First step: Know what it really is! Conversion is a phenomenon that can be considered “mysterious”! What is mysterious is not the act in itself, the decision that one takes to convert, but the transit that happens between the primary state of a person and what he becomes thereafter. This is where the secret of “change” lies! This transition comes from God, it results from a divine process. Certainly, this operation does not come just like that, without reason. It stems from a well-considered decision by a person who desires, from the depths of herself, to change her life. The person not only makes the decision to change the fundamentally evil behavior he has adopted, but also he decides to make a radical transition from a mortal life to an immortal life.
Nope! This is not stupid, senseless nonsense! We “really” pass from a state of children of men to that of Children of God. We are moving from citizen of the world to citizen of Heavens. We pass from the state of simple man to the state of Holy man, flowing of course from the brand new presence of the Holy Spirit “within us”, according to the laying on of the hands of a man who was commissioned by God the Father and according to His benevolent Will! We are radically in newness of life! We immediately became new beings in complementarity with Jesus, thanks to His shed blood, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension and above all thanks to His LIFE.
Ephesians 5:2:
“And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma”.
After the decision to convert has been made, the future Christian must go through the unavoidable stage of baptism by immersion. Not a baptism by ablution or sprinkling, which are invalid baptisms in the eyes of God. He wanted the true baptism to be a complete immersion of the whole body so that the representation of death, the burial, would be representative and valid in His eyes and His contentment.
What can push a human being to make such a decision. There is certainly an external element that triggered this sudden desire to change life and behavior! The most common, in my opinion, is compassion! This ability to be able to feel pain, distress and pain in others and that which we also feel for ourselves. It is this capacity which comes from the heart, to feel pity for the world in general. There are some for whom it is the marked tendency to understand better and better and more and more the Master Plan that God has set in motion and which is reaching its apogee.
But “above all” understand above all that this tendency to conversion, this impulse of the heart “comes from God”!
Yes! 100% of the time it is your Creator who intervenes in your life! He takes the veil off your mind. This veil which hid the truth from you and which prevented you from seeing the Beauty and the Power of God as well as from understanding henceforth, little by little, His magnificent Plan for the human race.
After this “unblinding” you now understand how great the Love of God is for your little sinful person. You realize how much God loved you long before your life began. You understand how much He loves you because you now know why He gave His own Son as a sacrifice for you “personally” and for all mankind including all physical and spiritual Creation.
John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
True conversion passes through the heart, it is not the fruit of a whim. It absolutely cannot be the selfish will of a man who would like to possess “some supernatural power” or whatever his deviant motivation. It cannot belong to someone who would like to find there an opportunity to enrich themselves on the backs of others. It’s a commitment! It is an altruistic way of life centered on love and directed towards others, just as Jesus the Christ, our Big Brother taught us at His first coming.
By this conversion, we are henceforth bound to the divine promise to be co-heirs with Christ of all the goods, powers and benefits that God will grant us at the first resurrection, which will coincide with the second coming of Jesus in His Power and His Glory. The second death will not be imparted to us, at which time we will have become immortal beings. It doesn’t matter if we are still alive or dead during this major event in human history, we will be there because God always keeps His promises.
God has not abandoned us! He gave us a way to deliver ourselves from the grip of the evil one. He instituted a way to draw closer to Him. It is up to man alone to be attentive to God’s call. When a person is called by God, he feels it in the depths of his being. The person does not persuade himself, he is persuaded by God, there is quite a difference there! It is a new open-mindedness that is offered to him by the Creator! I will stick to the word “proposal” because, it goes without saying, that the final decision of conversion rests with the person himself. This is what differentiates us from animals, our decision-making spirit, our free will.
Thus, the acceptance of this new life belongs in everything and everywhere to this one person, no influence should be made, no pressure or manipulation of a third person should hinder the decision of this individual. Conversion is personal as much as the decision to undertake it is even more so.
This is what must be said and instructed on this subject! It is now up to you to be attentive to God’s call. It is through His mighty Holy Spirit that He will intervene. You will then have to take, in all good awareness, the ultimate decision of the marvelous proposal which is given to you and which will be your responsibility from now on.
Be good, be holy and be in the image of Christ as He Himself is in the image of His Father and His God at the same time! This is my sincere wish in the Holy Name of our Big Brother Jesus! Amen.
Gaëtan Landry, (endorsed by Michel Danis)
In all humility, servant of Christ and of God the Father through the Holy Spirit.
