I am not a natural entrepreneur. An accurate picture of my experience in business would be of forcing a square peg through a round hole. That’s the point; to a large degree the time I’ve spent in business has shaped me into the man I am today.

Life in God is all about process; we begin at new birth and grow from there, our environment and experience molding us into the person God intended. It’s important we see things that way, by faith seeing the hand of God at work; otherwise, we give up and go, abandoning God’s purpose for us.

I’ve had to make this choice many times in my life. Though I believe God led me to start a business, it wasn’t my choice. I wanted to serve God through ‘ministry,’ and didn’t make the connection. As a result, I struggled for decades with the seeming dichotomy of sacred and secular work.

Thankfully, I had a mentor, whose life and work combined the two. Business for Jim Russell was his ministry; it was not only the means to an end, it was the end. It was was his service to God.

Jim would tell me, “Terry, your business is central to God’s call on your life.” I would agree outwardly, but inwardly I had my doubts. Time has taught me the truth of his words. God knew that this square man needed to be round in to fulfill his purpose. I am a different person than I was 30 years ago. Through loving pressure, the Master has forced me through the hole, making me a vessel fit for His use.

Business not only has been the means to this end, it has been the end itself. That’s the amazing thing about life in God; it’s all about the process. It’s more about the process than it is the end. Abraham’s experience is a classic example; he was a square peg too – Abram, but God called him to be Abraham. And so began the process. The result? He believed God, and “He credited it to him as righteousness.” The means was the end from the outset.

The will of God for every person is to be conformed to the Person of Jesus Christ. This doesn’t happen by osmosis; it comes about through heat and pressure. The process is the most important part; the outcome assured if we submit to the process. That’s how a man whose life and character was antithetical to God’s can become a man of God. And he might just use business or some other means to produce just that.

I’ll not forget sitting on the deck of my in-laws cottage on Lake George. It was early morning and I was reading my Bible–Romans 12 that day. I was fairly young in the Lord at the time and hungry to change. When I came to verse 2, the words “be transformed” jumped out at me. I could be different–totally transformed! How? By renewing my mind.

Since that day I have prayed most days as I open my Bible, “Father, thank You for Your Word. Please speak to my heart, renew my mind, feed my spirit, and heal my body. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Learning to think differently has everything to do with everything in God. You will never be who God wants you to be, you will never do what God wants you to do, and you will never get where God wants you to go, apart from mind renewal. It is the means to total transformation. Success in God, albeit in relationships, health, finance, or ministry, hinges on a godly mindset.

The amazing thing about Romans 12:2 is that it points us to who were are on the inside.

Kenneth Wuest’s translation of Romans 12:2, a more literal rendering of the Greek, paints a picture we all need to embrace.

“Stop assuming an outward expression that does not come from within you and is not representative of what you are in your inner being but is patterned after this age; but change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your mind.”

Pastor Dave Williams says that your outer kingdom is a reflection of your inner kingdom. Here it is in Scripture! The apostle Paul tell us we’re to be on the outside what we already are on the inside. What needs to happen is a change in our outward expression, and this happens by learning to think differently.

This simple truth has revolutionized my life. I have come to realize who and what I am in Christ; God has made me to be a completely new person, a new creation. My responsibility is to lay hold of this and work out in the day-to-day what God has already worked in me. I’m to be on the outside what I already am on the inside.

Transformation for the believer is akin to Jesus’ transfiguration on the mount. In fact, transformation and transfiguration are the same thing! Jesus was transfigured before the disciples. What He was on the inside showed up on the outside. This is God’s plan for us, and it all plays out as we learn to think about ourselves differently.