This morning, the Lord talked to me about the idea of having Free Will as opposed to being a creatively sovereign, submitted child of God with many choices as we walk out our life. “Free will” is a concept that seems to be an integral part of our concept of self-worth but the question I keep coming up against is “Whose will are you walking in?”

Jesus said He came to do the will of the Father because he only did what He saw the Father doing. (John 5:19) and also in Matt12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother (KJV.) 

Obviously, the question of our will is an important one. Whenever I talk to someone about having “Free Will” vs choice, they get defensive, as if I am attacking one of their core beliefs. I know that we have been taught that we have free will because we are made in God’s image, but I also know that as a new creation man, we have to adjust to the new reality of who we are in Christ. That is why I have asked the Lord to tell me more about this issue. The following is what He told me this morning:

This work I Am doing in you is a deep work. It is changing your concepts of who you believe yourself to be, so that you conform to My image implanted in you at new birth. You are not who you were and do not fully know who you are, but you are beginning to understand the ramifications of what is happening as your mindsets are being changed to embrace My Truth.

Free will is an illusion. As long as there is a sin nature* influencing man’s steps, he cannot be truly free. That is why you often desire to do something but find your self doing the opposite. Choice is a much better description of what we walk in as humans in a fallen world,but few understand the difference and some have made free will to be an idol because they think it diminishes them to release that concept. “If I Am made like God in His image, why would you say that I don’t have free will?

The Bible says you can’t serve two masters. You can’t serve Jesus as Lord of your life if self is sitting on the throne. Free will is self will as in “I can do what I want.” When I become LORD to you, you can’t be lord to yourself. That is why I say you live a life of many great and varied choices, but you have given your will to Me and can no longer be considered as having free will. You are mine. That’s what submission to Me is and when you lay down your will for mine, you will find yourself able to do things in Me that you can’t do by yourself. So, whose will do you want to walk in?

* The apostle Paul deals with this question of a saved person still having to deal with a sin nature in the book of Romans chapter 7 (7:15-24 and Chapter 8:1)

We call the sin or carnal nature “the Man of sin (MOS)” in our writings because that is who God has shown us that he is. See our article https://sonlightministry.com/man-of-sin.xhtml for more information on what it is and how to deal with it.