06/17/2025
Ask Pastor Steve
How Can I Discern God’s Will for My Life?
To discern the will of God, we first need to differentiate our own will from God’s will. Romans 12:2 says, “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.” The word “conformed” here means “poured into the world’s mold.” The world says, “If it feels good, do it.” Worldly people make life decisions by determining what will please them the most. The worldly person wants to do what will make them happy, or they will want to please the world and do what everybody else is doing. Paul says, “Don’t be like them; don’t be poured into their mold.”
Rather than pleasing ourselves or everybody else in the world, Christians seek to please God. Paul urges believers to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” The word “transformed” is the Greek word for metamorphosis. It is a radical transformation, not just an outward change. It is like the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Our minds should be so radically changed that we think differently than we did before we were saved. Something changes so that we want to please God rather than please ourselves. This transformation is what enables us to discern God’s will, or as Paul describes it, “prove what the will of God is.” The word “prove” means “put it to the test.”
There are at least two “tests” that every believer should conduct when discerning God’s will. The first test is the “Scripture Test,” in other words, the simplest way of determining God’s will is to see what the Bible says about what you intend to do. The second test is the “Jesus Test,” in other words, ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” Several years ago, this idea became popular with the acronym: WWJD. Though mocked by many for its simplicity, it can have a powerful impact on daily decision-making.
We want to please God, but what does Paul mean by “that which is good and acceptable and perfect?” The word “good” means “morally good,” the word “acceptable” means “pleasing to God,” and the word “perfect” means “fully complete, fully matured, or fully perfected.” In seeking to discern God’s will for our lives, we could miss out on His perfect will if we settle for doing something “good” from a moral perspective, but perhaps not pleasing to God. Cain’s offering to God of vegetables from his garden was a “good” offering from his perspective, but it was not pleasing to God because God demanded a blood sacrifice that would cost him something like Abel’s sacrifice. We should always try to discern what is good and acceptable to God by testing our decisions with the “Scripture Test” and the “Jesus Test.”
What about the “perfect” will of God? I’m not content with just the good and acceptable will of God; I want to be in God’s perfect will. I want all three of those descriptions of God’s will to be part of my decision-making. If you have determined that your decisions are in alignment with Scripture and they are the decisions you think Jesus would have made, then what is left to discern God’s perfect will? The perfect will of God is only discernible in a mature and intimate relationship with Jesus. This is what Paul means by being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The closer you walk with Jesus, the more you begin to think and act like Jesus, and the better you can listen to the voice of Jesus to discern His perfect will for your life.