God's Will

[Indentured Servant]

2 hours ago, TheBlade said:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

Wonderful verse!

I am involved in a ministry that promotes that verse in its mission.

[warrior12]

Matthew 5:

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that^[b] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Meaning you are to be a -------

Complete the above line.

[Sower]

On 3/28/2025 at 5:14 PM, Indentured Servant said:

"What is God's will?"

          My tiniest little obedience is God's will....

[warrior12]

1 hour ago, warrior12 said:

Meaning you are to be a -------

Complete the above line.

The believer is to be a testimony and witness to the world.  Your lamp or testimony cannot be hidden, but shone to the world without fear, like all the martrys who have gone before us. Be a good and faithful servant.

[steve morrow]

THE  WILL  OF  THE  FATHER

 

JOHN 7:16  JESUS  answered them and said my doctrine is not mine but  HIS  that sent  ME

--7:17--  if any man will --do  HIS  will-- he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of  GOD  or whether I speak of myself

--7:18-- he that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh  HIS  glory that sent him  the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him 

 

ROMANS 10:3  for they being ignorant of  GODS  righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of  GOD 

 

JOHN 6:38  for I came down from heaven not to --do mine own will-- but the will of  HIM  that sent  ME

JOHN 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing as I hear I judge and  MY  judgment is just because I seek --not mine own will  --  but the will of  THE  FATHER  sent  ME

 

JOHN 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you 

 

ACTS 22:7  and I fell unto the ground and heard a voice saying unto me Saul Saul why persecutest thou  ME 

--22:8--  and I answered who art thou  LORD  and  HE  said unto me I am  JESUS  of nazareth whom thou persecutest 

--22:9--  and they that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid but they heard not the voice of  HIM  that spake to me

--22:10--  and I said what shall I do  LORD  and  THE  LORD  said unto me arise and go into Damascus and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do 

--22:11--  and when I could not see for the glory of that light being led by the hand of them that were with me I came into Damascus 

--22:12--  and one ananias a devout man according to the law having a good report of all the jews which dwelt there 

--22:13--  came unto me and stood and said unto me brother Saul receive thy sight and the same hour I looked up upon him

 

--22:14--  and he said the  GOD  of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldest  --KNOW  HIS  WILL--  and see that  JUST  ONE  and shouldest hear the voice of  HIS  mouth

 

MATTHEW 7:21  not everyone that saith unto  ME  LORD  LORD  shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that  --DOETH  THE  WILL  OF  MY  FATHER  WHICH  IS  IN  HEAVEN--

ACTS 5:20  go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life 

 

LUKE 22:41  and  HE  was withdrawn from them about a stones cast and kneeled down and prayed --22:42--  saying  FATHER  if thou be willing remove this cup from  ME  nevertheless not  MY  will  --but thine be done--

 

JAMES 2:5  hearken  MY  beloved brethren hath not  GOD. chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which  HE  hath promised to them that love  HIM 

 

GALATIANS 1:10  for do I now persuade men or  GOD  or do I seek to please men for if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of  CHRIST

 

1 TIMOTHY 1:8  but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully 

--1:9-- knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and profane for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for man slayers 

--1:10-- for whoremongers for them that defile themselves with mankind for men stealers for liars for perjured persons --and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine--

--1:11--  according to the glorious gospel of the blessed  GOD  --which was committed to my trust--

 

HEBREWS 10:36  for you have need of patience that  --AFTER-- you have done the will of  GOD  you might receive the promise

 

2 THESSALONIANS 1:5  which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of  GOD  that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of  GOD  for which you also suffer 

 

LOVING  THE  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST  

 

 

[Cntrysner]

Excerpts from John Piper on "what is the will of God and how do we know it"....

 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2)

 

The term “the will of God” has at least two and possibly three biblical meanings. First, there is the sovereign will of God, that always comes to pass without fail. Second, there is the revealed will of God in the Bible — do not steal, do not lie, do not kill, do not covet — and this will of God often does not come to pass. And third, there is the path of wisdom and spontaneous godliness — wisdom where we consciously apply the word of God with our renewed minds to complex moral circumstances, and spontaneous godliness where we live most of our lives without conscious reflection on the hundreds of things we say and do all day. Next week we need to sort this out and ask what Paul is referring to in Romans 12:2.

But today I want to focus on the phrase in Romans 12:2, “by the renewal of your mind.” Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” We are perfectly useless as Christ-exalting Christians if all we do is conform to the world around us. And the key to not wasting our lives with this kind of success and prosperity, Paul says, is being transformed. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.”

That word is used one time in all the gospels, namely, about Jesus on the mountain of transfiguration (the mountain of “transformation” — same word, metemorphōthē): “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light” (Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2).

I point this out for one reason: to make the point that the nonconformity to the world does not primarily mean the external avoidance of worldly behaviors. That’s included. But you can avoid all kinds of worldly behaviors and not be transformed. “His face shown like the sun, and his clothes became white as light!” Something like that happens to us spiritually and morally. Mentally, first on the inside, and then, later at the resurrection on the outside. So Jesus says of us, at the resurrection: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).

Transformation is not switching from the to-do list of the flesh to the to-do list of the law. When Paul replaces the list — the works — of the flesh, he does not replace it with the works of the law, but the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19–22).

The Christian alternative to immoral behaviors is not a new list of moral behaviors. It is the triumphant power and transformation of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ — our Savior, our Lord, our Treasure. “[God] has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). So transformation is a profound, blood-bought, Spirit-wrought change from the inside out.

 

• If you long to break loose from conformity to the world,
• If you long to be transformed and new from the inside out,
• If you long to be free from mere duty-driven Christianity and do what you love to do because what you love to do is what you ought to do,
• If you long to offer up your body as a living sacrifice so that your whole life becomes a spiritual act of worship and displays the worth of Christ above the worth of the world,

then give yourself with all your might to pursuing this — the renewal of your mind. Because the Bible says, this is the key to transformation. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

The problem with our minds is not merely that we are finite, and don’t have all the information. The problem is that our minds are fallen. They have a spirit, a bent, a mindset that is hostile to the absolute supremacy of God. Our minds are bent on not seeing God as infinitely more worthy of praise than we are, or the things we make or achieve.

The Bible says we have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man” (Romans 1:23). And the image in the mirror is the mortal image we worship most.

Here is the deepest disease, infecting everything else. Our mental suppression of liberating truth is rooted in our hardness of heart. Our hard hearts will not submit to the supremacy of Christ, and therefore our blind minds cannot see the supremacy of Christ (see John 7:17).

 

This brings us finally to the remedy and how we obey Romans 12:2, “Be transformed in the renewal of your mind.” First, before we can do anything, a double action of the Holy Spirit is required. And then we join him in these two actions. The reason I say the Holy Spirit is required is because this word “renewal” in Romans 12:2 is only used one other place in all the Greek Bible, namely, Titus 3:5 where Paul says this: “[God] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”

There’s the word “renewal” which we’ve seen is so necessary. And it is renewal “of the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit renews the mind. It is first and decisively his work. We are radically dependent on him. Our efforts follow his initiatives and enablings.

Now, what is the double work that he must do to renew our minds so that all of life becomes worship? 2 Corinthians 3:18 sets the stage for the answer:

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

What does the Spirit do to “transform” us into the image of the God-exalting Son of God? He enables us to “behold the glory of the Lord.” This is how the mind is renewed — by steadfastly gazing at the glories of Christ for what they really are.

But to enable us to do that, the Spirit must do a double work. He must work in two directions: from the outside in and from the inside out. He must work from the outside in by exposing the mind to Christ-exalting truth. That is, he must lead us to hear the gospel, to read the Bible, to study Christ-exalting writings of great, spiritual men, and to meditate on the perfections of Christ.

This is exactly what our great enemy does not want us to do according to 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Because to see that for what it really is, Paul says, will renew the mind and transform the life and produce unending worship.

And the Spirit must work from the inside out, breaking the hard heart that blinds and corrupts the mind. The Spirit must work from the outside in, through Christ-exalting truth, and from the inside out, through truth-embracing humility. If he only worked from the outside in, by presenting Christ-exalting truth to our minds but not breaking the hard heart and making it humble, then the truth would be despised and rejected. And if he only humbled the hard heart, but put no Christ-exalting truth before the mind, there would be no Christ to embrace and no worship would happen.

What then do we do in obedience to Romans 12:2, “Be transformed in the renewal of your mind”? We join the Holy Spirit in his precious and all-important work. We pursue Christ-exalting truth and we pray for truth-embracing humility.

[PATrobas]

2 hours ago, Cntrysner said:

Transformation is not switching from the to-do list of the flesh to the to-do list of the law. When Paul replaces the list — the works — of the flesh, he does not replace it with the works of the law, but the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19–22).

The Christian alternative to immoral behaviors is not a new list of moral behaviors. It is the triumphant power and transformation of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ — our Savior, our Lord, our Treasure. “[God] has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). So transformation is a profound, blood-bought, Spirit-wrought change from the inside out.

Amen and amen.  2 Corinthians 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

[Orion]

On 3/28/2025 at 6:14 PM, Indentured Servant said:

In my first ten years as a follower of Christ, I recall frequent references to, and questions about, God's Will. 

Nowadays, there are discussions about "free will," and I just don't see that as an edifying topic.

What I'd like to do, for anyone interested, is to ask, what you think, know, or know, about:

"What is God's will?"

 

 

 

When we are born again, we know God more than we ever knew Him prior; He now lives in us and we now have a more intimate personal relationship with Him  So, when we have God indwelling, we know what God expects of us: "Do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."  Micah 6:8. 

To put it another way: glorify Him in all we do for He is God; obey Him for He is our King; trust in Him and His word and in His eternal plan to redeem us for He our Creator; have faith in no other because He is the Author and Finisher of our Faith; and, love Him and our fellow image bearers as He loves us because we are all created in His image and after His likeness, and He is love. 

[Cntrysner]

4 hours ago, PATrobas said:

Amen and amen.  2 Corinthians 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Amen....
 

Edited April 11 by Cntrysner

[Cntrysner]

4 hours ago, PATrobas said:

Amen and amen.  2 Corinthians 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Amen, we can only go before the Father by humbling our selves in the presence of the perfect humanity of Christ with the knowledge we are nothing, only Christ can give glory to the Father (the Father does not glory in flesh), and we give glory to the Son who took our sin upon Himself. We can only receive eternal life through Christ, there is no other way, His perfect life. I see the ultimate will of the Father is that we must go through Christ to enter His heavenly Kingdom, it is all Christ and nothing of ourselves. The Father will only receive a perfect Son without sin and those that completely surrendered their sinful life and died with Christ and became inseparable from Christ by the gift of Christ will the Father receive.

 Act 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.