Him. Below are some excerpts of what we are working on. We hope that you will enjoy this new series.

John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

John 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and

· The highest of all earthly Christian callings and ministries is that of becoming one with the Lord Jesus. This union or oneness with God takes place by the process of transformation. The transformation that the scriptures speak about is that of “metamorphosis” or the same process that takes place when a butterfly emerges from a caterpillar, which has emerged from a cocoon.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

· Greek: But we all with our face uncovered (Though our faces have been uncovered at our conversion, a believer that has an “open” face is one that is yielded to the Lord and gladly obeys Him. He or she welcomes all that God has for them; their faces are opened to His dealings in their lives. Quite the opposite, the person who has a “closed face” is one who secretly does not receive another, and is in opposition or disagreement with that other, judging them in their heart.

· The glory of the Lord beholding as in a mirror (Quite the opposite to Moses who did not have a spiritual mirror to capture and behold the glory of the Lord that would thoroughly transform him! The Old Covenant was transient and not permanent as the New Covenant inaugurated in the blood of Jesus Christ was. Thus he covered his face, which had the passing glory of God on it. Christ is our spiritual mirror that allows us to permanently capture and behold the glory of God that will thoroughly transform us, as long as our faces remain opened towards Him at all times.

· To the same image are being metamorphosised out of glory and into (the next level) glory even as from the Spirit of the Lord.

· The transformation that God calls us to is the progressive and complete extinction of our carnal self-life which has been our image, to be replaced by, or transformed into, the image of Christ which is the self- life of God. The person who is conformed to the image of Christ has become a participant of the very life of God, and a channel for God Himself to flow into the world.

Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed( Greek: To assume the same form) to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

That the body of sin might be destroyed, That the body which is made up of sin ( Our self life) might break down and become useless and non functional.

That henceforth we should not serve sin. In the breaking down and the non-functioning of the carnal self-life we become released from the slavery or dominance of sin.

· God has made every one of us individuals. Every one of us has been created with a distinctive self-life that makes you, you, and me, me. As individuals, we have all been created into the image of God. Because the image of God is the self-life of God, we were all created as individuals to participate in and live out God’s life. Our self life rooted and one with God’s self life, was meant to cause us to participate to very extent that God does Himself in the liberty, wholeness, love, joy, and wisdom that God enjoys, and makes God into what He is.

· When sin came into the world our self-life was thoroughly infected by it. The first assault on humanity by sin was to in a moment of time, sever our self-life from that of God, because God cannot entertain sin. The life, which Adam and Eve had been living in utter dependency rooted in God’s self-life, was in one instance cut off. Man and woman became alienated from the life of God.

Ephesians 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Greek: On account of the hardness of their hearts (towards God) there is a void of knowledge in them which has permanently separated them from intimacy and fellowship with the Lord and has permanently darkened their thoughts that concern God.

· Man and woman, now find themselves living out of a self life which is laden with uncontrolled lusts, devastating bondages, paralyzing fears and the deception found in all of them.

· As God lives out of His self-life, every individual life’s is the product of the self-life that defines him or her. Because our self-lives have been corrupted thoroughly by sin, our daily lives receive a never-ending flow of rejection, fear, lusts, and bondage from the root system of the self. This is why people whom have not become born again are slaves to sin.

Romans 6:20 For when ye were the servants ( Slaves) of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

· The purpose of the coming of Jesus Christ into the world is to restore man and woman to the exact condition that Adam and Eve had before the fall. When we are conformed to the image of Christ we are transformed to live out of God’s self life once again.

· To be fully conformed to the image of God we must love nothing else than God Himself and love only the things that God wills for us to love. Our lives must devoted to minister solely to God and desire with the strongest of love to become one with Him. We cannot desire ministry, have our interests and plans, and even ourselves above the intentions mentioned above. Any ministry that we do is the sole outcome of our ministry to Jesus and what the Lord speaks to us out of those times with Him.

· We must forget all things in this life that do not pertain to our union with the Lord Jesus and those things, which He wants to love through us. The smallest love that we entertain outside of loving God and wanting to die completely to self in order to become one with Him, will impede our complete transformation into His image. This is because any love that we harbor outside of God is rooted in our corrupt self-life. Our self-life has no other sentence placed upon it by the Lord than to die. Any other love that we hold on outside of loving God and working out what He loves, feeds our self-life and prevents it from dying, keeping us in bondage.

Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

· Union with God will never be attained by our knowledge of God. It is impossible to know God through our mental or spiritual understanding of the scriptures. Only through the simple love of God that I have described above can we become one with the Lord and know and understand Him as we participate in His very life and bear witness to it.

· If we place our ministry, church agendas, and our ministry to people before our ministry to the Lord and our simple love to be conformed into His image, we feed our carnal self-life and will remain bondage no matter how noble our intentions. Our apostleship and ministry is simply the fruit of our union with the Lord, not the other way around.

God Bless You,

Jose