Supernatural Transformation: Change Your Heart Into God’s Heart (42 page)

By trying to please people, certain leaders have watered down the gospel, thus departing from the true nature of the church.

If the above scenario describes your situation—whether you are a pastor, a worship leader, or another believer—your heart can still experience supernatural transformation, as the following testimony confirms. After reading one of my books, Pastor Donald, of Paraguay, South America, was convicted to cancel the preaching engagements he had made in accordance with his personal agenda and to surrender his church to the Holy Spirit, allowing God’s presence to flow freely in his services. He exchanged his religious, traditional mentality for the mind-set of God’s kingdom. This decision initiated a tremendous breakthrough in regard to everything that had been stagnant and infertile in his church. Since he surrendered to God, hundreds of people have been healed and delivered through his ministry. Families have been restored, creative and financial miracles have taken place, and his congregation has grown from 200 members to 1,500 in less than a year.

Pastor Donald says, “People used to ignore my church, even though I would use all means of communication available to promote it. Now, they come from every province in Paraguay, and even from other countries, because they have heard that miracles, healings, and deliverances take place there. They come because they are attracted by the supernatural power of God. Thank God that many people who used to be in bondage to illegal drugs, crime, idolatry, and other sins are now being saved and becoming leaders and evangelists who take the supernatural power of God wherever they go. I am happy and motivated, because I can say that now we are truly a Christian church in revival. Apostle Maldonado has helped me to understand that ‘religious’ pastors are the greatest obstacles to God and to their churches. The people greatly need the love of God and His supernatural power, and it is our duty and responsibility to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our congregations, just as we are responsible for identifying and training others to do the same.”

A leader cannot guide people into the presence of God unless he has already gone there himself.

2. Having an “Appearance” of Religion and
the Supernatural

Many churches have the outward appearance of being Spirit-filled, but they lack the power of the Holy Spirit and supernatural manifestations.
“H
aving a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). God’s truth is the highest level of reality. In contrast, a “form” of godliness is a mere outward appearance that has no relation to reality. When the truth of the gospel is preached, we no longer have the form of godliness but the reality of it.

We have a form of godliness when we aren’t living according to true faith but are merely going through the motions, or the “mechanics,” of faith. We may sing praise songs, give offerings, listen to the sermon, and so forth, but because the reality is not present, we don’t enter into God’s presence and become transformed, receiving His life and power. When we have merely a form of godliness, nothing changes in our life. We continue to have the same dysfunctions, emotional needs, sicknesses, and so forth. And we keep trying to deal with them according to human methods.

Churches that operate according to a form of godliness do not actively or openly practice the gifts of the Spirit; in fact, the exercise of these gifts is often discouraged. In addition, miracles, signs, and deliverance from demon-possession are never—or rarely—witnessed. Many of these churches claim to want more of God, but they are cutting off the flow of His Spirit.

These churches have been structured in such a way that their services have a time limitation and are focused on man-made plans rather than God-made plans. As a result, the people no longer practice waiting on God. They go to church without expecting to see supernatural manifestations, and they leave without having experienced any spiritual renewal. Their mind has been programmed to merely hear a message designed for the intellect and/or the emotions but not to promote a transformation of their heart.

When we don’t wait on God, we take over His role; consequently, we fail to do what He is doing and to say what He is saying.

We must never become complacent about the condition of our heart, because we are all vulnerable to fall into a religious mind-set. Conformity to religion does not occur only in “traditional” or “mainline” churches. It occurs even in churches where supernatural signs and wonders are manifested. It occurs wherever people’s hearts become indifferent or rebellious. When people are in this condition, and God’s presence
does
come among them, they want to maintain the appearance and reject Him, because they have been existing for so long without His reality! When I preach and bring the reality of God to a church that has been living according to mere appearance, its condition is exposed. Many people feel intimidated when this happens, and they may reject my message. When Jesus spoke God’s truth to the people in the synagogue of His hometown, the people rejected Him because their hearts were exposed, and they did not want transformation. (See Luke 4:16–30.) But when God’s reality touches us—and we respond to Him rather than resist Him—we will be set free.

You can’t continue to practice a mere appearance, or “form,”
of godliness when the reality of God comes to you.

3. Abandoning the Supernatural to Return to Religion

A number of believers have seen, heard, and experienced the power of God but have not allowed it to have a lasting effect on them. They have witnessed miracles, signs, and wonders, and they may even have been used by God as His instruments for ministering these blessings—but then they eventually returned to religion and tradition. They may have begun to accept lukewarm spiritual attitudes as the norm, or they may have backed off from the supernatural because they experienced the rejection or persecution of others, so that now they tolerate a lack of God’s presence and power in their lives.

Their heart did not experience a genuine transformation or “metamorphosis”—one that clearly demonstrates a “before and after” of spiritual growth and maturity. Perhaps they were merely “spectators” of God’s deeds, and when they got tired being “entertained,” they left in the same condition in which they had come. Or, maybe they became offended by something someone said, or by a certain supernatural manifestation. Whatever the reason, many of them went back to churches that are spiritually powerless, lacking the manifest presence of God. Some returned to the church they had previously left when they were hungry to experience the supernatural. I would never give up participating in the fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit over a simple offense! If we turn back after witnessing the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead raised to life, then we have not been transformed.

This is what happened to the Israelites whom God delivered from slavery—those who saw the signs and wonders He performed on their behalf in Egypt and in the desert. Rather than experience transformation, their hearts remained cold and hard. A similar thing occurred in relation to many of Jesus’ followers. In John 6:66, we read,
“From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
These disciples had seen the arrival of God’s kingdom through Jesus Christ—with its signs and miracles—yet they left the Lord because they were offended by one of His teachings. They called it a
“hard saying”
(John 6:60). They heard something from Jesus that seemed too difficult for them to accept, and they preferred to follow their human reason and pride rather than continue to follow the Son of God.

Similarly, today, a person whose heart has not been transformed won’t be able to tolerate certain words of revelation given by the Lord. Have you been offended by a “hard saying” of Jesus? We must allow God to confront us with the true condition of our heart and to challenge us to undergo transformation, so that we will continue to follow our Lord, regardless of the cost to our “self” and the sinful nature. God transforms our heart through supernatural means—His Word, His presence, His glory, Jesus’ finished work of the cross, and His resurrection power—bringing about permanent change. Let us always move forward with our Lord as He transforms our heart!

The religious spirit always opposes the move of God and the flow of the “river” of God.

4. Holding On to Former Moves of God and Old Methods

There was a time when the people who have become “old wineskins” were “new wineskins.” (See Mark 2:22.) They are what we might call the “old guard”—those who cling to the practices they have always followed and who function in the same way they have for years. These people became “old wineskins” because they stopped seeking spiritual renewal; they ceased to perceive how God is working today, so that they “leveled off” in their walk with God, conforming to the past. Many of them developed an “I have arrived” mentality; some have not yet progressed beyond the experience of their new birth in Christ, never imagining that there is more for them to receive from God or to do for Him. Yet they are often the first to attack those who are advancing to higher levels in the Spirit.

We should respect the wisdom of those who are older, and it is our duty to learn from those who have come before us. Yet if someone is a true “father” of the new generation God is raising up, he should be able to transfer a “double portion” of his anointing from God (see 2 Kings 2:9–15), rather than criticize, discredit, or try to destroy the current move of the Spirit.

Many of the churches led by “old wineskin” pastors used to be places where people were saved and transformed, but now they have become religious establishments where tradition is valued more than the supernatural, where rules have priority over grace, and where human structures quench the move of the Holy Spirit. God is always bringing us something fresh. We are living in a new spiritual season that can be understood only by supernatural discernment, and that perspective will come to us only by the transformation of our mind and heart. If we want to keep moving ahead to the next plan God has for this generation and for this world, we must be flexible and prepared to receive what He is doing today—and what He will do tomorrow.

Change is the enemy of the “old guard,” but everything that doesn’t change will eventually die.

5. Missing God’s Fresh Moves—or Rejecting Them When They Manifest

Some people in previous generations prayed to God for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a visitation of His glory. They begged for a revival. Some even prophesized that it would come. But, when it arrived, they rejected the way in which it manifested, saying that it didn’t come from God. They began to accuse those who were involved with it of unorthodoxy. None of us can declare that a divine move isn’t genuine just because we don’t understand it. Our criticism of it may indicate that we are spiritually stagnant, living according to a form of religiosity that stifles the life of the Spirit and His work in our lives.

Are you ready to let God do things His way, or do you have a certain agenda for what you want Him to do—and how you want Him to do it? What if God has been answering your cry for revival, but you have not recognized it? There is always another level of His glory to experience! We cannot personally define how the next move of God on earth should take place. All we can do is surrender to God so that He can show us what is coming.

In the name of “order,” the religious spirit tries to stifle the move
of the Spirit.

6. “Touched”—but Not Transformed

There is another aspect of conformity to religion that afflicts some who have already experienced the supernatural—that of being “touched” by God yet still failing to be transformed by Him. The expression “touched by God” refers to our feeling His supernatural power in some manner. For instance, when someone is touched by God, he may experience intense emotions that cause him to weep or laugh. He may fall down, or “be ‘slain’ in the Spirit.” However, there is a problem if the person comes away from that experience without having been released from any of his wrong attitudes or false ways of thinking—for example, indifference, rebellion, disobedience, or hard-heartedness. The individual may have been touched in his emotions and in his physical body, but the experience never reached his innermost being.

If we fall under the presence of God, it simply means we have made contact with His power. This experience is wonderful, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate that we have opened ourselves up to God during that encounter in order to be changed. When no transformation is evident after we have had such an experience, then we have not allowed God to operate in our heart. The following are some examples of people in the Bible who were touched but not transformed.

In the Old Testament, Pharaoh witnessed signs and wonders from God through Moses, but he continually hardened his heart and would not set the Israelites free until he was forced to in the end. (See, for example, Exodus 7:14–25; 14.) In the New Testament, Jesus’ disciple Judas spent three-and-a-half years with Christ; he heard all His teachings and saw Him perform many miracles—even the raising of the dead—but he did not open up his heart to be transformed by God. Instead, in a pursuit of greed and self-interest, he betrayed Christ—and ended up destroying himself. (See, for example, John 12:3–6; 13:2, 21–30; Matthew 27:3–5.) Ananias and Sapphira were believers in the early church. They were likely among Jesus’ followers at Pentecost, and they had seen the signs and wonders that had accompanied the proclamation of the gospel. Yet, motivated by greed and hypocrisy, they tried to deceive the church by feigning the degree of their generosity. They, too, were touched but not transformed, and the corruption of their heart led to their deaths. (See Acts 5:1–11.)