Sabbath: Reformation: The Willingness to Grow and Change
Read for This Week’s Study: 1 John 2:1-9, Phil. 2:12-14, Matt. 26:31-35, John 20:24-29,Luke 15:11-21, John 5:1-14.
Memory Text: “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:6, 7, NKJV).
Before Pentecost, the disciples had significant spiritual needs. Their understanding of God’s plan was clouded. They failed to comprehend Jesus’ mission. After they were touched by divine grace, Christ’s love broke their hearts. They experienced revival and reformation.
A revival is simply a reawakening of deeper spiritual longings. It is an intensifying of our spiritual desires as our hearts are drawn closer to God through the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Revival does not imply that we have had no previous experience with Jesus; rather, it calls us to an experience that is deeper and richer. Reformation calls us to grow and change. It appeals to us to move beyond the status quo, spiritually. It invites us to reexamine our lives in the light of biblical values and to allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to make any changes necessary in order to live in obedience to God’s will.
This week we will study the lives of New Testament believers who experienced growth and change in their own spiritual experience.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, September 7.
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“Revival does not imply that we have had no previous experience with Jesus; rather, it calls us to an experience that is deeper and richer.” (SSNET)
Simply said, it is a response to the message in Revelation 2:4-5. When our love for Him begins to grow dim and our feet to wonder, His Spirit pleads with us saying;
1. “… You have forsaken the love you had at first.”
2. “… Consider how far you have fallen!”
3. “… Repent and do the things you did at first” (NIV)
Please permit me to reorder this lesson this way that "Reformation is the willingness to change and grow. A changed person by the power of the Holy Spirit will certainly experience growth. I agree with the spirit of prophecy statement on reformation that it “signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices”. And that "Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the Spirit. Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work they must blend.”-Ellen G. White, The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Feb. 25, 1902.
The willingness to change is the ingredient that users in reformation and this can only be done by the power of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. Lord make me willing every hour that I may be transformed into your likeness.
Hi Evans, you have to grow in grow and knowledge of God before you experience a change. It is like a kid; as he is growing from infancy to adulthood certainly there will be changes in his physical body. So it is for a christian. Change is the end product of growth.
Hi Stephen and Evans. Reading your comments made me start to think that changing and growing is really a cycle. One person may see the need for change as a result of growth. The same person in another instance or another person may grow because of a change that he/she made. Irrespective of whether one started with growth or with change, it seems to me that growth may result in change and that change may result in further growth. This cycle will hopefully continue as we are drawn closer and closer to our heavenly father.
Willingness is what the devil tames in us so much that we don't comprehend the urgency of reformation, my fear is that it won't be long before the door of mercy is closed. God we need your intervention immediately, Satan is playing with our lives.
The word willingness is important in this setting because it denotes an inclination or readiness on our path. Brethren, we must be desirous of the change and allow the Holy Spirit to intervene on our behalf - "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts." God will stand outside and knock, if we open the door He will come in and lead us to change and grow in Him.
it will take time for the entire church to get revived & reformed. We dont love one another honestly speaking. I dont know that side but here in malawi we need to work on it.
If change was a sail, willingness is the wind that will fill it. It is not enough to just sit down and say 'I know I should be an attentive husband" you have to find the willingness to do something about it.
Revival is more than "simply a reawakening of deeper spiritual longings." Revival is new life in place of spiritual death, as in Ezekiel 37:1-14. We may deeply long for a better life, as did Paul in Romans 7:24, and have no life (vs 9), "but if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11)