The Two Essentials of Spiritual and Personal Transformation
The Key Elements to Lasting Change
We all have areas of our lives that we wish we could change. Spiritual and personal growth is a major focus throughout Scripture.
Ephesians 4:15 says, “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ…”
God’s Plans for Us Are Amazing!
What could be more fulfilling than experiencing transformation in every area of life, becoming more and more like the Son of God?
This is God’s plan for every single one of us.
The big question is, how does this transformation happen, and how can we cooperate with God to become more like Jesus?
There are many tools God uses—and that we can use—to grow and change, but there are two essentials that must happen in our lives. If these two things are not happening, we will not experience real, lasting transformation. However, if they do take place, growth and change are certain.
1. We Must Be Spiritually Born Again
In John 3:3–6, Jesus says that to see and enter the kingdom of God, we must be born again by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:1 teaches that before we receive the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus, we were spiritually dead.
No matter how much we try to improve a dead person, no life-producing practices can make a difference. Life must be present for growth to take place.
When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our spirit is born again by the Holy Spirit. We receive God’s life into the deepest part of us—our spirit—and we are spiritually made alive.
We go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive with God’s Spirit inside us. This is the first essential for transformation.
2. Deep-Level Mind Renewal
Once we are born again and spiritually alive in Jesus, the next phase of transformation begins.
Even after conversion, many areas of our lives are still not like Jesus. We battle fear, negative behaviors, and a lack of godly character. These issues need to be worked out on our journey to wholeness in Christ.
For that transformation to happen, our minds need to be renewed.
Romans 12:2 tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
This is the second essential. To experience permanent transformation, our minds must be “renewed” or “renovated” according to God’s truth and His Word.
The more we build God’s words and thoughts into our thinking, the more we will begin to speak and act like Jesus. If we want to change any area of our life, changing how we think is essential.
Two Systems in the Brain
Thanks to better technology, we now understand much more about how the brain works. There is still much to learn, but we’ve discovered some encouraging facts about how the brain can change.
As the Bible teaches, researchers have found that the brain changes based on the repeated thoughts we have. We can actually change our brain through repeated, conscious thoughts—what the Bible calls “renewing the mind.”
Researchers have also identified two systems in our brains:
The conscious brain (top brain) includes the thoughts, emotions, and willpower we are aware of.
The unconscious brain (bottom brain) is responsible for our habits. It’s always working, is much stronger than the top brain, and ultimately determines how we act consistently.
Why We Struggle with Change
One of the biggest reasons we struggle with lasting change is that willpower—the top brain’s influence—is a limited resource. We eventually run out of it.
How many of us have said, “I will never do that again” or “Starting today, I will do this every day,” only to find ourselves failing within a few days—or sometimes within a few minutes?
This is because the desired change has not yet happened in the bottom brain.
Researchers refer to the top brain as the “Rider” and the bottom brain as the “Elephant”. The elephant is much stronger, but it can be trained to obey the rider through the right practices.
Permanent Change: Training the Elephant
To experience lasting transformation, the elephant (the bottom brain) must be trained.
Once you understand this, you gain a huge insight into how lasting change happens. Though this process requires much more than we can cover here, training the bottom brain through consistent, godly practices is the key to permanent change.
Let’s Review:
For lasting transformation, there are two absolute essentials:
We must experience new birth by God’s Spirit.
Our thinking must be renewed according to God’s truth.
My goal is to help busy believers experience God more deeply, grow consistently—both spiritually and personally—and confidently live out their unique purpose.
