How are we going to be transformed? We will be transformed by the Spirit of God when we renew our minds. And our minds are renewed by the Word of God.
We can’t transform ourselves. God is the only One Who can transform us. In fact, we can’t even really change ourselves in a lasting way that will cause us to be transformed into His likeness. If that is true, then how can we change? What can we do to be transformed into His likeness?
This is an area where so many believers have felt frustration and failure. How many times have I heard Christians say, with sincere tears, “I’ve tried so hard to change but I just can’t seem to do it. I go along pretty good for a while, doing what I should, but something inside isn’t any different. And eventually I end up no better off than I was before. Where am I missing it?”
You don’t change yourself by human power. You just commit to the Word, come into agreement with that Word, act on the Word and the Spirit of God will change you. When you commit yourself to hear and to obey the Word of God, the power of God through His Word will change you. Your desires will change; you will begin to desire what God wills. The glory of God revealed in you through His Word will absolutely transform you.
Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 3:18 again. I particularly like the wording in The Amplified Bible:
And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.
When you stop struggling to transform yourself by your own fleshly efforts and just commit yourself to God’s Word, through the process of time you’ll look up one day down the road and discover that you’re different. You’ll discover that your way of thinking has changed and worldly habits of the flesh have fallen away. Mortifying the flesh won’t be the struggle it once seemed when you yield to the transforming power of His Word. The Apostle Paul said:
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).