Worship is more than Sunday Attendance! Part 4.

“Then you will be able to test and approve God’s will- His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

People often ask how they know and do the will of God. The question is answered here. 

Three things must concur to test and approve God’s will according to Romans 12:1-3. 

One dark and starless night, while crossing the Irish channel, F.B. Meyer, a contemporary and friend of D L Moody, stood on the deck by the captain and asked him, “how do you know Holyhead harbor on so dar a night as this?” He said you see those three lights? Those three lights must line up behind each other as one, and when we see them so united, we know the exact position of the harbor. 

Romans 12:1-2 gives the three prerequisites for testing and approving God’s will in our personal lives. So far, we have seen in view of the mercies of God- how he loved/loves you, saved you, forgave/forgives you, protected/protected you, blessed you-(a) dedicate your body as a living, holy & pleasing sacrifice to God, (b) do not be conformed to the present age but (3) be transformed by the renewal of your mind (by the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Word of God which is the Bible). Then the following sentence is connected by “Kai” which means ‘and then.’ It says, “then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing & perfect will.”

Now, the Bible reveals three kinds of the will of God. 

First is His sovereign will or decree, meaning God’s supreme and sovereign control over all things.

Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.” 

You see, everything in this universe works and moves according to His sovereign will and decree. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. God governs from the throne in heaven according to His will. God’s sovereign will or decree is unalterable. Bible says in Acts 4:27-28, “Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will.” 

Jesus would die, be buried, and rose again was the sovereign, eternal and unalterable will of God. 1 Cor. 15:24-27 says Jesus wraps up the whole history standing at the end of it (History is indeed His story) and embraces all who would come to him in faith by raising and transforming them, that he destroys death as the last enemy to be destroyed and that God the Father has put all things under the authority of His Son, Jesus Christ, is yet another sovereign will or decree of God that would fulfill in the near future. 

Secondly, there is the revealed will of God that includes God’s commands and desires for us to follow or do. 

We can do it or fail to do it, for Example:1 Thes. 4:3-8 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no one violate the rights and take advantage of his brother or sister in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you previously and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in sanctification. Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”

1 Thes. 5:18-22 says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit, do not utterly reject prophecies, but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil.”

Thirdly, there is the personal will of God in our lives. 

Your parents, how God brought them together, your unique DNA, the generation in which you are born, and living are all part of His plan for your personal life. Acts 13:36 says, “For David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his father, and underwent decay.” NLT says, “after David had done the will of God in his own generation, died, and was buried with his ancestors. 

Psalm 139:16 says, “you saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” Isn’t it mind-boggling? Each moment of your life was laid out before even one existed.

Jesus, in his earthly life, lived each moment according to the direction and plan of God. He was not early or late in reaching a place, talking, or reaching out to a person in need. You see, He moved according to God’s clock of the divine plan. It was all pre-determined. So is your life when you think about God’s will for your life. Now, we can live in obedience to His plan, or we can disobey His will. This is where God’s will and our choices either match or do not match. However, it always paired with God’s will and plan in Jesus’s life.

NIV says, “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. In God’s sovereign and revealed will, you and I do not test and approve of God’s will in our personal lives. However, in the individual will of God, you will be able to test and approve the will of God. 

Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; He tested and approved the Father’s will there. There the sweat of Jesus became like the drops of blood falling on the ground when all humanity’s sin was placed on him. In his describable agony and mental anguish, in the garden, Jesus said, “Father, not my will, but yours be done.” The Bible indicates Jesus fervently prayed in agony and thereby tested and approved the will of God for his earthly life. 

Beloved, there will be times like this in our personal lives- that you should test and approve the will of God for your life. You would also say, not my will, but yours be done.” Not easy, but difficult. In a lifelong journey, like Jesus said, picking up the cross-dying to self means dying to our desires to accomplish His divine purpose, to grab hold of something higher and sacred. You see, Jesus, the light of the world, becomes the ruler of your life, not the Devil, the ruler of the present and dark age. He becomes the master and king of your life on a going basis. 

Listen, because of the manifold mercies of God, He poured out on you, which Paul explains from Romans 1-11, it is only reasonable and proper that worship becomes daily and not on certain days of the week. Worship becomes a daily and moment-by-moment life style that includes presenting your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the world (present evil, lustful and sinful age) but be transformed by renewing your mind by leaning on the Holy Spirit moment by moment and meditating on the Bible. Turn from the world’s ways of life to what Jesus and the Bible say. 

This is how you and I would test and approve the will of God in our personal lives. His will is good, pleasing, and perfect for you. 

Remember what the captain said to F. B. Meyer while standing on the deck next to the captain. In these dark and gloomy days of the earth, where the present age system and its sinful, lustful ways destroy many, let the three things of Romans 1-2 line up behind each other. Then we would test and approve will of God, which is good, pleasing, and perfect.