Your heavenly Father knew you before the foundation of the world.

I love being in the High Sierras during the fall. I’ve only been there a few times, though. Yet, when I am, I get to see the Aspen trees put on quite a show – the bright yellows, deep oranges, and gorgeous reds are visually spectacular!

Right now, you can see the show just beginning with only a small clump of leaves turning yellow. All the leaves will eventually go through this process as the tree continues to shut down for the winter.

As God does this with the trees, He does it with His children. Our Father knows exactly what area of our lives needs to be put through the life-change process, as well as the when and in what order. He sees the big picture; we can’t.

Quite frankly, the older I get, the more I sometimes doubt His wisdom. I’ve just recently asked, “Why didn’t You change this area of my life years…no, decades ago?! It sure would have saved me a lot of heartache along the way if You had.”

His response? Silence. It’s His way of saying, “Be still and know that I am God. I know what exactly I’m doing and the why of the when.”

The beauty is that Jesus covered all my sin, all the areas of my life that offend my Father, on the cross. And because of this, I can be a peace no matter what stage of life-change I’m encountering. I’m okay because Jesus already made me okay.

Your Father knows best. So, be at peace as the Spirit continues to do His job in your life.

Jesus became what we are so that He can make us into Who He is.

This is a picture of a hotel in Bodie, CA. Bodie was once a booming gold town, until it played out. Afterward, the people abandoned the buildings to the elements.

The State of California eventually made it a State Historic Park in an arrested state of decay. The park decided which buildings would be preserved and which would be left to deteriorate.

In the hotel’s case, the building couldn’t handle the wind and snow and began to lean. Thus, it was propped up, though it remains unstable and unusable for visitors. When it came to the Methodist Church, however, a generous donation came in through a company that will reinforce it, making it stable and usable for visitors to walk inside and worship, if they so desire.

Micah 3 compares Israel’s leadership to the hotel. The leaders claimed they were leaning on the LORD (the supporting pole), when in fact they were not (Micah 3:11). They also claimed to hear from the Lord when all their decisions were actually based on what they wanted. Consequently, they became unusable by God and hurt the people they were meant to serve.

The Father of Truth doesn’t play that game. He changes us from the inside out by rooting out any lies – even those we may not know we are acting upon. Remember, we only know what we know when we know it. Thus, we may think we are leaning on God when we are not.

Let the Spirit of Truth go as deep as He deems best. He doesn’t rebuild your house. He builds Jesus’ house in you instead. He doesn’t provide a leaning pole, but puts in new materials to provide support under the heaviest of winds and snow that life can throw at you (1 Cor. 3:11-13).

Share with Him what you’re feeling and thinking. Then be open to the Spirit of Truth doing His job – change your life through changing from the inside out.

Praise God when you’re at the end of your rope. It makes room for Him to give you His.

Samson is one interesting character. As one reads his story, you find him making one bad decision after another. Each woman he encounters was not an Israeli, whom God commanded him not to marry, let alone have sex (Deut. 7:3-4; Ex. 20:14). Each woman he chose ended in trouble. You’d think he’d have learned.

We too make our share of bad choices in the process of becoming like Jesus. These choices can lead to head noise from the accuser, “You are not good enough. You are incapable of walking with God let alone being changed by Him. Just give up. He does.”

God’s Word, the truth that sets one free, tells us exactly the opposite. The Spirit wrote that Samson made it to the Faith Hall of Fame (Heb. 11:32). Life change is possible.

The Spirit also wrote “That is what some of you were.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 gives a laundry list of what some of them did or were, notice the past tense. Again, life change is definitely possible.

Why? Because “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

Be encouraged. This is how God sees you and me today while in the process of becoming more like Jesus. Life change is definitely possible.

See yourself as God does, but make sure praise is part of your shield of faith when the accuser slings out lies. Choose to believe and make choices based on the truths the Spirit gives you. And if you fall, choose to get up using those same truths.

My friends, your life can and will be changed!

Worship is hardened like steel in challenging times.

Noah built a boat, which he’d never done before. Abraham was told to leave the life he built behind in order to go to a place he’d never been. Sarah was told she’d have a child, though she was well past childbearing age. Abraham was asked to kill the child God promised Sarah.

Joseph was told his entire family would bow to him. Yet, his family sold him into slavery, which led to imprisonment for a crime he didn’t commit. Moses was asked to leave a life of position, luxury, and power to become the man who would confront the man who had the position, luxury and power to kill him.

Rahab betrays her people to hide her people’s enemies. While David faces a literal giant in his first foray into war to defeat his people’s enemies.

As we embrace life’s God-filtered challenges, the Spirit will change our lives. He will make our faith in Jesus grow stronger and our love for Him go deeper.

What is God asking of you, something super challenging? You’re in good company.

If you can’t change your mind, you’re closed to being changed.

I was reading Deuteronomy and Acts when the Spirit opened my mind to something I hadn’t “seen” before.

In Acts, Paul searched for, arrested and voted to put Jewish believers in Yeshua to death. Stephen being the first (Acts 8:1). Israel, like the US, had a constitution with 613 laws given by God. These Jewish believers broke one and were arrested.

Deuteronomy 13:1-12 gives us that law. It states that any prophet who appears in Israel and performs a “miraculous sign or wonder” (A) and then says, “Let us follow other gods” (B), must be killed, even if it’s a family member.

Jesus did miracles (A). Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (B). The Israeli judicial body took Him to mean that He was God, which was blasphemy. And as eye witnesses of both A and B, they picked up stones to kill Him. (Jn. 10:22-33)

Yes, Jesus did A, but not B. First, He was and is God. Second, He wasn’t trying to draw people away from but closer to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Both are what the Law and the Prophets teach.

Yet, Luke writes that Jesus had to open the apostles’ minds in order for them to understand what the Law and Prophets actually said (24:44-45). And this took place after He physically rose from dead and was standing before them!

Paul had such a mind opening experience. Jesus physically showed up to him as well. This caused Paul to question all that he was taught up to that point. He now saw in the same Scriptures – the Law and the Prophets – that Jesus could be and was indeed the Son of God. This new understanding literally changed his entire life’s trajectory.

We all know what we know when we know it. But like Paul and the apostles, are we ready for the Spirit of Truth to awaken us to the truths we need in order to be set free from past understandings that keep Jesus at a distance?

I have. Hopefully you are open to it as well.