From: dzeigler@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Daniel R Zeigler)
Subject: Decision Making and the Will of God, Revisited--Another View
Summary: If you are consecrated and love your brothers, the mechanics are 
         (relatively) unimportant
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 15:36:24 GMT

A few months ago, the thread "Decision Making and the Will of God" on Christia 
focused on the mechanics of discerning God's will.  The following ideas, which 
have been taking shape in recent weeks after some consideration of the topic, 
are not meant to imply that these mechanics are completely * unimportant *.  
But a couple of passages have helped me see that the condition of our hearts 
before God and our relationships with our brothers and sisters are even more 
important in discerning God's will.

(1) Consecration--an assurance of knowing God's will

    "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual
worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and
approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing, and perfect will." (Rom 12:1-2)

     Paul is saying that it is possible for human beings to know God's
will--but that such knowledge can only penetrate a renewed mind and a
sacrificial life.  God's wisdom seems like foolishness to our natural minds (1
Cor 2).  The hardening of our hearts due to sin has darkened our understanding
(Eph 4:17-19).  But when we become Christians, we are to "put off our old
selves, which are being corrupted by their deceitful desires; to be made new in
the attitude of our minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph 4:20-24).  Even after our conversion,
a life devoted to self will still de-sensitize us to God's purposes.  A heart 
that is consecrated, expressing the new creation that God is performing 
inside--only this can experience the revelation of God's will.
     Do I want to discern God's will for my life?  I must live moment by moment
as a living sacrifice.  (There is no other way to worship God.)  I must 
renounce the invasion of the world's standards in my mind.  I must choose Jesus
over me.  Then I will not only be able to * test * for God's will in a 
situtation; I will be able to * approve * it.  My spirit will testify with 
God's Spirit that His will is good, pleasing, and perfect!

(2)  Love--the promise of stumble-free walking

     "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in 
darkness.  Whoever love his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in
him to make him stumble.  Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and 
walks around in darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the 
darkness has blinded him."  (1 Jn 2:9-11)

     John tells us that we can walk through all the complexities of life
without stumbling only if we are full of light * inside *.  The way to this 
inner light?  A daily, practical, sacrificial love of our brothers.   The world
would teach us that the way to happiness is selfishness.  Western culture has 
bombarded each of us since birth with the messages of rugged individualism, 
privacy, ambition, success, accumulation of possessions, looking out for our 
own interests...  But John pops our bubble.  He claims that an individualistic 
lifestyle is a sure-fire way to become spiritually blind.  Unless we renounce
our selfishness, we will have no idea where we are going.  It is impossible to
live a normal, American lifestyle and have any spiritual discernment
whatsoever.
     But there is a way for me to see clearly.  It involves walking in the
light of honesty and exposure, before God and my brothers and sisters (1 Jn
1:5-10).  It means that I must lay down my life for them in practical ways (1
Jn 3:16).  It demands that I live in a daily response to the sacrificial love
God has shown me, allowing that love to be resurrected and made visible in me
(1 Jn 4:12).  When I live such a life, the light of God shines in and
illuminates each step.

Do I want to know God's will?  There is only one way.  I must live a
consecrated, other-worldly life.  And I must lay that life on the altar for my
brothers and sisters in Christ.

Without those prerequisites, all the Bible study in the world is worse than
useless.  It becomes downright dangerous!

Wishing all of us renewed minds and a stumble-free walk!

In Jesus,
Daniel
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