Gluten Free & God Seeking: What Causes the Spiritual Transformation in 2 Corinthians 3:18?

Sunday, April 21, 2013

What Causes the Spiritual Transformation in 2 Corinthians 3:18?

God seems to put us into circumstances we can’t get out of. And it’s often in these very circumstances that we’re pressed more to behold God’s face. This week I found myself in another 2 Corinthians 4:8 experience of being pressed on every side. Anyway I’ve liked 2 Corinthians 3:18 for a long time, and the chapters I was reading this week in the Life-Study of 2 Corinthians were on it.

What I like the most in this verse is the process that’s implied here—“from glory to glory.” Witness Lee shares here that every day the Lord is calling us to spend face time with Him so that the glory can increase in us. My 4-year-old granddaughter likes to tell others that she wants to spend some alone time with them. I’ve really been seeing more this past year that God needs our cooperation, and that means we need to spend our own alone time with God.

And for this to occur we need to need to turn our heart, we need to open our mouths to pray, and when we get past all the barriers (Paul calls them veils), we find ourselves in the process that 2 Corinthians 3:18 talks about. And God knows that. I enjoyed reading the summary that Witness Lee gives on this verse on pages 213-214 at the end of chapter 24:

Now that we have the Spirit indwelling our spirit, we need to exercise more and more by praying, reading the word, and calling on the name of the Lord. The more we exercise our spirit with an unveiled face, the more we shall behold the Lord. As we are gazing on Him, we shall also reflect Him. While we are beholding and reflecting Him in this way, His element, His essence will be added into our being. This new element will replace and discharge the element of our old, natural life. Then we shall experience transformation, a metabolic change. We shall be transformed into the Lord’s image (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of 2 Corinthians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1982, Print).

Did you ever wonder what’s the Spirit’s ultimate goal in transforming us? In chapter 21 Witness Lee connects 2 Corinthians 3:18 to Revelation 22:17 where you have not only the Spirit mentioned but also the bride: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.” He also said that every day we need to stay in this process of transformation UNTIL we become this bride.

Here's a beautiful song that describes what happens when we look at the Lord. It's written by a Howard Higashi, a believer whose songs evidence how much he loved the Lord. It's called Just One Touch.

Blog Update 5/6/14: Here's another song that goes along with this verse, it's called Whatever May Happen. It's about what happens when we look at the Lord. This song is from the CD The Comfort Abounds, and you can purchase this beautiful collection of songs by going to www.nycypcd.org