HOW IS YOUR AQUIFER?

Discovering God’s Will For Your Life
(Romans 12:1-8)

Romans, like other Pauline letters, views Christian conduct as the outworking of Christian belief. In this passage, Paul moves from considering great issues of world history to an extraordinarily insightful analysis of Christian behaviour. He shows that God’s personal will for our lives can be discovered if we free ourselves from the influence of our external environment, and can be immensely fulfilling as we discover our God-given inner motivations. In this sermon, preached at Greyfriars Presbyterian Church on 30 September 2007, Rob Yule shows that God’s will is discoverable, pleasurable and satisfying.

An unseen struggle takes place beneath the coastal plains of the world. The level and flow of water in the underground aquifer needs to be great enough to resist the encroachment of salt water seeping inland from the ocean. If the level of the aquifer falls, or its flow diminishes, then there isn’t enough pressure to resist the underground inflow of sea water from the ocean. The resulting seepage of brackish or salt water can poison coastal soils and harm agriculture. In some regions of the world — the coastal littoral of Israel or of New Zealand’s Canterbury Plains, for example — this is becoming a critical problem.

Which way is the flow occurring in your life? Are you influencing the world, through the steady outflow of a godly life? Or is the pressure of the world influencing you, dominating and harming your life?

Paul said, ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds’ (12:2, NRSV). Instead of being influenced by this world, you and I are meant to have a faith that is strong enough to transform the society around us by the renewing influence of our own lives. Instead of being influenced by the peer pressure and fashions of society around us, you and I should be having a positive influence on those around us.

God’s will is discoverable

All of us face major decisions throughout our lives regarding career, marriage, the use of money, the purchase of a house, the values of our family, the nature of our Christian service, the location of our retirement. The subject of guidance and knowing God’s will is very relevant to us all.

The Bible’s premise is that God’s will is knowable and discoverable by us. It’s not remote and distant, but accessible. Paul writes ‘so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect’ (12:2, NRSV). Because God has revealed himself through his Son Jesus Christ, God’s will is not something distant and remote, but something ‘near us’ and accessible to us, ‘on our lips and in our heart’ (10:6-8).

Looking back on my life I marvel at God’s goodness — the delight of his will, and how perfectly matched his will has been to my deepest longings and desires. An example would be my three mission trips to Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. This came quite unexpectedly after years of working on the unpopular cause of supporting Christians in Communist countries, with no thought of ever being able to meet any of these people personally or travel to their countries.

Joachim Neander’s 17th century hymn ‘Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation’ — sung in Czech in my very first service in Prague, at the Liben Church of the Evangelical Brethren — expresses this wonderful correspondence between God’s will and our deepest delight:

‘Hast thou not seen
How thy heart’s wishes have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?’

Christian belief and behaviour

Romans, like other Pauline letters, views Christian conduct as an expression of Christian belief. Roman 1-11 describes what God has done in Christ. Romans 12-16 describes our response in Christian living. They are linked by the ‘therefore’ in 12:1.

Romans 1-11	Romans 12-16
Belief	Behaviour
Religion	Ethics
Theology	Morality
Divine initiative	Human response
Creed	Conduct
Grace (charis)	Gratitude (eucharistia)
Conversion	'Conversation'

We can compare this with Romans 1, where false religion (idolatry) leads to wrong ethics (immorality).

Paul sets out three keys for discovering God’s will for your life:

1. Be genuinely converted (12:1-2)

You can’t discern God’s will if you’re not living a yielded life. If you haven’t ‘offered your body as a living sacrifice’ to God, you will never discover what God’s ‘good, pleasing and perfect will’ is.

The opposite of conversion is conformity. The majority of people live lives of conformity — to an increasingly selfish, acquisitive, consumer culture. You’ll never discover God’s liberating will for your life if you are puppets to the pull of this world. The puppet strings must be cut if you are to be free to know God’s will.

Your life could be compared to a boat, moored by the wharf. The hawsers have to be thrown off the bollards for it to float free from the wharf. Only then can it set sail and discover it’s navigation course — the direction of its voyage.

Genuine conversion isn’t just a spiritual matter. It’s physical and practical. It involves presenting your body to God, with your physical desires and needs — sex, food, money, recreation, health. Have you done this? True conversion involves not only the heart but also the lips (10:9-10), not just our minds but also our bodies (12:1). Conversion is outward and visible, not just inward and spiritual.

2. Have a realistic estimate of yourself (12:3-5)

You can’t discover God’s will for your life if you have an unrealistic view of yourself in relation to others. ‘Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.’ (12:3).

If you think you are God’s gift to humanity, and despise or disparage other people’s contributions, the chances are you’ll never be at peace and discover God’s good, pleasing and perfect will. Alternatively, if you’re always putting yourself down, you’ll never discover God’s will for your life either.

To discover God’s will you need to have an awareness of what you can offer other members of the Christian community, the body of Christ, and what is appropriate behaviour in relation to them (12:4-4). Christians are no longer self-sufficient individuals, but members of a community in which they have a distinctive part to play and contribution to make.

3. Understand your God-given motivations (12:6-8)

Our deepest motivations are God-given: they reflect the way God has made us. ‘We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.’ (12:6a). This list of gifts outlined here by Paul describes our basic God-given human motivations. They have been described as ‘motivational gifts’. They differ from two other types of gifts listed by Paul elsewhere in the New Testament:

Manifestation gifts (1 Corinthians 12, 14)

‘Manifestation gifts’ are so-called from 1 Corinthians 12:7: ‘To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.’ The key phrase is 1 Corinthians 14:26: ‘When you come together [in public worship or home groups] each one [not ‘every one’ as in the New International Version] has a hymn, a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.’

These are the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit proper (charismata, 1 Corinthians 12:4, 31). They are given by the Spirit on an as-needed basis in any particular situation. For example, they are given for revelation of God’s will (word of knowledge, prophecy), or for meeting human need (discernment of spirits, wisdom, healing). These manifestation gifts are dynamic, occasional, and impermanent — given for a specific situation only.

Ministry gifts (Ephesians 4:11-13)

‘Ministry gifts’ are so-called because they are given by the ascended Christ ‘to equip the saints [the people of God] for the work of ministry’ (Ephesians 4:12, NRSV). These ‘gifts’ are actually people — the five kinds of leaders necessary to fully train and equip God’s people for effective Christian service.

They can be compared to the digits of the hand: apostles, who plant churches and hold the church together (the thumb, which grips and holds everything together); prophets, who clarify situations and point the way (the forefinger or pointing finger); evangelists, who are skilled in reaching the lost and introducing them to Christ (the middle finger, the finger with the longest reach); pastors, who care for God’s people (the ring-finger, symbolising love and care); and finally teachers, who instruct God’s people (the little finger, which gives balance and completeness). These ministry gifts are people: they are personal and permanent.

Motivational gifts (Romans 12:6-8)

These are the basic motivations that God the Creator has placed in each human being, and which Paul writes about here in Romans. They are operative when we are yielded to God and aligned with our Creator (just as the data in a computer is accessible when the power is on and the appropriate programme is activated). They are exercised ‘in proportion to our faith’ (12:3b, 6b).

These motivational gifts are:

• Prophesying — seeing what others don’t see!

• Serving — helping when others don’t help!

• Teaching — the motivation to research and ability to communicate information

• Encouraging — commending, exhorting, or inspiring others to action and to realise their potential

• Contributing — being wise and generous with time, money and resources

• Leading or administering (literally ‘to stand before’ or ‘to set before’) — a flair for overseeing, directing or managing people or projects

• Showing mercy — showing a spontaneous insight into people’s needs and expressing care, compassion, and tenderness in meeting them

For example, God has given me a prophetic motivation — I see things quickly, tell others what to do, but don’t always act quickly myself! By contrast, my wife Chris has a serving motivation — she is always doing things for people, even when you’d like her to sit down and take it easy for a while!

Delores Winder, noted for her healing ministry, was a classic encourager or exhorter, while her husband Bill had a mercy motivation, spotting people’s needs and even crying with them! David Barrett, editor of the World Christian Encyclopaedia and statistical researcher extraordinaire, is a classic researcher-teacher motivation, producing and communicating amazing global data — but expecting others, such as mission leaders, to make use of it! By contrast an exhorter wants action and practical outcomes.

These five leadership inputs are necessary to fully equip God’s people for effective service. When we live out of the personal motivation placed in us by our Creator, doing God’s will becomes something immensely satisfying and fulfilling.

Rob Yule, 30 September 2007
© 2007, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church