I am not sure about you, but I still remember as a newbie to the weekly church thing, I would often hear a sermon about knowing the will of God. After service I would run to the front of the church to ask how I was supposed to know the will of God for my life. Sadly, my question was usually glossed over with an answer that never seemed to quench my thirst for the answer.
It wasn’t until many years later after I had finally quit playing church, surrendered my life fully, became a true follower of Christ and became a Berean, ( examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Acts 17:11b), that I found Romans 12.
Paul, in Romans 12 starts with “Therefore.” Know that when you are doing a study that whenever you see that word, you need to search the chapters and verses prior to see why the “therefore, is there for.” (See Romans)
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. 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.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
Here it clearly tells us what we need to do in order to test and approve what God’s will is.
We are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
Here are just a few verses that give us direction in regards to having our bodies as a living sacrifice.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy,your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! Matthew 6:22-23
Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his ; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3
I heard it said that God doesn’t care what college you go to, where you live or if you color your hair; what God does care about is how you act, react and present yourself as a child of His in all areas of your life and wherever you go. So for all those years as I was walking aimlessly attempting to find out what God’s will for my life was, it was right there in black and white. I just thought it had to be more.
But in my best game show voice, “but wait, there is more.” A continued search of the scriptures, let’s look at the verse from Acts 20 in which Paul says that he considers his life worth nothing and that his only aim is to finish the race and complete the task he was given by the Lord.
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
Acts 20:24 (NIV)
Did you know that in Romans 11 it says that because the Jews didn’t accept Jesus as the Messiah, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make the Jews jealous?
When I read that, it made the verse in Acts 20 have even more importance. We were given the chance at salvation not to keep it to ourselves but to complete the task the Lord has given us. The gift of testifying to the good news of God’s amazing grace. You see this wasn’t just a call on Paul’s life, it is a call on everyone’s life who considers themselves a born again Christian.
As a Christ follower in the twenty-first century, I am thinking Acts 20:24 needs to be memorized and lived out daily.
Do we think about finishing the race and completing the task that the Lord set before us as followers? Unfortunately I think many get so focused on career choices, making a living, raising a family that we forget that in everything we do, we are supposed to live as a sacrifice to the Lord.
Going back to Romans 12, Paul gives us the answer on how to do that.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
We are supposed to be different from the world. We are to be transformed by renewing our mind.
How do we renew our minds? By getting into the Word. Reading the Word. Studying the Word. And while you are doing all that, daily you live out what you have read, studied and share what has been revealed to you.
Sadly, many think that salvation is a day and time of a prayer and or baptism and that’s it, but Paul writes in Philippians that we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Keep on working with fear and trembling to complete your salvation, because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose. Phillippians 2:11b-12
First hear me, this is not works salvation, this is living a life daily because of what Christ did for us. My husband has a quote that says, to live out Romans 12 is not a legalistic requirement but an irresistible response. Because of our gift of salvation we want everyone to know who He is, but we cannot do any of what God is asking us to do without His Holy Spirit as our helper.
Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and my Father and I will come to them and live with them. Those who do not love me do not obey my teaching. And the teaching you have heard is not mine, but comes from the Father, who sent me. “I have told you this while I am still with you. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you. John 14:23-26 (GNT)
So our calling may not be as a pastor, teacher or evangelist with a huge stage and platform, but we are all called to tell everyone whom He places in our lives who He is and what He has done in our life, and is continuing to do in our life and what better way than to live a life glorifying God through the way we live.
Galatians 5 verse 16- 21 say this:
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
So I will leave you with this last question, as you read through that list, are there things on there that you deal with and need to hand over to the Lord, so He can free you?