So many times in my Christian walk I have asked the question, “how do I know what God’s will is for me?” It’s a very common question and one that we all have asked for one reason or another. We know that we want God’s will. But oftentimes, understanding what God’s will is in a particular circumstance can be really hard. And then just when we think maybe we’ve figured it out, doubt can creep in and make us question, “did I really hear God correctly? Or is that just what I want Him to say?” 

I love that Paul understood this battle too. As a man on fire for the Lord, I imagine he did a fair amount of wrestling within himself over what the will of God really was for his life. The verse above speaks to the truth that Paul landed on through the teaching and guiding of the Holy Spirit. There are two big points that I want us to take a look at here. 

First, Paul realized that our mind has to be transformed first before we are able to understand and comprehend the will of God. When our minds and hearts reflect the mind and heart of the world around us, we will never be able to clearly discern God’s will from our own or from the will of the world. Instead, we need to be transformed.  

The word translated transformed here is the Greek word metamorphoo and is where we get our word metamorphosis. It paints the picture of a caterpillar going into the cocoon as one thing and emerging as something totally different. Inside that cocoon, the caterpillar literally ceases to resemble a caterpillar even at a cellular level. He is fully transformed into something new, something that looks nothing like, lives nothing like, and acts nothing like the creature it once was. This is the type of metamorphosis that our minds need to undergo. And this type of transformation can only happen by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

The second point that I want to mention is that this metamorphosis allows us to “prove” the will of God. This word is really important. What this tells me is that there will be imposters and we will need to be able to test them. See, you and I have an enemy that wants nothing more than to get us off track. But he also knows that if he hits us with an obvious fraud, we will recognize it. So, he hides his lies and temptations behind a façade that looks an awful lot like goodness and righteousness. He plays with our emotions and gets us worked up so that we don’t want to reject an idea. He makes the brokenness of his plan look so appealing that we will start to question if it isn’t the truth all along.  

So, we must always be on alert, always renewing our minds in the word of God, and always testing everything against the ONLY truth there is- Jesus Christ. We have to take every emotion, suggestion, desire, and thought and run it under the light of who Jesus is and what He says is true. It takes intentionality and purpose, and it can only be done with a mind that is first renewed by and rooted in the God of truth.