Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture, the Holy Spirit speaks of God’s acceptable will and His perfect will. The word translated “acceptable”, also carries the meaning “permissible”. In other words our Lord Jesus has His permissible will for our lives, and He has His perfect will for our lives. His permissible will is exactly that. He will permit us to do what we want to do. When I speak of our Lord’s permissible will for our lives, I am not referring to living sinful lives, and saying that our Lord Jesus permits this (although He does). What I am referring to is the believer living their life as a Christian, but without seeking the Lord’s will for their lives. Our Lord Jesus permits His saints to do this.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
The above quoted passage of scripture reveals to us that God our Father has pre-ordained good works for each of us to walk in. In other words these good works are God’s perfect will for our lives. However, just because God has prepared these good works for us to walk in, does not mean that every believer will automatically walk in His perfect will. For notice that the scripture says “we should walk in them”, not “we will walk in them”. Every one of us has been given a free will by God. And so before we came into His kingdom, we exercised our free will and did whatever we wanted to do. What we wanted to do before we came into the kingdom of God was to be disobedient to His will, for the scripture refers to all unbelievers as being “sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). And so when we, as an act of our free will, accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour and came into His kingdom, one thing did not change, which was our free will. In this life God will never override the free will of any human being, which includes all of His children. Sadly because of this truth many believers never walk in God’s perfect will for their lives. The reason for that is simply because they never seek His will for their lives, and so they live mostly in God’s permissive will.
Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
As we have already seen, the above quoted passage of scripture reveals to us that there is such a thing as the perfect will of God. God the Father has pre-ordained that each of His children should walk in His perfect will for their lives. However it is up to us as an act of our free will, to seek His will for our lives and then walk in it.
Ephesians 5:8-10 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light … (10) finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture we see that the onus is placed on us to find out what is acceptable or well pleasing to the Lord. The question then arises as to how to find out what His will is for our lives? The answer to that question is that we find out God’s perfect will for our lives through His word, and by the leading of His Spirit. With regards to His word, the Lord reveals His perfect will for our lives in two ways. The first way is by teaching us through His word, what we should be experiencing in life. You will recall that our Lord Jesus said that He had come to give us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10). And so with regards to what we experience in life, the word of God should be used as the benchmark to determine if we are experiencing God’s perfect will for our lives or not. For example, it is God’s perfect will for His children not to experience sickness or disease, for the word of God declares that by the stripes of Jesus we were healed (1 Peter 2:24). And Jesus took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses (Matthew 8:17). It is also God’s perfect will for His children not to experience any lack, for the word of God declares that Jesus became poor that we may be made rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). And God supplies all of our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). It is God’s perfect will for His children that no evil befalls them, for He gives His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways (Psalm 91:10-11). And we are told to resist the devil and he will flee from us (James 4:7). It is also God’s perfect will that His children walk in perfect peace, for the Lord has given us His peace (John 14:27). And the scripture teaches us that Jesus is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). It is also God’s perfect will that His children should experience a degree of persecution for being Christians, for the word of God teaches us that we have been appointed to tribulations (1 Thessalonians 3:3). And again the scripture teaches us that those who live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). And then finally, outside of martyrdom, it is God’s perfect will that all of His children live long lives on the earth, for in His word the Lord has promised us long life (Psalm 91:16). And those who do His commandments will experience length of days and long life (Proverbs 3:2). And so if we are experiencing all of the above in our lives, then we can be assured that we are walking in God’s perfect will. However, if we are not experiencing God’s stated will for our lives in any of these areas, then we can be equally assured that we are missing it in some way and we are walking outside of His perfect will.
Michael E.B. Maher
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