Romans 12 : 2 proof is related to Romans 12.1
Here are the verses again
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, [a]acceptable to God, which is your [b]spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this [c]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [e]acceptable and perfect.
We are not given a lot of help when we are born...
but the Bible if it comes into our environment...
or perhaps a Christian...
or maybe a person of general faith....
basically we MAY start to get a general idea.
If we do hear of Jesus .He says...
OK start this way...from cold....and do these types of things...
Do not heap up mantras and prayers and liturgies...this is the pagan way to somehow "prove " to a god or God that they are OK...no don't do that....
connect in secret....right inside your house, away from noise and interruption, in your secret place inside you and see if you can find the Father, connect with the Fathe and His voice inside your very being....
So already we are connecting with a strange idea that is going to repeat and repeat....
That is of giving space to God to work, to show Himself, to be proof to you, bearing in mind He is not material, He is Spirit, so this is His way of doing it.
Then when you have tried that one, says Jesus....
Give.
That is, "clear a space" in your own legitimately earned finance for God to move....
and not only return...but give to you from all angles pressed down and running over....in the sort of measure and commitment which you have first given.
Give space to God and He will fill it again....same kind of thing as before
Then Jesus says, when you gather together....instead of just gathering in your own name and being glad to see each other...
give all of that over to me....
Together, gather in My Name and God's Name, but this time together as a bunch of people....
And SEE if I don't fill it with My own Presence among you.
Suck it and see.
Then Jesus says things like....instead of just receiving each other in your own names....receive them INSIDE ME.
Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.
Now do the same with GO.
Dont just GO as you are used to doing....
Go in My Name and I guarantee things will start happening, signs will follow after. Here, let's try it...
Don't take any money, or spare clothing....just go as you are and declare God is Here, the Kingdom is here...you try it....
then when you see, we will send 70 out.....says Jesus to His disciples
Do you start to see the build up?
We start in the absolute cold, only knowing life according to our 5 sense evaluations, and here is Jesus saying...
Go risk something....
Go make some space....
See if God doesn't show up
In other words PROVE TO your self and your own inner knowing that God is true to every Word He speaks.
Then comes Romans 12.1
This is like the third level entry point in 1 John 2....
You have dipped your toe in.
You have baptised your knees and middle.
And you have proved what God says He keeps to.
So if Igive my whole body, my agenda my brain, my heart, my future and past, my present, my emotions my skills....
Everything as a living sacrifice 24/7......wow....do you think God will actually show up???
That is the relevance of Romans 12.2.......the PROOF
That you may PROVE....
Prove what?
Prove what it is like when God's Will is actually on test, or on a testbed in a laboratory.....
Prove that He the SOLE SOURCE OF LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE.....if allowed to BE HIS LIFE IN YOU....
is going to be
PRESSED DOWN,RUNNING OVER
RIVERS OF LIVING waters
and if all that God does through you could be written in books....then the world could not fit it all in again.
Acceptable has completely the wrong sound in modern parlance....like it's barely acceptable...it's OK but not great.
That isnt what it means at all....
One of the things it means is that you will be acceptable to all types of people who will respond to God in you.
it means much more than being loved in Christian bookshops, but its the only thing I can think of off the top of ,my head.
40 years on hardly anybody is reading the Ascent of Man by Bronowski. After all the TV acclaim in his lifetime.
Who has heard of him today among the young?
but those finding Christ are already reading Watchman Nee and the great books from the past that still hold true.
Catholics may not recognise God filling ladies, and may burn them but 400 years on Madame Guyon is still being read by us along with Jacob Boehme, who actually stated that God had shown him he was writing for people hundreds of years from his time. Same was true of St Paul and the apostles.
Acceptable means.....this thing really works...it's a go-er !!!!
Christ in us the hope , the sure definite hope, of glory.
How so sure?
Well we have some now burning inside us like oil.
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