Living in the Freedom of the Spirit - Week #9

I trust you are well and maturing in the love of God...it's certainly a lifelong process, and even this morning as I was quiet before the Lord, the thought came to me that the Holy Spirit's relentless and unending work in the believer's life is to bring the soul (mind, will, and emotions) into alignment with Jesus, who is Truth. This can be very painful at times but He is with us in the pain and so it is bearable.

We've gotten through the sections of the book on the mind and the emotions. This week's chapter is the first on the will.

The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I realize how important it is that the human will be whole because, as Tom Marshall says, it's like the clutch in a car. You can have your hands firmly on the steering wheel (the mind aligned with truth), and be pushing the gas pedal (the emotions are awake and in agreement with truth), but if you don't engage the clutch (action taken in obedience to truth), the car will not move forward.

I find many Christians who have received prayer ministry and are being renewed in the spirit of their mind but are stalled out because they don't take steps of faith to walk out what the Spirit has done within them and for them.

It's possible that the will has been severely damaged through addictions of all sorts (this includes such socially acceptable addictions such as overworking, as well as the non-socially acceptable addictions), and a person who genuinely loves the Lord can find him/herself quite weakened in their will. Healing prayer is important for this. Then the person must listen to the Lord and obey whatever he believes the Lord is asking of him.

Leanne Payne writes so well on this topic in her book, Restoring the Christian Soul. I would also recommend the chapter on the will in The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith.

The will is that more "masculine" part of the human soul; in other words, it's that part of us that stands up and takes action in line with the Spirit of God. All of us need to be strengthened in our will. I'm not referring to natural willfulness and natural stong will but to the human will aligned with God's will. So anyone, whether a naturally strong-willed person or not, can stand upright before God, hear His word, and take steps of obedience (even if they are feeble and wobbly steps). A baby's steps are wobbly and feeble but grow stronger the more he walks.

Marshall finishes the chapter by saying that free will in a person "must always be expressed within the limits laid down by law...We call this obedience." And so true freedom is found obeying a higher law which is God.

Holy Spirit, come and strengthen us to will for You and with You. I ask that You would reach down and strengthen the feeble knees as we take baby steps of faith in the area that You presently are maturing us in. Thank You that You are the divine Helper who breathes the strength and life of Jesus into our being! We say yes to You and will obey Your word even in our weakness, by Your grace and power.


(For next week let's read chapters 11 and 12 which continue on the theme of the will. Have a blessed week!)