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How We Come to Do the Will of God

🕊️ How We Come to Do the Will of God

📖 Introduction: The Cry for Divine Instruction

Psalm 143:10 pleads, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground” (MOUNCE). This Old Testament prayer reveals a heart yearning for divine guidance—not merely to know God's will, but to be taught how to do it. The psalmist acknowledges that obedience is not instinctive; it must be learned, and it requires the Spirit’s leading.

This sets the stage for a deeper exploration of how believers, under the New Covenant, come to a place where doing the will of God becomes not just possible but natural—through transformation, endurance in faith and love.

📜 Old vs. New Covenant: From Fear to Wisdom Incarnate

🏛️ The Old Covenant: Wisdom Begins with Fear

Under the Mosaic covenant, wisdom was rooted in reverent fear:

“The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10, MOUNCE).

This fear was terror, fear of punishment, and awe—a recognition of God's holiness and justice. The Law revealed God's standards, but it also exposed human inability to meet them. The sacrificial system provided temporary atonement, but not permanent transformation.

✝️ The New Covenant: Jesus as Wisdom

In contrast, the New Covenant offers a radical shift:

“But from him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30, MOUNCE).

Jesus is not merely a teacher of wisdom—He is wisdom incarnate. Through union with Him, believers receive not just instruction but transformation. The New Living Way of the Spirit doesn't do away with God's righteous requirements but internalizes it, writing it on hearts (Hebrews 8:10), making obedience a fruit of relationship rather than ritual. 

🔄 Transformation Through Renewal: Romans 12:1–2

Paul outlines the pathway to doing God's will:

“Therefore I exhort you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. And do not be conformed to this present age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:1–2, MOUNCE).

This transformation is not behavioral modification—it is metamorphosis. The renewed mind discerns God's will not as a distant command but as a desirable path. The Spirit teaches, convicts, and empowers, fulfilling the psalmist’s prayer in Psalm 143:10.

🌱 Growth and Maturity in Christ

📘 Knowing Christ: The Engine of Maturity

Spiritual maturity is not measured by rule-keeping but by relational depth:

“Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13, MOUNCE).

Growth comes through knowing Christ—not just facts about the Bible or Him, but intimate fellowship. As we behold Him, we are transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18), becoming like Him in character and purpose.

🛡️ Endurance: The Pathway to Maturity

Maturity requires endurance:

“You have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised” (Hebrews 10:36, MOUNCE).

But what fuels endurance? Not fear, but faith energized by love:

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6, MOUNCE).

It makes sense that fear initiated wisdom in the Old testament as the Mosaic Law had fear of punishment as a motivating factor, see Fear and Love in the New Testament: Reconciling The Tension. 

As a new creation we have power in our inner being and it is this power along with faith and love that sustains transformation. The Spirit testifies we are his children, leads us into growth (to put the deeds of the flesh to death). Truth founds us in faith and love. Now we abide in faith, hope, and love not fear that leads back to slavery. 

The Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts (Romans 5:5), enabling us to endure trials with hope and joy. This new way expressed in experiential love and relationship is a defining factor between the true church and that which has went back to the old written code. 

🧍 Our Part in Transformation

Though transformation is Spirit-led, it is not passive. We are called to:

  • Present ourselves (Romans 12:1): This is our reasonable service and worship that is acceptable unto God.  it is not serving or giving nor even spreading the gospel. It is that which grows us up into maturity, as expressed in Ephesians 4, as maturity will naturally produce good fruit. 
  • Renew our minds (Romans 12:2): This involves abiding in Jesus, in his words through reading and hearing, meditation, prayer, and community (if they have the same purpose).
  • Put on the new self (Ephesians 4:24): Spiritual formation is not about following principles, laws, rules, but about spiritual growth. If the word surrender were to be used, this is the place, you are putting away or surrendering the old man and putting on the new one created in the image of God's son.
  • Walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16): The Spirit guides us into the truth so that we abide in his words and mature to produce fruit. The Spirit leads us to put to death the old self. 

Transformation is dependent—God initiates and we are dependent on Jesus for wisdom, redemption, righteousness, and sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). The Spirit teaches, but we must listen. The Word renews, but we must engage. 

🧭 Conclusion: Led by the Spirit on Level Ground

Psalm 143:10 finds its fulfillment in the New Covenant, as God put his Spirit within us. The Spirit leads us on level ground—not through fear of judgment, but through love, wisdom, and transformation. As we grow in the knowledge of Christ, endure through trials, and are led the Spirit, we come to a place where doing the will of God is not a burden but a joy, as it is a part of our new nature and renewed mind to be obedient.

“For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, MOUNCE).


Going Deeper


Our Part

When it comes to our part in transformation some would say surrender is the starting point, but that language is not used in the new testament. The scriptures point us to transformation, the renewing of the mind. We are taught we are a new creation (partake of divine nature and have a new identity in Christ). We are taught we are to put off the old man and put on the new in Christ, his imputed righteousness and obedience. We can not do this alone, we are dependent upon God.

We are taught we are rooted and grow into Christ, who is the Head, so that we look more and more like him as he was in this world. We are united in his death and in his life. This renewed mindset makes useless the deeds of the flesh. The truth transforms us as Jesus said we must abide in him and his words in us to be set free. We can not accomplish this, only Jesus can save us from this body of death. 

We are led by the Spirit of truth to have the mind of Christ. Paul struggled with the Church at Corinth in this area, he wanted to talk to them as mature but they were still infants infants in Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3). We often promote people based upon age and time but these are not true spiritual guidelines of maturity. 

The new covenant scriptures tell us that if we are in Christ, the Spirit dwells within us. But Paul prays for the church at Ephesus that they would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing Christ more, that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened (Ephesians 1). Though they are children they have not come to this revelation of spiritual truth.

The application or revelation of truth that produces transformation is important to maturity. There is the application of truth in regards to our spiritual salvation. And there is application of truth in regards to our soul transformation. I believe the receiving of the seed or word or truth, seen in the Parable of Sowing, can be applied to the soul's transformation, thus a repetitive cycle, not a one time process. 

The implanted word of God is imperishable, thus received in joy but people who do not have deep roots and understanding, which are the requirements for enduring and bearing fruit, do not endure the thorns. This is not matter of their spiritual salvation but of the soul. The goal of faith Peter tells us is the salvation of the soul.

James tells us the the implanted word has power to save the soul. This is how we are transformed, this is how we are set free as Kames calls the words of Jesus, the implanted word as the law of liberty. So if one doesn't endure the testing there is a root and foundation problem. Which really points to a lack of the gifts that the church should have for the work of ministry to build up children. And of what we are founded in as expressed by Paul, in Ephesians 3:13-21, power in our inner being through the Holy Spirit, faith, and love, Paul again prays for the church to be granted this by God, as we are dependent upon Him.

Paul expresses in Ephesians 4:14-16 why the church is not growing up into maturity, because they they are tossed to and fro in cunningness and deceitfulness of men. Elsewhere he writes they have raised up teachers to tickle their ears. James also gives us a look at the child tossed to and fro, who doesn't receive wisdom from God to endure. He is unstable, double minded (not renewed of mind to have the mind of Christ) he doesn't endure unto maturity (James 1:2-8). James points us to the path, James 1:19-27, receive with meekness the implanted word of God which has power to save your soul.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).

Meekness is a spiritual virtue whereby we are truly depended upon God. It is God's power working in us, in our weakness to accomplish it. Spiritual new birth and soul transformation are two different things. Spiritually we are raised and seated with Christ in the heavenlies. The word is sown and implanted to save our souls, or transform our minds.

The problem in the church, we see in Ephesians 4, is they were not growing up into maturity in Christ, and were still children tossed to and from in human cunningness and deceitfulness. This is a reoccurring theme in many of the churches, like in Galatia were false brothers had come in and enslaved them to requirements of the Old testament, like circumcision. It was a matter of lack of maturity, thus a lack of correct teaching. 

As the Psalmist pleads so do we in Christ, "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” Show us the way.







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