Almighty Will

Today's reading in My Utmost gave me some more insight into something that has stymied me for a long time. In trying to encourage loved ones who are struggling to exercise faith but often only feel doubt and anger toward God, I have wondered what this seemingly insurmountable obstacle was that prevented them from letting go and allowing God to love them more fully. Of course I struggle with the same thing sometimes myself. I knew that it had something to do with the “will”, but sometimes we seem almost incapable of using our will effectively because we cannot figure out what to use it for.

Oswald Chambers makes the bold and startling statement that “the will always agrees with God.” He states that the internal part that renders you powerless is “in your flesh”. But when you look to Jesus you “will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time. The thing in you which makes you say 'I shan't' is something less profound than your will; it is perversity, or obstinacy, and they are never in agreement with God. 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.”

What I began to see here reminds me of what I have been learning about false gods and their hijacking of my identity. When I hear myself saying either internally or externally that “I can't” believe or I can't have faith or anything like that, it is not my real identity, my real heart that is saying that but it is the false gods inside of me masquerading as me and my will. But if what Chambers is saying is correct, then if I am a Christ-follower my will and conscience are both in agreement with Him and will not be going around saying “I can't believe what God says”, because Christ would never say that. Therefore I must conclude like Paul, that it is not really me thinking and feeling those things but “sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:17).

What I am starting to sense more clearly is that much of our problem is that we are not recognizing and separating our true identity from the false identities that live inside of us and that we have thought all of our lives were really us. They are so much a part of our thinking, feeling and decision-making that we are convinced that they (the false gods) are really who we are and we are helpless to change. What we are actually trying to do, however, is to convince the voices inside of us to change which is an absolute impossibility! But the gospel emphatically proclaims that we are in reality not who we think we are much of the time, but are a new creation with lofty motives and filled with the righteousness of God. Both our will and our conscience are on God's side and deep within our heart we want to be, and attempt to be like God.

So why is our will so powerless? Chambers goes on to give us some excellent insights.

“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.' You have to work out with concentration and care what God works in; not work your own salvation, but work it out, while you base resolutely in unshaken faith on the complete and perfect Redemption of the Lord. As you do this, you do not bring an opposed will to God's will, God's will is your will, and the life is as natural as breathing. God is the source of your will, therefore you are able to work out His will. Obstinacy is an unintelligent 'wadge' that refuses to be enlightened; the only thing is for it to be blown up with dynamite, and the dynamite is obedience to the Holy Spirit.

“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.” (MUHH 6/6)

So what is the difference between a powerless will and an Almighty will? It seems to be where we focus our attention. When we dwell on our powerlessness we are parroting what the inner lying spirits are telling us about ourselves and stay enchained in their prison of lies about who we really are. But when we challenge their claims to be us vicariously and choose to obey the Holy Spirit by claiming our real identity in spite of any or all of our feelings, our will suddenly becomes empowered to burst out of the prison of doubting castle and the incarnated Christ can come alive and express Himself from within our souls. We can then realize and experience a new “self” that may be, up to this point, completely unfamiliar to us.

Some feel at this point that this is an act of hypocrisy. “How can I claim to be something I am not?” they say. In a way it is hypocrisy – but not for the real you. It is hypocrisy for the false gods inside of you pretending to be you. Remember, Chambers said that “perversity, or obstinacy... are never in agreement with God” and “refuses to be enlightened.” If we wait until we feel like we are saved and sanctified before we believe it, it will never happen because our feelings have been hijacked and are manipulated by false gods who will never change their minds about who we are. To obey the Holy Spirit means to choose to believe what God says about us and continue to choose as well as to speak it out, declare it, confess it and continually remind ourself of it until and including after we begin to see the results of it externally. We cannot relax from this vigilance until we are safe in heaven and the false gods have been eradicated from our souls.

I say these things, not because I want others to believe them, though I certainly do, but because I need very much to internalize them and practice them myself most of all. In saying them publicly I also open myself up to the accountability of others reminding me of these things when I forget.

Thank-you God for bringing this profound truth to my attention today. Keep me under conviction of my need to confess the truth about myself, my real self that You have created me to be. Yes, I must also acknowledge my real condition and the sin that dwells in me causing me to doubt and believe lies about You and what You have done in me. But remind me that these lies do not originate from the heart you have given me but from the enemy of my soul attempting to abort your work in me. Help me to speak faith, to act in faith and to believe in Your faithfulness. I trust in Your never-ending lovingkindness and Your intense feelings of tenderness when You think of me. Show me Your face and especially Your eyes, for it is there that I find grace and strength and see my true identity.