The Will Of God

Here is some information to follow up on our sermon from last week, called, The Will of God. More helpful commentary can be found here.

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SHARPENING YOUR SPIRITUAL INSTINCTS 

• There are three passages in the New Testament that shed light on the discovery of God's moral will. When I walk through these texts, I find very practical instruction on the matter. The first one is Romans 12:1-2:—“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (NKJV)
• Paul writes to the church in Rome and exhorts the believers to offer their bodies to God as a living sacrifice. Herein lies an important spiritual principle. The Lord does not reveal His will to those who are unwilling to follow it. Jesus said, "If any man will [is willing to] do His will, He shall know..." (John 7:17).
• "If your eye is single [you have single devotion to the Lord], your whole body will be full of light" (Matt. 6:22).
• Paul goes on to discuss the renewing of the mind. The net effect of offering our bodies as a living sacrifice and renewing our minds is that we will be able to "prove" or demonstrate the perfect will of God. This is a reference to His moral will, as the context shows.
• Notice that the mind has something to do with discovering God's moral will. Remember that under the New Covenant, the Law of God is written in our minds (Heb. 8:10). However, our minds need to be renewed. If we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord, and we renew our minds, Paul says that we will know and approve the perfect will of God.
• As natural creatures, we have a certain way of thinking. We have a way of reasoning that we inherited from this world. The Lord's thoughts are not man's thoughts. In fact, they are directly opposed to the thinking of this present world.
• Yet as we renew our mind, we begin to think the way He thinks and our spiritual instincts become sharper. Our understanding and our judgment become shaped by the Lord's mind. And His will becomes obvious to us. We become intuitively aware which actions are pleasing to Him and which are not. This is maturity. Again, I'm speaking of the moral will of God.
• Paul made mention of this process when he spoke to the Corinthians. He told them that because they were living like natural people in the world (unsaved people), they were spiritual babes and couldn't understand the things of the Spirit.
• But the spiritually mature are those who are able to exercise spiritual discernment and judgment (1 Cor. 2:6-3:3).
• To put a finer point on it, instead of giving us orders and commands, the Lord desires for us to have a mind. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus... we have the mind of Christ" (Php. 2:5; 1 Cor. 2:16). When a son is young, he receives orders from his parents. But as he spends time getting to know his parents and matures, he cultivates an understanding of the mind of his parents in specific situations.
• The son's mind, as it were, is renewed to reflect that of his parents. It is the same in the spiritual. We are sons who possess a mind rather than servants who merely take orders (John 15:15; Gal. 4:1ff.).
• How do we renew our minds? Simply, by spending time in the Lord's presence, by responding to Him, and by receiving the ministry of His Word, which contains His thoughts. By those three elements our minds are shaped in conformity to His will.
• The other passage is Hebrews 5:14:—“But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (NKJV)
• This text unearths an important principle about spiritual maturity. Namely, that as we practice yielding to the Lord, our spiritual instincts become more acute. The text says that the mature believer has his "senses" exercised by "reason of use" (or habit) to "discern" both good and evil. That is, the mature believer is able to discern the moral will of God in all situations.
• Finally, we have a passage in the book of Acts that opens up
• another vista altogether. In Acts 24:16, Paul declares: “This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.” (NKJV)
• Each one of us has a conscience. Your conscience is an inward monitor that goes off when you step out of God's moral will. It's like an alarm. If you violate it, it brings you under conviction. It is not condemnation, which comes from God's enemy or from a preacher who tells you how terrible a Christian you are. It comes from your human spirit, the place where God dwells.
• Both the Holy Spirit and your conscience bear witness to the truth (Romans 9:1). 
• It is by your conscience that you can discern the moral will of God. Anything that offends your conscience is something to stay clear of. Anything that your conscience allows is permissible for you. There is another aspect of the conscience that we will handle in the last chapter.
• It has to do with the way the conscience is shaped. (The Bible also speaks about a "seared" conscience. But this is in reference to people who continue to reject the dictates of their conscience to the point that it doesn't operate any longer-1 Tim. 4:2.)
• To sum up, we have been given five lighthouses that guide us into the moral will of God: The inward promptings and instincts of the Holy Spirit written on our minds and hearts (Heb. 8; Rom. 8; Gal. 5), the testimony of Scripture (2 Tim. 3), the renewal of our minds (Rom. 12), the habitual exercise of our spiritual senses (Heb. 5), and the dictates of our conscience (Acts 24).
• All of these lighthouses cause us to fulfill Paul's word in Ephesians 5:17, "Therefore, be not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." The context of this passage is referring to God's moral will ... the path of righteousness, which is Christ.
• If you have been in the Lord for any length of time, it is not difficult to discern the moral will of God. Again, think of God's moral will as a parking lot. A step out of love is a step outside of the parking lot. Walking in love is walking in the parking lot.
• Add to that a safeguard: On moral matters, inward promptings are only reliable when they are consistent with the will of God disclosed in Scripture. This is one of the reasons why the ministry of the Word is so vital to us. It not only reveals Christ to us and feeds our spirit, but it also educates us on the way the indwelling Lord directs us. For the Christ revealed in Scripture and the Christ who lives in us is the same Person. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).

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Direct quotes taken from Frank Viola's free eBook--Rethinking the Will of God.