KNOWING GOD’S WILL
Romans 12:1-2, 7/9/2017
Introduction:
A
gentleman captured two baby eagles and raised them with great care. They grew
to be fine specimens of this noble bird, until one day the door of their cage
was left open by accident and the birds escaped. One flew to a nearby tree,
where it roosted on a low branch, for it could not use its wings, never having
learned to fly except in the close confinement of its cage. It was not long
until it met an untimely death by the gun of a hunter. The other eagle fell or
was knocked into a swift flowing river and was drowned.
Both
of these eagles missed God's plan for their lives by being taken captive by
man. They were created to live in high places and to soar aloft in the sky, but
instead they were doomed to live on the ground and to meet an early death.
Similarly, God created you and me to live on a high plane and to carry out the
great plans He has for our life. But sadly, many of us live mediocre lives not
knowing the plans of God for our lives.
We
let the world pull us down into its mold, while we are meant to fly high with
God doing his will and fulfilling his purposes for our lives. No wonder at the
end of the day many remain frustrated and dissatisfied. Most people -- 80%
according to Deloitte’s Shift Index survey are dissatisfied with their jobs. While
some unhappy employees muster up the courage to change careers, others opt to
grin and bear it. Is that how God would have us live?
Are
you satisfied with your life? Some may be, but if you are not, then you need to
ask, God for his will for your life. How do we know his will? Last week we
learned how the apostle Paul urged the Roman Christians to offer their bodies
as a living sacrifice, today we will see how challenged them to know and
discern, what God’s good, acceptable and perfect will was for their lives. The
title for this message is, KNOWING GOD’S
WILL. Romans 12:1-2
Romans
12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s
mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to
God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will
be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and
perfect will.” (NIV).
In
the Message Bible it reads, “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 recognize 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.” Before we delve deep, let’s define what
is God’s will.
I.
WHAT IS GOD’S WILL?
If you have been attending Church
for a while, either you may have heard preachers talk about God’s will, or you
may have asked yourself, what is God’s will? In Greek, the word means, “to
desire, a wish, often referring to God’s “preferred- will” i.e. His “Best
offer” to people which can be accepted or rejected. It is nearly always used of
God, referring to His preferred-will. Occasionally it is used of man. (Lk
23:25; John 1:13). When we talk about God’s will, it signifies His gracious
disposition toward something. It is used to designate what He himself does of
His own good pleasure. So, in simple words, anything
that brings joy and pleasure to him is God’s will for us.
When
speaking of God’s will, I see at least four different aspects of it in the
Bible. The first aspect is known as God’s sovereign, or hidden will. This is God’s
"ultimate" will. This view is based on the fact that, because
God is sovereign, His will can never be frustrated. In other words, there is
nothing that happens that is outside of God’s sovereign will. We see this view
playing out throughout the Bible. Exodus 33:19, “I will have mercy on whom I
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Job
confessed after he had seen the wisdom and the power of God first hand, saying,
Job 42:2, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be
thwarted.” In Ephesians 1:11, where we learn that God is the one “who works all
things according to the counsel of His will.”
The
second aspect is his revealed or general will. As the name implies, that
God has chosen to reveal some of His will in the Bible. His revealed will
denotes what we should or should not do. For example, the ten commandments and
many other major and minor commandments in the Bible. Because it is revealed
now we know we can know that it is God’s will that we do not steal, we do not
commit adultery and we love our enemies and so on.
The
third aspect is God’s perfect will. It defines what is pleasing to Him. This
expression is revealed in many verses of Scripture which indicate what God does
and does not take pleasure in. For example, in 1 Timothy 2:4 we see that God
desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” These
three aspects are nonnegotiable God has revealed them in his word and they are
universal. However, there is a fourth aspect of God’s will which is his specific will for
individuals. Which means he reveals certain things to individuals and directs
them to do certain things or prohibits them not to do certain things. He does
that to accomplish his purpose. For example, God directed Enoch to build an Ark.
He
called Abraham to be a blessing to the nations. Remember when, Ebenezer the
servant of Abraham was sent to find a wife for Isaac, he sought God’s will to
find out whether Rachel was the right bride for Isaac, (Gen 24). He
commissioned Moses to lead Israelites from Egypt to the promised Land. When
Gideon wanted to find out whether it was truly God’s will for him to fight the
Midianites, he asked God for confirmations (Judge 6).
He
sent his angel to Mary and Joseph to announce the birth of the savior of the
world. When the apostles want to find a replacement for Judas, they inquired
the Lord. Later on when they wanted to send Paul and Barnabas out as
missionaries, they sought the Lord through fasting and prayer, during such
time, the Holy Spirit said, “set apart for me Barnabas Saul for the work to
which I have called them.” These are only a few incidents, where God
specifically revealed his will for those individuals during that time for a
specific purpose.
There
are many modern-day examples where people sought God’s will for their lives and
once they found it, they went all the way including sacrificing their lives in
order to bring pleasure to God. We just
celebrated 4th of July, I learned something about Christopher
Columbus. “He had a mystic belief that God intended him to sail the Atlantic
Ocean in order to spread Christianity. He said his prayers several times daily.
Columbus wrote what he called a Book of Prophecies, which is a compilation of
passages Columbus selected from the Bible which he believed were pertinent to
his mission of discovery. ... Columbus's own writings prove that he believed
that God revealed His plan for the world in the Bible, the infallible Word of
God. Columbus believed that he was obeying the mission God staked out for his
life when he set sail west across the Atlantic Ocean."[1] If it was not for Columbus
knowing God’s will for his life and obeying his will, where would the United
States of America Be?
In
the scriptures, we are exhorted to know and live according to the will of God
as it is revealed. But we are also to seek God personally to find out what he
would have us do with our lives. It would be for our benefit, we learn to seek
God’s will in all major decisions of life such as, which college to go to, what
job to take up, where to live, whom to marry. If your heart is committed to do
only that which pleases God, then he is faithful to lead you in the paths that
would be pleasing to Him, beneficial to you and a blessing to many.
As
Jesus, himself articulated, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God, we are called to live our lives knowing
and doing God’s will as it is revealed to us in the Bible through his Holy
Spirit. Early on in my Christian walk, I sought the Lord, prayerfully at
crucial junctures in my life. I can honestly say, as I was committed to please
him he never let me down. He led me all the way and brought me to be where I am
today. What gives me satisfaction more than anything else is to know and do his
will no matter the cost.
Living
according to God’s revealed will should be the chief aim or purpose of our lives.
Romans 12:1-2 summarizes this truth. Paul first exhorted the Roman believers to
offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, then he went on to give them a
threefold path to know and approve God’s good, pleasing and perfect will.
II.
THREEFOLD PATH TO KNOWING GOD’S WILL.
Vs
2, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove
what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” NASB.
The first path to knowing God’s will is not to be conformed to this world. The
word “Conformed” refers to assuming an outward expression that does not reflect
what is really inside, a kind of masquerade or act. The “world” here is better
translated, as “age,” which refers to the system of beliefs, values, or the
spirit of the age in the current world.
These days, Christians in America
are under pressure to conform to the beliefs and values of the popular culture.
For example, take the institution of marriage, majority of Christians in the
USA and worldwide, one record says two billion Christians[2]
believe in traditional marriage between a man and a woman, however a minority
of people who believe that, marriage can be between any two loving men and
women, are passionately and systematically have been working hard, passing laws
to force the majority of Christians to conform to their agenda.
Do we conform, and give into their
pressure? If the Apostle Paul were to address us today what would he say to us?
“Do not be conformed to this age’s world view. Stand up for the truth, you
always believed in. Be firm, don’t give in and do not compromise. The second
pathway is to “Be transformed” The Gr. word, from which the Eng. word
“metamorphosis” comes, connotes a change in outward appearance. Matthew uses
the same word to describe the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:2). Just as Christ
briefly and in a limited way displayed outwardly His inner, divine nature and
glory at the Transfiguration, Christians should outwardly manifest their inner,
redeemed natures, not once, however, but daily. In other words, we are to
reflect the nature of Christ in our day to day dealings.
The third path is “renewing of our
mind.”
We are to fill our minds with the word of truth on a daily basis. That kind of
transformation can occur only as the Holy Spirit changes our thinking. Our
decisions and our outlook on life and the world now will be influenced by the
Holy Spirit. My prayer is that God will embark each of us on this threefold
path of, non-conformity to this world, transformation and renewing of our mind.
As we will continue on this path, we will indeed come to know and approve God’s
good, acceptable and perfect will. Amen
