Romans 12:1-2, Will of God?
Greetings: The Lord is good and his love endures forever!
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Read the Bible:
The Message Bible: “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
A. Desire the Will of God
There are two Wills of God. One is God’s Will of decree (or his sovereign Will) and the other is God’s Will of command. His Will of decree always comes to pass whether we believe in it or not. His will of command can be broken, and is every day as we do.
1. God’s Will of Decree, or Sovereign Will. There are many passages in the Bible that teach that God’s providence over the universe extends to the smallest details of nature and human decisions. “Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Will of God” (Matthew 10:29). “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord”(Proverbs 16:33). “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord”(Proverbs 16:1). “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will”(Proverbs 21:1). “He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35).
2. God’s Will of Command: His will is what he commands us to do. This is the will of God we can disobey and fail to do. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Paul said, “This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality.” Here we have a very specific instance of what God commands us: holiness, sanctification, sexual purity. This is his will of command. (1 Thessalonians 4:3). One more example is: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever”(1 John2:17).
According to John Piper: 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. 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.
B. Discern to the Will of God
Amplified: “1 Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship. 2And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].”
Psalmist said: help us to number our days. Paul said: redeem your time. Because we are time bound and minutes bound. Each one of us has a set number of days allotted to us. We need to be attentive in the days we have, taking advantage of opportunities when they come to us on day by day basis. Often, we don’t miss out on God’s will because they’re intentionally disobedient. Instead, we miss opportunities to follow His will because we are too preoccupied with less-worthy pursuits in our lives.
The truth of our commitment to God’s will is revealed in how we spend our personal time. We need to lean into the Lord with as much enthusiasm when we’re alone as we do when we’re with other Christians.
C. Determined to the Will of God
Test the Will of God and prove it.
Romans 12:1-2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Discern the Will of God (CEV), prove the Will of God (NASB), then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (NIV).
"Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him" (Psalm 115:3, 135:6), Specifically, his will applies to all nations (Isaiah 48:14), as well as to every individual (1 Samuel 2:25). What God has planned (his will), he himself will bring to pass.
Consequently, the development in understanding of the will of God in the Old Testament reveals that God in one sense may be seen as the initiator in the execution of his will and that this may involve the events that make up human history. Human history is never regarded as beyond his control.
Jesus' life and teaching as recorded in the Gospels bear witness to the importance of the concept of the will of God for his understanding of his own place and that of his followers in redemptive history.
Jesus modelled for his disciples a life lived in perfect conformity with God's will, and demonstrated that this life did not always take the easy course.
"My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done" (Matthew 26:39, 42, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42).
John characterises the whole of Jesus' ministry in terms of conformity with the will of God. Jesus declared: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me" (John 4:34). "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me" (John 5:30, 6:38-40).
We come to the gospel with our own ideas and perspectives about the world. Some are more accurate than others, but they’re all coloured by our culture and education. If we want to learn to recognise where God is leading us, we need to transform the way we think. This means becoming vigilant about what we allow into our minds and what we choose to dwell on (Philippians 4:8).
Closing: God bless you.
