When we serve King Jesus, we will see miracles, signs, and wonders happen. We will see people come to Christ. We will see the elevation of evil as good falls to the wayside. We will see righteousness, justice, and generosity return to our cities, neighborhoods, and homes. And this begins right here.
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. 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. (Romans 12:1-2)
The least we can do for God, who sent His son to die for us, is to give Him our bodies. Spiritual powers cannot function on the earth without a human vessel to work through, and their access point is the mind. Satan and God are battling for the minds of people.
We can experience as much of the Kingdom of God as we want—we have to renew our minds. The more our thought processes are renewed, the more we will experience His Kingdom. We are on a lifelong journey to think right. We begin to think right by reading, praying over, and meditating on the promises and the truth of the Word of God. As we do, our minds, hearts, and souls come into alignment with Him. The more we are aligned with Him, the more the Kingdom of God is experienced by us and expressed through us.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2; The Message)
The Bible is the absolute truth about all things human: sexuality, gender, mental health, emotional intelligence, illegal drugs, and more. We don’t decide what is acceptable sexually or genderwise or emotionally. God decided it when he designed mankind. You can choose to do whatever you want sexually, but God defined how we are to function and what He accepts. By renewing our minds, we see God’s guidelines were established to help us, not hurt us. We mess up our lives and live outside the kingdom culture when we transgress the boundaries of God on our journey.
Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.
Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes. (Romans 12:1-2; The Passion Translation)
