CONFORMATION
The next step is to be conformed to the Lord’s image. Transformation follows sanctification, and conformation comes after transformation. After a period of time sanctification becomes transformation, and the result of transformation is conformation to the image of the Lord. Second Corinthians 3:18 puts transformation and conformation together. It says, “…being transformed into the same image.” This is conformation. This is not only to be transformed but also to be shaped. This requires our experiences. After listening to these words, gradually you will experience these items step by step. We need to open up ourselves to the Lord and let the living Spirit of the Lord penetrate us, adding the divine element into us. Thus we will be sanctified. Thank the Lord that when we have this experience, deep within us we can feel that we are different from others. This is not to be proud, not at all; this feeling comes from the reality of sanctification within us.
When you let this sanctification linger within you for a while, this sanctification will bring in a metabolic process, causing you to have an organic change. This is transformation. Your mind will be transformed, your emotion will be transformed, and your will also will be transformed. The way you look at things and the way you consider matters will be different from the way you did before. Your feelings of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight will be different from before. Also your decisions, resolutions, and choices will be different from before. This is because a process of metabolic transformation is taking place in your mind, emotion, and will.
As a result, when you consider a certain matter, your thought will be the same as that of the Lord Jesus. The way you think when you consider any matter will bear the stamp of the Lord Jesus. The way you love people and the way you decide any matter will also be the same as that of the Lord Jesus. This means that in your practical living you will bear the image of the Lord. This is not an outward improvement, nor is it an outward imitation. Rather, it is that you are inwardly being possessed by the Lord and permeated with the Lord, and His element is permeating your mind, emotion, and will. At this time your thoughts, preferences, and decisions are all the same as the Lord’s thoughts, preferences, and decisions. Thus, spontaneously you have the image of the Lord; this is conformation.
It is not that you read through the Scriptures a few more times, learn more doctrines, or listen to more messages; these are all objective matters. The subjective experience is that you start by opening yourself to the Lord to let the Lord Spirit enter into you and allow His element to be added into you; thus, you will be separated, distinct, from others, and be no longer common. You are separated not by your outward behavior but by the divine element within you. This divine element will permeate and saturate you within, and it will add the element of God into your mind, emotion, and will until your inner being is filled with the divine element. Then your mind will be the same as the Lord’s mind, your desires will be like the Lord’s desires, and your decisions will exactly resemble the Lord’s decisions. All these mean that you have the image of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, today’s church must be the composition and the totality of such a group of people. What the Lord wants today is a church like this, where all the members are filled with the Lord Spirit and all their inward parts are also saturated with the Lord Spirit, resulting in every part being conformed to the image of the Lord. These are the proper members of the Lord, and in totality this is the Body of Christ, the church of the Lord.
(The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)
