June 17 – What is God’s will?

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.  (Romans 12:2 HCSB)

There is so much power packed into this small verse, it’s hard to know where to begin. Again we have a condition, “do not be conformed,” and a promise that comes with it, to discern the perfect will of God. God’s will has always been a big question mark in the minds of Christians for ages. “Does He want me to take this job, or that one? Does He want me to marry that girl or this one? Does He want me to suffer through this oppression to teach me a lesson? Is He mad at me? Does He even love me?”

These and all the other questions that bombard most people, are no longer a struggle when our minds get out of the rut of the mundane, and allow God to renew and transform them. When our minds begin to think in godly terms, we begin to discern what His thoughts and desires are, and what aren’t. We don’t even need to know all the details of what God wants or how the answer we need can come about.  We just go by faith and determine that what we decide He will make possible, because it’s in sync with His character and nature. Only those whose minds are renewed can understand how that kind of audacity is possible, and how much it pleases God.

A Christian whose mind is being transformed day by day, is one who knows how to determine his or her blessings. That’s the person who says unexpected things, who has joy when no one else could even conceive of being happy. A mind transformed by God, is one that sees beyond human limitations and can visualize the blessings that are sure to come. Who wouldn’t be joyful with that kind of vision?

Not only that, but a transformed mind can discern the counterfeit “words of God” that the devil serves up to naïve and weak believers. Christian leaders and teachers who may have great authority can be deceived just as much as a young Christian, if their minds are stuck in church traditions or inflated by their own status and position. Satan is always searching for a way to infiltrate our minds through people we once assumed were spiritual. Our only protection against that is to ensure that we each keep ourselves transformed by God’s Spirit every day. Our standards should be those of heaven, and we will be guaranteed a clear view of the will of God for ourselves and for this world.