Our Passion Drives Our Change Readiness Series

Encounters With God Series

Part 7

Our Change Readiness decides the outcome of the encounter on our lives

For a video/ audio version of the message, please visit https://youtu.be/qzMm9hTdMNw

Good morning.

This is the seventh and concluding part of this series of messages on Encounters with God. We started with the premise that having an encounter with God is a mighty good reason for us to come to church Sunday after Sunday. We saw that while coming to the House of God (Bethel) is a good thing, it can become meaningless unless we come to the House of God for meeting up with the God of the House (El-Bethel). We saw that we have to be one seeking this encounter since the other party, Lord God is omnipresent and always there. We saw that we can seek an encounter just as we are. It does not depend on our spiritual maturity. We saw that we need to have that encounter on a repeated basis and not as a once-in-a-lifetime affair. We realised that encounters are intensely personal in nature.

More importantly we saw that encounters result in change in us. These changes could be dramatic and immediate as it happened in the case of Paul, or subtle but progressive as it happened in the case of Jacob or like a roller coaster ride as it happened in Peter’s case. But changes do happen. We studied specific changes in our vision, character and relationships. These are the three imperatives that I speak about in my book Not-So-With-YOU. https://www.menorahleadership.com/not-so-with-you_book/

We studied this using the examples set by Jacob, Paul and Peter. We saw how God encounters resulted in definite and positive changes in all the three characters we saw. There is one question remaining though. Can change happen to everyone? Is it possible that even after an encounter, people do not change? Are there things that prevent changes from happening even after an encounter? What should we be aware of, to avoid becoming one of those cases where we do not change even after a powerful encounter with God?

Today in the concluding part of the series, we are going to look at what can hinder change. Change is a funny thing. We all have heard the cliched sayings like , change is the only constant, or without change we perish etc. Despite all those sayings about change, when it comes to actual change, it is surprising to note that many of us resist change. In the corporate settings when we talk about change most of the people enthusiastically say that we need to change and we are willing to change. Then we run a Change Readiness assessment, and participants are generally shocked when they see the results. The results show the extent to which they resist change and also throw up the specific areas where they resist change.

Let us look at some of those areas where we resist change.

I do an activity in my training programs asking everyone to make 5 changes to their appearance in one minute. It is amazing to note that 99% of the time, people make changes by removing things from their body, like watches, spectacles, bangles, hairbands etc. When we repeat the exercise, they reach a point where they say that they can’t make any more changes because they can’t remove anything more without breaking the decency code. It is only when I specifically tell them that they can also make changes by adding things to themselves that they start looking for adding things to themselves from others or from around them. This is the case with 99% of the participants. This shows a major mindset in all of us. When we hear the word change, the first thing that comes to our mind is what are we likely to lose, rather than what are we likely to gain.

Let me demonstrate this to you with a Biblical example.

Turn with me in the Bible to Mark 10:17-22. This is a story of a rich young ruler having an encounter with Jesus. This rich young ruler, comes to Jesus, kneels before Him and asks Him advice on how to inherit eternal life. Jesus answers him and asks him to obey the ten commandments, especially the ones about adultery, murder, stealing, false witness, fraud and honoring parents. The rich young ruler affirms that he had kept all those commandments for a long time. Then comes the punch line from Jesus. Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me (Mark 10:21).” The verse has several key points. First is that Jesus loved the young rich ruler, He loved the way the rich ruler was keen on eternal life and has obeyed all the laws. The second part is where Jesus highlights what the rich ruler must lose if he wants eternal life. He says, give all your temporal riches away. Jesus is highlighting that the young rich ruler must lose some of his possessions if he wants to gain the benefits of this encounter. But Jesus does not stop at that. Jesus does highlight what the young rich ruler will gain, if he is ready for the change. Jesus says “You will have treasure in heaven…” That is the reward. That is what we will gain, if we are ready for the change. But see where the focus of the young rich ruler is. But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions (Mark 10:22). The young man is focused on the possibility of losing what he immediately has rather than gaining what he cannot see or feel yet. He is not ready for the change, because he is focused on what he will lose, rather than what he will gain.