Transformation Part 2: The Renewing of the Mind: – From Inner Renewal to Church Building

Everything, everything was in miniature with the Lord and the Twelve. Oh, they saw the Lord down there, and they met him, hallelujah, and they heard him talk, and boy, it’s the life, and we’re going to live by a higher life, and we’re going to have the kingdom, and the church, praise the Lord. And so they started meeting together, right? And they all saw it, and then the Lord would do some miracles, and hallelujah, look what God’s doing, glory to God! John, don’t you think you and I should sit on his right? You sit on his right; I’ll sit on his left. I’ll be humble. I’ll sit on the left side. You sit on the right. Brother Simon over here, “Listen, get out of the way. I’m on the right side.” And then Matthew and Andrew, they’re over here, “What are these two guys doing?” And they live together.

You come together, brothers and sisters. We all love the Lord. There’s a brother over there who really looks spiritual; that’s a brother who really looks spiritual, and we kind of look up to him, but if you brothers will live together, and pray together, and really come together to be built up together, soon this brother will be truly exposed. He’s no more spiritual than the man on the moon, and that brother right there is the most unspiritual among us. They’re really exposed, and they come humbly to the meetings after they’ve been utterly exposed, and soon they’re human. Just human. They have dropped all of the religion and all the falderol; they are just brothers. Every brother and sister in this room has got to be exposed as being something they are not. That we are just plain, ordinary humans. We’ve got to fuss; we’ve got to fight, and we’ve got to be exposed for what we are, then we’ve got to forgive. And out of the forgiveness will come the love, and out of the love will come the church.

And the twelve started out great and spiritual. I can just see Peter saying, Ah, brothers, I can just see Peter, John saying, Oh, yes, we’re going to love one another. I can just see these guys when they’re young like that, can’t you? And then they have a big old fight; after all, they lived together for three years, slept out under the stars together, ate around the campfires, leaned up against the trees, listened to the Lord, walked down the hot roads together talking to one another, and at first it looked great and rosy, till they all got to know one another real well and found out they were all a bunch of fakes. They all had a big fight. And they looked at one another, and said, “Say, we are all human.” And then they began to be built up. And for the better part of those three years, they lived right next to that life force, and God dealt with them. And exposed them. And whittled them, and there wasn’t a friend left in the group.

If you will look really carefully, according to the book of Revelation, the last two chapters, all of the brothers and sisters are built up, but the most built-up people in all history are the twelve apostles. They are literally the foundation of the New Jerusalem. They are the foundation of the church. Because they’re apostles? No. Because they were so solidly, completely, utterly built up together. They were so built together that they could hold up the whole city, and all that has come of the church since the twelve apostles has been built on the twelve apostles being built together.

And brothers and sisters, if you will suffer, and if you will be burned, and if you will have a big knockdown and drag out to the glory of God, then send me a letter. Oh, we got so mad at one another, and praise the Lord, we forgave. We would not break the unity. We would not pick up our marbles and go home mad. We said, Lord, I put myself on the altar to be transformed by you. I will go along with the outward dealing and the inward experience, and then, when it comes, yield. This isn’t the flesh; it’s never the flesh. Brothers and sisters, here’s the flesh dealing with you. Lift the curtain behind the flesh. Lift that. You might see behind that, Satan, but brother, if you’ll lift the final curtain, you’ll see God. Anything, everything that comes your way ultimately is the hand of God to conform you to the image of His Son.

The greatest thing you can do is say, “Lord, I welcome it.” And you are going to be so shocked when it comes. It will be the last thing on earth you can stand. But if God can rise up in you in that moment and you can recognize it as transformation and say, “Lord, amen, it is you, Lord. Deal. Conform me. Lord, I yield, I go along,” then the work will be a fast work, and it will be a good work, and it will be a precious work. This is the transformation. It is in the church. I ask you, brothers and sisters, to bring it before God, and tell Him how you feel about it. This is the beginning of the building. I really believe God has got some material if you will go along with Him.