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Second Corinthians 3:18 reveals that we may express Christ as a mirror.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”
Here the unveiled face is in contrast to the veiled mind, the veiled heart (vv. 14-15). This means that our heart has turned to the Lord so that the veil has been taken away, and the Lord as the Spirit has freed us from the bondage, the veiling, of the law, so that there is no more insulation between us and the Lord.
According to 2 Corinthians, the believers should be mirrors without any kind of veil covering them. This means that we should no longer be covered by the veil of the law. As uncovered mirrors, we should behold the glory of the Lord and thus be transformed.
In order to behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, we need to be unveiled. Our face should be fully unveiled so that we may see clearly and reflect properly. Formerly, we were veiled, but now, through the ministry of the apostles, the veil has been taken away. Suppose that a mirror is proper in every way. It is in the right position with respect to the object it is to behold and reflect. But if the mirror is covered with a veil, it loses its function. The veil keeps the mirror both from beholding and from reflecting. Likewise, if we are veiled, we cannot behold and reflect the Lord’s glory.
If, by the mercy and grace of the Lord, all the veils are removed, we will be mirrors beholding and reflecting Him with unveiled face. As a mirror, are you veiled or unveiled? Every one of us needs to be fully unveiled. There should not be a veil between us and the Lord. Experientially speaking, a veil refers to some kind of insulation. No matter how close we may be to the Lord, if we are insulated by a veil, He cannot infuse Himself into us. We may not realize, however, that we are still under certain veils and that these veils insulate us from the Lord’s transfusion. We should not assume that we do not have any veils. Instead of taking it for granted that we are fully unveiled, we need to look to the Lord and pray for mercy that all the veils will be taken away so that we may behold and reflect the Lord.
Many Christians cannot behold and reflect the Lord because they are covered by a thick veil or perhaps several layers of veils. For instance, many believers are veiled by religious concepts. Paul’s word about beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face was written with his background in Judaism in mind. Paul knew from his experience that the Jews were veiled by their religion. Paul himself had once been veiled in this way. In particular, many Jews were veiled by their concept concerning the law, especially circumcision. Because Paul taught that the law was over and that circumcision was no longer necessary, many Jews were not willing to listen to him. Their doctrine regarding the law and circumcision was a veil that kept them from seeing the Christ preached by Paul.
In addition to the religious concepts that veil people, every person is veiled by certain natural concepts or ideas. Often these veils are related to the kind of people we are by our natural constitution. Furthermore, we are veiled also by our racial and national character. Differences of national character can make it difficult for believers from different countries to worship together. The various national characters, dispositions, habits, and customs are veils that keep us from beholding and reflecting the Lord. Those who are veiled by their racial, national, or cultural characteristics are not able to receive the Christ ministered by one of a different race, nationality, or culture. They may hear a word concerning the glorious, resurrected Christ, but it does not penetrate them. Because they are veiled, they cannot see anything of such a wonderful Christ. The light of the truth cannot shine into them. Those who are veiled in this way can be compared to a camera that has a cover over the lens. When the lens of a camera is covered, no light can come in, and no image can be impressed on the film.
In the transfiguration the face of the Lord Jesus shone as the bright sun. However, the face mentioned in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is not simply the outward face but the inward face. We all have an outer face and an inner face. The outer face is simply the expression of the inner face. The outer face is our outward being; the inner face is our inward being. The face is the index, the expression, of our whole being. None of us may have a veil upon our outward face, but many of us still have some veils over our inner face.
Religious and holy things as well as sinful things and worldly things can be a veil to us. If you study the context of 2 Corinthians 3, you will see that the veil mentioned there is specifically the Old Testament in letters. Even the letters in the Bible can be a veil to cover us, keeping us from seeing the living Lord. If the letters of the Bible can be a veil to us, then everything can be a veil — our spouse, our friends, our children, our siblings, our self, our good behavior, our bad behavior, our zealous activity, and our work for God. All things other than the Lord Himself can be a veil. It does not matter how holy, heavenly, spiritual, or religious a thing is; as long as it is not the Lord Himself, it can be a veil. We may still be under this kind of veiling. That is why we may not see the Lord. If we want to be unveiled, we need to open to the Lord, saying, “Lord, take away anything that is covering me. Lord, remove my veils. Take away any opinions that are veils to me. Lord, I want to be completely open, absolutely unveiled.” Then with an unveiled face we will behold and reflect the glory of the Lord and be transformed into His image from glory to glory.
We need to have an unveiled face beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, just as Moses beheld the glory of God for forty days, and God’s glory radiated from the skin of his face (Exo. 34:29). When he came down from the mountain, he was shining, glowing with God’s glory. We all need to forget everything good, bad, holy, unholy, religious, unreligious, spiritual, unspiritual. No matter what a thing may be, if it is not the Lord Himself, we must put it aside. We need to recognize the subtlety of the enemy. Satan can utilize anything to turn us away from beholding the Lord. The only thing that Satan cannot utilize is the Lord Himself.
In the New Testament there are at least four books written specifically about the things that frustrate people from beholding the Lord, things that veil people from contacting and enjoying the Lord. The book of Galatians deals with the law, religion, and tradition, all of which are a veil of separation. The law was given by God and was holy. Even the New Testament says that the law is holy (Rom. 7:12). Yet something holy, such as the law, can sever us from Christ, cutting us off from the enjoyment of Christ (Gal. 5:4). It is possible to be severed from Christ, not only by immoral things but also by the God-given law. This is because our face can be turned to the law instead of Christ. Thus, the law immediately becomes a veil. The law always forms a religion, and religion has long traditions. Hence, we have the law, religion, and traditions, all forming layers of insulation, insulating us from the heavenly electricity which is the Lord Himself.
In Colossians the word philosophy is used (2:8). The word philosophy in this book refers mainly to Gnosticism, a higher philosophy, a composition of Greek, Egyptian, and Babylonian philosophy, plus the philosophy of Christianity, which included the Jewish philosophy. That was quite a mixture. That philosophy, the highest product of human culture, came into the early church, causing considerable frustration. Although philosophy may be the best product of human culture, since it is not the Lord, it becomes a veil and must be dealt with.
If we read the book of Hebrews, we will see that it itemizes all the good things of Judaism. Hebrews shows us that all the good things in Judaism should be considered as types, figures, and shadows of Christ. Before Jesus came, God used the Old Testament to present to His people many pictures of Christ from different angles. But the Jewish people held on to the pictures. That enclosed them, keeping them from seeing Christ. Christ is outside of that enclosure. The Jewish people saw so many things about Christ, but they could not see Christ Himself. Thus, the book of Hebrews was written to tell the Jewish believers that they must drop the pictures, the whole system of Judaism, and look at Christ. We need to look away from all the Jewish things. We should only consider the Apostle and High Priest, Jesus Christ (3:1). We need to forget Moses, the angels, and Joshua; instead, we need to look away unto Jesus (12:2).
In 1 Corinthians Paul warns us that even the spiritual gifts — speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, healings, miracles — can all be veils to a Christian.
The law, philosophy, Judaism with its scriptural items and teachings, and spiritual gifts have become veils over the faces of many Christians. We all need to tell the Lord, “I love You. I love the Bible because it reveals You, but I will never let the Bible become a veil. I love You, Lord Jesus. I love You personally, I love You directly, and I love You most intimately. I do not like to see You far away. I like to see You face to face.” Many of us have entered into this experience already, but we all need to be preserved in this experience. We need to pray, “Lord Jesus, I appreciate the gifts because the gifts help me to touch You, but if the gifts become a veil, I will turn away from them. I just love You, Lord. I love You personally, directly, and intimately. I love You in the way that I can kiss You at any time. There is no distance and no separation between You and me. I am directly and intimately in Your presence.”
We are mirrors beholding Christ and reflecting Him, but the problem is that sometimes our heart is turned away from the Lord. Thus, we have to turn our heart to Him. Whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (2 Cor. 3:16). The Lord is waiting for us to turn our hearts to Him. He is indwelling our spirit, and our spirit is the hidden man of our heart (1 Pet. 3:4). Our heart must be turned inwardly to the indwelling Christ. Then we will behold Him and reflect Him. We need to turn our hearts to Him all the time, morning and evening, day and night. Even while we are working or driving our car, we must turn our hearts to Him. The more we turn to Him and behold Him, the more we will reflect Him and be transformed into His image.
When we open ourselves to behold Him, He as the living Spirit imparts Himself into us. Whenever we behold the Lord, we return to the spirit. We need to look away from everything unto Jesus, who is the living Spirit in our spirit. When we behold Him, He has the ground and the opportunity to impart Himself into us. This imparting of Himself into us will transform us.
With a mirror there is the need of an unveiled face. There is also the need for the mirror to be turned in the right direction. This is why 2 Corinthians 3:16 tells us that whenever the heart “turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Our heart needs to be turned to the Lord so that we can behold Him with an unveiled face. We may feel that we have given up religion with all its traditions many years ago, but after that, to whom did we turn? We may have turned in the wrong direction. A mirror has to be turned in the direction of our face to behold and reflect us. When the mirror turns to us, it reflects us. We may have given up traditional religion, but where is our direction? Are we directing ourself to the Lord Himself? Have we turned to the Lord? We need to be unveiled and directed to the Lord Himself.
If our heart turns away from the Lord, He will be bound in our spirit and will have no way to come forth or spread out. One day, however, the Lord may touch us, and our heart may turn back to Him. Through the turning and opening of our heart to the Lord, we are able to behold the glory of the Lord face to face. As we behold the Lord day after day in all our situations, we will eventually reflect the Lord’s glory and be transformed into His image from glory to glory. In other words, if we open to Him a little today, then we will see something of Him today. If tomorrow we open to Him further, then tomorrow we will see something more of Him. We are like a mirror with an unveiled face aimed at Him. The more we focus on Him and draw near to Him, the clearer and more glorious our reflection of His glory will be.
An unveiled face is a heart that is turned to the Lord. When our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Actually, our turned-away heart is the veil. To turn our heart to the Lord is to take away the veil. Our heart is the crucial factor in our enjoyment of the Lord as the life-giving Spirit and in our being transformed into the Lord’s image. If we would enjoy the Lord as the living Spirit and be transformed by Him, we have to deal with our heart. Our heart needs to be turned to the Lord.
Whenever our heart loves the Lord and turns to Him, our heart and our face toward Him are unveiled. We can then behold Him face to face and fellowship with Him every day. The Lord through His Spirit will fill our being — our mind, emotion, and will — with His glory and with Himself as the Spirit. Consequently, whatever we think about, love, or choose will have the Lord’s image because they will all have the Lord’s element.
According to verse 18, we behold and reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord. Beholding is to see the Lord by ourselves; reflecting is for others to see Him through us. We are like mirrors beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord. As such, our face should be fully unveiled that we may see well and reflect accurately.
We are transformed not only by seeing the Lord but also by reflecting Him. A mirror has the capacity both to behold an object and to reflect it. In English the words beholding and reflecting like a mirror are the translation of a single word in Greek. The use of this word in verse 18 is metaphorical. On the one hand, a mirror beholds a person or an object. On the other hand, a mirror reflects what it beholds. These are the two aspects of the function of a mirror.
The glory in verse 18 is the glory of the Lord as the resurrected and ascended One, who as both God and man passed through incarnation, human living on earth, and crucifixion, entering into resurrection, accomplishing full redemption, and becoming a life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, He dwells in us to make Himself and all that He has accomplished, obtained, and attained real to us, that we may be one with Him and be transformed into His image from glory to glory.
Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Here seeing God is a great reward in the kingdom. According to the clear view in the New Testament, to see God is to receive God into us. If seeing God is merely an objective seeing of God and nothing else, that means very little. But seeing God is to receive God, and God comes into us as our element to renew us, to transform us, because God’s coming in adds the divine element into our being. We first behold God, that is, we see God; then we reflect Him and are transformed. In our seeing God, we are being transformed into His glorious image, from one degree of glory to another. The more we look at Him, the more we receive His elements into our being as our inner supply to work on us, to discharge the old, and to make us new. This is to transform us into God’s image.
Our way of looking at God today is altogether a matter in the spirit. The God whom we may look at is the processed and consummated Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit, and we can look at Him in our spirit. Sometimes we are too busy or too careless to take the opportunity to look at the Lord. In our morning watch we may take time to be with the Lord, time to remain in the Spirit. At such a time we may pray-read His word, talk to Him, or pray to Him with short prayers. Then we will have the sense that we are receiving something of God’s element, that we are absorbing the riches of God into our being. In this way we are under the divine transformation day by day.
If we reflect Christ, there is not always the need for us to stand up and function in the meetings. If Christ has been dispensed into us and if we with an unveiled face have been looking to Christ day by day, we will be a mirror reflecting Him in the meeting. When people look at us, they will see Christ. This is not a matter of functioning but of reflecting. Reflection is much more than function. When we come to the meetings, we need to reflect Christ. This is a matter not of gifts but of growth. As we grow in Christ, more of Him will be imparted into our being by the living Spirit. The Christ who has been imparted into us will be reflected from us. Thus, we become a mirror reflecting Christ. Today Christ needs mirrors. We need to be bright, unveiled mirrors reflecting the Christ who has been dispensed into our being. This will strengthen, uplift, and enrich the Body life.
Today the glory is the resurrected Christ, and this Christ is the Spirit. This means that the Lord as the glory is the Spirit living in us and dwelling in our spirit. Now that we have the Spirit indwelling our spirit, we need to exercise our spirit more and more by praying, reading the Word, and calling on the name of the Lord. The more we exercise our spirit with an unveiled face, the more we will behold the Lord. As we are gazing on Him, we will also reflect Him. While we are beholding and reflecting Him in this way, His element, His essence, will be added into our being. This new element will replace and discharge the element of our old, natural life.
When the Lord through His Spirit works His glory, which is Himself as the Spirit, into us and saturates us from our spirit into the three parts of our soul, then we become mature in life from glory to glory. Eventually, our mind, emotion, and will — our entire inward being — will be glory.
Every morning we must have fellowship with the Lord, even if we are very busy. Early in the morning, the first thing we need to do is to go to the Lord with an unveiled face to look at Him, behold Him, and reflect Him for a period of time. To linger in the presence of the Lord while beholding and reflecting Him affords us a real taste, a real enjoyment. During such a time in the Lord’s presence, as we behold and reflect the Lord, He transfuses Himself into us, and that transfusing brings into us the divine element. Moreover, during the day we must again find time to draw near to Him, to be face to face with Him. Then we will be like a mirror beholding Him and reflecting His glory. Thus, the Lord will transfuse into us the elements of what He is and what He has done. By the power of His life and with His life elements we will gradually be metabolically transformed to have His life shape. We begin every day with an unveiled face, looking to the Lord and calling on His name. His Spirit will then operate within us and will mingle God’s life and nature with us in order that we will be transformed into His glorious image.
Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”
When we with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. Thus, we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence, transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. Being transformed indicates that we are in the process of transformation.
The constitution of life involves the life essence, the life power, and the life shape. Every kind of life has these three things — the essence, the power, and the shape. For example, a carnation flower has an essence and a power; therefore, it is formed into a certain shape. As it grows with the life essence and by the life power, it is shaped into a particular form. It is the same with the divine life. This life has its essence, power, and shape. The shape of the divine life is the image of Christ. Thus, in 2 Corinthians 3:18 we have the thought of being transformed into the same image. This means that we will be shaped into the image of Christ. Based upon this fact and upon Paul’s use of the word transformed, we speak of being metabolically constituted. This term is based upon the concept of transformation into the image of Christ.
We need to be open to the divine life with its power, essence, and shape. As we open to the Lord, He as the life-giving Spirit enters into our being to infuse His life essence into us, to operate within us by His life power, and to shape us into His image. This is the constitution of life to make us ministers of the new covenant.
Paul and his co-workers were mirrors beholding and reflecting with an unveiled face the glory of Christ in order to be transformed into His glorious image. Man was made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26), and Colossians 1:15 says that Christ is the image of the invisible God. The glorious image unveiled in 2 Corinthians 3 is the divine image in Genesis 1:26. However, at the time of Genesis 1:26 Christ did not have the elements of incarnation, humanity, His all-inclusive death, and His wonderful resurrection. These elements have now been added to Christ by the process through which the Triune God has passed. Now the image of God is not only the image of divinity; it is the image of divinity mingled with humanity and constituted with the all-inclusive death and the wonderful resurrection.
The image in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ. The “same image” means that we are being conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, being made the same as He is (Rom. 8:29). According to the usage in the New Testament, image refers not merely to an outward form but to the outward expression of the inner being. The expression of what we are is our image; our image is exactly according to who we are inwardly in our being.
God’s way of transforming is through enlightening. Wherever the light shines, life is supplied. By rejecting the light, we are rejecting the supply of life. A believer who experiences the greatest amount of transformation is the one who is absolutely open to the Lord. We need to pray, “Lord, I am fully open to You. I want to keep opening to You. My whole being is open — my heart, my mind, my will, and my emotions. Keep shining. Search me thoroughly. Enlighten and enliven me. I will accept it fully.” In this way, the light will penetrate into every area, and simultaneously life will be supplied to us. Consequently, we will be transformed into the image of Christ.
Although transformation is a change, it involves more than a mere outward change. Transformation involves a metabolic change, an inward change in life. Such a metabolic change requires the working within us of the element of the divine life. This produces a change not only in appearance and behavior but also in life, nature, and intrinsic essence. In the process of metabolism a new element is supplied to an organism. This new element replaces the old element and causes it to be discharged. Therefore, as the process of metabolism takes place within a living organism, something new is created within it to replace the old element, which is carried away. Metabolism, therefore, includes three matters: first, the supplying of a new element; second, the replacing of the old element with this new element; and third, the discharge or the removal of the old element so that something new may be produced.
This metabolic function, on the one hand, adds the element of the divine life of Christ into our entire being and, on the other hand, discharges the old and negative things from within us. Consequently, we have a change not only in our inward nature but also in our outward image so that we express the image of Christ. Consummately, this image of Christ is the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). Transformation results in our becoming the New Jerusalem.
When the Lord, who is the Spirit, came into us, He came into our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). Now we are joined to the Lord and have become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). The divine Spirit and the human spirit are mingled and blended together to form one spirit. We are one with the Lord not in the body or in the mind; we are one with the Lord in our spirit. When the Lord came into our spirit, a reaction took place in our being. That reaction was our regeneration. Regeneration is the transformation of the spirit. At the moment we believed, our spirit was transformed by Christ as the divine life.
Because we have been regenerated, our spirit is fully transformed. Now we must undergo the continual transformation of the rest of our being, particularly our soul (2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23). The soul is a very important part of our being. For our soul to be transformed means that our mind, emotion, and will are transformed. If we are transformed in our spirit but not in our soul, it means that although we have Christ as life in our spirit, we do not have much of Christ in our soul. Our need is for Christ to increase within us all the time, that is, to spread from our spirit into the three parts of our soul. When we are transformed into His image, we will think, feel, and decide just as Christ thinks, feels, and decides. When we consider matters, we will consider them as the Lord does; when we love or hate, we will love or hate as Christ does; and when we choose, we will choose as the Lord does and give up and reject what the Lord gives up and rejects. When our entire soul has been transformed into the image of Christ, we will have the image of Christ in our daily life.
We need to let Him saturate us and permeate us. The more we behold Him and the more we reflect Him, the more He saturates and permeates us to transform us into His own image that we might express God. This is not only the Lord mingling Himself with us but also the Lord saturating us and even soaking us. When Christ comes into us and saturates us, we are “Christified.” Christ as the life-giving Spirit saturates us until we are fully Christified. By being Christified, we become Christ. This is why we are Christians. Christ has come into us and has Christified us so that we are now Christians. Christians are simply Christ. This is the corporate Christ as the expression of God (1 Cor. 12:12). The Lord’s intention is to recover Christification. We need to be Christified. The church life is the glorious Christification. The Lord’s recovery is to Christify every believer until he obtains a total Christification. This Christification is simply the expression of God.
To be transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory is to be transformed into His image from one degree of glory to another degree. This indicates an ongoing process in life in resurrection. We express Christ in this way by experiencing and enjoying the Lord Spirit. This transformation does not happen once for all; it is a gradual matter. The apostles were transformed from one degree of glory to another. The way of transformation is by an increase and an advance, advancing from one degree of glory to another degree of glory (2 Cor. 3:18b). On the pathway of transformation we proceed from one level of glory to another level of glory, from glory to glory, progressively.
The glory in 3:18 is actually the Spirit. This glory also refers to the resurrected Christ, or to Christ in resurrection. The Lord Jesus was glorified by resurrection (Luke 24:26). Hence, the glory, the Spirit, and resurrection all refer to the same thing. Today the Spirit within us is glory and also the reality of resurrection. Therefore, we see that the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3 is an essence, not an instrument or power.
Likewise, glory here is not an instrument, power, ability, or gift but an essence. As we behold the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face, we are being transformed with glory as an essence. The expression from glory to glory in verse 18 means from the Lord Spirit to the Lord Spirit, for in this verse the glory and the Spirit are synonyms. Therefore, to be transformed from glory to glory is to be transformed from the Spirit to the Spirit. We are not being transformed from behavior to behavior, from spirituality to spirituality, or from victory to victory. We are being transformed from glory to glory! The source of this transformation is not doctrine in letters; it is the Lord Spirit. The more we behold the Lord’s glory and are transformed by the Lord Spirit from glory to glory, the more the Lord will gain the glorious church that He desires. Transformation will make us glorious. It will cause us to bear the Lord’s image, His appearance, and His glorious expression.
We are transformed even as from the Lord Spirit. It is possible to understand the word rendered “even as” in 3:18 to mean “that is.” Hence, the apostles were being transformed from glory to glory, that is, from the Lord Spirit. They were being transformed into the image of the Lord Spirit from the Lord Spirit. In verse 18 the word from indicates that the transformation is proceeding from the Spirit rather than being caused by Him. The phrase from the Lord Spirit indicates a transmission. As we are beholding the Lord, a transmission takes place. This transmission is from the Lord Spirit with the element of the Lord. Transformation requires the addition of another element; without such an addition, transformation cannot take place. Through the transmission from the Lord Spirit, within whom is the element of the Lord, we are transformed from glory to glory.
The Lord Spirit in 3:18 may be considered a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ. This expression again strongly proves and confirms that the Lord Christ is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Lord Christ. In 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 the Spirit is mentioned in three aspects: “the Lord is the Spirit,” “the Spirit of the Lord,” and “the Lord Spirit.” We have to realize that the Lord is the Spirit to us, and we should call Him the Lord Spirit. To call Him the Lord Spirit is according to the subjective experience of life. If we do not know the divine life, it will be difficult for us to call our Lord Jesus the Lord Spirit. As we are experiencing the divine life in our daily life, we will spontaneously have the sense that the Lord is the Spirit. The more we experience the Lord in life, the more we will realize that the Lord is the Spirit to us.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul does not speak of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of life. Rather, he refers to the Lord Spirit. In this aspect of the Spirit the element of lordship is included. The Lord Jesus became the Lord after His ascension to the heavens. This means that a man from Nazareth named Jesus has been made the Lord of all. This lordship is now in the Spirit. In the Lord Spirit we have the elements of ascension and lordship.
We are transformed by the Lord Spirit. He is the living Spirit within us. Hence, we need to pay our attention to the Spirit all the time. We should learn to open to Him. If we open ourselves to Him, He will have a way to purify us, purge us, saturate us, permeate us, fill us, mingle Himself with us, and transform us. Transformation takes place by this living One imparting Himself more and more into us. He imparts Himself into us by our drinking Him, eating Him, and breathing Him in. To eat Him, drink Him, and breathe Him in are to allow Him to write Himself into us by our beholding Him. He is the living Spirit waiting within us. Therefore, we need to learn to turn ourselves to the Spirit and open to Him. Then He will saturate us, and we as a mirror will behold and reflect the glory of the Lord and be transformed into His image.
