Our Need for Transformation and Maturity to have the Fullness of the Life of God

Our need today is for transformation and maturity in the life of God, being not only transformed by God’s life that regenerated us but also filled with this life.

In order for us to be mature so that we may be ready for the Lord to rapture us at His return, we need to be transformed by the divine life and have the fullness of life, thus being conformed to the image of Christ and having Christ formed in us.

When we speak of preparing ourselves for the Lord’s return we don’t refer to the outward things that we need to do but the inward experiences we need to have, or pray that we have, so that we may be ready for His return.

Our main need today is to grow in life unto maturity.

When the Lord returns, He will rapture His bride, who is composed of the matured overcomers, those who have grown in life unto maturity and are rapture-reading.

We don’t know when we’re rapture-ready, but we can cooperate with the Lord today to grow in life, day by day, and arrive at maturity together so that we may arrive at the stature of the fullness of Christ.

The Lord delayed His coming so far because there’s a lack of maturity among His people.

He wants to return, and He even said He is coming quickly, but He is not here yet because so many of us, the believers in Christ, are still immature.

So the Lord is working constantly both in us and around us to help us grow in life.

We need to cooperate with His inner work by remaining under the divine dispensing day by day, and we need to say Amen to His work in our environment, not trying to escape His sovereign arrangement.

On the one hand, the Lord is dispensing all that He is into us, and when we come to Him to contact Him and fellowship with Him, there is a flow of life in our being.

On the other hand, in order for this flow to spread into all the parts of our being and reach every inward part, there is the need for some suffering, limitations, and restrictions.

So the Lord also works in our environment to arrange all things to work out for good for us, that is, to work out for our transformation.

We may not like the environment we have and we may prefer that some people or situations would be removed; we may even like other people’s situations and environment better, but the Lord knows best.

If we are serious about awaiting the Lord’s return, we need to grow in life unto maturity.

We are serious about meeting the Lord at His second coming to be raptured by Him, so we day by day want to cooperate with this One within us who grows in us, expands in our being, and spreads into every part of our being.

Amen, may even today be a day of more cooperation with the Lord so that He may grow in us and bring us onward to maturity, and also that our natural man, our self, our flesh, and our outer man would be broken and discharged. May the Lord have a way in us.

Transformation is a Metabolic Change in Life; Maturity is having the Fullness of the Life of God

When we were born again, a new life came in; the divine life came into our spirit to regenerate us, thus making us sons of God.

Now we have the authority to be called children of God, those who are born not of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God (John 1:12-13).

When God as life came into us, we became children of God; now this life works in us and grows in us to make us mature in the life of God.

Only when we are mature in the life of God are we ready to meet the Lord at His second coming and be raptured by Him at His return.

Christ was born in us when we believed into Him (John 3:6, 15-16), He lives in us in our Christian life today (Gal. 2:20), and He will be formed in us at our maturity (4:19).

Today we are in the process of transformation, which refers to a metabolic change in life.

The life of God we have received into our spirit is spreading and working in us to transform our natural life and fill it with the divine life.

God will not discard man, man’s humanity; He wants to fill man with His life and transform man’s nature with His nature so that man would become the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to be His corporate expression.

We are now in the stage of transformation; we are in the process of being metabolically changed in life by having the divine life flow in us, grow in us, and change us from within. Only through transformation can we reach maturity.

Our natural life is not good for God’s economy; it does not need to be thrown away or discarded but needs to be metabolically changed.

Our human life is necessary for God’s economy, but it should not remain a natural human life; it should be transformed by the divine life.

We need to be transformed in nature so that the divine life may be mingled with the transformed human life to become one.

This is what we experience day by day as we open to the Lord, come to Him in His word, and behold Him; as we behold the Lord, we will also reflect Him, and we’re being transformed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18).

We may not see this today, but there’s a process going on in our being as we keep calling on the name of the Lord, fellowshipping with Him, and praying over His word: His life grows in us, His life transforms us, and we are being conformed to the image of Christ little by little.

Rom. 12:2 also speaks of transformation by the renewing of the mind; the more we remain in the word of God, the more our mind is transformed by having the element of God added to it to be renewed.

How much we need to have this metabolic change going on in our being today!

How much we need to have this inward change in life!

The culmination and final point of our transformation is to be filled with the divine life that changes us.

Transformation is a metabolic change in life; maturity is being filled with the divine life that changes us.

God doesn’t transform us only so that we may be transformed; He is transforming us so that His life would fill us to the brim and we would be brought on to maturity.

May we open to the Lord so that we may be transformed in His image, and may we open to His inner filling with His divine life so that we may be brought on to maturity!

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for coming into us to regenerate us with Your life so that we may be children of God! Hallelujah, we are now sons of God who have God’s life and nature. May this life grow in us and change us metabolically so that we may be conformed to the image of Christ. Amen, Lord, keep us in the process of being transformed in the image of Christ by having our natural life changed by the divine life that transforms us! May we have Christ not only in our spirit but also in our soul, filling our mind, emotion, and will, until we are fully transformed and conformed to the image of Christ! Lord, transform us in Your image in emotion, mind, and will! Saturate us with Your spirit until You fill all our being and bring us on to maturity! We want to be not only transformed by being inwardly changed but even more, we want to be filled with the divine life that changes us so that we may arrive to maturity!

God’s Eternal Purpose can be Accomplished through our Transformation and Maturity

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that everyone who believes into Him would not perish but would have eternal life (John 3:16).

As soon as someone believes into the Lord, he receives the life of God and becomes a son of God.

The life God gives us is His Son Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the life of God coming into us to regenerate us.

Now day by day, after our regeneration, we can contact the Lord and grow in life so that Christ may live in us.

Christ not only enters into us as life but also wants to live in us and be expressed in our daily living (Gal. 2:20).

Even more, Christ needs to be formed in us, that is, to take shape in us and make us in the same image as Himself (Gal. 4:19).

The last stage of our transformation is maturity, the fullness of life.

Through transformation, our natural life is being changed by the divine life that spreads and works in us.

The ultimate issue of our transformation is maturity, which means that we’re filled with the life that changes us.

God’s eternal purpose can be accomplished only through our transformation and maturity (Gen. 1:26; Col. 1:28; 2:19; 4:12).

This is the way that we can cooperate with God for the fulfilment of His purpose, and this is the way that we prepare ourselves for the Lord’s return.

We need to be in the process of transformation and maturity so that we may be mature in life to be ready for the Lord to rapture us at His coming.

Maturity is a matter of having the divine life imparted into us again and again until we have the fullness of life (John 10:10b).

The Lord came so that we may have life and may have it abundantly.

He wants us to enjoy His life, grow in His life, partake of His life, and be filled with His life abundantly!

This life works in us, grows in us, and transform us; eventually, this life will also fill us to cause us to be mature in life.

In Gen. 37-45 we see the process of Jacob’s maturity; before this time, he was being transformed, but during this time, he was being matured in the life that transformed him.

Many sufferings came along, and Jacob experienced many heart-breaking things, but the end of all these things was that he was mature in life, being not only transformed in his soul but also filled with the life that transformed him in his spirit.

He simply expressed God and represented God, being one who blessed even the ruler of the earth at that time, Pharaoh.

In order for us to fulfil God’s purpose, we need transformation and maturity; we need to allow the life of God to grow in us and bring us on to maturity.

May we leave the word of the beginning of Christ and be brought on to maturity (Heb. 6:1) so that we may be perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48).

This has nothing to do with our effort, struggling, and striving, and it is not of him who runs or who wills but of God who shows mercy.

But we can cooperate with the Lord’s work in us and we can open to the Lord so that we may grow in life unto maturity day by day for our transformation and maturity in the life of God.

May we open to Him day by day, even moment-by-moment, to allow Him to abundantly supply us with His life.

May we come together with the saints to enjoy the Lord and allow this life to grow a little more and flow even further in us and among us.

May we all arrive at maturity in life so that we may express God and represent Him, and so that He may find us qualified to be raptured by Him at His return.

Lord Jesus, keep us in the process of transformation and maturity so that we may cooperate with You for the fulfilment of Your eternal purpose. May we be brought to maturity, having left the word of the beginning of Christ and growing in the divine life that transforms us. Amen, Lord, may the divine life be imparted into us again and again until we have the fullness of life. Hallelujah, Christ came that we may have life and may have it abundantly. We open to You, Lord, and we allow Your life to flow in us. Flow in our mind and fill our thoughts with Your life. Flow in our emotions and flood them with Your divine life. We are willing to open, Lord, even in our will, so that Your life may spread in our will with its decisions and choices. Oh Lord, we want to gain more of You today! Keep us in the process of transformation and maturity so that we may arrive at maturity in the divine life and be rapture-ready at Your return!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 62, 92, 110-111, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 ICSC), week 2, entitled, Making ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by Growing in Life unto Maturity.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Be Brought on to Maturity for New Jerusalem, article via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Being matured – the process of maturity, a portion via, Life-Study of Genesis, Chapter 93).
  – I have heard it said that sufferings cause us to grow and mature in the divine life. Has this been your experience? Can you give us some examples from your life? Read more via, Living to Him.
  – The issue of transformation – arriving at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, a portion from, God’s Salvation in Life, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – What Is Spiritual Growth? Read more via, Bibles for America Blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God hath us regenerated / In our spirit with His life; / But He must transform us further- / In our soul by His own life. / Spreading outward from our spirit / Doth the Lord transform our soul, / By the inward parts renewing, / Till within His full control. (Hymns #750 stanzas 2-3)
  – Thy anointing Spirit / Me shall permeate, / All my soul and spirit / Thou wouldst saturate; / Every part transforming / Till conformed to Thee, / Till Thy life shall bring me / To maturity. (Hymns #841 stanza 3)
  – Minding just the spirit, we the cross will know, / And His resurrection pow’r thru us will flow; / Minding just the spirit, Christ will live thru me, / And His life within will reach maturity. (Hymns #593 stanza 6)