Is Your Free Will, Love or Bondage?
There are many who say choosing to live within the will of God, following His instructions, is bondage and something we are no longer to do. At the same time, the same people will be quick to agree that “we need to decrease as He increases” and that “His will be done”. They will agree that Yeshua is the example for all of us and take note how he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed to the Father that not his will, but Yahweh’s will be done. Yet, even though they admit Yeshua chose to be in Yah’s will, they will say we should not follow that example, or at least their understanding of that example.
For some, their understanding of following Yahweh’s will extends to accepting Yeshua as the Messiah and doing what they feel the Holy Spirit tells them to do or not do. This understanding is not necessarily wrong as much as it is incomplete. Part of serving and loving our Creator is accepting Yeshua the Messiah, Yahweh’s plan for our salvation. It is also listening to the Holy Spirit sent to us as the comforter and teacher guiding us into all truth. However, there is still a baseline of instructions to follow if we want to be in His will. Yahweh made it quite clear His people are to be set apart, to live a different life than the rest of the world, to follow Him and live in His ways.
He wants us to love Him because He first loved us and demonstrated that love by sending Messiah for our salvation and for giving us righteous rules to live by (1 John 4:19, Deuteronomy 4:5-8). How do we show someone we love them? Our actions, as they speak louder than words; our Creator is no different as we are told in 1 John 5:3-5. Notice in verse 5 how we overcome the world through believing in Messiah; that is one part of being in His will, obedience is the rest. What is obedience but giving up our own will to follow the will of one greater than us, or that we want to be with. If we want to show our Creator we love Him; if we want to claim to be His children, His bride, then we need to submit our will to His.
Exercising our free will to put ourselves under the Creator’s will shows who we feel is the authority in our lives. It is also an expression of love. We are choosing to follow Yahweh’s leadership and instruction. Choosing to obey the Creator’s will shows Him that we trust His direction; that we desire Him in our lives and not ourselves. We are showing the Creator that we love Him so much that we are willing to give up our own free will to choose His. What is His will but for us to love Him, by being obedient to Him and keeping His commandments. Combine those actions with our faith in Messiah and we show our complete love to Him.
What’s the alternative to choosing to live within Yah’s will? It’s choosing our own will, making ourselves as “God” and rejecting the instruction of the Creator. Not choosing the Creator is choosing destruction; choosing Him is choosing life. Choose today whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.
Shalom