In the Will of God

I believe every christian wants to do things according to the will of God. Books have been written by teachers of the Word regarding the many ways God reveals His will for every individual christian. I have heard Bible teachers saying that there are 7 or 8 ways of discerning God's Will. The problem is, much of these teachings could be correct and biblical, but in actual practice knowing all these ways would not help much. I personally lived with this problem for quite some time and finally come to the understanding that the apostle Paul revealed in his Epistle to the Romans what must a christian do in order to discern the will of God in all areas of his life. In other words, there must be conditions to be fulfilled before we can discern God's will correctly and effectively. This is what I proposed to share with you.

An importand area of Paul's ministries is to teach christians the whole counsel of God. He spoke to the elders of Ephesus,

"I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:20,27, NKJV).

If the full counsel of God is available in Paul's teaching, surely I must be able to learn from him so as to understand how to discern God's will. I found the answer in Romans 12:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of you mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will" (Romans 12:1,2, NIV).

Please take note of the following:

1. I have shared with you in another message regarding our true worship to God. Here, Paul said that spiritual worship includes our bodies - with our bodies presenting to God as living sacrifices. God is unlikely to receive any act of our worship without having our bodies submitted to Him as living sacrifices first. This is quite contrary to what an average born again christian's understanding of true worship to God.

2. God's will is "good", "pleasing" (or "acceptable" in KJ or NJKV) and "perfect". I believe these three phases represent three phases in our perception of the will of God. When we first begin to perceive God's will, we discover that it is good. Then, we learn that His will is pleasing or acceptable. The more we perceive it, the more we desire to follow it. Finally, as we move on in the perception and the application of God's will, we realize it is perfect or complete. I do not believe there is such a thing as "permissible will of God" as many Bible teachers said. I cannot find any example in the Scripture. God's will is always perfect even if we are not aware of it in the beginning. It is either we are in the will of God or out of the will of God in our christian walk. I believe the whole, complete will of God covers all areas of our lives - our walk with Him, our callings and the use of our financial resourses, etc.

3. The two essential steps to finding God's will are, firstly, surrender ourselves without reservation to God. That is, to place our bodies on God's altar as "living sacrifices". Secondly, learn to think God's way. Paul called it being renewed in our minds. I believe this means, changing our whole outlooks, including the way we think, our values, our standards and our priorities. Only as our minds are renewed, can we discern and perceive what is God's will for our lives.

4. Being a "living sacrifice" means a christian needs to release all claims on his own life, and be submitted wholely to God, to be disposed of at His will. The "living sacrifice" we offered to God must be "holy and pleasing to God" which means without blemish or defect. In other words, the christian must be at all times, above reproach and blameless before God and men.

In summary, God's conditions for us to dicern His will are firstly, present our bodies as living sacrifice and secondly, by the renewing of our minds. Jesus is a perfect example in doing the Will of the Father by fulfilling these conditions in a place called the Garden of Gethsemane. I believe these conditions apply to the Local Church as well as individual christians. The whole Body of Christ needs the Gethesemane experience!

Please take note of a very important spiritual truth. Paul was writing to born again christians in the Roman Church. He said a christian needs a "renewed mind" and not a "renewed spirit" or a "renewed heart" in order to discern God's will. Why? The answer is, all born again christians have a renewed heart (Ezekiel 18:31 and 36:26). When a person is born again, he is born again by the Spirit of God and God gave him a new spirit. His spirit is born again by the Spirit of God. A person's spirit is the inner man, his heart. If a person does not have a new heart, he is not born again. The mind of a person is part of his soul. With a renewed mind, the christian will not "conform to the pattern of the world". He will be able to discern the will of God.