How do we know what the will of God is?
We are not left adrift in a sea of uncertainty. Our God is not silent or distant—He wants His children to know His ways. He desires to guide, direct, and lead us. He desires to enable and empower us to walk in His will.
In Romans 12, Paul shows the church how we can discern the will of God:
1I 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.
2Do 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.
3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
In verses 1 and 2, Paul lays the foundation for all the practical instruction that follows in chapters 13–16. Some of us are wired to love practicality. We want to get to work—start the housing project of our lives, frame it out, hang the drywall, get the paint up. But none of that will stand unless the foundation is solid.
And I think that’s how many of us try to live the Christian life—we jump into what seems practical. Go to church. Read your Bible. Pray. Provide for your family. Be nice. Mention Jesus here and there. But eventually—as God opens our eyes—we look around and realize something: our lives look an awful lot like the lives of our unbelieving neighbors.
If we extend the building metaphor, we realize that our “houses” are falling apart in many of the same ways theirs are. Why? Because the foundation was never properly laid.
And Jesus had something to say about that in Matthew 7:24-27:
24Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
27And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
Jesus teaches us plainly: the foundation of a successful Christian life is obedience—hearing what God says, and then doing it.
This is the heartbeat of Romans 12:1–2. Everything that follows hinges on this foundation. Paul calls the church to offer their bodies—all that we are, all through which we understand life, identity, and experience—as a living sacrifice. That means laying all of ourselves before God as His property—no longer under our own control. If we belong to Him, then He gets to call the shots about everything.
And tied to that surrender, Paul gives us a warning: “Do not be conformed to this world—but be transformed.”
Give Him everything. Every sin. Every struggle. Every joy. Every heartbreak. Every pain and pleasure. Every humility, every shame, every failure, every pride. Every accolade, every victory, every achievement.
Lay it all before Him—and let Him show you the truth of it. Because He is the Truth. Let Him re-write your story. Let Him re-write you.
Before we return to the second half of verse 2, we need to notice what Paul says in verse 3:
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Why does Paul say this immediately after calling us to surrender?
Because we tend to do exactly what the Spirit warns against. We look at the parts of our lives we’re supposed to lay on the altar and think, “Well… this area, I’m right about. I don’t need to lay that down.”
Or, “This part of me is harmless. God doesn’t need to touch that.”
But the apostle warns us—don’t give yourself a pass. Don’t hold anything back from being transformed.
Which brings us back to the latter part of verse 2:
That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
By testing what?
Everything we’ve laid before God as a sacrifice. All that we are. And all that we experience.
Tested how?
By His thoughts, as revealed in His Word.
By His character, as revealed in His Son.
Every thought—tested.
Every feeling—tested.
Every idea—tested.
Every opinion—tested.
Every identity, tradition, conviction, confidence, preference, bias, and pride—tested.
Every insecurity, impression, fear, hesitation, and hindrance—tested.
Everything.
Every.
Thing.
Tested—not by shifting feelings or personal comfort, but by the unchanging authority of the Word of God.
And Paul tells us: when we test all of ourselves and all of our experiences this way, we begin to truly know the will of God. We begin to see all things, especially ourselves and our thoughts and ways, as He sees. Then, seeing things as He does we are enabled to walk in His way.
May this process be apparent in every believer. May we be seen to be those who are continually becoming more like Jesus in thought, in word and in deed.
And may our prayers be united with the prayer of our Lord in John 17:15–23:
15I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
16They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
18As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
19And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
21That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you,
That they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one,
So that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Father, transform us—so the world may know.
Amen.
In His love,
Pastor Brian