Struggling with God and Being Transformed by God into Israel, a Prince of God

1 Pet. 2:4-5 Coming to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious, you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

God selected Jacob and chose him to be His expression as a prince of God, and Jacob went through a long process of transformation and maturity to become one who not only wrestles with God but also is a prince of God, expressing God and representing Him on earth.

It is amazing to see in the life of Jacob how a supplanter and a cheater was dealt with and broken to become a prince of God, someone honorable, mature, and lofty. All his life, Jacob struggled: he struggled with his brother even from his mother’s womb, he struggled to get the birthright and the blessing, he struggled with Laban to get Rachel and was cheated by Laban, etc.

Outwardly Jacob was struggling with people and situations, but inwardly he was actually struggling with God. As one who struggled with God, Jacob was dealt with and broken to be transformed and become Israel, the prince of God (Gen. 32:28).

God’s purpose in dealing with Jacob was to transform him into Israel, one who bears God’s image to express Him and exercises His dominion to represent Him (Gen. 1:26; 32:28).

In our Christian life, we also have many struggles – we struggle with people, situations, education, things, etc but actually we struggle with God. Our Christian life is a life of struggling with God to be transformed by God into a prince of God, a corporate man who expresses God in His image and represents Him with His authority (Rom. 12:2; 5:17).

God’s purpose in His selecting us, predestinating us, and calling us is to transform us (the pitiful sinners) into royal sons so that we may reign with Him as kings (Rev. 22:5). For this, we need to go through a long process of transformation to have the natural life replaced with the divine life of Christ by the continual dispensing of the life-giving Spirit into all our soul, so that we may be made in the same image as Christ from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).

God doesn’t want us to have a change in behaviour or outwardly correct our living but to metabolically transform us by the addition of the divine element to our being and the removal of our natural element so that Christ would be living in us!

The Christian Life is a Life of Struggling with God to be Transformed by God into a Prince of God

God created us in His image and according to His likeness so that we may express Him and represent Him (Gen. 1:26). But due to the fall of man, we were made sinful and lost God’s image and dominion. However, according to His life, God predestinated us and selected us from eternity past for His purpose, and He wants to make us “the prince of God”, those who express God and represent Him.

It is amazing to see how God chose and called one man, Jacob, who was supplanting and cheating others all the time, and this man passed through a lot of dealings and breaking so that he would be transformed into a prince of God.

Jacob had been chosen by God to be the expression of God and a prince of God, and he could become God’s expression and His prince only through transformation. He struggled with God, but eventually, he became a prince of God. “Israel” means primarily “one who struggles with God” and secondarily “the prince of God”.

In our Christian life, we struggle with God – and this is good! It is good to interact with God, respond to Him, struggle with Him, and let Him touch us. The Christian life is a life of struggling with God to be transformed by God into a prince of God. Sometimes we know that God wants something from us; we feel that the Lord wants us to do something or go somewhere, but we struggle with Him.

Transformation involves struggling. It is normal to struggle with the Lord since it is through these interactions and transactions with the Lord that He begins to touch us and transform us into a prince of God.

May the Lord save us from remaining the same; may He save us from being like Moab in Jer. 48:11, one who remained the same, living a tranquil life, not being poured from vessel to vessel but keeping his taste and flavour…

To be transformed involves our struggle with God, allowing Him to pour us out from vessel to vessel so that our scent and taste would be changed. God’s purpose in selecting, predestinating, and calling us is to transform pitiful sinners into royal sons so that, after the process of transformation has been completed, we may reign as kings. We are destined to reign with Christ forever and ever, and today He is gaining us more for His purpose as we struggle with Him in our daily Christian life.

Lord, gain us more for Your purpose as we struggle with You in our Christian life. Keep us open to You as we go on with You, and gain in us what You are after. Lord, save us from remaining the same. Save us from keeping our scent and our taste. Give us the experiences we need so that we may be transformed into Israel, the prince of God. Keep us struggling with You and giving in to You so that we may be transformed into a prince of God. Gain the Israel of God, the prince of God, the corporate one new man that expresses You and represents You.

The Purpose of God’s Calling is for Us to be Transformed into Kings Reigning for God

1 Pet. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired for a possession, so that you may tell out the virtues of Him…

What is the purpose of God’s calling? Did God call us and save us to merely live a good Christian life doing our best to please God according to His word, so that one day we may “go to heaven” to be with Him forever?

If we look at Abraham’s life, the purpose of God’s calling of Abraham was to justify him and to live a life in fellowship with God. If we look at Isaac’s life, the purpose of God’s calling of Isaac was for him to enjoy God. But if we look at Jacob’s life, we clearly see that the purpose of God’s calling of Jacob was to transform him into a prince of God, a king who rules for God (through Joseph).

The purpose of God’s calling is so that we may be transformed into kings who rule for God and express Him on earth. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired for a possession, so that we may tell out the virtues of Him who called us (1 Pet. 2:9).

For us to be kings reigning with Christ for God we need to go through the process of transformation. We need to be transformed from muddy fallen clay into living stones, even precious stones fit for God’s building.

Because of the fall, we became distorted clay. Through regeneration, Christ as the stone entered into us, and He is slowly spreading as the living stone in our being; as we come to Him, a living stone, we are being transformed into living stones for God’s spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:4-5).

Today in the church age the Spirit works on all God’s people to transform them from clay into living stones and precious stones. We are being produced and perfected to be kings to God through our subjective experience and enjoyment of Christ.

God’s house cannot be built with clay, and He doesn’t “restore” or “reform” us as clay but He transforms us into precious stones. To be transformed doesn’t mean that we are outwardly corrected or adjusted but that an inward metabolic process is going on through which God’s element is wrought into us and our natural element is discharged.

Through His dealing and breaking, there’s an opening created in our being so that God’s Spirit may come in to dispense Himself as the life-giving Spirit into our soul, replacing our natural life with Himself (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Eph. 3:17).

Our natural life is composed of our living according to the knowledge of good and evil, our culture, our philosophy, our ethics, and our religion. We love to be right and not do evil. We have a certain culture with a strong philosophy, and we seek to be ethical and moral. Even more, we may seek to use God to better ourselves, asking for His help to be better people – this is religion.

We need to be delivered from our natural life by being transformed, by having God wrought into us to replace the natural element. Transformation is the metabolic function of the divine life of God in us by which the divine element is added to our being and the natural element is eliminated so that we would express Christ’s image outwardly, thereby becoming kings and priests to God!

Lord, work Yourself into us a little more today. Add Your divine element to our being and discharge more of the natural element. We do not seek to have an outward correction or adjustment; we want more of Christ! Lord Jesus, increase in us and cause our natural life to decrease! Transform our inner being through our daily subjective enjoyment and experience of Christ. Transform us into the same image as Christ from glory to glory even as from the Lord Spirit!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (pp. 650, 867), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 3 / msg 3, Transformation for God’s Building.
• Recommended further reading: see chs. 7-8 in, The Completing Ministry of Paul (by Witness Lee).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # But we all with unveiled face, / Beholding and reflecting like a mirror / The glory of the Lord, are being transformed / Into the same image / From glory to glory, / Even as from the Lord Spirit. / From glory to glory, / Even as from the Lord Spirit. (Scripture song on 2 Cor. 3:18)
  # Less we would argue, Lord, and go our way; / More we would say “Amen” to what You say. / Grant us a walk to You conformed, / ’Til our living is transformed. (Song on Being Transformed)
  # In spirit while gazing on Thee, / As a glass reflecting Thy glory, / Like to Thyself transformed I’ll be, / That Thou might be expressed thru me. (Hymns #501)