The Touch of the Master's Hand- THE BEAUTY OF THE TRANSFORMATI

Satan is the father of a malformed bent in all of us, including himself.  Some people ask if God created Satan.  Scripture says that God created Lucifer, who was a beautiful archangel.  In scripture the original beauty that God created in Lucifer was magnificent and is mentioned.  His very name meant "Day Star" or "Son of the Morning."  He lived in the presence of Almighty God.  So he had to be special, even among the angels.  But he was prideful and sin overtook his heart.  He was cast from Heaven and given the new name of Satan, which means "adversary."  He became an adversary of God and God's people.  Satan is a self-made person as a fallen angel, who took something good that God created, and turned it to something bad.  That is why I believe that God created Lucifer, but Lucifer created Satan.  Lucifer brought this on himself.

With this insight we can look at the beauty of what God creates in our mother's womb to be the start of something beautiful.  God said this work in the early stage of our creation is wonderful.  But this created beautiful bent becomes corrupted by the world of sin that Satan has created.  Sadly all of mankind will be born wonderful into this world and in God's sight, but we will be malformed into a likeness of God's enemy.  We will also be born into the consequence of being eternally separated from our Creator.  However, through Jesus Christ we can have a do-over.  That which was corrupted by sin and the father of spiritual malformation can be transformed into the beauty our Creator had in mind in the womb.

I have mentioned the bent in a child or adult.  What is the difference in a beautiful or ugly bent in a person?  It is similar to Lucifer's fall.  It is when a beautifully unique spirit or characteristic God creates in us becomes corrupted by pride, or selfishness, or bitterness or greed.  When these and other self-driven tendencies influence our bent, it looks disgusting to those around this person, and especially to God.  What do we do about it?  We mistakenly try to change it, by bending the person, even our self in an opposite direction.  When we do this we see resistance, and often the damage of a broken spirit.  So we must understand that there is only one way for this malformation in our spirit to be transformed into something good.  It requires the Touch of the Master's Hand.

In the passage above we see the result of a transformed life where the Creator takes us back to the original design He had in mind in our mother's womb.  We are given a new heart and a new spirit.  That sounds like a fresh start to me.  The new heart will be tender and responsive to God.  This sounds like intimate fellowship with our Father.  Can you see what happens here?  He is telling us that not only are we redeemed but as well we are transformed.  He tears off the chains of our malformed bent, and allows the bent He created to be reformed to honor Him and live in the freedom of no condemnation.

As an example with how Satan takes a bent and malforms it would be with the use of words.  Some people use their words destructively because their words are often listened to, and they influence people.  This gift of gab could be a good thing, if it is used to build up and encourage rather than tear down and partner with Satan.  The bent of this person could be a beautiful expression, for God created this person's intelligence, charm, and charisma from his or her experiences in life.  But the old Malformer takes that bent in this person and reshapes it toward his ways, and the beauty that God created is corrupted.  It is the same with those people bent for business, athletics, works of service, education and so on.  The Holy Spirit can reshape us.  Can you imagine the impact that godly teachers have made on our society while at the same time the negative impact of godless teachers doing the opposite?  It is because Satan corrupts the God created bent in a person, but God can transform it back to what He had in mind if we will allow Him.

As I close the last day on this devotional series I will challenge you to do a little self-examination to look at your own bent.  Are you using that bent to God's glory?  If not you can begin doing so if you will allow Him to reshape it back to what He had in mind at your creation.  This reshaping or transformation occurs when you abide in close proximity with Christ.  It is a "fruit" of this abiding relationship.  It is to be restored to the beautiful creature that your Creator had in mind when He originally formed you.  In this process you will be delicately shaped toward Christ and into Christ-likeness.  This is when you can become the man or woman you have always longed to be.  The Master's Touch awaits you.  Why delay?