God's Will - Acceptable
Scripture Reading - Romans 12:1-2 KJV
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
In our last lesson we briefly discussed the “Will of God”. Notice according to verse 1 that you must first think about your body being a sacrifice unto God to even consider doing “God’s Will”. The battle every Christian must fight is not doing their own will over “God’s Will”. This is why the scriptures admonish us to make the sacrifice first so we can always conclude “God’s Will” has priority over man’s will, including doing your own will upon this earth. In today’s lesson we will also study “God’s Will”. However, we will take a step up and highlight “God’s Acceptable Will” which could be known as doing “God’s Pleasing Will”. We mentioned before that “God’s Good Will” applies to a large base because both believers and unbelievers are stewards of “God’s Good Will”. Yes, doing good actions involving the natural things God created qualifies for doing “God’s Good Will”. Acts of goodness to help our fellowman qualify for doing “God’s Good Will”, things like working, buying good things and selling good things at a fair price are all according to “God’s Good Will”. When we look into things included with “God’s Acceptable Will” we see faith is part of “God’s Acceptable Will” because Hebrews 11:6 KJV states, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” We can clearly see that without faith one can’t please God so we can confidently proclaim that walking (living) by faith pleases God. This is why we stated that the “God’s Pleasing Will” base is much smaller than “God’s Good Will” which encompasses all mankind because one must be a Christian or believer in God to even give God an opportunity to bless them and blessing His children and His servants truly “pleases” God. We know the first step in coming to God during this dispensation is believing in Jesus Christ and accepting Him as your personal Lord and Savior. Now if anyone decides to do this would it please God? Yes, and Amen! Ask yourself the question would you be pleased if you helped another person find God? Yes, so being saved by faith and helping others to be saved by faith is doing “God’s Acceptable Will”. Also, we notice in the Holy Bible that walking (living) in the Spirit “pleases” God. In Romans 8:8-9a KJV the word of God states, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. . . . Being in the flesh just basically means you are a carnal ruled person. Carnal ruled people typically follow their natural inclinations and they remain natural minded all during the day. The opposite of living in the flesh is walking (living, abiding) in the Spirit. Living in the Spirit basically means following the promptings and guidance from the Holy Spirit. Yes, even filling your own spirit with the Holy Spirit allows you to see things more clearly because if you are filled with the Holy Spirit you will view life (including all people) through God’s Eyes and that view carries with it the portrait of love which is always God’s signature. Yes, going through your Holy Bible you will find several conversations with God where someone did something that pleased God and he or she was “accepted of God”. When we look at Romans 14:17-19 KJV which reads, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is “acceptable” to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” We see some more of “God’s Pleasing Will”. If we choose to focus on God’s righteousness, peace and joy over natural foods and drink when working with people we are “pleasing” to God. Why, because the Lord Jesus Himself never let food be a stumbling block between Himself and another person when trying to minister God’s Love. We too shouldn’t expose our differences suggesting who’s right or who’s wrong when it comes to witnessing for God. The scripture admonishes us look for (share) issues that make for peace, words and actions you can show to build-up (edify) the other person. This behavior “pleases” God and it “pleases” us and it should please you too because if one chooses debate over mild manner conversation they are definitely not “pleasing” God so God would not be “pleased” with them. Yes, even thinking of King Solomon in the Old Testament we see a servant of God still “pleased” God when their heart was right with God. Remember 1 Kings 3:9-10 KJV which states,”Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.” We can extract from these scriptures that “God’s Acceptable Will” includes His servants seeking an understanding heart (wisdom) to judge people. Now ask yourself the same question we asked before, “Would this please you?” If you are like most believers the answer is yes, asking God for His wisdom and guidance is “pleasing” to us and if you are just like thousands of other Christians you too are truly thinking like God. Of course this makes sense because we are the Children of God. So when thinking of performing “God’s Acceptable Will” please understand that generally what pleases God is people trusting Him and following His Leading. We (ihlcc) do understand that love will be involved and probably some measure of guidance from the Holy Word of God but be sure to realize you need faith to “please” God and you have faith in Christ Jesus our Lord because you are in Him and His Faith is in you. Amen!