"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." -Romans 12:2 All of Scripture reveals the will of God. Every command, prohibition, testimony, and promise gives insight into what God says should, or should not, be in this world. Christians are followers of Christ, and as such the will of God deserves first place in our priorities. As we pray the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:9-13), we begin by acknowledging God as our Father and our desire to see Him regarded as holy (special). Next, we confess our desire to see God's kingdom come, and His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We treat God as holy when we commit our ways to Him and order our paths according to His revealed will (Ps 50:23). But the aim of following God's will is met by powerful opposition. Romans 12:2 refers to the pressures of the "world" (the collective will of unbelievers who reject God), and it must be resisted. There is a mold into which the world seeks to force every person. The world declares what it believes should be, and this will is decidedly opposed to God (James 4:4). Christians resist the world's efforts by listening instead to what God says should be and embracing it (1 Jn 2:17).
The will of God is not some secret thing that has yet to be discovered, rather it has been clearly revealed and is to be studied, understood, and obeyed (Deut 30:11-20). God has not told us the answer to every question we have, but He has revealed everything we need to know in order to live as we should (Deut 29:29). The Word of God reveals God's purposes, and central to His plan is our being conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:28-29). As such, Christians desire to be like Jesus, and that requires we understand who Jesus is, what He is doing, and what our calling to follow Him looks like. Perhaps you are reading this and agree in theory that God's will for your life is found in Scripture, but maybe you are not sure where to begin. Do you just open the Bible randomly and start reading? Do you spend time in prayer and wait for something to pop into your head? While all of Scripture does reveal God's will, there are a few places that might be helpful to start. For instance, there are three occurrences in the New Testament of the explicit phrase "this is the will of God" and they are incredibly practical. If you do not know what else to do, I would suggest committing these three passages of Scripture to memory, and start your day by considering what obedience to these principles would look like that day. Get specific, and be honest. What do you need to do, or what do you need to stop doing, in order to make sure you doing what God says you should do. (1) Be Holy "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor" -1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 Christians should be different, special, and set apart for a particular purpose--that is what is meant by sanctification. Another word for something that has been sanctified is "holy." In the Old Testament holiness was a key theme for the people of God. The whole book of Leviticus, in particular, articulated for Israel in great detail what their holiness as a people required. Every aspect of life was affected by their relationship with God; their distinctiveness would be obvious if they obeyed what God said. Items and people were set apart for special service to the LORD, and various means were employed to represent this sanctification. Notable examples of ways God showed something was holy included sprinkling with blood, anointing with oil, washing with water, and a time of preparation (a transition period to mark the movement from "common" to "holy," which often required washing and changing clothes for people). If a holy thing was contaminated by something unholy, it could not resume its service without first being made holy again; contamination could not be ignored. The point was very clear: something could not be holy and common at the same time, and holiness only came with great intentionality and effort. Nothing became holy by accident. Holiness needs to be guarded because only that which is holy can be used in service of a Holy God; therefore, God commands His people to be holy as He Himself is holy (Lev 11:44; 1 Pet 1:16). Our sin makes us unholy, but Jesus Christ came so that His people could be sanctified. He has sprinkled us with His blood so that we can be saved from the defilement of sin and be used in holy service (1 Pet 1:2). He has anointed us with His Holy Spirit to empower our new obedience (Ez 36:27; 2 Cor 1:21-20). And He calls us to personal preparation by putting off the things of this world in order to put on the new things from above (Col 3:1-17). A very pointed application of the pursuit of holiness is the avoidance of sexual immorality. Perhaps nothing else in the human experience has proven so effective in undermining holy service to God as the inability, or unwillingness, to properly channel sexual desire. The reasons for this common failure are many, but in God's design sex powerfully combines elements of identity, pleasure, and security. The human practice of sex either reflects an accurate understanding and pursuit of these features, or a deadly misunderstanding and inappropriate pursuit of them. Throughout biblical history, people who refused to control their sexual desires were enslaved to the service of idols (Num 25:1-5; Ezek 16:23-34; Rom 1:24-28; Rev 2:13-14; Rev 22:14-15), and the same remains true today. Professing Christians who refuse to repent of their inordinate sexual desires and practices are to called to decide between their sin and Jesus, because we cannot have both (1 Cor 5:1-5; 1 Jn 3:8-10). Engagement in sexual immorality is a rejection of the authority and purposes of God, and holy service is impossible until that sin is cleansed. Christ came to save sinners, and He does deliver sexual sinners, along with all other kinds of sinners, when they turn to Him in repentance and faith. God's will is that we be holy, and He has provided grace to make this a reality for His people (Titus 2:11-3). We must make use of that grace if we are to be holy. (2) Be Thankful, Always "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." -1 Thessalonians 5:18 Giving thanks is an acknowledgment of good we have experienced or received. God blesses, and we say "thank you"--nothing complicated about that. God is good all of the time to His people, and the eyes of faith perceive God's goodness in every aspect of life. Furthermore, God promises that "for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose" (Rom 8:28). This does not mean that every single thing or experience is good by itself; instead, there is an ultimate, good purpose to which all things work to bring those who love God and are called by Him. God's desire for us is to give thanks in all circumstances, not just some. The ability to see good in the midst of disappointment and suffering takes faith. We do not ignore the hardships of real life and lie by saying "thank you" when we don't mean it. We need to able to see more than what our physical eyes can see, not less. I often think of shows where investigators come to a crime seen and use special lights, sprays, and glasses in order to find clues the naked eye cannot see. That evidence is already there, but the ability to see it requires help. The same is true for the goodness of God; it is already there, but the question is do we have the right eyes to see it. Only when we see through the eyes of faith, when we let God's Word teach us what to look for and how to see it, can we perceive God's goodness towards us. Only by faith do we see God's fingerprints over every detail of our life and have the ability to call it good. We need to say "thank you" to God, but we need to say it sincerely. Thankful people look different than ungrateful people, and which kind of person would you rather be around? When someone gives thanks to God, they declare God provides--this stands in stark contrast to idols that habitually fail to provide. Idols and sin over-promise and under-deliver, but we keep going back to them anyway. Why? Because people have a chronic problem with forgetting! God repeatedly tells His people to remember what He has done and to consider it as they look to the future. If we are in the habit of sharing testimony of the good God has done we help everyone remember God's goodness, and we will be encouraged to continue trusting Him. As Christians, we have countless reasons to be thankful. Our sins, which deserved the holy wrath of God, have been completely forgiven (Jn 3:36). We used to belong to Satan and were under the dominion of darkness, now we belong to the kingdom of Jesus Christ (Col 1:13-14). We used to be without hope, now we have the promise of eternal life in the presence of God (Eph 2:11-13). We used to be slaves to degrading passions, now we have been washed and granted new life-giving desires, and the power to pursue them (Rom 6:20-23; Rom 8:11). We used to be in a mad scramble to determine our identity and purpose, now we have an identity in Christ and have the glorious purpose of declaring the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness (1 Pet 2:9-10). God's will is that we be thankful people--the kind of people who remember God's goodness and trust His promises so that we are not tempted to turn back to worthless idols and the empty promises of sin. (3) Continue Doing Good "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people." -1 Peter 2:15 Followers of God have been slandered as trouble-makers and threats to the stability and general good of others since the beginning. In one sense, this accusation is accurate, but in another sense it is not. It is true the presence of real followers of Jesus will have a felt impact, and Christians will disrupt the status quo. True Christians are a threat to this world system. However, it is not true that this disruption is a threat to the actual good of society. In reality, our disruption is to be a compassionate fight for the common good, even if it is not recognized as such. There is no good apart from God (Ps 16:2), which means the true pursuit of good requires that God be treated as God, and this is what Christians do. Doing good means doing what God says. Peter wrote to Christians who were suffering for their faith. Obedience to Christ required turning away from the sins in which they used to walk, and they did not look like everyone else around them anymore. In fact, the non-believers thought it very strange that the Christians were not willing to do what everyone else did, and they mocked and spoke against them for it (1 Pet 4:3-4). Human nature often feels threatened by what is "other" or different. Culture can function like a body's immune system, anything labeled "not-me" is perceived as a threat and is either diligently avoided or promptly attacked. This kind of reaction is universal and unavoidable--those who desire to follow Jesus will suffer persecution from those who reject Christ (2 Tim 3:12-13). In the face of hostility from the world, two natural responses would be fight or flight. However, Christians are called to a third option: continue doing good, even while suffering for it. By our willingness to keep doing good despite the pain and loss it brings, Christians expose the absurdity of the world's slander against us. Some of those who will do the persecuting with deceive themselves and others into thinking they are serving God or a noble cause (Jn 16:2), and they will be convinced Christians are the villains. But God is glorified when we entrust our souls to Him and keep doing what He commands anyway (1 Pet 4:19). While the world might not believe what we are doing is good, God does, and He is the one who will render the final verdict on Judgment Day. Christian living is about believing and obeying everything God says so that we can point others to the only One who can give life. There is no life apart from God, and showing others the goodness of God and telling them how to know Him is the greatest good we could ever do. Jesus came to earth and suffered at the hands of those who refused to acknowledge God so that He could glorify His Father by doing His will. Those who follow Jesus live according to the same pattern; we give glory to God by listening to Him no matter the cost. The world will never admit they are in the wrong until they accept Christ; they will always cast their opposition to Christians as a righteous cause. God's will for us is to silence the ignorance of these foolish people by doing what God has commanded, because that is what is good. God will vindicate us on Judgment Day, and we know this because God has promised (1 Pet 2:12; Rev 3:9). Final Thoughts The will of God is to be the will of every professing Christian. Knowing God's Word is the key to knowing His will, as it inoculates us against the conforming influence of the world by renewing our minds. Psalm 119:9 says, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to [God's] word." Listening to what God says and taking it seriously is the only way to live according to God's good and perfect will. Being holy unto God, always giving thanks to Him, and continuing to do good by keeping His Word is a great starting point for those who want to follow Jesus.
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AuthorI am follower of Jesus Christ by God's grace, married to Kelsey, father to four children, and pastor of Lighthouse Church (EPC). Archives
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