Our Own Free Will
| By: Nancy Missler; ©2000 |
| We must learn to free ourselves of sin and self in order to become conduits of God’s Love. Nancy Missler explains how this can happen. |
Our Free Choice
Having just explored the four aspects of God’s will, we now want to briefly explore man’s individual will—i.e., our free choice.
God has given man a free will, much like His own. Our free will is the most important element of our design, because within that will lies the power to choose between life and death, good and evil, faith and fear, darkness and light, God and Satan.[1] Our will is the master of all of our faculties and upon our will everything else depends. It controls our reason, our intelligence, our emotions and our abilities. Our will directs everything within us, and is the “gate” through which all things must pass.
The reason our own will is so very important to God is that unless we (by an act of our will) allow God to accomplish His will through us, He is unable to do so. (Of course, God can always do as He pleases, however, we must cooperate with Him in order for the sanctification process to proceed.) God has not set Himself up as our Divine Dictator, but rather as loving Discipler, and thus, He has given us the free choice to either deny Him or to follow Him. His perfect will is that we render back to Him that which we have so long claimed as our own—namely, our own will.[2]
Our will is important because it’s the bridge over which our faith must travel. As we have said before, we don’t necessarily have to understand all that God does in our lives, but simply have the faith and the trust to choose to obey His will. As my dear husband says, “Faith is not believing in spite of the evidence, but obeying in spite of the consequences.”
Life is simply a series of ongoing choices. For the nonbeliever, it’s a daily choice between good and evil; for the believer, it’s a moment-by-moment choice of faith (to follow God’s will) or emotions (to follow our own will). Choosing by faith to follow God is where we place ourselves in the hands of God and freely allow Him to direct our paths. Choosing according to our emotions is where we willfully quench God’s Spirit and shut Him out of our lives completely.[3]
Moment-by-Moment Choices
Moment by moment, we have the awesome responsibility of either choosing to “walk after the Spirit” or choosing to “walk by the flesh.”[4] We can define the “flesh” as everything that occurs naturally in our soul and body—everything that is “not of the Spirit” or that is “not of faith.” God tells us in Romans 7:18 that our flesh is corrupted beyond repair.[5] His answer to this problem, was to give us His Life. Only His Life in us, can enable us to overcome the “motions of our flesh” and to please Him in all that we do.[6] Thus, until we learn to “crucify our flesh,” there will be a continual war between our flesh and our spirit.[7]
- “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Galatians 5:17)
Over and over again in Scripture, we see the wonderful and terrible consequences of man’s free will (free choice) enabling us to either follow God or follow self. David tearfully humbles himself at the feet of God (Psalm 51), but Saul proudly plots to get his own way (1 Samuel 15). Joseph continually turns away from Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:7-9), but Samson rushes into the arms of Delilah (Judges 16).
At the exact moment John the Beloved is choosing to lay his head upon Jesus’ breast, Judas is choosing to betray Him (John 13:23-27). Mary of Bethany spends a year’s income to anoint Jesus with costly perfume (Mark 14:3-9), yet Ananias and Sapphira lie in order to withhold a small portion of their income (Acts 5:1-11). A poor widow gives her last few coins to the Lord (Luke 21:2-4), but the rich young ruler won’t let go of his great wealth (Luke 18:18-25). Partheon Magestrates travel a great distance to worship the babe in a manger (Luke 2:1-2), but the Pharisees won’t walk six miles into Bethlehem to meet their Messiah!
As Christians, God has given us the freedom to either choose, moment by moment, to follow His Spirit and believe and trust in Him, or to follow the flesh and believe and trust in ourselves. He has given us the authority to choose to open ourselves up to Him and be willing to abandon ourselves to His will; or, the authority to shut ourselves off from Him and follow what we think, feel and desire.
The Power of Our Human Will
Can you see the incredible power of the human will? Our life is not determined by our circumstances, our church attendance, our social standing, our finances or even our belief systems; the character of our life is simply determined by the daily choices we make.
Sin isn’t birthed in our mind or in our body; it’s begun within our will! God has given us a fearful and awesome responsibility with our “free will.” Thus, acts of our free will (our momentary choices) are what determine the degree of our sanctification.
The goal of our instruction, as Matthew 22:37 tells us, is to love God—to choose, moment by moment, to totally give ourselves over to Him (sin and self)—so that He can then replace us with Himself. We were created, not only to be loved, but also to love. Thus, the only thing that will ever re-direct our will and lead us to the “fulness of Christ” is our love for God. In other words, the more we fall in love with Jesus, the more we will be able to freely give Him our will. And, surrendering our will, moment by moment, is the only thing that will allow Him to complete the sanctification process in our lives.
Our supreme purpose as Christians is not only to learn to become vessels of God’s Love to others, but also to return that Love to Him.
- We…do not cease to pray for you…that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, Which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.… (Colossians 1:9-13)
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