Many followers of Jesus have been in a season of metamorphosis.

This is the process in which our scarred self-nature is transformed into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.

Metamorphosis is defined as “the change of physical form, structure, or substance, especially by supernatural means.”

The English word “metamorphosis” comes from the Greek word “metamorphoó.” This word means “to change, transfigure, or transform” (metá, “change after being with” and morphóō, “changing form in keeping with inner reality” — properly, transformed after being with or transfigured.)

The LORD is taking many through the process of having their inward reality transformed.

We are changed by being with Jesus. When we gain an understanding of who He is, His ways, and His will, we have an opportunity to become more like Him.

As we behold who He really is without our preconceived humanistic doctrines, we are transformed into His Image.

As we carry our crosses and follow him, we become partakers of the suffering of Christ.

This process opens our spiritual understanding to behold him without any veils, which brings transfiguration.

The Metamorphosis

Spiritual metamorphosis is the complete and irreversible transformation of one form of life (our self-life) into another (Christ’s life).

In Spiritual Metamorphosis, the final form was encoded in us from the beginning (when we were born again with the incorruptible seed of Christ).

God the Father predestined us to be transformed into the image of His Son. This is our purpose and highest calling:

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:29 NKJV.

The Changing

It is very easy for us to lose focus on what The LORD’s priorities truly are. When we focus on ourselves and our will, we fail to understand the working of The LORD in our lives.

Self-focus, even spiritual self-focus, will only bring frustration, disappointment, discouragement, disillusionment, and it will cause us to be disheartened.

We have to set our spiritual eyes on The LORD and His purposes. Our main focus should be on knowing Him and His ways.

We have to allow Him to show us how He is changing us inwardly and conforming us to His own image through the trials and difficulties of life.

The Father is focused on our eternal well-being and knows that difficult circumstances will transform us inwardly into the image of His Son.

“And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5 NRSVUE

Oftentimes our focus is extremely short-sighted. We focus on the temporal instead of the eternal.

We must remember that Jesus suffered, and all who followed Him as disciples suffered as well.

“Why haven’t I seen greater inward progress?” we ask. “Why isn’t the church gathered together, in unity, and prepared for the coming of The LORD as a spotless bride? Why aren’t we seeing manifestations of the Holy Spirit and power as demonstrated to be the will of God in the scriptures?”

These are all valid questions; however, if they become our focus, we will lose sight of the Father’s eternal purpose and we will become disheartened.

The Father has a process for us to go through and it cannot be rushed. There are no shortcuts.

The Father is far more concerned about doing the work in us, even if the adjustments are not very noticeable to us.

He has put us on a journey of following His Son. He desires us to embrace that process. Each individual journey is different and we should not compare it with others.

The LORD recently moved my family to North Alabama from Northern Idaho. My family had struggled in Northern Idaho while I had been given much time alone with The LORD in the solitary wilderness.

In North Alabama, my family is thriving and I am working all the time with very little time with The LORD or to do ministry.

Why would The LORD take away someone’s time with Him? Could that be The LORD?

The LORD spoke to me and said, “This season is for the healing of your family, but it is the Cross for you.

You must bear your Cross for their well-being. Do what is set before you.

It’s in this season of working and caring for your family that Christ will increase in you to the measure that is needed.

But you must not fight against this season and the process. You must not try and escape from it. You must embrace it!”

Sometimes we find ourselves in a season in which we think, “This can’t be from The LORD; where did I make a wrong turn?”

But we have to see from the Father’s perspective. He is not focused on our temporary comfort, and He doesn’t always do what makes sense to our natural minds.

He is focused on our internal spiritual progress and the eternal journey that we have embarked on.

From a natural perspective, what sense does it make for The LORD to bring me out of a season of spending a lot of time with Him only to put me in a season of working long hours and being forced to focus on work?

What sense did it make to put Joseph, a future ruler, in prison for 12 years? What sense did it make to put Moses, a leader of millions, in the desert for 40 years tending sheep?

To the natural mind, it doesn’t make sense. But The LORD has His ways that transform us into the vessels we must become so that He can carry out His purposes.

If what you are going through doesn’t make sense, cease your attempts to understand with your natural mind.

Allow the Spirit to reveal the truth to your heart over time.

Perfected in Sufferings

“It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” Hebrews 2:10 NRSVUE

Jesus as God was obviously already perfect, but Jesus as a man was made perfect through sufferings.

The pioneer of our salvation had to suffer throughout His entire ministry. The people who called themselves “the people of God” resisted Him and His Father’s message. Jesus was spoken against and slandered every step of the way.

Jesus didn’t have an idolizing fan base like the “mega apostles” of the modern charismatic church. He spoke the words of our Father and was hated for it.

If Jesus, who was without sin, had to be perfected through the things He suffered, how much more must we?

Disciples are not greater than the Teacher. If the Teacher had to be perfected by sufferings and we don’t, it would mean we are greater than our Teacher.

Clearly this is not the case.

Voice of the Devil

When things are not going as well as expected on our spiritual journeys, we are at a greater risk of yielding to our souls and becoming disillusioned or disheartened.

Satan knows this, so he uses our souls to trap us in these darkened states to prevent us from progressing spiritually.

It’s at this time when his sly voice says to us, “God is not using you. God has disqualified you. He has left you and you are deceived.”

The voice of the enemy sounds true if we are yielding to the emotions of our own souls and only observing our external circumstances.

Once we lose focus on the Father’s internal and eternal work that He is doing, we open ourselves to the instability of our own soul-life and the deceitful voice of the serpent.

The Tests that God Allows

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that The LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.” Genesis 3:1-7 NRSVUE

The LORD warned Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but He did not give a warning of anything else.

The LORD knew the enemy would come to them in the form of a serpent. Why didn’t He give a warning not to trust the serpent, as the serpent was the primary threat, not the tree?

Eve would have trusted The LORD and wouldn’t have thought that He would create or allow any deceiving serpent to be in the garden.

Eve believed all of God’s creation was good, harmless, and pure. She had no reason to think that an evil creature would be in God’s perfect garden that would even have the capability of deceiving her and leading her away from God.

Eve was spiritually immature and didn’t understand The LORD’s Ways.

She didn’t know that The LORD would allow her obedience to be tested. Like so many ignorant believers today, who don’t realize that the existence of evil is allowed by God to test our love, obedience, and devotion to Him.

Eve had an opportunity to turn to The LORD and ask him about what the serpent was saying to her.

When confusion is present, we must not act immediately but turn to The LORD and hear from Him.

Satan wants us to make quick decisions so that our actions cannot be undone.

Eve’s rushed decision could not be undone. She and Adam failed the test that God had allowed.

Full Measure

I was recently in a Church Meeting in which the pastor said, “I believe that if we keep giving away the Holy Spirit, then He will fill us without measure.”

But is that what the scriptures reveal, or is that only the doctrines of men?

“For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.” John 3:34-35 LSB.

Jesus is fully God but when He came into the world He was also fully man. As the Son of man, He was given the Spirit without measure because He only spoke the words of God the Father.

He wasn’t giving people his own message, doctrine, beliefs, teaching, or theories as many human vessels do in our day.

Therefore, the Father could trust Him with the Holy Spirit without measure. Jesus, as a man, demonstrated perfect maturity and allowed the Holy Spirit to control his mouth:

“For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the entire body as well.” James 3:2 LSB.

The Spirit without measure was given to Jesus because he walked in perfect obedience to the Father and only did the things that pleased Him:

“So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing from Myself, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”” John 8:28-29 LSB.

If we yield to the journey and the sufferings that the Father allows, Christ will do the inward work. Our soul-life will become less and less, and Christ’s life will increase within us.

Then, Christ in us will empower us to love, to do what is pleasing, and to obey the Father. When we obey Christ, the love of the Father abides in us.

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:21.

Without the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to obey Christ, the Son of God, we will not always do those things that please the Father.

Therefore, the Father will not give all things into our hands (the Spirit without measure) as He did for Jesus as the Son of man.

If we do not have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the Father’s Will for His Church cannot be fully realized.

“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing from Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.” John 5:19-20 LSB.

Jesus, as the Son of man, could only do what the Father was doing and could not do any works of power as the Son of God (as He willingly laid down His right to do so while walking as a man on the earth).

Jesus had learned obedience through the things he suffered and came to full inward maturity as a man. Because of this, the father loved the Son and showed him everything that He was doing.

How often does the Father want to show us what He is doing but cannot because of our limited inward maturity?

When we choose not to abide in the Father’s love by our actions, thoughts, and words, His desired and perfect love is not overflowing from us in the way that it was with Jesus in His humanity.

If we cannot see what the Father is doing, then we will not do the same works that Jesus did, or even greater works.

The Spirit without measure is needed to bring about the will of God on the earth.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit without measure is needed to gather living stones into the temple of God, bring the unity of faith, and fashion a people who are a bride ready for The LORD’s return.

The scriptures show us that the Father only gives the Spirit without measure to sons who reach inward maturity through the journey of carrying their crosses.

Jesus was our example of what a man could be and do who was fully yielded to God.

Seeking the Father’s Glory

“He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.” John 7:18 KJV.

We must allow The LORD to transform our heart’s desire. Everything we do must be from the heart’s desire of seeking the Father’s glory.

The Greek word used for “glory” means “appearance, view, opinion, reputation, credit, glorification, honor, dignity, and worship.”

Every word, message, or action that we do to promote our reputation before others feeds our self-life and does not bring glory to God.

Jesus was not seeking to inflate others’ views or opinions of Himself. He did everything from a standpoint of “What will bring honor to the Father, and what will cause more people to place their attention and focus on Him?”

Abiding in Christ

“And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” 1 John 2:3-6.

“And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He is manifested, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.” 1 John 2:28.

The evidence that we are abiding in Christ is demonstrated if we are living in the same manner as Jesus.

This is how we define abiding in Christ. It is not some abstract mystical concept.

The Father desires to bring us to this inward spiritual reality if we will allow Him to do so.

Conclusion

Many in the modern Church have preached revival is needed to bring about the lasting change we need.

Many have preached that power, the gifts of the Spirit, and miracles are answers for turning everything around and seeing The Church become what was intended by The LORD.

Jesus showed us that inward maturity is what the Father is seeking. Sonship is the Father’s will for us.

When we attain to inward spiritual maturity, we will walk with the Father as mature sons and daughters as Jesus did.

Then we will be entrusted with the Holy Spirit and be able to carry out the will of God as Jesus did.

Many are now in a hard season of testing and being transformed inwardly. Many are still being formed in The LORD’s Cocoon.

Allow The LORD to finish His work, and you will emerge as a transfigured butterfly.

We have to trust the process of The LORD to see He has us on a long journey that has eternal significance.

Christ being formed in us is the goal.

May the Holy Spirit remind us of that every day.

 

~Ty Unruh

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Ty Unruh is a messenger of The LORD. He is longing is to walk with The LORD inwardly, and to be in the secret place of His presence. He desires to impart an inward burning for Jesus to others. Ty’s burden from The LORD is to see the bride made ready, disciples raised up, and to release a revelation of Jesus as the coming King and Judge. He also carries a call to see the church restored to The LORD’s original design found in the scriptures. Ty founded Generation Chosen in 2015.
Ty also runs Burning Point Ministries where all his articles and teachings may be found, and which will eventually be multilingual, as well a TickTok outreach ministry.

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