Step 3. Prove Your Spirit
Notice that Romans 12:2 says to "prove". As you renew your mind and start looking at things the way God does, you have to start putting them in practice. I encourage young people to have a prayer life and get God involved in their lives by asking Him for good things and allowing Him to meet their needs. The Bible says to exercise your faith. Put it into practice and see what God does!
1 Thessalonians 5:21 “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”
For the Christian the admonition is to try good things and see if they work. The idea of “Try it. You’ll like it!” is a half-truth! You should try good things. Bad things should be avoided. I heard a preacher say one time, “You don’t have to crawl inside a trash dumpster to know that there is trash in it and that it is dirty and stinks! You can just walk by it and know it is not a place to go!” There is a lot of wisdom in learning from other’s mistakes. Study history so that you don’t make the same mistakes others make. Learn the lessons and don’t do the same stupid things.
Notice how these two verses, (1 Thessalonians 5:21 and Romans 12:2), use two of the same words "prove" and "good".
This is greatly illustrated by two applications of the same verse. One is my testimony and insight and the other is my son’s. Here is the verse:
Psalm 119:9 “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”
As a young man, my teenage years were a mess. I was trying to figure out what life was about after my dad’s death and I ended up making bad decisions and choosing wrong ways. After I got saved and found real joy and peace in Jesus, I found this verse and started trying to clean up my ways. I looked in the past and was reaping the results of my bad decisions and sins! I learned that “by taking heed” to God’s Word, I could clean up my mind and paths. I can’t change the past, but I learned from the past.
My son, who got saved as a very young man, looks at this verse and sees that he can walk a clean path and the path he is traveling is clean because he is “taking heed” to God’s Word. He not only has learned from my mistakes but has learned from the Bible!
For me God’s word is like a washcloth or a shower. For him it is like a flashlight or headlight! Both are true!
Right here I was taught that God had three wills that a person could find. They were listed as the good, the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. The idea was that you could do something good and God would not accept it. You could do something acceptable and it is not perfect. Finally, you could do exactly what God wanted the way He wanted it done, in the place that He wanted it done and it would be perfect. There may be some truth in this interpretation but I have another take on it.
In the garden, Eve found good in the tree of knowledge (Genesis 3:6), but it was not God’s will for her to eat of the fruit! Just because something is good, it does not mean God is for it. What I think Romans 12:2 is trying to say is that God’s will is all three. It is good, and acceptable, and perfect! Notice how the small word "and" connects all three as one group. Understanding that, makes a big difference in understanding what it is that God wants you to do. It is good and acceptable and perfect!
Notice carefully how this is backed up in Colossians 4:12:
Colossians 4:12 “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
It says perfect "and" complete! The complete will of God has all three aspects: it is good, acceptable, and perfect!