Taffi Dollar - The Grace to Change - Part 2
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Now, in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, verse 17 says, «Now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is,» what? Bondage, confusion, chaos, animosity, strife, greed, covetousness, lying, cheating. He says now the Lord is that Spirit. He’s talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will confirm what the Lord is the lordship over our life and it won’t contradict one with the other. They are God the Father, three in one, the triune of God. The Lord will confirm his Word through the Holy Spirit.
«Now the Lord is that Spirit,» he is that spirit, «And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is (emancipation from bondage)». The Amplified says. Maybe there’s some bondages in your life that you just like Lord, when am I gonna be free from this? He says, «Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is (emancipation from bondage)». That’s what Jesus came to do, not to free us from captivity so that we can get back in captivity again. What kind of sense does that make? That’s why I wrestle with folks who don’t understand the importance of us all walking in the equality that Jesus came for us to experience. Not so that we would live in equality and go back to equality again after Jesus came, but that we can all be one in Christ Jesus.
So there’s this emancipation that comes as a result of the Spirit of the Lord and there is freedom. And in verse 18, «All of us, as with unveiled face,» he says, all of us. Not just some to experience liberty, not some to experience freedom. He says, «And all of us, as with an unveiled face». Because before Jesus came, there was a separation because of the veil. The veil kept some out and kept some in. And now the veil, the scripture says was torn from top to bottom, the veil was torn in two. He says, with an unveiled face, we can behold the glory of God. We can see God face to face.
Now we can go direct to God. We can have direct access to him. We have equal ground that we can stand on, that we can go boldly, we can pursue God, we can rush God, we can go towards his presence, we can receive his grace, we can see his mercy. So he says, with an unveiled face. We don’t have to go through the priest and we don’t have to go through Moses and do all these other things, but I’m telling you with an unveiled face, we are the apple of his eye and he beholds us face to face. So he says, with an unveiled face «[Because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord».
And so the Word of God is a mirror. And how many of you know you gotta look in the mirror on a continuous basis, amen. Likes, amen. Wallpaper, amen. Carpet. He says, you must continue to behold in the Word of God as in a mirror, continue, continue. Some of us would not be very presentable if we didn’t look in the mirror on a continuous basis. I’m just gonna leave it there. I’m gonna be nice tonight. Not going. I, if I didn’t look in the mirror, no telling what I would look like. And just as if I don’t look into the Word of God, no telling what type of reflection. I’d be reflecting all kind of stuff, reflecting the flesh and going off and unfruitful and in the flesh. But he says, continue as in the mirror, the glory of the Lord, continue to behold, to behold that, to keep it before you. To keep it before your eyes, your ears, your heart and that you don’t put it down.
Well, you know, I’ve been walking with the Lord for 45 years and I have come a mighty long way. Well, you know what? We got a mighty long way to go. And obviously, if he still has us here, he has a purpose in mind for us to do something. So continue to behold, continue to behold as a mirror, looking into it, seeing what you look like, judging yourself based on what the Word of God says. See what reflection. Are you reflecting Jesus’s image in the earth? How he wants us to carry ourselves. How he wants us to walk in grace. How he wants us to be people of love and people of patience and the fruit of the Spirit. So he says, «We continue to behold the glory, the Word of God as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are constantly,» constantly, as long as you behold as a mirror, you will constantly be changed.
Now, once you put the Word of God, you have no right, no audacity to expect for God to change you. Because once we begin to rely on our own efforts or think that the Word of God doesn’t work, we cancel, we nullify the power of God to be able to provide the transformation in our life. So he says, «Constantly being transfigured into the very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] as the scripture says from the Lord who is the Spirit». And so there’s this open face. Someone say, «I can change». You can change as you continue and constantly allow the Word of God to be held in your life. So change takes place in the life of a believer by grace through faith.
Someone say, «By grace through faith». But how many of you know you can’t change if you’re always trying to compare yourself with somebody else? You don’t think you’re good enough and you’re trying to be like them because, you know, it seem like they got it going on and so you think that you wanna be like them because that’s what the world says you’re supposed to look like and what you’re supposed to be as a Christian. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12. You can’t behold what God wants to do in your life if you’re continuously looking at other people instead of looking at the Word of God because we fail to understand what it is that God wants to do in our life. And we’re belittling what God has assigned for us because we think that what they’re doing is what we’re supposed to be doing.
So he says here in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12, he says, «For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves; but they measuring themselves by themselves». There’s a lot of themselves. «And comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise». How many of you know you gotta get outside of themselves, amen. And know what it is that God is calling you to do. Your individual assignment for your life, how he’s wanting to work his Word through your life, how he wants to manifest himself through you.
The Amplified says, «Not that we [have the audacity],» we have the audacity and that’s what the world system does. It makes us think that that’s perfection, that’s success, that’s accomplishments. And he says, «Not that we [have the audacity to] venture to class or [even to] compare ourselves with some who exalt and furnish testimonials for themselves»! He says, «However, when they measure themselves with themselves and compare themselves with one another,» I can’t compare myself with anybody here because I’m different.
So for me to compare myself and my assignment with what you’re doing is to discredit what God wants to do in both of our lives. And so when we can understand that we all have a unique calling, we have a unique assignment, there’s a grace over our life, there’s an ability that God wants us to do and then we can celebrate each other’s uniqueness and each other’s differences. And we don’t have to compete, we don’t have to strive. You know, equality is not about women competing with men. Nobody’s trying to compete with men. We’re not trying to, you know, take authority and usurp all this kind of stuff, but we’re understanding that in Christ we are one, amen. And so he says, don’t compare yourself amongst yourself and with yourselves. He says they are as a result «Without understanding and behave unwisely».
So remember, we’re not to compare ourselves with one another or compete with one another. We are all made in the image and in the likeness of God to reflect his glory to the world. We all are made, Black, White, Jew, Greek, bond, free, whatever class, middle, high, low, we are all made in the likeness, in the image of God and we don’t have to compare ourselves. God loves us all the same. He affirms us all the same. We’re the beloved, we’re the cherished of him and he believes in us. And so he says, when we compare him, we get into a place of competition and we are without understanding and we don’t begin to see the fullness of the body.
And that’s what in essence has happened when we stifle off or we limit the potential maybe of the gender of women or we limit the potential of the African American man or whatever the case may be, we limit that potential from becoming at its fullest in society and society will never get to the highest point because we’re at a place of disadvantage. And so he says, we are without understanding and as a result, we behave unwisely. But we are all reflectors, the true image of God and we are to reflect his glory, going from one glory to another level of glory.
Look at Colossians 3 verse 10. Colossians 3 verse 10. Everybody’s path is different. Of course, the destination may be the same, but what God wants to do through you may be different from what he wants to do through me. That’s why we can’t copy other people’s lives and duplicate what they’re doing. We have to know what God is speaking to us by spending time with him and allowing his spirit to lead us and direct us on a day to day basis. Now, verse 7 says, «In the which ye also walk some time, when ye lived in them, but now,» he’s talking about when we were outside of the things of God. He says, «Among you whom you also walked, when you were living in and you were addicted to [such practices]». Those practices were described here in verse 5, when we were addicted to «Fornication and uncleanness, inordinate affections, evil concupiscence, covetousness, idolatry». And then he says, «In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in and were addicted to [such practices]».
Now look at what he says in verse 8. «But now,» someone say, «But now». How many of you know the direction and the context is about to change? So he says, you live that way and you walk that way for some time. He says, «But now ye also put off all these». He says, you also you put them off. So sanctification, holiness is a two part process. It is a putting off and it also is a putting on just like redemption is the putting off and the putting on. So he says, «But now ye also put off all these». You put off «Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth». The Amplified says, «Rid yourselves [completely] of these things: rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips»!
How many of you know when we began to see each other in the image that God has made one another and how many of you know our language will begin to change? But until we can see ourselves like God sees us, it’ll always be where we see other people inappropriately and incorrectly as well. The reason why the children of Israel, when they were supposed to go into the land that flowed with milk and honey, they couldn’t see what God was trying to do in their life because they saw themselves as grasshoppers and saw themselves as little in their own eyes. And so until we understand who we are that it’ll change our minds and it’ll change the way that we began to treat and value and respect one another.
So it says here he says, «And put on the new man» in verse 9, it says, «Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices». He says in verse 10, «And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process]». Someone say, «I’m in the process». So he says, «Ever in the process».
I know how we think highly and oh, I have arrived, but no, God says, you are in the process. We are in the process. Part of us has been changed permanently. Our spirit when we receive Jesus as our Lord and as our personal savior, a third of us when we become saved is perfect. But how many of you know that mind has to be renewed, it has to become perfected, and the body has to be made perfect and it will once we go to heaven. But we’re in the ever process now. «[Ever in the process of being] renewed and remodeled into [fuller and more perfect knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him who created it».
So in essence, we’re going back and Jesus came to restore us back to how Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden when they stood before God without any guilt and without any shame, knowing who they were as the righteousness of God, knowing they were the beloved, knowing they were the affirm, the welcome, the pleasing of God. And so he says, I’m in the process of getting you back to that place of confidence of my love for you and the love that you can have to other people and you’ll begin to treat them just like I treat you. But how many of you you know that’s a process? It takes time.
A lot of times that there’s hurt and abuse and all kinds of negative emotions and negative experiences from the past. Thank God for the Holy Spirit that he can get us to a place where we can be healed and we can be whole 'cause ultimately, he wants us to have the confidence of who we are being the image being made in his likeness and after him who created him. And so he says, this is what we are when we put on the new man after we have taken off the old anger and wrath and malice and blasphemy and allow the Word of God to get down into your spirit.
The Word of God can heal you from all of that stuff. It can change you where you’re no longer hurt person that’s going around hurting people. But how many of you know Jesus can heal you wherever you hurt? If we can own it. Lord, I am hurt, I am hurting, heal me so that I can be what you want me to be and I can express your love and I can be a demonstration of your love and your healing power. So he says, put off all that old stuff that wrath and malice and contention and competition and jealousy and envy and strife and put on the new man that’s created after me and after godliness and holiness so that people can see the transformation in our lives, amen.