OUR OLD AND NEW WILL
The very first and basic fact that we must declare and understand in every circumstance of our entire life is this:
GOD GAVE US (AND HIS ANGELS) A FREE WILL!
WE CAN CHOOSE FOR HIM OR AGAINST HIM, FOR HIS WILL OR AGAINST HIS WILL, FOR HIS WORD OR AGAINST HIS WORD!
NOBODY CAN MAKE OUR DECISIONS FOR US. THIS FREE WILL GIVEN TO US BY GOD IS LIMITED TO OUR OWN SELF, TO DECISIONS ABOUT OUR OWN SELF. NEVERTHELESS, IT DOES NOT AFFECT OR LIMIT GOD’S OMNIPOTENCE IN ANY WAY!
The consequences of this fact will follow us throughout our earthly life and throughout our Salvation. This fact also determines and explains every event in our earthly life. Furthermore, this fact also tells us clearly that…
WE ARE WHOLLY RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR DECISIONS AND NO ONE ELSE – NOT EVEN GOD HIMSELF! GOD WILL NEVER TAKE OUR DECISIONS AND HE WILL NEVER GO AGAINST OUR DECISIONS, AGAINST OUR FREE WILL! LIKEWISE, SATAN CAN NOT TAKE OUR DECISIONS OR GO AGAINST THEM, EITHER!
The multitudes of pagans that are going to perish in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:12-15) are the proof of this fact. God provided Salvation for every man on this planet. But every man decides either to receive it, or reject it. Our faith is essential, but it must be followed by our decision TO DO our faith. Also, man must receive his Salvation as prescribed in the Word of God.
GOD DOES NOT DECIDE WHO WILL BE SAVED AND WHO WILL NOT! EVERY MAN DECIDES FOR HIMSELF. GOD ONLY KNOWS ABOUT OUR DECISION BEFORE WE DO, AND THAT BY HIS FOREKNOWLEDGE. (Rom. 8:29)
Also, God never “forces” His Salvation on anyone, nor does He “force” any man after he is redeemed (born-again believer) to follow Christ. Christ said quite clearly: “IF any man will come after Me…” (Mt. 16:24) thereby leaving that decision to men. Yet, God is leading us to our Full Salvation, to all truth and to all the right decisions by His Spirit.
The best example of this fact touches Our Lord Himself. The execution of our Salvation was NOT in the hands of the Father but in the hands of JESUS – THE SON OF MAN! Furthermore…
IT WAS NOT THE WILL OF JESUS-THE SON OF MAN TO GO TO THE CROSS, IT WAS THE WILL OF HIS FATHER! NEVERTHELESS… JESUS DECIDED TO DO THE WILL OF HIS FATHER AND NOT HIS OWN WILL WHEREBY HE DESIRED HIS FATHER THAT THE CUP (CROSS) BE REMOVED FROM HIM, IF AT ALL POSSIBLE! (Lk. 22:42-44// Mt. 26:39)
EQUALLY, IT IS NOT OUR WILL TO GO TO OUR CROSS OR DENY OURSELVES, TO LOSE OUR OLD LIFE (MT. 16:24,25) AND PUT ON THE NEW MAN (EPH. 4:24). IT IS THE WILL OF OUR FATHER! NEVERTHELESS…SHALL WE DO IT? OR SHALL WE CONTINUE DOING OUR OWN WILL WHEREBY WE REFUSE TO DRINK THE CUP FROM OUR FATHER? (Jn. 18:11)
The same applies for entering the Kingdom of Heaven or the Marriage Supper of the Son of God, which begins in Heaven before the Tribulation begins and before the Kingdom is established on the Earth. God set a clear condition for believers to enter the Kingdom and it is this: Believers must DO THE WILL OF THE HEAVENLY FATHER. (MT. 7:21) IT IS UP TO EACH BELIEVER WHETHER HE DECIDES TO DO THE WILL OF HIS FATHER OR HIS OWN WILL, WHICH IS DIFFERENT.
It is thus not up to God to decide who will enter into the Kingdom and who will not but up to each individual believer. God has invited all believers to the Marriage Supper, but many believers decide to refuse His invitation through many stupid excuses. God then considers such believers as unworthy to enter the Marriage Supper or the Kingdom of Heaven. (Mt. 22:2-8) GOD DOES NOT DECIDE FOR THEM, THEY DECIDE THEMSELVES!
It also applies for the opening of our heart to the Lord Who says: “IF any man… open the door, I will come in”. (Rev. 3:20)
The Lord will never force His way into our heart. It is our personal and conscious decision to invite the Lord into our heart. If we do not know how to open our heart or are unable, that is another matter. Once we decide and tell the Lord that He is welcomed in our heart, He will lead us how to do it and will enable us to do it. That then becomes “His problem” to solve. But He cannot and will not make that decision for us and will never invite Himself into our heart!
It is absolutely imperative for every believer to understand this important matter of our free will and also of the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY TO MAKE OUR DECISIONS BEFORE GOD IN OUR HEART BEFORE GOD CAN ACT UPON THEM. This is an absolutely unchangeable principle established by God.
Two typical examples are in Deut. 30:19 and in 1Cor. 14:32. Here, prophesying can only be done in the Spirit of the Lord through the spirits of the prophets. Their spirits are subject to them, to their own free will. Without their own free decision to speak, they would not prophesy though they might have received Words directly from God.
Let us now examine some important issues concerning our will and the above principal facts.
1. Our old will always tries to satisfy our own self in all situations, conditions and circumstances. Even if we try to satisfy someone else, it is because of our own satisfaction in doing so. This is the natural state and character of our old will and we have no intentions to change it in any way.
2. If we are facing situations where we have to decide against our satisfaction, then we have to be “talked into it” or “forced” to do it depending on the seriousness of such a situation and on the degree of deviation from our “original” satisfaction, original planning. But we are willing to deviate only to the “degree of the force used in the argument”. The decision of our will is thus made under the pressure of possible consequences.
We decide to “move the line of our satisfaction” to a new position where we could say – well, it is still all right, it could have been much worse. But we would not go any further. We are thus “satisfied” with our new decision since we had no better choice. This is our nature, the way of least resistance. If we realize that these things are happening quite often in our earthly life, then it should be easy to translate these facts into our “religious life” as well.
3. Having considered the above two points, it should now be much easier for us to understand what the Lord is doing with us when He says:
“God has been working in us that WE WOULD BE WILLING TO DO HIS good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13, paraphrased)
Clearly, the Lord has been working in our WILL and we may have never been aware of it or noticed it in any way! But the Lord has been employing the same principle, which is given to us in the above point. To achieve in us any willingness to do His pleasure, His satisfaction, which is often quite different than ours, the Lord had to create pressures and problems for us. These would “move the line of our satisfaction” to a new position where the pressures would cease, the problems would be solved and the consequences would be acceptable for us. (Jon. 2:1,2 + many Psalms)
We usually only see, feel and understand the problems, pressures and the associated pain, suffering or displeasure. We do not see the Lord’s hand behind these events. It thus appears absolutely necessary for the Lord to cause us some pain, suffering, pressure, or displeasure so that we would be…
…WILLING TO DO WHAT WE WOULD NORMALLY NEVER DO! THE LORD IS ENABLING US TO BECOME OVERCOMERS… AND WE ARE OFTEN UNAWARE THAT IT IS DONE THROUGH RESOLVING OUR PROBLEMS AND CONFLICTS AND TAKING OUR DECISIONS ACCORDING TO HIS WILL.
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Let me insert here a brief but very practical paragraph concerning the above point 3. and some of the ministers on TBN channels previously mentioned.
Is it possible that T.D.Jakes, R.Parsley or others on TBN channels would stop screaming and sweating or running on stages and change their ministry? Is it possible that J. Duplantis would stop mixing the Gospel with fun, jokes and mundane talk? Is it possible that the ladies would stop their preaching? Or that J. Bynum would hear the Lord’s admonition and stop screaming her head off and stop her religious hysteria, which brings nothing but shame to Him? Is it possible that other ministers would also change their ministry after reading the above assessment and judgment of the Lord in this book? Is it really? Under the current circumstances, I say: NO! Why?
First, they are unable to believe that their ministry is not acceptable to the Lord and that His Spirit has nothing to do with it and cannot bless it or make it fruitful! They are unable to believe it because they do not see it. They only see the outward picture, people (at times multitudes) listening and enjoying their sermons. They neither see the spiritual picture, nor themselves. The Lord has to show them first their own selves!
Therefore, the Lord leads me to pray the following:
I ASK YOU, LORD JESUS CHRIST, TO SHOW TO ALL THOSE MENTIONED ABOVE THE TRUE PICTURE OF THEMSELVES AND YOUR JUDGMENTS, THAT THEY MAY SEE THEMSELVES AND ALSO WHAT THEY DO! AND WHOSOEVER SHALL RECEIVE YOUR TRUTH AND YOUR JUDGMENT, BLESS THAT SOUL AND PREPARE HIM FOR YOUR COMING. I PRAY FOR YOUR SAKE AND FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR CHURCH. AMEN.
Second, even if the Lord shows them the true picture and His Judgments, it will take their decision to change, to ask the Lord to help them change because they can’t do it of their own power. Will they be willing to open their heart and receive these Truths and Judgments and start (slowly) changing? It depends on whether they belong to Is. 6:9,10 or not! And they all should also read Ez. 3:20,21 and understand why these passages of the Bible are written.
But this is only a small example of the practical Christianity, of our Salvation and how the Spirit of the Lord has been executing it in our earthly lives from the start of our Redemption.
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4. The result or fruit of the above is something to be considered and cherished. Every time OUR WILL DECIDES TO DO HIS pleasure, HIS satisfaction, the Lord accomplishes some change, some renewal in our heart (here a little, there a little). But this “little” work is ETERNAL, which is to say, permanent! This means, that we will not have to “be forced or pressured” again to do the same thing in the future. Our heart and will are now able to act and decide spontaneously in this area – without pressure or pain.
Thus our problems and pressures are not an everlasting merry-go-round, as it is for pagans. The problems, pressures, pain, suffering, at times even dangerous or hopeless situations and other numberless things arranged for us by the Lord work together for our good! (Rom. 8:28) We keep moving and our will and heart keep deciding for the Lord and for His Will, which is His pleasure. That is the “secret” of our spiritual progress, growth, maturing. It is also the “secret” of our temporary suffering, pain, problems, displeasure, discontent.
5. There may be many Christians who question God, where He is or where He was when this or that happened. How could He allow this or that. How can a loving God allow some terrible sickness to fall on our loved one, how can He look at such and such injustice, evil or other thing?
Let me say this very emphatically: God allows men to do their free will, which may cause horrible consequences! God never sends sicknesses on men, men bring it all on themselves. Men decide by their free will to begin destroying their bodies and souls right from their young age. They smoke, drink, eat anything that lands on their plate, exhaust themselves or bring themselves to horrible situations. In their own foolishness and stubbornness, they crawl into dangerous situations where they even risk their lives or serious injuries.
Is it not written that “whatsoever a man sows, that he shall also reap.”? (Gal. 6:7) Then, why do many Christians accuse God or even question Him when they are harvesting exactly what they sowed? It is dangerous to accuse God of such things, which He would never do. If they would allow the Lord to enter their heart and would start fellowshipping with Him and knowing Him, they would discover the truth how good God is, what He does and what He never does.
6. Let us consider an “obscure” Word of God which says: “Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is SIN.” (Jam. 4:17)
Somehow I believe that none of us has ever imagined the true depth and meaning of this little verse. I will give my faith and understanding of this Word of God to the depth that, so far, I have been able to see myself hoping that it may be beneficial to the readers.
The very first application of this Word is in “doing good and communicating”. (Heb. 13:16) If I am supposed to communicate with someone, return a call, reply to a letter, etc., and I do not do it though I could, I am not doing the good, which is expected and required from me by the Word of God, and which I could do, if I wanted. In the eyes of God, I HEREBY SIN… against Him and the other person!
If the Lord gives me truth about some situation or person, which is needed at His appropriate time and I keep it “secret” within myself and do not declare it, I HEREBY SIN! I may decide in my heart to keep it secret for different reasons, for example, to preserve my image, to keep my friend or family member from embarrassment, to gain a kind of advantage for myself, etc. If I know the truth about myself, my actions, deeds, failures, damages done, etc., and I am asked about it in the Body of Christ and do not speak the truth, I am an hypocrite, I do not do good to the Body, which I could do, then I HEREBY SIN! Whenever I go against the voice of my conscience, I refuse to do what I know is “good or needful and truthful” at that time, then I HEREBY SIN!
Have you ever thought about such applications of this “little” Word of God? How many times we have thus sinned against God and against our brethren, friends or against one another?
7. Finally, I would like to conclude this paragraph with another unusual but important fact. Many believers might find themselves in a situation where they “know” in their conscience and would like to open their heart to the Lord but are somehow unable to decide to do so! It may be that their will is bound or oppressed or even paralysed by the powers of darkness. Let us never forget that whenever we desire to do something for the Lord or for His pleasure, these bastardly powers of evil are always there and would do anything to prevent us from doing it – especially allow the Lord into our heart to destroy their kingdom there. Do you have such experiences?
The solution is that we may have to ask the Lord to strengthen our will so that it may decide for Him and also to enable us to open our heart to Him. The Lord answers even the most feeble whisper of our heart toward Him.
It should be abundantly clear from the above that…
THE DECISION OF OUR WILL AND HEART TO OPEN TO THE LORD IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP AND DECISION IN OUR EARTHLY LIFE BECAUSE IT DETERMINES OUR DESTINY IN ETERNITY AND ALSO OUR WAY TO IT! A CLOSED HEART IS A DOOMED HEART BECAUSE IT DOES NOT NEED GOD!
Because of its enormous importance, I want to bring to your attention one fact, which should belong to the chapter “The true depth of deception”, but I kept it purposely for this place to show how our will and heart interact in this decision and how they can “fool” us all. From my own experience, I can tell you that our heart is quite able to show that it is indeed “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” (Jer. 17:9)
Man may repent in tears and promise that he desires to follow the Lord with all his heart. That man may start performing much better and we may all be satisfied. The truth is that it may be his MIND that decided to do better and NOT HIS HEART! Few weeks or months later, he displays the same spirits that were in his heart before his repentance. He then repeats his repentance with the same promises and decisions. He again improves his work, diligence, care, etc. Few weeks or months later, he is found back in his spiritual pit. No wonder the Lord told us clearly that we shall know them by their fruits. (Mt. 7:16-20) His fruit is bad!
THE FRUIT ALWAYS GROWS IN OUR HEART AND NOT IN MIND AND SHOWS THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR HEART AND WILL!
To be continued next week in part 4
brother Hanola
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