Doing the Will of God

Romans 12:1–2 NKJV

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

How do you know what the is the will of God? Have you ever struggled with discerning God’s will for your life? Should we buy this car? Should I take this job? Should I speak to that person? Sometimes we read in the old testament scriptures about Abraham and Moses, and the prophets about how that God spoke to them and told them exactly what His will was, and we imagine that that would make life so much easier for us. If God would just tell me what He wants me to do then there would be no guessing. But did you know that the Old Testament saints envy what we have now. They did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling with in them. Not only leading but giving us the desire and the power to do the will of God

Philippians 2:13 NKJV

13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

It was not easy for them to do the will of God just because they had God tell them what His will is. In fact they had the save struggle that we have now. They had to surrender to God’s purpose. They had to die to self.

Abraham leave his country and go to an unknown land.

Abraham to take his only son up the mountain to sacrifice him.

Moses to go back to Egypt and speak to Pharaoh.

Moses to lead a suborn people who always questioned and challenged his leadership.

All of the weird things that God told the prophets to do.

None of the things that God told them to do where easy. Just because God told them to do it didn’t make it easy to do. The same barrier that stood in their way is what stands in our way today. We must die to self will.

The difference is that because we have the Holy Spirit in us when we die to self will we don’t need God to speak to us because He is in so we will do His will by nature.

Paul gives us three things in these verses that must take place for us to do God’s will.

Romans 12:1–2 NKJV

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Do Not Conform

Literally do not be moulded to the pattern of the world.

I don’t know if you’ve notice or not but the world is continually trying to force you into a mould. Do this. Don’t do that. Like this. Don’t like that. Approve of this. Don’t approve of that. This is what is good and this is what is bad. You should feel this way about this or that. It is invasive, It is relentless, constant, pressure to conform because otherwise you would be different and stand out and no one will like you or approve of you. It plays on our deepest desires to be loved and accepted.

And eventually we tend to yield over time because of the constant pressure. So what’s the problem with conforming you might ask. The problem with conforming to the world’s ideas and ways is that they are totally incompatible with God’s way.

James 4:1–5 NKJV

1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

James is describing a person who will never be able to discern the will of God. This person has conformed to the world’s system and as a result they have become and enemy of God. They have not died to self and they think that God’s purpose in prayer is that they might ask God for the things they lust after and He will grant it. But they don’t receive what they ask for because they only what to spend it on their own lust.

James calls this people adulterers and adulteresses. Why? Because just like a man or women who give their affection to someone other than their spouse, these people have given their affection to something or someone other than God. They have put someone or something in God’s place in their life. It is idolatry.

To be conformed to the world or to love the world is not compatible with loving God or being transformed by God.

You will not be able to discern the will of God if you conform to this world.

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Be Transformed

Romans 12:2 NKJV

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Transform is translated from the Greek metamorphoo which is where we get the word metamorphous like when a caterpillar changes to a butterfly.

This kind of metamorphous that is required here is one which happen through the renewing of your mind. The word translated renewing means renovation. Just like when you renovate a house to pull out all thats bad and rebuild so that you have a new house. Thats is what must happen to our minds. God must remove the old and put in the new. So this is not merely an external change it is a deep internal change that remaps our brain.

This is the transformation for which we were predestined.

Ezekiel 36:24–28 NKJV

24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

Philippians 2:5 NKJV

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

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Prove the Will of God

When we have offer our body as a living sacrifice to God. When we have resisted being conformed to this world. When God has transformed our mind into the mind of Christ. Then and only then will we know and do the will of God.

Knowing God’s will for our life is simpler than it has ever been. We no longer need God to speak to us in an audible voice. We have His Spirit in us causing us to walk in His will.

How did Jesus know the will of the Father? The Father never had to speak to Christ. He spoke to the disciples before they had received to Holy Spirit, but He never spoke to Jesus His only begotten Son. Why? Jesus often said that He only did the will of the Father so how did He know the Father’s will?

John 17:20–23 NKJV

20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

The life that God desires for you is a life of freedom and liberty. A life where you are the will of God. You are one with Christ and Christ ids one with the Father and your natural inclination is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And we know that if we begin to head in the wrong direction the Spirit of God will check us and immediately we correct our course.

God never intended for us to struggle with knowing His will for us. If we are struggling then we can come here to Romans 12:1-2 and ask have I surrendered my body as a living sacrifice? Am I resisting the world’s system or am I going along with the flow. If I have done these things then there is nothing of my own will left. All that is left is the will of God.

If you are struggling with knowing the will of God this morning then come to the alter of God and lay down you body for His use, tear down the high places in you heart, what ever thing or person that you have allowed to be raised up in your life and set your mind and desire only on God the Father and the way will become very clear for you.