Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV) 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 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.
o Romans 12:2 New Living Translation (NLT) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
-“Don’t be conformed to this world” is a command given to the church. We must keep in mind that Paul is not writing to the unsaved here, Paul is writing to the church. This means we can A. conform to this world or B. not conform to the world but instead be transformed. These are the only options we have. God is telling us this through Paul because there is a concerted effort to get us to conform to the world. If we are not aware of that up front than we will be easily deceived into conformity with the world.
– “Be transformed by the renewing of the mind”. We are not to conform but instead be transformed:
How? By the renewing of the mind. Why? That we may know the will of God.
-Many in the church are so confused about what the will of God is for them. One of the first questions people have after they get saved is what’s Gods will for me? When we get saved our spirit is made alive but the mind has already been conformed to the world and needs to be renewed. Upon renewing the mind we will be able to start discerning the will of God.
-Knowing the will of God does not come by praying, or fasting, or asking people in your church but by renewing the mind. Don’t be one of those that is always looking to do everything except what the word of God tells them.
It’s very simple: if you will begin to renew your mind to the word of God, you will begin to see what the will of God is for you.
Renew: to renovate -Our minds need a renovation. If our minds were already ok then there would be no need to have them renewed. We need to change our thinking. The way we thought about things before is wrong. We must see things the way God sees them. This will help us understand God and why He does what He does. If we see things the way the world sees them then we will act just as the world acts. We may be saved and going to heaven when we die but we will make the same bad decisions and go through the same bad situations.
Becoming a better person
-If the way we think is changed, it will change us into another person. This is major key to becoming a better person. Many get saved and still have the same bad habits and still do the same things they were doing when they lived for the devil. They are bound because Satan still controls their minds and thoughts. When the mind becomes governed by the Word of God you become transformed in your mind which in turn transforms your habits and your actions.
-The way we think is also the key to knowing the will of God. Many Christians will never find the will of God for their lives because they refuse to think Gods thoughts. Instead they have chosen, though saved, to conform to this world and think the way the world thinks.
-If you don’t change the way you think, you will not change and will not find the will of God. Remember, you are not transformed by fasting and prayer but by renewing the mind to the word of God.
Pressure to conform
-There is a pressure in this world to conform and be like everybody else. Satan does not have the ability to hear your thoughts like God does. So if he can get everyone on the planet thinking the same evil way then his job becomes easy, he can control everyone because he already knows what they will do and how they will react because he is controlling their thoughts. God wants us to form into the likeness and image of Christ. We have to choose to let Him transform us. It’s up to us. We choose what we let ourselves think and how we let ourselves think.
Thoughts, words and actions
Thoughts are transforming. Words are thought capsules or containers. -The words we speak are conveying thoughts that are on the inside of us. We use our mind to think and we use our words to convey those thoughts to this outside world. If we are renewing our minds we are changing our thoughts and if we are changing our thoughts we are changing our words and the world around us.
Genesis 6:5 (KJV) And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
-When Adam and Eve walked and talked with God, He shared with them His thoughts. Satan came down and introduced other thoughts, lying, deceiving thoughts and Adam and Eve received those thoughts. They received those thoughts and were conformed to the origin of those thoughts; they became like the devil. (Genesis 3)
-Whoevers thoughts you receive you become like. The world receives the devils thoughts and are conformed to his image and they do what he does and they talk the way he talks.
John 8:44 (NKJV) You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
-Every thought is very significant. Thoughts are not material or physical, they are spiritual.
Genesis 6:5 (KJV) And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Imagination: the word “imagination” here means a forming or a shaping as in Genesis.2:7 when God formed man from the dust. -Man existed in the mind of God before God formed him in the earth. A thought is a form, or a shape. It’s a spiritual force that can shape something out of the spirit into the physical. Things are formed in thoughts first. Every thought is endeavoring to shape or form something, first inside you, then through you into this physical world.
What we have become is not what we have to be
-Today we are what we have become but we do not have to stay that way. We can change; we can be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
-As Christians who are called to change the world, we don’t love the way the world is we love the world in spite of the way it is. We need to change the way it is. People often say “you need to love me the way I am”. Well, not exactly. We don’t need to love the way that you are if you are acting like the devil. We can love you but hate the way you are and help you change that by the renewing of your mind to the word of God. We love people, but people need mind renewal.
Proverbs 23:6-7 (NKJV) 6 Do not eat the bread of a miser, nor desire his delicacies; 7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
Psalm 92:5 (NKJV) O LORD, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.
-When God gives you a thought it will excite you. God wants to give you thoughts that will help propel you into your destiny. These are big thoughts, good thoughts, and peaceful thoughts. Thoughts of destruction don’t come from God, only good thoughts come from Him. He wants us thinking like Him. It will take faith to receive and think on His thoughts. Don’t try to figure it out just receive his thoughts and get excited about them and don’t let other thoughts come in and shoot Gods thoughts down. Believe like Abraham.
Genesis 15:5 (NKJV) Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
-Just receive His thoughts and cleave to them. God got Abraham thinking His thoughts. God has created us with the capacity to think his thoughts and think on them. The more you think on His thoughts the more you see into them, and it makes you excited.
Psalm 139:17-18 (NKJV) 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.
-We must be opened to Gods thoughts and closed to the enemy’s thoughts. The enemy’s thoughts are trying to conform us to his image. The world’s thoughts are trying to conform us to its image.
1 Timothy 4:15 (NKJV) Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.
-Meditating becomes evident. What you meditate on will show up in the natural.
Psalm 1:1 (NKJV) Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
The council of the ungodly are the thoughts of the ungodly. -If you want to know the ways of God, you have to find out how he thinks. Then you will understand how he does things, and you will start knowing and understanding the will of God.
Psalm 1:2 (NKJV) But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.
-Just like 1 Timothy 4:15, meditate, renew the mind, be transformed.
Psalm 1:3 (NKJV) He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
-“He shall be” or “he shall become”. When? As he meditates. As he meditates, he becomes.
We can know the mind of God
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (NKJV) 9 But as it is written:“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
-I can think the thoughts of God, I can understand Him. I can know the deep things of God, by His Spirit. God is not trying to hide them from us. He tells us how to know them, how to receive them, by the renewing of the mind, by meditating on His word, by not being conformed to this world but by being transformed.