Being in God’s Will

BEING IN GODS WILL 

Romans 12:2 do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove (dokimaz?? - test, discern, examine) what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Today I will be discussing what it means to discern and test what is the good will of God, the acceptable will of God and the perfect will of God in our lives. 
These are three measurable degrees of the will of God in the New Testament, but I will first outline the general principle of being in the will of God starting from the Old Testament.

God’s will (thelema) for our lives is God’s pathway of purpose and meaning for our lives that flows from his heart to our hearts on our journey of life with him. 

In the Old Testament Israel was sovereignly placed into God’s will by his choice! God took them on a journey under the leadership of Moses into the promised land of Canaan. He had rescued them from out of their slavery under the harsh rule of the Pharaohs in Egypt and He gave them the Commandments of the Law through Moses for them to know what his will was for them and to know his wisdom and to learn obedience. God took the nation of Israel to be his people whose way of life would glorify God by putting God on display to all those other nations. 
He gave them priests that would offer the blood of animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins and for them to know his mercy and he worked miracles of provision of food and supernaturally won battles for them against their enemies to show them his power and strength.
And for about fifteen hundred years God also provided them with prophets and Kings to lead and guide them and to keep them in his will, but for all this they strayed from his path for them. There were corrupt prophets and evil kings and wicked priests who led them astray for the most part of that time as a nation. Their going astray can be summed up in one episode of disobedience and rebellion when he spoke to them through Isaiah.

Isaiah 30:1 Woe to my rebellious children, says the Lord; you ask advice from everyone but me and decide to do what I don’t want you to do. You yoke yourselves with unbelieving nations, thus piling up your sins. For without consulting me you have gone down to Egypt to find aid and have put your trust in Pharaoh for his protection. But you will be disappointed, humiliated and disgraced, for he can’t deliver on his promises to save you.

Despite their wilfulness they were still sovereignly in his will, but he had to warn them that their wilfulness was preventing them from receiving his saving power over them.
Isaiah 30:15 For the Lord God says: Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength… He will answer you, and with your own eyes you will see your Teacher (yara – to flow like water). The teachers for them were the prophets and the priests. The Teacher for us is the Holy Spirit.
And if you leave God’s paths and go astray, you will hear a voice behind you say, “this is the way; walk in it.” 

The only way that Israel could finally come into the perfect will of God for them was in the person of Jesus who walked in perfect harmony and oneness with his Father in spirit, soul, and body. Jesus said.
Hebrews10.5 a body have you prepared for me; ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
The New Testament reality for us is that we can be brought into God’s will through Jesus in our harmony and oneness with him. We who believe are now his body in the earth.

Israel’s consciousness of God’s will was the outward seeing of his works in action and the hearing of the words of the prophets. Our consciousness of God’s will is through the inner seeing by faith and the witness of the Holy Spirit and the renewing of our minds. 
We can confidently live in an ever-present consciousness of being in his will. Being in God’s will is more about flowing with God rather than receiving direct dictates about things for which we have options and responsibilities, like what house we should or should not buy, or what job to accept. As far as getting a job is concerned it is sometimes a matter of taking what is available at the time. Titus 3:1 Be ready for any honest work… God’s will can flow in our life no matter what our options are, and we do not always have to get a text message from God that eliminates our responsibility. 
We may even go down a blind alley at times, but God will always come down there with us and graciously bring us back again 
Isaiah 30:15… He will be with you to teach you—with your own eyes you will see your Teacher (yara – to flow like water). And if you leave God’s paths and go astray, you will hear a voice behind you saying “this is the way; walk in it.
As I mentioned earlier the ‘Teacher’ for us is the Holy Spirit as it says in one of my favourite Scriptures
1John 2:27 the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
 
I want to now return to the text Scripture that we read at the beginning.
Romans 12.1…Present your bodies as a living sacrifice…and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove (test) what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Our bodies become actively engaged in the physical doing of his will, and our minds become renewed with a new consciousness of living in the will of God. 
This Scripture also mentions three aspects of the doing of God’s will that can be tested or measured as to what sphere of God’s will we operate in at any one time. These are three degrees of the will of God, the good will of God, the acceptable will of God and the perfect will of God. 
Paul was not just modelling a spiritual theory but was outlining a transformative process of being conformed to God’s likeness in the doing of his will in spirit, soul, and body.

The three degrees of doing the will of God 

The good will of God - agathos; of benefit, good, productive.
We honour God by doing worthwhile and productive activities for ourselves and others, and God’s good things do not just happen, they are done on purpose, and we can begin each day with that purposeful attitude, knowing that God is with us in the doing of his will.
The Bible says that Jesus went about doing good (Acts 10:38), and as he did, miracles happened. When we do the good will of God, other good things happen around us.
Prayer and praising God and waiting on the Lord are all purposeful acts of doing good, and God responds to us in this by working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). 
There is also our doing good in simple faithful service to others, whether we know them or whether they are strangers, and where we recognise that whatever good work we do is being done as unto the Lord.  
Just as sin and the selfish ego must be exposed to God’s light, so must the understanding of the will of God be brought into the light. This is God’s Kingdom reordering in this time.
How do we test that the good will of God is happening in us? We need to consciously ask ourselves where God’s will is fitting in to our thinking and doing at any one time. We can remind ourselves that when we are doing good things for other people we are also doing them for God, and with God and unto God. 

The acceptable will of God - euarestos - well pleasing. 
There are sacrificial things we can do for others that lift our doing good into a higher expression of relationships that bless and please the heart of God as well as other people. 
Hebrews 13:16 Don’t forget to do good and to share what you have with those in need, for such sacrifices are well pleasing to him.
Paul also mentions the giving of those in the church at Philippi towards the support of his ministry.
Philippians 4:14 … No church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities. I have received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Sacrificial giving brings a multiplication of what is given. (Proverbs 11:24 Luke 6:38)

The perfect will of God - teleios; mature in growth of spiritual and character, complete.
The Bible says that Jesus was made perfect through suffering.
Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
This means that God’s will involves going through adverse circumstances and learning to accept them with thanksgiving, even when they involve receiving unjust treatment at the hands of others. When Jesus willingly went through the injustice of his suffering at the hands of those who persecuted him and insulted him there was a power of God released into the earth that brought us to God. 1Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
When we go through times of suffering and adversity and place ourselves trustingly in God’s hands there is a power released from heaven that draws people to God.
We can be assured that the perfect work of Jesus is working through us by faith in these times and receive his joy in our hearts despite the suffering, and know we are being transformed. 

The highest state of consciousness that a human being can have is to know that they are in the will of God. Everything else has to make way for God’s will in his Kingdom even in the midst of chaos around us. We become part of the Lord’s prayer of ‘Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done’. 
We can invite God at any time to search our hearts as David did in the Psalms and show us any wrong attitude we may have.
Psalm 139:23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Having this attitude gives us confidence to go forward in faith even when we aware of falling short because of our weaknesses and failures, and if everything gets too hard, we humbly cry out to Jesus and ask him to do it for us. That’s called obtaining mercy and finding grace (Hebrews 4:16). That kind of honest transparency brings forth our faith to do God’s will.

The right pathway is an attitude of trust as God steers us into his peace in our hearts. Having that kind of peace and that kind of trust and faith is what it means to be in his will.