LORD, Grant Me Courage To Come To Terms With The Almighty Source Of My Will

LORD, Grant Me Courage To Come To Terms With The Almighty Source Of My Will

Sound arrogant? It’s what Scripture says.  Read on or skip to prayer.

In the June 6 entry of My Utmost For His Highest Oswald Chambers writes:

The profound thing in man is his will, not sin. Will is the essential element in God’s creation of man: sin is a perverse disposition which entered into man. In a regenerated man the source of will is almighty.

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a disposition which renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do. When the Lord is presented to the conscience, the first thing conscience does is to rouse the will, and the will always agrees with God.

Do I believe that Almighty God is the source of my will? God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it.

My Will Always Agrees With God

It seems impossible, right? That God’s will becomes my will? Read Philippians 2:13 from different versions:

ESV – For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

NLT – For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

NJB – It is God who, for his own generous purpose, gives you the intention and the powers to act.

God gives me the desire and power to do what pleases Him, for His own purpose.

Certainly, God’s purpose is also God’s will.

Now I can grasp Paul’s somewhat perplexing “work out your own salvation” in the preceding verse:

(12) Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
(13) For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13

Working Out My Own Salvation

My will becomes God’s will when I stand firmly in faith on the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. My natural choices, decisions, reactions, and responses are along the line of God’s will, and “life is as natural as breathing” as Mr. Chambers puts it.

In America’s extremely trying times (especially amid the virus, Democrat desperation in the 2020 election cycle, and violent Marxist mobs), my will must be aligned with God’s will.

God is Spirit.  John 4:24; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
God cannot lie. Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 6:18
God does not change. Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6

The regenerated will of a child of God operates in the immutable power of Spirit and truth.

How Does My Will Come To Be God’s Will In The First Place?

The transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

Take a sermon, for example, as one avenue used in this work. In a sermon, it is the “Word of God preached” that enables the work of the Holy Spirit necessary for a hearer’s transformation.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17

The Spirit of God seeks to teach the mind, touch the heart, move the will.

The free will of a human being can’t be changed through force, coercion, guilt, blame, false social constructs (such as “political correctness” or “systemic racism”), shame or insults, either individually or collectively. These are tools of Satan.

The father of all lies seeks to confuse the mind, terrorize the heart, pervert the will.

Attempting to change the will of another by using the tools of Satan is, in fact, doing the bidding of Satan. In this, the ancient serpent can be seen in two distinct ways:

1. a human being/institution is trying “to be like God” (Genesis 3:5) by doing a work that only God can do.
2. a human being/institution is placing himself/herself/itself as judge over another human; God is the only Judge, much more the only Judge of our hearts and thoughts (Romans 2:1; James 4:12).

Only the Holy Spirit can perform the work of true transformation in a person’s mind, heart, and will. Period.

But Is The Source Of My Will Really “Almighty”?

As a child of God, fully convinced of the redemptive life that you now live in Jesus Christ, the source of your will is Almighty. God’s Spirit lives within you. Therefore, come to terms with your salvation and work hard to show the results of what Christ has done for you.

An Analogy: Working Out Your Own Muscles Is A Collaborative Effort

Think of working out like this. Weight lifting will build muscle. But, weight lifting actually requires lifting weights. And not just once or twice but on a regular schedule. You must be disciplined regardless of life circumstances. You must not fear what people say about you, about your gym, about the machine you use for arms, or anything else. It is you doing the physical workout, the weight lifting, and sticking to the schedule.

Pretty soon the work begins to show. The outward results are on full display. How did those muscles develop? How did they get larger and harder? How did they get ripped and cut? It was disciplined work on the outside working in collaboration with something on the inside, namely, the unseen processes of physiology.

Working Out Your Own Salvation Is A Collaborative Effort

Likewise, working out your salvation is the discipline and repetition of being obedient to God. Soon the outward results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear, are on full display. How did all of this happen? It was obedience on the outside (free will) working in collaboration with something on the inside, namely, God’s Spirit giving you both the desire and the power to do it.

Obey God with fear and trembling. Work hard to show the results of the surpassing power within you (2 Corinthians 4:7)—the will of Almighty God.

So What?

Regardless of what is going on around you, or in our nation, trust that “God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13, NLT). John says it like this:

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:4-6

God’s truth is absolute.

Truth is not the word or phrase or social construct du jour being yelled the loudest, or said the most often, or repeated incessantly.

We cannot succumb to lies in the false name of things that

a) require bowing to anybody or anything other than our LORD God,
b) require kowtowing to avoid being labeled falsely,
c) sound religious,  and/or
d) become familiar, i.e. “accepted as truth,” simply by its repetition in mainstream media or leftist owned websites.

It is noteworthy that in the Gospels, the demons are always the loudest and most obnoxious. And did you ever read about a demon that did not kowtow to Jesus?

The Source Of My Will Really Is “Almighty”!

Working out = discipline and repetition. This is what builds physical muscle.

Discipline and repetition, that is obeying God and working hard (Philippians 2:12), builds spiritual muscle. God is already giving “you the intention and the powers to act” (Philippians 2:13, NJB).

Some Spiritual Workouts To Try Anywhere (no equipment necessary)

• Stand strong. Be a watchman on the wall of your mind and emotions.
• Do not allow the enemy any foothold.
• Reject the sinister methods of the devil for what they are, i.e. evil.
• Reject the lies and guard what enters the sacred ground of your mind and heart.
• Repeat: The source of my will is Almighty.
• Write this Oswald Chambers quote on an index card so you can easily remember why your will always agrees with God though sometimes it must be roused to do so:
  

  Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a disposition which renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do. When the Lord is presented to the conscience, the first thing conscience does is to rouse the will, and the will always agrees with God.

• Memorize Philippians 2:12-13.
• Pray!

Establishment elitists have always been simultaneously amused and disgusted by outsiders. Yet, looking past the end of their noses, they recognize these interlopers possess something—something special—that they do not. That something, however, as followers of Christ know, is Someone. (Painting by James Tissot)