In this piece, I would be exposing us to the mind of God and we are all going to learn from it. We want to see How We Can Know God and Become Like Him Through Hope. And I want us to open our Bibles to the book of 1 John 3 and I will read from verse 1. See what the Bible says. “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” May the Lord bless the reading of His word in our hearts in Jesus’ name.
Now, there was a statement that we must meditate upon and that statement was made in verse one and two. The first statement is that we have been called the children of God and the second statement is that the world does not know us because the world does not know Him. This is a very strong statement and I want us to meditate on it so that we can glean the life of God in it. The first thing is that you and I are called children of God. The question we should ask is: who called us children of God? Have we been called children of God by men or by the world? The answer is, no! We are called children of God by God Himself, and the Bible says “therefore the world does not know us.” So, the things that the world says about us, they are not the sum of us, they are not exhaustive of us, they have not seen all of us. The people around you may see you for something now, the Bible says the world does not actually know you. Why? It is because the world does not know Him and this is very important.
There is an understanding that you and I are called the children of God and perhaps, that is why we are disciples. As disciples, we have been born unto God through Christ Jesus and so, we are children of God. And the Bible says the world does not know us because the world does not know Him. So, there is an understanding that not everyone knows God, there is an understanding that we don’t all know God. But for those who know God, they are not known by the people of the world simply because the people of the world do not know God. And in fact, the Bible says: “It has not yet been revealed to the world, the people around us, what we shall be.” Our future is not known to them; the man and woman you are going to be is not known to the world. The people that the Lord has destined us to be is not known to them: they are ignorant of our destinies, they are ignorant of our future. “And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
The moment a man sees the Lord, he is changed into the image of the Lord that he sees. It seems to me as if what prevent people from becoming like the God is the lack of the understanding of the knowledge of God. It also looks to me as if becoming like the God is almost automatic provided there is understanding or knowledge of the God. So, as I know God, I become like Him. Because this is very direct. Let us read 1 John 3:2-3 again: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him…” We know. How do we know? We know it by faith and we also know it in hope. We have come to have faith and hope that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him. Why? “For we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
So, becoming like God is premised on us beholding God. So, as I see Him, I become like Him. As I behold Him, I am changed into the same image that I see. Is it not beautiful? Now when you see a mirror without an image, what do you see? You see nothing. But when you put an image in front of the mirror, the mirror will reflect nothing, but if you stand an object in front of the standing mirror, it will reflect the image of the object before it. So, the mirror only mimic or reflect the image that is before it. So, what we see in the mirror is the image that is before the mirror. And that is how God has ordained it. If God can be before us and set Him before ourself, if we can make God our future, our feature, the object of focus and faith and hope, the reality and truth is that we will become like God even as we behold Him.
Now, there is a place that I want us to read which we are familiar with. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 12-18, we will arrive at a point that we will connect with where we read in 1 John. The Bible says:
“Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech — unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains un–lifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns [focuses on, beholds the] to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory [nature, the character] of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
As we behold Him, we are transformed into the same image that we behold because we have an unveiled face. There is nothing covering us from beholding. So, as He is, so we become. No wonder Jesus was very clear when He was talking with His disciples. And at a point, Thomas asked Him: Lord, show us the Father and it would be sufficient for us. And Jesus said: Have I been with you for this long and you are asking me to show you the Father? If you have seen me, you have seen the father. So, if you have a moment in your time that you beheld and saw my glory, then you have seen the glory of the Father. And Jesus right there and then, laid barre before us the agenda of God for our transformation. The man we are is not necessarily the man we must be. The man we must be is the man that we see in Christ. So, when a woman beholds Christ, she is turn into the same image that she sees in Christ. But the reason why many of us remain where we are and don’t experience any personal transformation, leadership transformation, ministry transformation, life transformation, in our lives, it is because of the veil that is covering us; we are covered, we cannot see — it is either we are covered or the truth is covered from us. So, when the truth is covered, it is what you see that you become: you become a lie, covered up by the deception and manipulations of others.
And so, if you choose as a disciple that you don’t want to see just any image; I want to see the image of the Lord. And if that must happen, I as a disciple must have an unveiled face, I must be open in my heart, I must not close my heart, because I have the hope that when He is revealed I will be just as He is. Many people who have lost their hope are void of the confidence that they are to have that should have kept their morale high waiting for the day of their redemption, transformation, and since they have lost their hope, they have gone after other things and which has resulted over the time in their becoming the person, the character that they have beheld over time. And this is where we must understand the mind of God for us.
Not everyone has unveiled face, many have veil covering their faces; they have things that prevent them from seeing the truth. You have the personal responsibility get yourself unveiled by presenting yourself before the God saying, “Here I am before you, I remove my veil, I remove my bias, I remove my predisposition, that has prevented me from knowing you, from seeing you as you are.” When this happens, you will experience transformation. You don’t struggle to do this; it happens by turning to the Lord because you become what you see. And see what the Bible says in that 1 John 3:3 that we read. The Bible says, “and everyone, without exception of anyone, who has this hope in Him”, not hope in themselves or works, “purifies himself just as He is pure.”
Therefore, it is required of a disciple to live the life of purity; life of holiness, the life of righteousness because he is beholding pure life, the holy and righteous life of God. The life of God is revealed or displayed before him or her, so he or she becomes the character that he or she beholds or see. If you and I will become transformed from inside out; if the life of God will become the life we live: if the image and character of God will become our image and character, then we have the responsibility of beholding Him in hope and as we behold Him, we see, and as we see His purity, we are purified. Why? When you see purity, you purify yourself. When you see righteousness, you make yourself righteous. When you see holiness, you make yourself holy, and that is important for us to note. My prayer is that the Lord will help us as disciples to have the veil of religion, the veil of educational background, the veil of sentiments, off our faces so we may behold the Lord the way He is in Jesus’ name.
Now, going further in that same 1 John 3, since we now know that when we see Him, we will behold Him and become like Him and we also understand that we have a responsibility to purify ourself, the question is: How can we do this? According to 1 John chapter 3:4; Apostle John shared with us the truth that will keep us purified. The Bible says, “Whoever commits sin [repeatedly] also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” What Apostle John was saying is that, if you have this hope in you, you will purify yourself: in other words, you will remove every lawlessness from your life because sin is lawlessness. And if we go further, see again what he said: “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him”. And this is where it connected to where we started from and it all builds on the point that our purification is premised on us seeing the Lord because when we see Him, we become like Him, we will know what He wants us to do. When we see Him, we know what we shouldn’t do. When we see Him, we are equipped with the knowledge of what we shouldn’t do.
Still in same chapter from verse 7–9; the Bible says, “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” You can’t be a child of God without being born of God; having been born of God not by a corruptible seed, but by incorruptible seed, you are therefore a child of God. And as a child of God the seed of God abides in you, so you can’t sin; you can’t be lawless. For many of us in the church we have been hearing sin, and hearing sin often times, and we have been terrified anytime we hear sin, and we seem to fear the word sin than the processes of sin itself.
Apostle John said, “Sin is lawlessness.” What is lawlessness? Lawlessness means any act or behaviour that is against the law. The law is made known, the will is made known; but you deliberately behave inconsistent with the law. God made His plan for you known to you, but you chose the opposite of that plan. Could you do that and still claim you are born of God, and you love God? No. It means any man or woman who commits sin is a lawless man, she is a lawless woman; a man who’s the seed of the devil lies for the devil started sinning from the beginning. When you’re born of God, you have the opportunity to see God, and as you see Him, you become like Him because there is no unrighteousness in Him, you become righteous because there is no unrighteousness in you.
But when a man is born of the devil, he will be seen the devil anywhere he goes, and the image of the devil, the characters, qualities of the devil will be thrown around you anywhere you go. And that will become your object of focus, you will learn of him and you will want to become smart like him, and act like him. You want to be dubious like him, you want to be evil like him. You want to be wicked and manipulative like him. All these things are shown to you and as you see those things you become like them. And as you walk according to these traits, you become lawless, you become unrighteous like the devil. But if indeed you have been born of God, you will be beholding God. What shows that God is your Father, it is because you have God before you. You behold Him, and you become like Him.
And the question is: why should I behold Him? Why shouldn’t I behold something else or someone else? You will behold Him because you have this hope in God that He loves you, and that He won’t deceive you like the devil whose end is destruction. You have hope in God because you aware that He has great plans for you. And that your destiny can only be actualize in Him, so you have hope in Him. And as you have hope, you purify yourself; you remove from yourself anything that is not good, anything that is not Worthy, anything that is dirty and harmful, that can corrupt you, that can pollute you. You will separate yourself from anything that can corrupt you, any association, relationship, networking, that can bring you away from Christ towards unrighteousness. When you have this hope, what do you do? You purify yourself. You make yourself clean.
See what the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 2:20–22; see what the Bible says:
“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honour and some for dishonour. Therefore, if anyone [ including everyone, man or woman] cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honour, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
This is the responsibility that God has given to us as disciples. And if you are a discipler the challenge is stronger for you. You have the responsibility to clean yourself up, Jesus says, “For their sake I sanctified Myself. In the letter is Paul to Timothy, he said, “If anyone cleansed himself up, he will be fit for the Master’s use.” Our usefulness as disciples is not given to chance; we can’t become suddenly useful, or suddenly useless; everything is premised on my personal decision as a disciple to clean myself up from anything that pollutes or corrupts. And as I cleanse myself up looking at the image before me, I become like Him: I become pure like Him, I become righteous like Him. So, the source of your purity, righteousness is actually Him. The source of justification and sanctification is Him. As I behold Him, I become justified, I become sanctified, I become purified, why? I become because I behold Him. That is the responsibility that the Lord has given us, and you can’t behold Him from afar, you have to come close to Him. That is why Jesus said: Come unto me all of you who labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest.
If you want to experience rest, personal transformation and change of character and mindset and taste, because it is possible for God to change your taste-board. Apostle Paul said that the things that use to be important to me those days, I now count them as nothing for the sake of the excellence of Christ, my Lord. So, his taste-board was changed because he beheld Christ. Sir and Ma, what is the image that is set before you? What are you beholding? Who are you aspiring to become; whom are you learning from? What are you reading, what are you hearing? All these will form your vision. The things that you hear are the things that shape the future ahead of you. If you will be terrified or experience horror, it would be by the things you see. The mind of God for us is that we should set the Lord Jesus Christ before us.
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, there is freedom.” Sir, Ma, God has ordained your freedom in Christ; it has been as though you are in bondage, many things have been difficult for you, you have not been able to set yourself free; the Spirit of God is the power of God that liberates, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. The mind of God for you is that you should be changed; no more struggle, no more fighting for self righteousness, but that you should be transformation from one level of Glory to another by beholding the Lord Jesus.
You can’t set the world before you and you want to become like Christ; you must set Christ before you if you want to become like Christ. I want us at this point to examine our heart, and to make the right decision. Who do we want to be like; do we want to be like Satan? Do we want to be a child of lawlessness or a child of righteousness? Are you making the choice to be a son of God, a child in who’s the seed of God is in him or her? Are you going to reflect the character of the devil or the character of God? Whom are you following? It is not about your local denomination or the church you are attending, title, association, nor influence, it is about the man that you behold; are you beholding Christ or you are beholding Satan (the world)? Is Christ your object of focus or you are focusing on the world?
No wonder apostle John said in 1 John 2 and we will be concluding with this, verse 15-17. It says: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
Do not love the world; don’t set your affection on the world, don’t set the world before you, set the Lord before; and if you do that, you will become like Him. A man, a woman who does the will of the Father is a lawful man. A man that follows the law of God, the law of righteousness. So, the word of the Lord is do not love the world. Don’t set the world before you, set the Lord before you and if you do that, you become changed. Don’t ask me how, you change into what you see. They said: "People become what people see". That is the truth. If you see the world, you become worldly, if you see Christ, you become Christ-like. That is the ordination. And haven set the Lord before yourself, don’t say Christ change me, you make up your mind to clean yourself. So, take up the responsibility of picking the dirt that you have accumulated over the years as a result of wrong beholding.
Away with bad habit, away with bad characters, away with bad culture, bad religion, away with my personal pursuits — things that God has not ordained that have become your pursuits. Away with all form of lust (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life) in your members in Jesus’ name! Now is a good time to pray. Perhaps you are a disciple and you have gone astray, I want you to come back to God and by talking to Him this way: “Lord Jesus, I come back to you, I come back to the place of righteousness, to the place where I am beholding you clearly with an unveiled face. I separate myself, I remove every veil that the world has put upon men, that religion has put upon me, I come back to you Lord, to the point of worship, true worship, the place of true submission to the will of the Father, I am no longer the man I used to be, I am a child of God.”
Amen!
