My family is like many of yours. We have our family routine that is meticulously followed especially when school is in session. With the alarm going off in the dark, I make my way to the coffee pot for my first cup of coffee before taking Judah to school. The rest of the day often filled with unscripted and unscheduled interruptions while endeavoring to continue spending time with the Lord and running the business side of the ministry. However, there does come that time in the day when we finish in the office and Judah completes his homework, and we sit down together at night and watch some TV together. We usually watch at least one episode from our Video Collection of Dr. Quinn, or I Love Lucy or Monk. There are not that many television programs that I would constitute as family friendly. It is especially difficult to find anything on TV that is not filled with sexual content or depictions of the supernatural…and not of the God kind. In spite of all the negative, we have found one show that does inspire us, “Extreme Makeover Weight-loss Edition”.
Yes, every Tuesday night we watch Chris and Heidi Powell tell the story of one particular person’s journey to physical transformation.
People will write in to Chris, as well as submit videos telling why they should be taken on as Chris’ new project. The candidates who are chosen typically need to lose 50% of their current weight. Once selected, the candidate will spend one year in a program created by Chris and Heidi with goals established and reviewed every 90 days which is marked by their weigh-in. There is no gastric bypass surgery or weight-loss pills that accompany this program. It is sheer diet and exercise; pure hard work as Michele says! #Choose2Change
The client is then brought to The Wellness Center in Colorado where they undergo a lot of tests to determine if they are healthy enough to undergo the program he has created for them specifically. They study and analyze the health of their heart through stress tests and imaging. They check their blood work and eating habits and sleeping patterns. Once they complete this barrage of evaluations, they then give Chris the green light to move forward with his program.
The first thing that the candidate is exposed to is the “Fight or Flight Workout”. It is during this workout that Chris will push the candidate to their breaking point. It is the process where he begins to strip away all of the excuses, challenge their thought process and breaks the individual down physically to the point that he is able to discover the underlying reason(s) that have caused the candidate to make the wrong health choices that have resulted in their obesity. Once they hit this emotional wall in their workout, they confess things that have victimized them in the past that have been traumatic enough to have altered their lifestyle and decrease their joy of living. Some have been abused, some have lost loved ones, and the list of “Why’s” go on and on.
Chris intentionally takes the candidate to this specific point every time! Why? So that he can expose and deal with the root. It creates a mental breakthrough for the candidate, and it is at this breaking point that the journey of their transformation begins.
Some do not make it to this point of the process. Rather than fighting, they choose to take flight and walk away. They have all the resources at their disposal, and opportunity to a new life that is holding the door open for them, yet they choose to take flight rather than accept the challenge to fight through their past and enter into a new healthier life.
This week as I watched, I heard the Lord begin to speak to my spirit that this is a TV program that gives visualization to the process that God has laid out for us.
All of us are a sum total of the events that have taken place in our lives. We all have experienced bad things, traumatic things. Some may have battled them all their lives, and some may simply have them in the shadows of their memory. The fact remains that we all have come through something during our lifetime.
It is in our times of worship that God wants to bring us close to Him- in His Presence where there is fullness of joy- so that we can fight past our past and walk as a transformed creation. Jesus came that we not only have life, but that we have life more abundantly. We are not able to live this life if we are encumbered with regret, with un-confessed sin, or cheating on the plan He has created for us. As Michele often states, it is all about our choices, and God wants us to #Choose2Change!
God desires us to experience the joy of a TRANSFORMED LIFE! Transformation the end result and as Chris so wonderfully portrays, the first place that transformation begins is in our minds. This is the first part of the process.
Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The amplified says, “Let Him be your example in humility.”
II Corinthians 10:5 says, “Casting down imaginations and every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
For years I have quoted this scripture and really didn’t know what it really meant…although I knew it. The other day I was meditating upon this verse and realized that every time that I have a thought that I obsess upon, I am allowing my thought process to override and prevent me from allowing God to speak to me prevents me from hearing what He says about a particular thing. Rather, I allow my mind to begin generating scenarios which often are a breeding ground for fear rather than faith. Those are the thoughts that I must cast down, bring captive and basically throw in jail, so that my focus is no longer on the potentially negative scenario and set my gaze and focus once again upon the one I worship in spirit and in truth. I must be proactive in this process. If not, I will let my mind run lose and create scenarios that will not only exhaust me mentally and emotionally, but will steal my joy. Rather than walking in faith and confidence in God, I could easily slip into fear- especially listening to the liberal news media. This is not God’s plan for your life nor mine.
Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee; because he trusts in Thee.” Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?
The key is to see ourselves as God sees us, not as we see ourselves. That is why worship is such a valuable key. When we enter into the true manifest presence of God, we see ourselves as He sees us. That means we can no longer hide the secret un-confessed sin that we continue to live as part of our lifestyle. We can no longer compare ourselves, using someone else, as the measuring stick. (i.e.- I pray 20 minutes more than Sister Sanctified, or I got to church more than Brother So-and-So, etc.) When we come into the secret places of God, it is only us and God. No one else to compare ourselves to, or to blame or to use as a crutch for why we are not all that God has called and purposed us to be.
WORSHIP SHOULD TRANSFORM US
In today’s society, we are spending more time about being culturally relevant and politically correct, and yet we are seeing the smallest amount of transformed lives than ever.
When the guests of this TV show complete their transformation, they are sold out on transformation that they become Health Evangelists. They share the message of their experience and endeavor to get everyone else they know to take that journey of transformation as well. They want to pay it forward to help others experience this breakthrough.
TRANSFORMATION IS NOT TRANSFORMATION
WITHOUT A TRANSFORMATION
We can say we submit to a process, but if we cheat and modify and deviate from the transformation process, transformation will never be experienced and none of the goals will ever be met. For the process to work, you must simply submit to the process and then watch it work.
This is how it is with God. There are a lot of so-called conversions, yet very few converted lifestyles. Transformation causes conversation one way or the other.
CHANGE MUST BE OBVIOUS IF A
CHANGE HAS REALLY TAKEN PLACE
Change will result in changed thoughts, changed actions and a changed lifestyle. When change occurs, it manifests in all areas.
II Corinthians 5:17 says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a New Creation (Transformed being). Old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
When someone comes to Christ, there should be a difference in the way the act, the way they talk, the lifestyle they engage in. If not, then we have simply had an emotional encounter.
AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE KING WILL RESULT
IN A TRANSFORMED LIFE
Today, I am asking you (as well as myself) to pinpoint areas of transformation that He desires for our lives. Whether that be regarding our health choices, our thought process, or whatever He may speak to our hearts.
I want us to press past the “Wall” that you and I encounter and allow Christ, the Transformer, to work the process of transformation in our spirit, soul and body.
I am asking God for a breakthrough in purpose and destiny in your life and mine, asking His blessing and protection and favor upon all that we do as we continue to submit and surrender our life to Him, allowing Him to transform our minds!
From the Desk of Keith Duncan 