In 2005 just after Alex and I were married, the Lord spoke to me about the first book I would someday write. He gave me a title that didnβt immediately give away its purpose, but it rolled off my tongue with eloquence and effective inspiration. I pondered and prayed for further insight, coming away with only a single word that would encompass the story to be told: transformation. A transformation I knew was yet to come.
As Iβve mentioned before, I wrote several chapter drafts of that book seven years ago. They were really nothing more than forced prose but tiptoeing around simplified speculation of that expectant hope. I wanted so desperately to grasp that victory, to have already overcome my shortcomings enough to successfully construct a worthy sum of pages to be called a book, that I just skipped over the basic requirement of transformation altogether.
Sometime later I received a vision of the transformation I was to expect before the first true paragraph could be perfectly penned. The Lord drew my eyes to the first miracle that Jesus publically performed at the wedding at Cana. It is described in John 2:3-10 (MSG):
When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesusβ mother told him, βTheyβre just about out of wine.β
Jesus said, βIs that any of our business, Motherβyours or mine? This isnβt my time. Donβt push me.β
She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, βWhatever he tells you, do it.β
Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus ordered the servants, βFill the pots with water.β And they filled them to the brim.
βNow fill your pitchers and take them to the host,β Jesus said, and they did.
When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didnβt know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom, βEverybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But youβve saved the best till now!β
As was custom, water was a required element to a banquet such as this. The six stoneware waterpots for ritual washing held more than 100 gallons standing at the ready. The Lord showed me that this water represents the basis of lifeβthe βessentialβ life, as He described it to my spirit. All living things share this basic need; without water, life cannot be sustained. Water is truly the essence of our existence, the blood and organs that make up our bodies, a means of cleansing our bodies both inside and out. Water is but being aliveβnothing more than survival.
But wine is not, by any means, essential. Expected and desired by guests, perhaps, but not required as a means of survival. Their existence would continue if wine did not amply flow at this banquet, but would it be as much of a celebration without it? As stated, the best wine was usually served first, the true hallmark of a wedding banquet.
The Lord showed me that this wine that Jesus brought forth represents the βcelebratoryβ lifeβa life not merely characterized by surviving but thriving, a celebration of the abundant blessings surrounding the bride and her Bridegroom. This celebratory life can only be reached through the effective transformation brought about by the power of the Word, just as the transformation from water into wine could not take place until Jesus spoke it outright at the wedding banquet. He himself did not even touch the water pots or the water; He merely spoke the transformation into being.
After Jesus turned the water into wine, John 2:11 (AMP) says,
This, the first of His signs (miracles, wonderworks), Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory [by it He displayed His greatness and His power openly], and His disciples believed in Him [adhered to, trusted in, and relied on Him].
How many times have we heard of or witnessed ourselves the power of Christ in the transformation of peopleβs lives right before our eyes? His Word alone has performed miracles and βwonderworksβ countless times throughout the ages, and we have believed in the name of Jesus all the more readily because of those transformations. Through each and every one, He displays βHis greatness and His power openlyββall the more reason for us to βadhere to, trust in and relyβ on Him.
In John 10:10 (MSG), Jesus says, βI came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.β Jesus, Himself, is the wine that was βheld backβ until later and finally brought forth for the rescue of His beloved church. His resurrection and victory over death shows us that we too can live the celebratory life, an abundant life, βmore and better lifeβ than we ever dreamed of. We must merely surrender to His Word at work within us, transforming us daily, so that we donβt have to just βsurviveβ this life until we reach heavenβwe can celebrate and thrive now, claiming Christβs victory over sin as our own.
This morning Dr. Tom Wood brought the Sunday message entitled, βThe Reality of our Rescue,β from Colossians 1:9-14. So apparent to me was the idea of transformation within these verses that I decided to write about my vision tonight; it is abundantly clear that we are to take in His Word and move steadily closer to His Person, being transformed into the likeness of Christ Himself:
β¦That you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual thingsβThat you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition]. [We pray] that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, [to exercise] every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance) with joyβ¦ (vs. 9-11 AMP)
There is no half-way here. We are to be βfilledβ with the βfullβ knowledge of His will and be βinvigorated and strengthened with all powerβ! When Jesus speaks a transformation into being, it is finished, done, completedβand abundantly so. And thatβs the transformation we are each offered.
Yes, itβs a choice we each must make. And for the last seven years I have been in denial that I was allowing it to happen in my heart. I thought that since I was going to church and hanging out with fellow Christians that God must obviously be transforming me, albeit slow and tedious. Nope. Not really. I was kidding myself. I was not allowing the truth of the Word of God to permeate my soul. I believed I was walking, living and conducting myself βin a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things.β But I was not βbearing fruit in every good workβ or exercising βevery kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance).βΒ Trust me, just ask my husbandβ¦or my mother.
Jesusβ mother initiated an opportunity for Jesus to display His power openly in the transformation of the water into wine. And in many ways, I have to admit, my own mother helped initiate a similar opportunity for Him to display His power in the transformation of my life. When my mother visits, sometimes I see the worst of myself come out in the ways I treat her. With that kind of mirror in front of me, itβs hard to walk away and do nothing.
How funny that I should be praising mothers on Fatherβs Day. Perhaps thatβs how itβs meant to be, that when I thank my Heavenly Father for all Heβs done and for all His blessings, one of the greatest in my lifeβ¦is her. I know that when someone in her church is hurting, others know they can depend on her to help, to shed light in darkness. I want to be known as a Woman of the Light too.
The Art of Choosing True Life 
You certainly covered that serious and very important subject well and very thoroughly without having to write the whole book, but it is a great start.