In the past editions of these series, we have considered the carnal choices made by Esau and Lot. We established that the choices you make are a pointer to your outcome in life. In this issue, we will look at the example of Jesus, how He surrendered His power of choice to the Father and how we, His body on earth, should emulate Him.
John 7:17 says “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” The emphasis here is on “If any man will do” that is, anyone can choose to handover that will power into the hands of the Lord.
The above verse of scripture shows us that God has a will and you also have a will. Sometime ago, a man of God defined the cross as where the will of God crosses your will and you have to submit to God’s will; you have your own will just like Jesus did. He had His will, He had the power of choice, but He handed it over to the father and so everywhere He went, He said, “I can of myself do nothing.” –John 5:30a.
Of course Jesus Christ could do something of Himself, because when He was about to be arrested by His accusers, He said if it were not His Father’s will for Him to die at that time, He would have commanded legions of angels heaven to fight them.
And you know what legion of angels can do, a single angel killed 185,000 people in one instant, therefore if legions of angels had to come down, nobody would have been left in Jerusalem that day, but it was His Father’s will to go through the suffering and to die.
That is perfect example of a will power that is yielded over to the control of the Lord. The servant of God, Reverend Olusola Areogun, told us that he had his own plans when he entered the University. He wanted to be a Professor of Electronics at a very young age and he was an excellent student, he came out of secondary school with a very brilliant performance. He went for A levels, he cleared the 3 subjects he did excellently (3 “A”s), as well as an excellent University performance.
The will of the Lords came against his own will and he had to make a decision, he had to yield. This doesn’t mean God is calling everybody into full time ministry, but God has a will for your life; discover it and yield to it and daily choosing His will for you.
I have been in gatherings where the Lord led me to make a call for people that have the call of God upon their lives but have kept quiet about it, I was shocked when people stood up and they were weeping because you can have a peculiar dealing of God in your spirit and not talk to anybody about it and nobody will know and you’ll keep it to yourself and you’ll keep living your normal life, doing normal things and people will think you are okay, but struggles will go on within you.
There is a God’s will for you not even in terms of ministry alone but on everything you do. One man of God said he loved hot legs in ladies and of course he got one! Everybody always love one thing or the other. When I was to marry, just like everybody whether male or female, at the time you’re single you star projecting in your mind, thinking of a kind of a lady, (or man) you want to marry. You can always get what you like, if you press for it. But, is what you like God’s will for you?
I remember those days of my carnal desires, I was born again, filled with the Holy Spirit but I disliked light complexioned men, I believe that a man should not be light in complexion, thinking “why should you be light complexioned, are you a woman?” thus, I desired somebody very dark and tall.
When God spoke to me and said “this is the person that you are going to marry”. Here, God’s will crossed mine and if I’d chosen my own will, nobody would have known about it. It is wrong to think that when you reject God’s will or plan for your life, something terrible will happen to you the following day. It is not always so. In fact, it is the mercy of God that causes that occasionally for people.
If a child of God goes out of God’s will and something negative quickly happens to put him back on the right path, that is a demonstration of God’s mercy; it does not happen for some people.
You’ll be suprised when we get to heaven and you see people that carry the anointing in the order of Benny Hinn who died in multinational companies! They never stepped into that calling because they made a carnal choice. For your life not to be characterized by carnal choices, make it a principle in your life to always make spiritual choices even if the matterat hand seems not to serious. Let it become part and parcel of you never to make carnal decisions and choices, but to choose according to the spiritual standard of the Almighty God.
All of Jesus’ decisions and choices were divine and never carnal. They were designed to suit God not Himself. In every decision Jesus made, He was never the focus, God was. And concerning His last decision of dying on the cross, despite the fact that He had agreed in heaven, (John had seen a revelation that the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world Rev. 13:8) when He stood before Pilate, He still had to make a decision.
“Should I go ahead? Should I turn back?” And the devil would have whispered “just tell me something and I’ll believe you. Just do any sign and wonder and I’ll release you.” But Jesus didn’t take a release even though His flesh wanted a release. In the garden of Gethsemane He was there praying, “If it is possible, let this cup pass over me”-that was the flesh. Therefore, don’t think Jesus operated like a robot, moving every time God pressed the remote control in His hand.
No! He had a will, He had to make a decision, He had to make a choice every morning, yet He had to decide to do the Father’s will and not His own. He said, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt (Mt. 26:39).” He ascertained what the will of the Father was and He gave in to it. Just like the message Reverend Areogun preached, Jesus had to “lose to win” many Christians are letting their will win over the Lord’s will but they simply winning to lose later. Now it is your turn, the choice is yours.
In Genesis 6:3, the Lord says “My Spirit shall not always strive with man…” That means two things;
· The Holy Spirit will strive with you
· The H Spirit will not forever strive with you.
There is a time the Holy Spirit stops striving. How does He strive with us? When you have your own will that you embrace and He comes with His will and purposes; there is usually a struggle and as the struggle continues, He says, “I will strive with you. I will contend so that I can win in your life.”
If you lose and allow Him to win as it were, giving up your own personal choice and desire, what happens? The Lord moves in your life. You move into a place of power with God but when He struggles with you and you struggle in return until you win, what does He do? He gives up, He throws in the towel, He admits defeat in that life and that life will never be able to amount to anything in the programme of God.
It’s my prayer that you’ll always be relevant in God’s plan and purpose on the earth in Jesus’ name. People that exercise their will for themselves worship the god called self. One day, the Lord opened my eyes to see the difference between myself and my person.
Your self is different from your person. Your flesh is your self, that self, that thing that you want for yourself apart from God is different from your person. God values your person, your real person. You are a spirit, you have a soul, you live in a body; there are some decisions that you have acquired in the flesh over time that forms yourself that when somebody talks, you say “I, myself, I can’t take that,” that’s not the real you.
The bible says you should cut off all those things. Deal with those carnal desires that rise up in your flesh, everybody has it and you’ll have to deal with them. Even in a small child, you see his will forming as he grows up. He knows what he wants. You may tell him “Sit down there” and he shrugs his shoulder. What he is saying to you is that “I don’t want to. I have my will. You can’t tell me to sit down!”
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