Romans chapter 12 in verse 2 says: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. This verse is so beautiful that it deserves to be read again, come on; Romans 12:2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
What is this text saying? He says something simple! There is a form of the world.
Let's put this world as being several systems that imprison us. They imprison us in behavior, in attitudes, in thoughts, in ideas and in earthly things. Things that are of the world, natural to the world, belonging to the world.
There is this system called the world, which has a mold. We are inside that mold, spinning according to what the world wants. We are running with the system.
Without being aware that what we decided to do or think it's part of the system itself feeding his head. We're spinning with the system, So what does the text say? It says like this: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Then he says: there is a renewal of understanding, a maturing, an awareness, which will transform me to the point where I feel the system working.
And I get out of this system. I get out of the system mold. I will gain a new set of values, a new set of ideas, a new set of insights, a new set of identity, a new vision, that will make me understand the system, and will make me leave that system to live a new experience.
I will understand who I will, I will understand who God is, and I will understand my context, what is around me. All this gives me a new awareness. I understand who I am, and I understand who God is in my life and what He wants from me, and what He wants to do in me.
And I understand the context I'm in. Then comes the text: that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Some people think this is a passive miracle, a passive miracle.
What is a passive miracle? It's the one you wait for and it happens without you doing anything. So if you don't conform to this world, if I withdraw from this system, then I will experience many blessings because God will send them from heaven.
I will be full of blessing. The idea is not a passive miracle, a passive blessing, from a passive environment, where you do nothing and the blessing comes to you. We have to understand that to experience this blessing.
. . if I'm coming out of a corrupted system, I have to build a non-corrupted system.
Within this system I experience a corrupted will to the world. . .
for me to experience another will, I need another system that makes me live in another condition. And this condition does not always exist. I have to build this other system.
There is a way of being family within the system. I have to build a way of being a family on other values. And when I build this new system, on top of these other values, I will experience the good, perfect and pleasing will of God.
But just going out doesn't make me try it. I have to build a new life on top of this new set of values that I acquired by renewing my mind. The mind.
. . she moves my hand.
. . Through the new consciousness I move my hands, to manifest this new system and this new reality.
Did you understand? The renewing of the mind takes me out of this value system and. .
. begins a process of building a new value system so that I can live a pleasant and perfect will, different from the one I was living in the world Some people think that this transformation of the mind, that we will call Metanoia, this new way of living and thinking. .
. When I convert, when I know Jesus, When I read the Bible I have a transformation of mind, the Holy Spirit renews my understanding, I begin to discern things spiritually . .
. Some people think this is a magic spell. You got the earthly mind now, worldly mind, who always thought within that system, so I cast a spell, and suddenly you already have a new vision and everything has changed, I'm a perfect person, I don't take any wrong attitude anymore, I perceive everything that is in this system, I perceive everything that.
. . the Matrix schedules; (whoever took the reference, took it!
). And now I am the chosen one! The person thinks they have received this spell and everything has changed!
I do not understand so. I don't think that Metanoia is actually accomplished; I think that: just as leaving the world to build a new reality is a process, it is also a process that my mind renews itself from the making of these decisions. A while ago I had a less enlightened mind, But the years have passed in this renewal process and today I find myself more mature, more integrated.
More developed than in the past. Better than I was before. And this is a process, not a magic spell.
But that happens from the moment I go through new experiences, acquiring new references. We have to go in search of that knowledge. Again, stop thinking about this process passively.
I stay at home and God fills me with wisdom? Of course! Wisdom, care, maturity are something I have to seek and develop.
To build a house it is necessary to place the bricks, Putting cement, spending money. So too, building a mind takes work, energy, development, money, book, and all the rest. And it also requires knowing a little of the world, get to know a little of the realities, get to know new references.
If you only know one way to live church, you will never realize that there is something wrong with your church. If you expand your universe, you start to realize that it wasn't as good as you imagined. I know people who spend time visiting certain churches.
They are enchanted by some model, by some discourse. Begin to participate in the church. They are delighted, they think they have discovered a new reality.
And that they will finally live the true gospel. They believe they are in a right community. And I'm looking from afar, And I already know how that church works, I know what the speech is, what is the way they work, i know the shortcomings and problems.
. . but people are delighted, thinking that everything will be cool.
It's going to be a show! Then 1, 2, 3 years pass, and this person comes to talk to me; She said she left that place and he's a little sad, a little downcast, Day that there was not all that she thought. It says people have changed.
That politics took over the place, began to hear speeches that he did not have in the beginning, began to emphasize things that have nothing to do with the gospel, they felt used by other interests and similar things. It got to the point where she felt like she was pushed out of place, felt pushed out: I can't stay there anymore! They changed so much and hurt me.
I had to go! At that time, one of the things I talk to people the most, that when they are ready to listen, because not everyone is ready to listen, sometimes you need people to be willing to hear a truth. It's not that we're going to talk to confront, it's because if she's not ready, she doesn't understand.
You can talk and the person doesn't understand. And in the end she thinks you're crazy. You have to feel if she is willing to hear that word.
And what I'm going to show her is that the speech of that church hasn't changed! The speech was like that from the beginning. The practices of that group in the past were already the same as your description.
This kind of circus structure, this circus stage, was known for a long time. This interest behind the speeches, political, personal, professional interests, fame, power, and all those things we always talk about, all this was there from the beginning. They already signaled it.
The fact, that church hasn't changed, she was the same way when you came in. So what changed? What's the difference?
What changed was you! You over these three years, four years, experienced many false promises, false expectations, had many frustrated dreams, met more people, learned more from the Bible and learned more from his own feelings. .
. He began to realize that not everything they said was what they did. You learned more about manipulative speeches, now you notice when a person changes their tone of voice to be able to do something that wasn't right.
Now you see the pressures, the constraints, the threats. Realized the interests. .
. Realized all this over time because it gained maturity, gained more experiences. At some point you feel trapped inside a trap, or trapped inside a current that is dragging you without you being able to do anything.
The person was led by a discourse, by a system, everything they asked you to do, you did. She supported this monster that subjugated her, giving her money, resource, sweat, donation, promoting, defending. At one point it all felt dirty.
You felt dirty. It didn't make sense anymore. Why?
Has the church changed? No! it has always been like that.
You who matured, who lived new experiences, who became aware, who renewed your mind. In this story there are two poles, I wanted to work with you these two poles. The first pole we noticed was: it is possible to live for a long time within a system, within an organization, within an ideological framework, within a cycle that imprisons me, without realizing that I am being imprisoned, being aware that I am living a manipulation, unaware that I am being used to power this system.
I can be inside smiling, excited, advocating vehemently, being an activist, and thinking I've discovered the truth, truth that no one has discovered before, I discovered the truth! A person can stay within these systems for a long time without realizing what the system is. Now let's look at the other pole, the other side of the story.
In the first pole, we say that the person is trapped in a system, without realizing that he is trapped. It's being stuck in a place without realizing you're stuck. For one, two, three years.
But there is the other side of this story that I told, the one that says: he became aware of his condition. Acquiring more experiences, maturing, gaining wisdom, frustrated with false expectations. This other side, which we will call maturation, we understand that it is a process of liberation.
While I'm ignorant of my circumstance, I am hostage and subjugated to the system. when I start to be aware and my mind starts to perceive everything that is happening, so this is the beginning of the system release process. Because I can only free myself from this system that I am ignorant of once I realize how it works.
When I understand his methods, how he attacks me, how he influences and moves me. It is a process of becoming aware. The other day I was watching, with my daughter, a movie called: Ghostbusters.
From 1980. . .
An old Steven Spielberg movie. I really liked him. The ghost hunters!
The one with a ghost like a green jelly. I went to show my movie. She is of the new generation, she is 16 years old.
She's seen all the effects of movies like Avengers, modern effects, seen the high-end movies. At the time I watched Ghostbusters, for me the special effects were good. For me as a child, and there were no better effects in cinema.
So they were chasing the ghosts. And there was the jelly ghost. And there was a part that appeared the demoniac dogs of the villain of the film.
But it was such a poorly done effect. . .
At the time I watched it, when I was a kid, it felt more real, it even scared me. It had scary music. We were looking forward to seeing the monster.
But people watching it nowadays, see that the dog was made of modeling clay, and what we do is find it funny. Why? Why at that time I only had that for reference, so I thought that was the best thing in the world, today, as I have seen much better things and especially my daughter, she couldn't help but laugh when she saw the botched computation.
. . Because today she has seen much better things, has more references, access to information, then she realized that this was something bad.
So my friend, it's a process of Metanoia, it's a growth that over time gives you more reference, more experience, more understanding, more knowledge of God, more knowledge of your will, and you will begin to see that what you thought was right and wonderful, that's not what those things are! Hi guys, this is Felipe Seabra, you just watched a cut of that main word that is there in the center of your screen. If you want to hear the whole word, click here.
Until later!