The Will of God and How to recognize it in your life

Many Christians with whom I have spoken often say they are not sure of what the Will of God is for their lives or even how to recognize it!

Romans 12:1 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

Romans 12:2 “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

The aim of Romans 12:1-2 is that all of life would become “spiritual worship.”

In verse 1, Paul states that we should strive to present ourselves as holy and acceptable to God, and in this way we will be worshipping God with our minds, heart and bodies to express our true love of God.

In verse 2, Paul gives an answer as to how we can turn our lives into worship for God. We must be transformed, changed, not only our bodies, our external behavior, but also our hearts and minds. We must change the way we feel about others and how we think. “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”  So how does this happen?

Understand who you are
Those who believe in Jesus Christ are already changed “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But, now we need to strengthen our faith by focusing on Jesus and not the things of the world, “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

The Will of God
In order for us to complete what Paul urges “learn to know God’s will for you”, we first need to understand the Will of God.

There a 2 Wills of God, namely His unchanging will and His commanding will. We need to understand these and then we can apply it to verse 2 and to the rest of our lives.

1) Gods unchanging will
Simply put, this is a decree made by God that cannot and will not be changed. For example: When God was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and all in them, even though Abraham was able to save the lives of Lot and his family by pleading with God, God still did not change the ultimate fate that He had decreed for these 2 cities.

2) Gods commanding will
Gods commanding will is where He gives us a command and we have the choice to obey or disobey it.
Paul says in 1 Thessalonian 4:3, “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 of us: holiness, sanctification, sexual purity. This is his commanding will, but so many disobey.

From these verses and many more, we can see that there are clearly 2 ways of talking about the Will of God. But how do we know the difference and how do we identify which Will of God we are faced with and how do we know how to respond?

Perhaps this will help, if someone steals money from you, and someone asks you, “Do you think that was the will of God?” you now have a way to make some biblical sense out of this, and give an answer that doesn’t contradict the Bible. You may say, “No it was not God’s will; because He commands that humans must not steal. The theft broke His commandment. It is not your fault that this happened; it is a result of the person who sinned against God and you. This is Gods commanding will, which is don't sin. But, in another sense, it was God’s unchanging will, because there are a hundred ways God could have prevented the theft, but for reasons we don’t yet fully understand, He didn’t. What we do know is that God will work this for good (Romans 8:28), even though at this time we can't see how”

Gods commanding will can be summarized as:
1)    His authoritative will – This is God’s will revealed through His word and is precise, for example, Paul says that the Scriptures are inspired and make the Christian “competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16). Not just some good works. “Every good work.”
2)    Our application of His commanding will to everyday situations. The Bible does not give us clear commands for every day events, so we are need to make these decisions wisely, with the help of the Holy Spirit. For example, the Bible does not tell us who we should marry, but it does tell us to marry someone of the same faith. We need to be wise in the decisions we have to make.
3)    Renewing your mind – The majority of our daily living is spent on things where we react before thinking. 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 thought through before we act. Anger, pride, anxiety, jealousy, envy—they all just rise up out of the heart with no conscious thought or intention. And we are guilty because of them. They break the commandment of God.

Conclusion

It is this that Paul refers to when renewing your mind in verse 2, have faith in God, hope in God, trust in God and regularly pray and read the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to help you.

Finally, think before you react. Ask yourself this question before reacting, “Is this an appropriate, God glorifying response to this situation?”

Unfortunately this is not a quick-fix solution, but a daily struggle between flesh and spirit. Don’t expect an instant change, but do expect change as you go through this walk of sanctification with Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit.