The Grapevine
Number 116                                                                        
October 30, 2005
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15

Free Will
by Jack Northart

Of all the wonderful blessings that God has bestowed upon mankind, giving him a free will is one of the greatest of them. To have a free will means that He gave us all the capacity to choose courses of action from various alternatives. This means that free will is closely connected to moral responsibility; knowing right from wrong and choosing what is the correct thing to do. That puts us all in the "driver's seat" to make decisions and take action or not take action according to what we have determined to be the right thing to do.

This sounds so simple, but can be very difficult at times for all of us. Not only do we have a free will to make proper decisions, but we also have emotions and desires which may, at times, conflict with doing what is right.
Romans 7:19-22
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.

In these verses Paul, by way of revelation from God, is describing a conflict that is resident in his mind to make the right choices and doing the right thing. He summarizes by saying, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."  He continued to focus on the thing that was the greater reality in his life, which was Christ (Colossians 1:27).

Paul obviously had made many right decisions to get this point; the first one being to accept Jesus Christ as his personal lord and savior and believe that God raised him from the dead. After that, he received the great revelation of the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:3-6). However, it was an ongoing challenge for him to make the right choices in different situations.

In addition to the emotions and internal desires that tend to go against us at times, like it did for Paul, we also have an adversary that tries to interfere with our decisions. He tries to throw us off course in making correct decisions.

II Corinthians 11:3
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlity, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

A very distinct aspect of the adversary is the subtlety that he uses to influence and persuade. He is very good at making a bad decision look good. He starts off many times by getting us to question ourselves, like he did with Eve in the garden.

Genesis 3:1-2
Now the serpent was more subtitle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.

What did God really say?

Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.

When Even responded to the serpent's question, she left out one little important word; "freely."
He had already gotten her to omit something that God had told them. This is how incredibly subtle his temptation can be.

So how do we deal with this challenge? We must look to God.

II Corinthians 4:1-2
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

Verse 7
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

We recognize, by the free will that God has given us, who we are and what He has given us. He has given us eternal life through Christ. He has given us the ministry to reconcile others back to Him. He also has given us the gift of holy spirit which gives us tremendous power over Satan.

Jesus Christ spoke of these things that we would have the ability to do from God, prior to his ascension into heaven.

Mark 16:17-18
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
[If] They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Acts 1:8
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

We have all of this power and ability that was promised. It is latent within each and every believer to operate this power and ability. So why do we not see this power and ability in manifestation very much today? Because it is up to each believer to operate it. We, by our free will, must decide to operate it. God will not force us to operate it. He has shown us that we have it, and tells us to do it, however, we must choose to operate it. We must believe what He tells us in His Word and as we do, we will manifest this tremendous power.

Ephesians 1:18-19
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.

By our free will, we can rationalize and deliberate until we are blue in the face about why we can't, or shouldn't, or won't believe that we have this power. On the other hand, by our free will we can believe and we can manifest this power in our day and time.

Although problems may surround us at times, and we may feel that we are reaching the point of despair, we can make the right choice by our free will, and recognize what God has done for us and the power and ability that He has given us. Then we can decide to operate it and see wonderful things come to pass. We can do this because God gave us free will to do so.