God’s Will is a Drag

Once a person experiences true surrender to God, the desire to connect with him causes a whole new world filled with spiritually inspired revelation to open up. Then we are hit with a ton of questions about faith which can leave a disciple feeling like a fish out of water.

God has a way of stimulating our thinking through personal application of scripture. He tells us “to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles” (Pro. 1:6). This is the journey of the mind. It takes us into the moments where the depths of our fellowship with God are truly actualized by Holy Spirit.

Then as our spiritual perspective to life becomes more and more apparent we begin to learn new realities which describe Gods magnificence. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Rom 11:33-36)

For those of us who have come to God out of a hopeless and total state of brokenness to a new reality in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17), the effect has been this yearning to seek out God’s wisdom and knowledge. Unmistakably the bible shows that such desires of the heart are at the root of the choices we make in life. Is that free will?

Ultimate free will has a lot to do with power. In fact it is the ability to control actions without the limitation of some need or outcome. It’s the power to act without outside authority and solely on your own judgment.

Jonathan Edwards once said: “the free will is the mind choosing”. If you have to think about options and choices then are you really acting alone or do you depending on the mind for approval? Edwards’s law of free will states: “Free moral agents always act according to the strongest inclination they have at the moment of choice.”

Is mankind to rebellious to surrender to God? The bible says, we “cannot please God” (Rom 8:8). Why? Because, man always wants to be in control. We are by nature control freaks. Morally we are blind to the Glory of Christ (2Co 4:4).

When compared to a Holy God filled with righteousness what is uncovered is fallen man in “bondage to sin” under the influence of “sin nature”. Jesus said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:65) The word “can” in this verse is talking about ability not permission. Moral ability within the fallen nature wouldn’t even exist if we didn’t lean toward an outlook of Godliness.

At the very core of freedom is our ability to determine choices based on our own desires. However, if our desires are influenced by experiences, environmental factors, what we learn and even genetics then can we say we are totally free to choose?

Since the sin nature has to be dealt with, it makes us think deeply about our actions. So, as God satisfies the condition of acceptance His superiority becomes so irresistible we can’t help but lean on Him.

With the view that God is in control of all things, think for a moment about the story of Joseph. What we may consider as evil God in His righteousness’ can call good. Over and above our human intentions God is at work to bring about good.

At John 6:44 Jesus says that God satisfies the condition of acceptance in an all-sufficient manner by drawing us to Himself. The word draw as translated at James 2:6 can also be translated “drag”. That is “to compel by irresistible superiority” (Kittles theological dictionary of the New Testament).

Not only dose man not have the ability (1Co 2:14) to come to Christ by his own will, as Jesus explains (John 3:5; Romans 8:5-9), its not until our spiritual birth that the work of Holy Spirit starts to faithfully drag us into repentance. That’s God’s will and what a gift it is (1Co 15:10; Phil 2:12).