There are only two places in the New Testament that explicitly say, “This is God’s will.” I’ve talked about those in the last two posts. However, there are places where believers are instructed to do God’s will or act in accordance with it.

In Order that You may Prove God’s Will

Romans 12:1-2: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,by the compassion of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, in order that you may prove what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God. (my translation)

The word Paul uses for “prove” is the Greek verb dokimazo. This word has a variety of meanings.  First, it can mean to “put to the test, examine.” That means that if something that you think might be God’s will, test it to see if that’s valid. The second sense is to “prove, approve.”

When some prospector during the Gold Rush in California brought to an assay office what he claimed was gold, the clerk would test it to see if it was really gold, or only “Fool’s Gold,” which is iron pyrite. The testing process is what James refers to in James 1:2-4. Your faith will be tested to prove its validity.

The test will hopefully show that your faith is approved. Therefore, the testing is an “approval process.” God does not test us in order to make us fail. He tests us so we can see whether we really trust him or not.

Paul instructs the Christians at Rome to prove or approve what the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God is. This means that we need to test.

Paul, however, gives us some clues about testing and about what God’s will is in the rest of the chapter.

Romans 12:3-5 “not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.” Prove or test your attitude toward other Christians. Do you seek to be one body in Christ or do you seek to be the most important and rule over other believers? You want to be able to approve your attitude as being of the first kind.

Do you think that woman in the pew in front of you is an inferior Christian to you because of what she is wearing? Do you look down on the guy in the chair next to you because you, like me, have a Ph.D., and he has no college education? Approving the will of God in this case means fixing your attitude. It’s God’s will for you.  

Use Your Spiritual Gift for God’s Will

In Rom 12:6-8, Paul tells us to use whatever spiritual gifts that God has given to us. He mentions things like prophesying, teaching, encouraging, and showing mercy. None of these are things we are born with. They are gifts from God.

You might not know what gift(s) you have and there are tools online you can find to help you figure it out. What is most important to note is that you cannot exercise your gift sitting at home, except for speaking in tongues.

You have to be with other Christian brothers and sisters. Paul lists some gifts here, some in 1 Corinthians 12, and a few in Ephesians 4. None of these lists is identical.

This suggests that God could give you a spiritual gift that is not listed. If you sense you want to serve believers in some way that Paul doesn’t list, that could still be your spiritual gift.

In the process of “proving” what the will of God is, look for ways to use whatever you think your gift might be and see what happens. If it helps another believer, I’d say that it is from God, even if it isn’t a “spiritual gift.”

 Paul doesn’t list the gift of writing hymns or worship songs. Yet it would be foolish to say that Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, and more recent composers weren’t gifted by God to compose that music.

Interestingly, Paul never mentions preaching as a spiritual gift. It is a skill and can be improved through education and practice. That doesn’t make preaching bad or inferior to spiritual gifts per se.

Romans 12:9-21 begins with the instruction that love must be sincere. Then, Paul talks about ways that works out, such as, “hate what is evil,” but “cling to what is good.” Seeking to do what is in the rest of Romans 12 will be approving God’s will for you.

More Passages on Living God’s Will

Other passages have similar statements about God’s will.

• Colossians 1:9 Gain knowledge of God’s will with all spiritual wisdom
  “Be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:9-10 NASB)
• Bearing fruit spiritually, and pleasing God in every respect is God’s will for you. It is not something mysterious. When Paul speaks of God’s will for Christians, he immediately spells out what that looks like. You don’t have to wonder what it is.

• Hebrews 10:35-36 tells us to stand firm in doing God’s will: “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” (Heb 10:35-36 NASB)
• The book of Hebrews has much to tell us about what God wants us to do. In Hebrews 10, we are encouraged to come into God’s presence because Jesus has opened a way for us to do that.
• This always depends upon Jesus, not our estimate of how worthy we are. Who could be worthy enough to enter the presence of the God who made everything? Only Jesus.
• He provides a “new and living way” for us to go to God. You don’t have to work to be worthy of going to God. The whole point of the gospel is that we can’t make ourselves clean or worthy, but through Jesus, we are made clean and can go to God.

How to Do God’s Will

The Bible tells us over and over again about doing God’s will, but it is never left as a mystery. Wherever it says that, it follows it with instructions about doing God’s will. Paul prayed for the Colossians (and for us) that we would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. He wasn’t talking about things that are often our questions.

So, before you worry about what college to attend, or who to marry, or what career path to take, focus upon what you can know God’s will is for you: enter his presence; bear fruit; build up other believers with your spiritual gift(s), and seek to please God in all things.

Advice from the Early Church on Doing God’s Will

An important theologian of the early church, Augustine of Hippo, said that there are two things you must do. 1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 2 Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said this before Augustine.

If you do those two things, you’ll be doing God’s will and you can pretty much do what you desire within those boundaries. If you’re loving God with your whole being, there’s won’t be any idols in your life, e.g., money, sex, power, possessions, etc.

If you love your neighbor as yourself, you will seek only good for your neighbor, regardless of how different you and your neighbor might be

My Next Post

My next post will address what you really want to know: what about God’s will for the specifics of your life? However, if we skip what the Bible tells us explicitly is God’s will, why should we expect God to guide us on the details of our lives? That would make no sense.

I welcome your comments. I don’t want this to be a one-way conversation.

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