The first essential step toward this goal is receiving Jesus as our Lord and savior, so that our sin can be blotted out and then by a divine creative act God can begin to form us into a completely new creation, a completely new kind of person.
The will of God is first of all a state of spirit. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. When our spirit is born of God, we are given the ability to hear the voice of God. If we are obedient to his voice, to walk in the word he reveals, and learn how to maintain a right spirit with God, he will begin to lead us into sonship.
The next step, which follows on from this creative act, is to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, which includes being baptized in water if possible and receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
Romans chapter 12 gives us the practical outworking of the will of God.
It begins with therefore. When we find a therefore in the Bible, we need to ask what it’s therefore.
Paul says I urge you, therefore, brethren by the mercies of God to present your body as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
The first thing that God asks is that we present our body to him, a living sacrifice.
You might say well I thought the body wasn’t so important, that it was the spirit and the soul that was important.
What we do with our body affects our soul and spirit.
God says your body is to be a living sacrifice. What does that mean? It’s contrasted with the sacrifices of the Old Testament where animals were offered in sacrifice; they were killed and placed as dead bodies on the altar of God.
God says I want your body on my altar just like the Old Testament sacrifice.
Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Do not present the parts of your body to sin, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead. This is presenting your body as a living sacrifice, as alive from the dead.
God’s says it’s your body I want and when I have your body I have you.
Do not present your body to sin, but yourselves to God.
In Matthew chapter 23 Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and is explaining to them the things that really matter, because they got their values wrong they were saying that the offering was more important than the altar on which it was offered.
Jesus says you blind guides which is more important the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering.
It’s the altar that sanctifies the offering that is placed upon it. What makes that offering holy is it being placed upon God’s altar. And that’s how it is with your body.
When you place your body on God’s altar it becomes holy, it’s sanctified, and it is set apart to God.
But that is an act that you have to make. It must be your decision to make your body totally available to God. What does that mean in practical terms?
It means that you go anywhere that God sends you; you do anything God tells you to do.
Then, as a result, something happens in the mind.
Romans chapter 12:2 but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove, find out and experience what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
When you present your body to God, a change takes place in your mind; you begin to think in a different way.
And then when your mind is renewed you prove, you find out for yourself what the will of God is.
Paul uses three words to describe the will of God. He says it’s good, it’s acceptable and it’s perfect. You notice that there is a progression. As you begin to discover God’s will, you discover it’s good. God always wants what’s good for his children, never what is evil.
As you begin to walk in His will, then you discover it’s acceptable, it’s what you really want, and as we follow on to know the Lord we come into a full understanding, it’s perfect. It covers every area of your life. It meets every need, there’s nothing that isn’t provided for you in the perfect will of God.
But keep in mind, it’s only as your mind is renewed that you can find out the will of God.
You see, typically religion works from the outside in, it starts trying to change man from outside, but God works from within.
He says when I can begin to change your mind then you will change, your whole way of life will change and I’ll be able to reveal to you my will, which is good, acceptable and perfect.
Now I want to explain to you why God can only reveal his will to our mind after it’s been renewed. Before God makes this change in our mind, the mind that we have inherited from Adam, cannot receive the will of God. The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; the carnal mind is enmity against God.
I think it becomes obvious that a mind that is at war with God cannot receive the revelation of the will of God.
The carnal mind is the product of impressions from living independently of God. And it covers three main areas- the will, the intellect and the emotions. Essentially the carnal mind is self-centered. It revolves around that little word I, its ego centered, its expressed in certain simple verbs, the carnal mind says I want, the carnal intellect says I think, the carnal emotions says I feel.
The carnal mind in its unregenerated condition is controlled by those three verbs, I want, I think, I feel. The person’s whole life revolves around them. And in that condition, they are not open to the revelation of the will of God.