I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1
I appeal to you brothers…. I beseech you brothers… I urge you brothers… Depending on the translation, you get the message. I would encourage you to check out this verse in multiple translations, really all verses. It’s always good to parallel God’s Word in various translations and will absolutely minister to you differently every time you read it as God’s Word is living.
I digress…
When reading Romans 12:1, we have to focus on presenting our bodies as living sacrifice. Let’s break that down. What does it mean to be a sacrifice and holy, acceptable to God? What does it mean to present our bodies as living sacrifices? What is spiritual worship?
Well first, we need to understand sacrifice. This means loving God. If we love, we desire to benefit at the expense of self. What does that mean? Well how about instead of watching three hours of TV to binge watch GOT ( Game of Thrones for those hiding from the world) you decide to offer that 3 hours to God. Or maybe instead of listening to your favorite metal band, or rap song, you decide to listen to Gospel or praise and worship music. Maybe, you just decide that you are going to go to church Sunday morning instead of sleeping in.
You know where you are, but you are making a sacrifice for God. This comes in different forms for each of us. For some, it’s minimal to others, but it’s a huge sacrifice for you. That’s between you and God. God knows where you are in your faith and your relationship with Him and he desires more of you at every place in your life. As you grow with Him, that will change as it should. That’s for another lesson.
So now that we understand a version of sacrifice, let’s look at living. That means now. While you are on earth. God wants you to desire to be with Him and give something, let it cost you something to spend time with Him. He loves a cheerful giver, of course we all can relate to that. We only want something from someone that truly wants to give it to us. We don’t want an angry or disgruntled gift, neither does God.
Then we look at holy and acceptable to God as spiritual worship. God desires a relationship with you. He doesn’t want you to just sacrifice, he wants you to love spending time with Him. He wants you to know Him as He knows you.
How do we do that?
If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it will be done for you.
John 15:7
There is a lot in John 15 for us to understand but we are going to focus on this verse for the purpose of this lesson. Here is where we have to understand what it is to make ourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. We have to be righteous to be in right standing and have a relationship with God.
That can only come with acceptance and trust in Jesus as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. You have to start with accepting the fact that God loves you and Jesus paid the price for you. This is where you inherit the Kingdom of God and you are made and adopted son or daughter.
Then from there, we look at John 15:7. Jesus gives the answer to all life’s questions here. If we seek first he Kingdom, as found in Matthew 6:33, then we will seek God’s Word. We will seek Jesus’ Words. If we our bodies are the dwelling place of Holy Spirit, then we have an indwelling of Christ within us.
If we seek first His Kingdom and righteousness, then we desire His Word. If we seek His Word, then we put His Word in us by reading the Bible. If we read the Bible and put His Word in us, then His Word abides, lives, within us.
If His Words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it will be done for you. What does that mean? Your prayer will be answered? YES!
If we look at Matthew 12:34, we can understand this a little better. It’s important to read this in context of course, but for now we are going to just look at this verse for a second.
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Matthew 12:34
How can you speak when you are evil? Well, if you are not seeking God and His righteousness, you are the antithesis to Good and Holy. You are, evil. Therefore, if you are seeking Him, then you are seeking His Word and putting that into your body, there His Word will abide. And it is from the abundance or treasure of the hear your mouth speaks.
When you seek Him and you put His Word in you, then you speak His Word because it becomes a part of you and therefore abides in you. When it abides in you, your prayers cease to be selfish, self-serving prayers and become righteous prayers. You begin to speak from God’s Heart as His Word now resides and abides in you. Your prayers honor God and these things are answered. Your prayers align with God’s plans and you are in agreement with God, but more importantly He is agreement with you.
As you begin to meditate on these verses and you allow God to speak to you, I would encourage you to write down what He shows you. I have experienced a lot with this journey and these lessons.
For example, God took this living sacrifice and honoring Him to a different place than just His Words abiding in me. He demonstrated several things to me regarding my body becoming a living sacrifice and a dwelling place for Him.
In August of 2019, I weighed in at 247lbs. As of this writing, January 20, 2020, I weighed in at 179lbs. I am still on a journey of weight loss, but I point this out because whatever you bring into your body you make a decision to either honor God or not. As you honor God with what you allow into your body, so your body will release that outwardly.
I read a journal entry from a man arguing about dress in church and the old school of thought was always a suite and tie on Sunday. Now, with the millennials and more relaxed atmosphere at church, people often feel comfortable wearing whatever. I was raised to feel I should show up to church dressed appropriately for God’s house. That didn’t necessarily mean a suite and tie, but I don’t wear jeans.
I also understand that God says come as you are and for others, that means jeans and a t-shirt are perfectly fine. My thought, for what that’s worth, is you should pray about that and whatever gives you peace is between you and God. If that’s your favorite team jersey and shorts on Sunday morning, then you rock it all the way until the end! If you are like me, then wear your pants and dress shirt. It’s really not my place to judge or condemn, but I will always wear what I feel demonstrates my respect and honor of God. For me, it’s different.
When we delve into this piece of God’s Word abiding in us, we have to seriously look inward with regards to sin.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:13-17
Here Paul is talking about the inherent sin dwelling within us. We have to understand this piece to fully understand what man would call “ human nature.” Our nature is to sin. Why is this? The fall of Adam. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, man has succumbed to sin. We are filled with it.
Some of you may have seen the image of the circle within the circle depicting the sin within the body and the Spirit at the center. The truth is, out Spirit is dead until we accept Christ. When we accept Christ is our savior, then we become new creations and we are Born Again as Jesus speaks of us. We become whole and now our Spirit is made righteous. Thus, we now are able to have communion and relationship with God.
If we look back into the Temple, and even all the way back to the Tabernacle, we can fully understand the depth of the temple required for God to dwell in. We will get into those shortly, but right now we just need to know that God is very specific in His design. In order for Him to abide in us, we have to understand that He cannot until we are righteous and we only become available for Him when we accept Christ.
It is through this acceptance, that we become righteous and thus our bodies the temple of God. When we seek Him, we find Him as noted in scripture, Deuteronomy 4:29, Proverbs 8:17, Jeremiah 29:13, and Jesus takes it a step further in Matthew 7:7. Let’s take a look at Matthew 7:7-8 for clarity.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8
Here Jesus makes it abundantly clear, if we ask it will be given to us. If we seek, we will find. If we knock, it will be opened. Of course, we always want to use this when speaking of the natural and of possessions, but I implore you to look at this from a different perspective. What would this mean to you if you applied this to wisdom and knowledge of God?
It takes on an entirely different depth of meaning when we apply this same piece to John 15. Now we go back and look at God’s Word abiding in us. Jesus says He is the vine and God the Father is the Vinedresser. In John 15:5, Jesus tells us we are the branches from His vine. This is a matter of where we look at seeking Him and Him abiding in us. If we understand the branch from a vine, then we understand that a branch cannot survive when cut from the vine. The branch will die off.
This is the sustenance of life, God’s Word and the abiding of Christ within us. Here we can fully understand if we seek, we will find. If we knock, it will be opened. This parable is for the Kingdom of God. We also understand when we look at Matthew 6:33, that those who seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness all these things will be added. Then we look back and we see what will be added and we have to understand Jesus said all and that’s exactly what he meant. This is were we understand that all our needs will be met. God will provide. This is where we can tie all these things together.
Now we understand that abiding means He dwells in us. If he dwells in us, then we understand that we will be made alive. If we are alive, we can now freely seek Him. If we seek, we will find. We will find Him, His Kingdom, His wisdom and then all these things will be added unto us.
Once we have this revelation, then the desire to continually seek Him is there. If we go back to relationship and the desire God has to commune with us, then we fully understand the reason God would offer Jesus for us. He loves us so much, He would lovingly sacrifice His only son for us. Why? Because He desires to dwell within us. The only way, is for us to be made righteous. This requires us to be made holy and in order to be made holy, we have to first be cleaned and Jesus is the only way to do that.
