We have a will, it’s our soul – what have we done with it?
You and I have been given by God the priceless gift of a will, a free will, a right to choose:
Deut 30:19-20 (God) …I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the
curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your children; by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days (eternity)… NASU
You and I choose: Loving God first or Loving myself first
Blessing of obedience or Curse of disobedience
Being alive to God or Being dead to God
Heaven with God or Hell with Satan
Each moment of every day, in fact right now as we read this, you and I are making our choices, we are deciding which of the above two columns applies to us. God in His love gave each of us our free will and God in His fairness will honor our decisions. What could be fairer than that? You and I alone decide where we live now and will spend eternity.
Most people, including Christians, by their own will choose self, curse, death and Hell.
Matt 23:37 (Jesus) …How often I wanted to gather (you)…together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Matt 22:2-3 (Jesus) "The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come”.
Lu 19:14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'– We won’t have Jesus as our Lord
Jesus isn’t Lord over unbelievers or most Christians; they won’t have Him reign over them.
God offers us eternal life, but it requires daily right choices; the default is eternal death
John 8:24 (Jesus) That is why I told you that you will die in (under the curse of)
AMP your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He Whom I claim to be — if you do not adhere to, trust in, and rely on Me, you will die in your sins.
Rom 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh (your will is ruled by self) you will die...
And where do most Christians live? In the flesh with their wills governed by self, not God.
What has corrupted the free will of so many Christians, that they choose so unwisely?
Prov 24:30-32 I went by the field of the lazy man, And by the vineyard of the man
devoid of understanding; And there it was, all overgrown with thorns… Its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction: Let’s consider this parable’s meaning:
What does the field represent? The field is my heart (see: The Sower and seed parable)
What are the thorns? These are lies from Satan I chose to believe (see: above parable)
What is the broken down wall that should have protected my heart from lies? My will
How was the man lazy – by his will he chose to neglect God and to not love His word.
This parable reflects the sad state of many Christians. By continuously yielding to self their will no longer protects their heart nor allows it to stay healthy by feeding on the truth of God’s word. TV, internet, pleasure, hobbies, sports and relationships are all chosen by the will over growing in the knowledge of God, by the Holy Spirit. As a result more and more lies, from God’s enemy, are believed in the unguarded heart and the will is reduced to a heap of rubble unable to say no to almost any temptation. Such a Christian is without understanding of both the ways of God and why adverse things keep happening to him.
2 Thes 2:10-11 …Those who are on their way to hell because they have said no to the Truth; they have refused to believe it and love it and let it save them, so God will allow them to believe lies with all their hearts, TLB
The self side of Christians argues how can Love let this happen to me– Love isn’t, you are
Here’s an example of the love of God in operation, through Jesus Christ, and how the will of one man responded – representing many others whose wills respond the same way:
Mark 10:17-22 …One came running, knelt before Him (Jesus), and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"
Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me." But he was sad at this word (of love), and went away sorrowful…
Jesus loved the man with His words, saying, turn from what it is you now put your trust in (which may be possessions, abilities, intelligence, looks, relationships etc.) and die to yourself and follow Me. Only then will you inherit eternal life. But the man was not willing. Are we? Whenever we love, value or put our trust in anything more than God, by the exercise of our will, it is as if we have taken a lover and become unfaithful, choosing not to honor our betrothal to Christ and make ourselves ready to be His bride – for eternity.
Commenting on these scriptures in his daily devotional for Sept. 28, Oswald Chambers said “When Jesus (the complete manifestation of Agape love) calls me as a disciple His first priority is the annihilation of my right to myself and (in its place) my identification with Himself”. Love does this because if I don’t give up my right to myself I put myself in grave danger of missing heaven.
The pouting prideful Christian may then say; maybe I don’t want (will) to inherit eternal life
Incredible – this of course is nothing but open rebellion against God. The Bible makes plain that all wickedness or evil is simply the exercising of a free will in opposition to God. And He is love, He made us, and He has already bought us back from Hell once through the cross. He now wants us to live eternally with Him in heaven, if we’re willing to do what He says. Many Christians treat their rebellion against God very lightly, seemingly in total ignorance of the reality and the horror of eternal death in Hell. Devoid of understanding that the Bible says our spirits are immortal, that is, once created they can never cease to exist; the only question is where will they spend eternity? And our own will decides that.
Eccl 3:11 …He (God) has put eternity (unending existence) in their hearts (or spirits)..
Matthew Henry in his commentary on the following verse in Ezekiel uses a graphic description of what eternal separation from God in Hell means:
Ezek 3:19 Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness,
(from opposing God) he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
Matthew Henry: “His iniquity shall undoubtedly be his ruin; it tends to ruin and will end in ruin. Dying you shall die, shall die eternally, be ever dying, but never dead”. I chose that?
Notice here that God does not want the one whose will has opposed Him, to die, that’s why He sends watchmen to warn. God wants him to repent, that is, to change his will. Clearly by this scripture alone those who oppose God’s will are not predetermined by God to die and share Satan’s fate, they themselves choose to remain in their sin.
1 Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as…idolatry…
There is a false doctrine that abounds in the Church that asserts that whenever I exercise my will, even if it’s totally to please myself, I am actually in God’s will because God has foreordained everything. In other words I don’t have a free will, its all been predetermined according to the election of God. Just consider for a moment the likely motive behind this corrupt doctrine – it allows me to live just how I want and presume, for my conscience sake, that I’m still in God’s will. What a field of thorns that is – and where must it lead?
What can be done to prevent my will from becoming a heap of rubble and letting in lies?
When we were born again our spirits were redeemed and made over. Our bodies remained the same and will only be redeemed, replaced with new heavenly bodies, if we participate in the rapture of the Church at Christ’s second coming. That leaves our wills or our souls, they began to be redeemed, recovered from opposing God, at the new birth but the process is intended to continue to completion in order to be fully saved, while we are still here. This process entails believing with our hearts more and more of God’s living words brought to us by His Spirit and then obeying them in the power of the Spirit. These words are truth and the nature of Christ and they purify and set our wills, our souls, free.
Jam 1:21 …Receive with meekness the engrafted (germinating) word, which is able to save (deliver) your souls (your wills from captivity). KJV
1 Pe 1:22 Seeing you have purified your souls (your wills) in obeying the truth
KJV (God’s word) through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren…
John 7:17 If anyone wills to do His (God’s) will, he shall know concerning the (this) doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.
(because God’s Spirit who He gives to those who obey Him will reveal it to him)
