#178 To Know God is to do His Will
When you know God you do His will. John 7:17 says, “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.” This is but one verse but there are many more like it. That shows us that a marker of a relationship with God is to do His will. When Christ spoke those words He was speaking to those who claimed ot know Him already. You like His audience then claim to know God. Your willingness to do what God commands is directly related to your knowledge of who He is. That is to say if you know Him you do His will and the result is you understand His voice.
Again in Romans 12:2 we read, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” This verse conveys many things. Not the least of which is that there is an ongoing war in your mind. On the one side is the world which constantly bombards you with lies. And then there is the renewal of your mind, the knowledge of God’s perfect will. When we read the news and spend time on social media and watch television we give ammunition to the enemy. This is not to say that we need to cut ourselves off from the world. But when we follow God our minds must be continually renewed in order to be formed in God’s perfect will. Our actions either prove or disprove God’s perfect will. If our actions disprove God’s perfect will then that means we do not know God. If our actions prove God’s will then we are a part of His will. Does that make sense?
Romans 12:2 indicates three things that show what God’s will is, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. The good is talked about throughout chapter 12 of Romans. Verse 9 presents the good as the opposition of evil. It is a clinging to one another in love. The acceptable is presented in verse 1. This is yourself, a sacrifice. You must lay down your life daily to follow God. Have you laid down your life today? Thirdly is the perfect. This carried the idea of completeness. To be complete is to wholly and entirely given over to the good and acceptable.
Again in 1 John 2:17 it is written “The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” The doing of God’s will is what draws you into God’s presence. This verse like Romans 12:2 indicates a binary choice: the world or God. To do the will of the world means destruction but the will of God brings us into God’s presence.
