Romans 12:1-8 (KJV) says, “1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. 4For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: 5So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. 6Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 7Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; 8Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.” Romans 12:1-8 (TPT) says, “1 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.
2 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.
3 God has given me grace to speak a warning about pride. I would ask each of you to be emptied of self-promotion and not create a false image of your importance. Instead, honestly assess your worth by using your God-given faith as the standard of measurement, and then you will see your true value with an appropriate self-esteem.
4 In the human body there are many parts and organs, each with a unique function. 5 And so it is in the body of Christ. For though we are many, we’ve all been mingled into one body in Christ. This means that we are all vitally joined to one another, with each contributing to the others.
6 God’s marvelous grace imparts to each one of us varying gifts and ministries that are uniquely ours. So if God has given you the grace-gift of prophecy, you must activate your gift by using the proportion of faith you have to prophesy. 7 If your grace-gift is serving, then thrive in serving others well. If you have the grace-gift of teaching, then be actively teaching and training others. 8 If you have the grace-gift of encouragement, then use it often to encourage others. If you have the grace-gift of giving to meet the needs of others, then may you prosper in your generosity without any fanfare. If you have the gift of leadership, be passionate about your leadership. And if you have the gift of showing compassion, then flourish in your cheerful display of compassion.”

 

The purpose of becoming a living sacrifice and being transformed is so that the motivational gifts of the Holy Spirit can flow in your life! They come simply by the mercies of God, who enables us to prove the good, acceptable and perfect will of God! When our sacrifices are acceptable, then we will function in the acceptable will of God. If you want to uncover the will of God for your life, begin sacrificing!

 

In order to receive gifts from God, you must first give your life! Every gift is birthed from a place of sacrifice, and we know it is a sacrifice God has received because He answers by fire! The word “gifts” comes from the word “charisma”, which means “an endowment from God, divine gratuity, a demonstration of forgiveness through deliverance”. Just as a gratuity charge is applied as a blessing to the one who serves and waits on tables, God’s gratuity upon His people through gifts is the result of their service and sacrifice. Gifts are a divine anointing in which the sole purpose is not to exalt us, but to bring deliverance to others! As Apostle Miracle has stated, the gifts of the Spirit are to be used as tools to build and expand the kingdom of God outside of the church, not toys to be used in a church service setting.

 

The only way you be a living sacrifice is by the mercy of God. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve! When someone shows you mercy, your initial reaction is “How can I make this up to them?” The only way to receive gifts is by the grace of God. Are you part of the family of God? Grace is receiving what we don’t deserve. We do not earn gifts, but we receive them because of who we belong to! Every motivational gift is a grace-gift. If you want something for your birthday or Christmas, oftentimes you will hint around about something you like. Since God knows what we have need of before we even ask (Matthew 6:8), we are to covet earnestly the best gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31), which means to have a passion or zeal over. It doesn’t mean to be jealous of others who function in those gifts, but that if we want them, we should pray and position our hearts to receive them. If we want to grow in those gifts, when we need to study and read the Word of God concerning how to operate and function in these gifts, as well as arrange ourselves and be connected to people who already operate in them. That is how “iron sharpens iron” and we grow together!

 

Being a living sacrifice is your reasonable service, or “rational worship”, which is derived from logos, which is God’s Word. Your worship is expressed through your words, thoughts and actions. Rational worship is the ministry in which you declare God’s Word back to Him! True worship is living in holiness, valuing yourself and everything and everyone connected to you as sacred. It is becoming a living sacrifice before God! Being a living sacrifice is about loving God and loving people. Not natural talents and abilities, but spiritual gifts are the reward for the tools needed to demonstrate God’s love through you to others. Holiness is not a dress code, but it is a code of conduct that is the result of a manifestation of a spiritual resurrection. When you enter the newness of the life of Christ, your character, behavior and attitude is a reflection of the transformation that has taken place in your heart and spirit.

 

Proving God’s will is discerning His will. When you undergo a mental and spiritual transformation, you have a spiritual intuition to where you know what God’s will is, and you determine that it is good. You enter in agreement with the will of God, and you completely fulfill it for your life. In other words, instead of being a half-hearted believer or Christian because it is religious thing to do in the Bible belt, you are completely surrendered to God, fulfilling the potential of heaven for and in your life! You will either conform or be transformed! Being conformed is imitating the ideas and opinions of the culture. It is not becoming all things to all men so that you may win some, but it allowing the culture to shape you instead of the Word shaping you, which allows you to shape your culture of influence.

 

How do you reform the way you think? You uncover the weaknesses of your mind and allow the meditation of the Word to strengthen those areas. Some of those weaknesses may need a fresh coat of paint, or even completely gutted out and replaced, but when you have authority over your mind, you analyze and recognize when those weaknesses are tested and you allow the Spirit of God to fill and dominate your mind in those moments. This renovation of your mind allows you to think God’s thoughts towards others, as well as think upon and pray the scriptures that apply to a particular situation so you can bear the fruit of the Spirit! The renovation of the mind allows you to give your mind thoughts to think, and as you dwell on passages of scripture and the presence of the LORD, His Spirit will begin to lead and guide you in your life!

 

2 Corinthians 4:16 (NASB) says, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. ” The only way not to lose heart for your relationship with God, church and ministry is if you renew your mind and spirit daily. This is through a consistent prayer life of devotion every single day, which will always encourage you. If you only pray and meditate on God’s Word once a week, or maybe hardly ever, then your passion and hunger for God will die. You are either dying to the flesh, or you are dying to the Spirit!

 

Ephesians 4:22-24 (NASB) says, “22that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Being renewed as about being recreated into the image of Jesus Christ, reflecting and demonstrating His love in righteousness and holiness in truth. This cannot be accomplished until you sacrifice, laying something down for His glory!

 

If you are in confusion concerning God’s will and purposes for your life, then the answers you need is in connection with the renovation of your mind. If you want to be empowered to discern God’s will, don’t be conformed, but be transformed! You will see things that happen in life from God’s perspective instead of your own. A transformation comes from a word meaning “metamorphosis”. Just as a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, a transformation may seem sketchy because when it seems like you are enclosed and surrounded with darkness, God is transforming you in such a way that when you break out, you go from crawling to soaring! Conforming is when you adapt to a routine or pattern, insomuch you are not elevating, growing or reaching for anything higher because you are complacent and satisfied with where you are. There comes a time where you have to get sick of adapting and starting visualizing what life would be if you go to new levels!

 

God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). Pride is seen through self-promotion and creating a false image of your importance, which comes through entitlement, but when you are humble, you recognize your weaknesses and flaws, and you allow faith to heal and strengthen those areas. We are not to think so highly of ourselves but to think soberly, which means “to be of a sound mind”, which is something God has given us rather than a spirit of fear, which is derived from an orphan spirit. In other words, you are to see yourself as a child of God through eyes of faith instead of a servant who is trying to climb the pyramid of success. God instructs to assess our worth and value because if we are not seeking to measure ourselves in accordance to the standard of Christ, then we will become arrogant concerning talents, successes and achievements in life while being so far from the original standard. Faith determines your value because without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

 

1 Corinthians 12:22-26 (NASB) says, “22On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; 23and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, 24whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, 25so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”

 

We are all baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit of God. You are not a member because you have joined membership with a particular church or denomination. You are member because you are born again, which is demonstrated by the Holy Spirit living inside of you. You are a member by the Spirit of God, but you only contribute by flowing in the gifts of the Spirit, not your talents and abilities. So, if your not operating in a gift or gifts, then you are lifeless, and your inactivity is effecting the rest of the parts of the body that are connected to you. For example, if you tear your ACL, it just does not effect your knee, but it effects others muscles in your leg because its inactivity for a period of time makes them weaker, while causing more strain on your other leg because it has to do more work, which can create a weariness because there is not a balance of strength and work ethic. However, the body has to adjust in those times in order to see the other parts restored back to health. What price are you paying to see others restored? Your inactivity makes others connected to you weaker, but when you live your purpose and see the potential in others connected to you, they are encouraged to fulfill their function in the body of Christ. The gifts of the Spirit demonstrate that you are functioning where you are suppose to be.

 

The problem is that we have devised the scriptures to fulfill a particular church body or denomination rather than the body of Christ. Instead of Jesus Christ being the mind of the body that sends commands throughout the rest of the body on how to function, we have made the pastor the head, and while we should honor leaders, they should not receive more honor than Christ. Regardless of who functions where in the body of Christ, we are to honor and love each other the exact same. Every part of your body is necessary, and if you don’t think so, stub your pinky toe on the corner of a nightstand and then come talk to me! If anything, it shows you how much you should honor parts of the body that seem less important. When we put less value on people because of the gift they operate in versus the fact that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives on the inside of them, then people will begin to feel less important and valuable when their participation is crucial! We open doors for competition and jealousy when we refuse to honor one another the same. Since Christ’s body is not dead but resurrected, no part of the body should be lifeless, but we should contribute to the kingdom of God! Never allow your gift, which has been given by grace and not earned, to become your identity, source of entitlement, or even replace your relationship with God.