Hey, this is Malachi.
Thank you for reading this article from the Household of Faith Broadcast.
So today, I want to talk about something awesome. It’s very dear to my heart, and I think it’s very dear to God’s heart, and that’s the point of why we’re here and why we’re you are looking to grow and to learn of who God is, what he has for us and we’re going to be doing our reading straight out of Romans 12.
It says:
“I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service and do not be conformed to this world but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Let me ask you something. Have you ever had this thought?
- Lord, what do I do with my life?
- Where do I go?
- What’s next?
- How can I get from point A to point B?
- What does that look like?
- I’m confused on where to go?
- I’m confused on how to get there?
Well, the answer is straight out of Romans 12.
Because according to the word of God – we use the word of God as the ultimate truth, led by his spirit and submitted unto the Holy Spirit – that’s how we grow in the stature of who God is.
The word says “do not be conformed to this world but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God.”
So the answer to your question is:
- Serve God
- Seek God
- And holy acceptance
Well, how do we do that, Malachi?
It is easy.
It’s a free gift.
That’s what Jesus paid for.
Jesus went to the cross on Calvary, he laid down his life so that way we can now be heirs of what he has and we can be grafted into the tree to have eternal salvation and eternal life.
And who God is and what the Lord has for us it’s a free gift.
It’s a gift that not everyone receives because not everyone chooses to receive it. However, when you do receive the gift, you automatically have passage into understanding what the will of God is.
So you have a free gift, you have your salvation.
The free gift of salvation right?
I encourage you if you don’t know who the Lord is or you are interested in understanding who the Lord is?
Click here to know how you can receive this free gift and walk in power and authority with God and get answers to those confusing questions.
Now for the body – “Do not be transformed by this world”
What does this world have to offer?
Well that’s quite easy.
- You have greed
- You have lust for power
- You have lust for money or materialistic things
- You have sexual lust
- You have fornication
You have all these things that we can live in, that are contrary to how God wants us to live according to his ultimate truth. And the only way we can ever get beyond that confusion of
what do I do God?
how do I do it?
or where do I go?
I’m confused
Lay our life down. In romans 12:1 “present your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God this is your reasonable service”
How do we present our bodies as a sacrifice?
By saying yes to the free gift of Jesus Christ.
We say yes Lord, we say thank you father.
We agree and we come into that agreement that Jesus came, he died on the cross for our sins, our wrongs, the things that would keep us from getting to heaven, from things that would keep us from living out a prosperous life.
The gift of God isn’t just so we can get our ticket punched. It’s not just so we can say “hey we’re going to punch our ticket now we get to go to heaven have a good life.”
“We’re all gone, good goodbye”
“have a good day”
“I’m going to go to church” and “see you on Sunday”
That’s not the entirety of the gospel.
The gospel is Jesus giving his self as a sacrifice for our salvation, so now we as sinners can be made whole and yes, we can get to heaven.
Yes that’s the ultimate reward but what good is an ultimate reward if we live a broke, poor and desolate life on earth.
We need to make impact.
How do you make impact Malachi?
By living your life unto God as a holy sacrifice, pleasing to him and then you’ll understand what his will for your life is.
his will for your life is not going to be the same as his will for mine. it doesn’t mean that you’re going to do greater things or less greater things than I would. it’s between you and God.
That’s a conversation, it’s intimate.
It is a conversation that not anybody is going to understand but you and God.
And that’s the same reason why a lot of the times you go to God and understand that you are submitted unto authority.
It’s very important that as you take this journey of walking with the Lord that you have a covering.
You need to be in a good bible believing church that preaches sound doctrine from the word of God. One that is led by the holy spirit.
When you’re in that covering, you will start to understand who God is to you. He will starts revealing himself to you.
You’re not always going to see eye to eye on certain things.
There’s going to be certain doctrinal truths that are going to never be altered. they can’t be changed.
It’s just like saying “Augustine, you know we find unity in the essentials diversity and the non-essentials but love in all things.”
Well what does that mean?
It means we should love each other completely and holy. Just because one believer believes that you can only read from the king james version and the other believer says if it’s not king james, it’s from hell.
We’re not gonna get tied up on the redundancies or the foolish arguments.
The word of God clearly tells us not to get stuck on that because if you get stuck on the redundancies and the foolish arguments, you will miss the mark.
And the mark is to serve Jesus wholeheartedly, okay?
So let us continue to read here from romans 12:3,
“ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith;
7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently”
So romans 12 vs 3-8 is saying that you need to be where God has put you and you need to strive to grow in the stature of God:
by reading his word,
by serving him faithfully,
by laying down the things that cause foolish arguments,
by laying down the desires of your flesh
by not walking in redundant sins that keep you tied up.
because the good news is there’s freedom.
There’s freedom, there’s guidance, there’s liberation in who Jesus is.
Jesus doesn’t say you have to you have to give x amount of penances or because if you did x amount of sins.
Jesus said “I’ve laid down my life freely and freely I’ve given it”.
So it’s a gift that we receive by faith.
By faith we’re justified and by grace we walk that out.
We’re saved by grace through faith that’s Ephesians 2 vs 8 and then verse 9 and 10 says it is by faith through grace not by works, unless any of us boast.
Because what happens then is we get stuck in this situation where we feel like we have to do certain things in order to continue to serve God.
That’s not true. it’s not true that we have to do X, Y and Z but what we have to do is we have to want to serve God, love God and seek him.
The disciples ask Jesus, Jesus what is the work that we must do and Jesus said to believe in the one he(God) sent.
He’s talking of himself – To believe in Jesus the one that came down in the flesh.
He came out of riches and glory to live life on earth, to lay down his life for us.
So we believe first on Jesus, we accept the gift and then we grow in the stature.
And just because one person is in chapter 5 and somebody else is in chapter 20, it doesn’t make them not on equal playing fields because the author is the same author of the book.
it just means the guy on chapter 5 has his walk that he’s walking with God and slowly and surely as he lives in humility, he’ll be brought to chapter 20.
As long as he doesn’t do what?
he doesn’t envy
he’s not prideful
he’s not legitimately boastful over it
The bible says if I boast in anything I’ll boast on the cross of christ and that’s what I want to encourage you today to remember in order to grow in God.
we have to lay down our lives on a daily basis and what does that mean?
It means laying down your life. It means that when you are tempted with something, you pray and seek God.
Resist the devil and he’ll flee from you.
All these are biblical truths but without these truths and understanding, you could be led astray.
the word of God says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Don’t lack knowledge, read the word of God.
I encourage you to read it, digest it, understand it and then you’ll grow.
If you don’t know who the Lord is, click this here and you’ll be able to understand who God is and his plan is for your life.
You’ll be able to receive the free gift of salvation.
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If you have any questions reach out directly to me.
Thank you so much for reading.