This word is submitted by Teresa Seputis (ts@godspeak.org)

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                      Transformation

Child, I have called you to be holy, even as I am holy.  Do not think 
this is something you can do in your own strength or merit.  For I
say unto you, this is not possible.  If you were able to be holy of
your own self, I would not have needed to lay down My life on your 
behalf.  But you can't do it, and that is why I came.

So then, where does holiness come from?  It comes from My Holy Spirit
indwelling you and transforming you.  He is the one who convicts you of
sin, that you might repent before Me.  He is the one who exposes the
hurts and bondages of the past, that you might be set free from them.
He is the one who changes your desires to better line up with My
desires.  He is the one who changes your nature to reflect My nature.
He is the one who I promised you when I still walked among you on the
earth.  He is the one who I sent to you when I ascended to be with My 
Father.

He is going to take you through a process of transformation and maturing.
You have no choice about whether or not this happens, for living things
must grow and develop if they are to stay alive. But you do have a choice 
in this of how you walk out this process.  You can cooperate with My 
Spirit as He works in you to purify and change you, or you can fight and
rebel against Him.  Either way, He will change you, for that is what He 
does.  

If you choose to submit to the Holy Spirit's transformation work deep 
inside of you, it will go faster and be easier on you.  You will quickly 
find greater measures of life and joy and peace.  But if you choose to 
rebel and resist, He will still do His work in you. But it will be more 
difficult for you.  He may have to turn the heat up higher.  He may have 
to apply more pressure to get you to cooperate.  But He will prevail.  He
always prevails.

Therefore, child, I encourage you to submit and yield and cooperate.  Lay 
down your own agenda and allow Him to give you Mine.  Lay down your own 
desires and ambitions and allow Him to give you the desires and ambitions 
of God. The work He wants to do in you is a good thing, and it is My will
and desire for you to cooperate with Him in this transformation process.
I have called you not to remain a child; I have called you to grow and 
mature.  As you do so, you will come to a fuller knowledge of Who I am 
and of who I have created you to be.  

You must lay aside your carnal nature for it has been corrupted by things 
of this world.  Allow My Spirit to transform you back into what I have 
created you to be.  Allow Him to take away the things that bring death
and destruction.  Allow Him to replace them with the things that bring 
life and hope.

I know that My surgery is uncomfortable.  In the natural, it hurts
when the surgeon's knife cuts away the cancerous growth that is trying 
to attack a vital organ and snuff the life out of it.  Even so in the 
spirit, the cutting away of the "things of death" is painful.  Yet, My 
Spirit does not cut to harm you or to cause pain.  He cuts to remove the 
things of death that you might live and that you might recover and that 
you might be restored to the fullness of life.  So do not pull away from 
the Master Surgeon's knife.  He is applying it with much skill and He 
will not cut that which does not need to be cut. But if you wiggle and 
squirm and resist, you make it harder for Him to be precise in the surgery.  
He may have to cut away more as you resist Him.  So yield to Him. Submit 
to His surgery.

And He will make you a trade that you will benefit from.  He will take 
away your death and give you life.  He will take away your fear and 
give you peace.  He will take away your rejection and condemnation and
make you to be accepted in the beloved.  He will take away your pain and
sorrow and give you joy.  He will take away the foolishness of this world
and replace it with the wisdom of God.  He will take away the isolation
and separation and bring you into a place of intimacy with God that you
have not dreamed is possible.  He will take away your weakness and give
you My strength.  He will take away your self-centeredness and give you
My love and compassion. Little by little, piece by piece, He will take 
away areas of your sinful nature and replace it with strongholds of My 
holiness.  

Child, this is a very good trade.  The things that you hold onto as precious
are nothing compared to the things that I desire to give you.  So, stop 
clinging to them.  Yield to My Spirit and allow Him to transform you to be 
more like Me. Receive My life and peace and hope and joy at His hand, for
this is My desire for you.  Let My Spirit take away the things that hold 
you back, so that you can enter into the fullness of all that I created 
you to be.  Then you will look more like Me, the One Who's name you are
called by.  And you will think more like Me.  And you will act more like
Me, and I will be able to glorify My name through you.  That is my heart 
for you. 

So, submit willingly to this transformation process.