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YOUR STRENGTH
Your Strength Comes From Your Will-Power
John 7:17 (NIV) If anyone CHOOSES to do God’s will, he will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on My own. You are a spirit being; you have a soul; and you live in a body. Inside your spirit is a STRENGTH or personal power that makes the actual decisions. After you have examined your feelings on a matter and after you have examined all the facts as you know them, you make your own decision as to what you WANT to do or believe. This decision you make is what God cares about.
Even If You Can’t Do What You Want
Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I WANT to do I do not do, but what I HATE I do. Everyone but God only looks at what we say and do; we and those around us don’t always care about why we say or do things. We just judge the words and the deeds. However, God looks way done inside us and judges our motives. Why did you say what you said? What was your purpose for being that way? What was your reason for doing what you did? And, what motivated you to say and do what you did? He can see this part of you and very accurately evaluate it. Yes, you made a certain choice and came down to a certain decision; but, why did you make that choice and decision? That is what concerns God.
Your Spirit Creates Your Motives
1 Cor 2:11 (NIV) For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. A lot of people think that our relationships and our circumstances have shaped us into being the person we are. But, the Bible makes it clear that we are not a product our environment; we are a reaction to our environment. Your God-given free will has been in effect since you were a young child. You were exposed to the same things that many people were exposed to; but, you reacted to them the way you decided to react to them.
Open Doors To Your God-Given Free Will
Rom 8:29-30 (NIV) For those God FOREKNEW He also PREDESTINED to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. Before you were born, God knew you and prepared a life for you that gave you the greatest opportunity to reach your greatest potential. It takes a supernatural God to know where to put you, when to put you there, and what kind of circumstances to allow to come your way. God made sure no one took over your life in such a way that you couldn’t exercise your free will the way you needed to.
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Your Will Decides Your Decisions
James 4:4 (NIV) You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. If you were a product of your environment, if your parents, the society, or the circumstances of your life “programmed” or shaped you into the person you are now, then you would automatically be friends with your own kind of people. But, your God-given free will was placed into you so YOU can choose who your friends will be. All your choices and decisions are being made by the STRENGTH of you will.
Trapping Your God-Given Free Will
Rom 7:22-23 (NIV) For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. By the time Jesus finds you and you respond to His invitation to salvation and justification, you have trapped your God-given free will. Your will is still making decisions; but, your body is no longer responding to your God-given free will. The first aspects of your Christian life are very frustrating. You want to make choices and decisions, but, your body won’t let you.
Recognizing Your Trapped Free Will
Rom 7:18 (NIV) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Even though you and the people around you are judging you based on your words and deeds, you must not forget that God is looking deep down inside you; He is judging you based on your motives. As long as you WILL to desire to do what is good, you will be a candidate for getting God’s help. You are a sincere person who is in a situation that God knows you can’t solve on your own.
Why Did You Do It?
Rom 10:9 (NIV) That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Since you did this because you wanted salvation and justification, God gave you salvation and justification. If you did it because someone else wanted you to get them, then it wouldn’t have worked for you. God looked deep down inside you and saw what your WILL was on the matter. Your WILL caused you to DECIDE to do what Romans 10:9-10 told you to do. And, God responded to your WILL and did it for you.
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