1. “Take My yoke” (Matt. 11:29).
When an ox plows the earth, a wooden harness is placed on its neck to make it submit to its master’s hand and to bear a burden. This wooden harness is called a yoke. A person consecrated to God who does the will of God under the Lord’s hand is bearing the Lord’s yoke. According to the Lord’s regulation, the Lord’s commission requires submission and the bearing of burden. Although it requires submission and the bearing of burden, the Lord promises that His yoke is easy and light.
1. “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves Me” (John 14:21, see also v. 23).
The Lord’s commandments—the Bible—are the revelation of God’s will. It is the embodiment of the will of God and cannot be separated from the will of God. If we keep the Lord’s commandments, we will practice the will of God. Those who practice the will of God keep the Lord’s commandments, and those who keep the Lord’s commandments practice the will of God. These two things are one.
1. “Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:17).
In order to understand the will of God, we must have a desire to understand. The will of God can be understood only by those who have a heart to understand. Those who do not have such a heart will never understand. Understanding begins with a desire in our heart.
One of God’s commandments is to “understand what the will of the Lord is.” If we do not want to understand the will of the Lord, we are disobeying the commandment of God. “Do not be foolish” is also a commandment. A saved person should be clear, but today few are clear and most are foolish. This is because most do not want to understand. God is waiting, longing for us to understand His will. If we have the desire to understand, He will enable us to understand.
1. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1).
The Bible speaks most clearly about how to understand the will of God in Romans 12. The first matter in verse 1 is consecration, which is a basic requirement for understanding the will of God. Consecration is a gate that we must pass through before we can understand God’s will. An unconsecrated person can never understand the will of God. How can a person who has never passed though the gate understand the will of God on the other side of the gate? If we want to understand the will of God, we must consecrate. The level of earnestness and the thoroughness of our consecration has a great impact on the depth and ease of our understanding.
1. “Do not be fashioned according to this age” (Rom. 12:2).
If we want to understand the will of God, we must not be fashioned according to this age. Age is translated as “world” in the Chinese Bible. The Greek word for world is kosmos, but the Greek word in verse 2 is aion, which is translated “age.” This age is equivalent to people’s understanding of the word modern; hence, it can also be translated as “fashionable.” The world is Satan’s entire organization, including its systems and institutions, which systematize the lives of everyone so that they cannot love God but instead will become enemies of God (1 John 2:15; James 4:4). An age is a part of the world; it is one section of the world that appears before us. The world is big and wide, but we are always in touch with a part of it. A section of the world appears before us, and this part or section of the world is the age, which is composed of modern and fashionable things, which oppose the will of God and cause people to be unable to understand, receive, or keep God’s will. Thus, if we want to understand the will of God, we must not be fashioned according to this age, which is the part of the world that is manifested before us.
Be fashioned in Greek means “to be conformed,” or “to be assimilated.” Therefore, not being fashioned according to this age means not being conformed to this age, not being assimilated by this age. This is the same as not following the fashion of this age. If we want to understand the will of God, we must fulfill this requirement.
1. “Be transformed by the renewing of the mind” (Rom. 12:2).
The renewing of the mind is another requirement for understanding God’s will. The mind is our thinking faculty. Our mind is fallen and deeply contaminated by sin, the world, human emotions, and customs. It is filled with worldly thoughts and human concepts, and it cannot understand God or the will of God. Therefore, it must be renewed. All of its old thoughts, concepts, perceptions, and views must be eliminated, and it must be taught anew by God. This is what the Holy Spirit wants to do through the Bible, but we must desire to have the Holy Spirit renew our mind in this way. If we are willing, the Holy Spirit will lead us to read God’s Word—the Bible—and use its teachings to kill our old thoughts and wipe out our fallen concepts by renewing our mind so that we can understand the will of God.
Although God reveals His will in our spirit through His Spirit by giving us a sense in our spirit, we must use our mind to understand the sense in our spirit. The spirit is our innermost part. Our mind surrounds our spirit. If our mind is not renewed, it cannot understand or perceive the sense of the Holy Spirit in our spirit. An unrenewed mind can be compared to a lampshade that is painted a dark color that prevents the light of the bulb from shining out. Even when a little light shines out, the light is not according to its original color. The light is so deeply covered and influenced by the dark shade that it loses its original color. The sense in our spirit is similarly influenced if our mind is not renewed. Although we have the capacity to understand, we will understand incorrectly. This is similar to wearing colored eyeglasses which change the true color of an object. If our mind is not renewed and if we cannot shake off our old thoughts and concepts, we will not be able to understand the will of God. Even if we have some understanding, our understanding will not be correct. Thus, we will be unable to perceive the original appearance of the will of God.