God's Will
What is the Will of God?Our Purpose:
Romans 12
12:1 Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.
12:2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
God's will revealed vs. God's unrevealed will
Six Core Truths from God's Word:
1. That you will be Saved
Saved (1 Tim. 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9)
2. That you will be Spirit-filled
Spirit-filled (Eph. 5:17-18, Titus 3:5) [present continuous verb tense]
Who is the Holy Spirit? (not what is He)
3. That you will be Sanctified
Sanctified (1 Thess. 4:3-7)
4. That you will be Submissive
Submissive (1 Peter 2:13-15)
5. That you will be Suffering
Suffering (Phil. 1:29; 2 Tim. 3:12)
6. That you will be Saying Thanks
Give Thanks (1 Thess. 5:18, Phil. 4:6)
If all those things are true in your life, you may do whatever you want.
Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." That means that if you are conforming to God's will in all the six ways listed above, He will place in your heart desires that reflect His will. So do what you want to do!
The phrase “by testing you may discern” implies that we should approve of the will of God and then obediently do it. But in fact we should not approve of sin or do it. Paul’s meaning in Rom. 12:2 is paraphrased almost exactly in Heb. 5:14, which says, “Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (See another paraphrase in Phil. 1:9-11.) That’s the goal of this verse: not ferreting out the secret will of God that he plans to do, but discerning the revealed will of God that we ought to do.
God does not intend for us to know most of his sovereign will ahead of time. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us” (Deut. 29:29). If you want to know the future details of God’s will of decree, you don’t want a renewed mind, you want a crystal ball. This is not called transformation and obedience; it’s called divination, soothsaying.
Additional information:
Three Stages of Knowing and Doing the Revealed Will of God
There are three stages of knowing and doing the revealed will of God, that is, his will of command; and all of them require the renewed mind with its Holy Spirit-given discernment.
Stage One: to understand and embrace what God commands in the Scripture
First, God’s will (of command) is revealed with final, decisive authority only in the Bible. And we need the renewed mind to understand and embrace what God commands in the Scripture. Without the renewed mind, we will distort the Scriptures to avoid their radical commands for self-denial, and love, and purity, and supreme satisfaction in Christ alone. God’s authoritative will of command is found only in the Bible. Paul says that the Scriptures are inspired and make the Christian “competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16). Not just some good works. “Every good work.”
Therefore: Study, meditate, memorize the Bible. "Oh, what energy and time and devotion Christians should spend meditating on the written Word of God!"
Stage Two: application of biblical truth to new situations
The second stage of God’s will of command is our application of the biblical truth to new situations that may or may not be explicitly addressed in the Bible. The Bible does not tell you which person to marry, or which car to drive, or whether to own a home, where you take your vacation, what cell phone plan to buy, or which brand of orange juice to drink. Or, a thousand other choices you must make.
What is necessary is that we have a renewed mind that is so shaped and so governed by the revealed will of God in the Bible, that we see and assess all relevant factors with the mind of Christ, and discern what God is calling us to do. This is very different from constantly trying to hear God’s voice saying do this and do that. People who try to lead their lives by hearing voices are not in sync with Rom. 12:2.
There is a world of difference between praying and laboring for a renewed mind that discerns how to apply God’s Word, on the one hand, and the habit of asking God to give you new revelation of what to do, on the other hand. Divination does not require transformation. God’s aim is a new mind, a new way of thinking and judging, not just new information. His aim is that we be transformed, sanctified, freed by the truth of his revealed Word (John 8:32; 17:17). So the second stage of God’s will of command is the discerning application of the Scriptures to new situations in life by means of a renewed mind.
Stage Three: living where there is no conscious reflection before we act
Finally, the third stage of God’s will of command is the vast majority of living where there is no conscious reflection before we act. I venture to say that a good 95% of your behavior you do not premeditate. That is, most of your thoughts, attitudes, and actions are spontaneous. They are just spillover from what’s inside. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the Day of Judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matt. 12:34-36).
Why do I call this part of God’s will of command? For one reason. Because God commands things like: Don’t be angry. Don’t be prideful. Don’t covet. Don’t be anxious. Don’t be jealous. Don’t envy. And none of those actions are premeditated. Anger, pride, covetousness, anxiety, jealousy, envy ― they all just rise up out of the heart with no conscious reflection or intention. And we are guilty because of them. They break the commandment of God.
Is it not plain therefore that there is one great task of the Christian life: Be transformed by the renewing of your mind? We need new hearts and new minds. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good (Matt. 12:33). That’s the great challenge. That is what God calls you to. You can’t do it on your own. You need Christ, who died for your sins. And you need the Holy Spirit to lead you into Christ ― exalting truth and work in you truth ― embracing humility.
Give yourself to this. Immerse yourself in the written Word of God; saturate your mind with it. And pray that the Spirit of Christ would make you so new that the spillover would be good, acceptable, and perfect ― the will of God.
Additional verses:
Eph. 4:23 renew "spirit" of your mind
Phil. 2:12 work out your salvation, it is possible because God is at work in you,
began a work in you, He will complete it --> Phil. 1:6
1 Cor. 15:10 worked harder, but it was not I but the grace of God working in me/Paul
Eph. 6:10 be strong in Him
Additional sources:
Dr. John MacArthur: www.gty.org (July 17 ‘04)
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