The admonition in Romans 12:2 to the believers in Christ Jesus not to be confirmed to the world is a stern warning not to allow the prince of the power of the air ( i.e the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience- demonic spirits) to take hold of their lives and minds. As the prince of the power of the air, will always look out for ways to exploit the lusts and affections in their flesh/minds of weak believers to fulfill his own negative desires and show the believers to be who they are not in Christ.
So the divine expectation firstly, is that the believers should standfast to resist that initial negative influence of the prince of the power of the air by choosing not to be conformed to this world and secondly make a daily deliberate choice to be transformed by the renewing of their minds ( or the processes of being conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus the Christ) receiving with meekness the engrafted word.
The believer on a daily basis is presented with the choice to either (STEP DOWN) be conformed to the word, and show themselves as children of disobedience-, that have received the grace of God in vain or (STEP UP) allow themselves to be transformed by the renewal of their minds and show themselves as vessels of mercy, Christlike, sons and daughters of the most high God indeed.
And according to Ephesians. 4:21-33 this will involve practically:
- A putting-off of the lifestyle, thinking patterns, conducts, values, etc of the old-man that is corrupt after the.decietful lust.
- A putting-on of the lifestyle, thinking patterns, conducts, values of the new-man, that is re-created after God( Jesus Christ) in righteousness and true holiness.
- undertaking practical steps like replacing lying with telling truth, sinful anger with holy anger, and stealing with working hard with ones hands, corrupt communication with edifying words that minister grace to the hearers, bitterness, wrath etc with kindness, tender heartedness and forgiveness.
Stepping up as a believer in Christ Jesus is practically impossible without the enablement of the Holy Spirit.
So choosing to be Holy Spirit led, driven, inspired, guided is key if the believer must STEP -UP( Romans 8:14)
Stepping up is making a daily choice to be both the word( Christ ) and Spirit led and not the flesh/ the world led.
The reward of daily choosing to STEP-UP as a believer according to Romans 12:2b, by far out weighs whatever the pains, losses or sacrifices one may incur in the process because by it the believers are enables to fulfill, higher dimensions of the purposes of God for their lives and destinies- from good will to acceptable will until it gets to perfect will.
Choose to STEP-UP my brethren.
Bless you.
