You told me to pray for that person and I couldn’t. I mention fear because this is a stronghold that had me bound for many years and because of it I allowed it to control me. Many people struggle, maybe not with what I just mentioned but with other things. As I thought about this I was praying to God asking him why? The answer I heard is the will of man. Man has a free will; this has been given to him by God. What is the will of man, it is our minds, the scripture says we must renew our minds daily, “be renewed in the spirit of you mind.”
Man’s will is so strong, the will to survive, to be independent and the will to not be controlled, the desire to be as gods. I know, I do not like to be controlled but I have learned to be dependent on God and obey his will for my life. When I was in school I hated to be late or absent and I followed the instructions of my teachers. Fast forward to my relationship with God. There have been many times God would tell me something he wanted me to do and I would not do it. More often than not it was because of fear and insecurities.
This led to my being disobedient and when I failed to obey it brought such sorrow and repentance in my heart that I would cry out to God and ask for forgiveness. Even though I knew in my mind I had been forgiven often the pain I had brought to God would continue to grieve me. Why do I keep failing? I allowed my will to override the will of God. I allowed my fears and insecurities, the things that had me bound, the strongholds, to override the will of God. Satan is constantly battling us in our minds, but when we receive the spirit of God we receive power to defeat the works of the flesh. The scripture says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” II Timothy 1:7.
So many times our will overrides the will of God. That is why we must be broken, we must allow the potter to mold the clay, we must allow the Holy Spirit to purge and prune us. As we go through different situations God has to break our stubborn spirit until we get to the point where we truly say, “Lord not my will but your will be done.” Free me from what is keeping me bound. When we get to this point we will find it easier to submit to God. Jesus said, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” St. John 6:38. Submitting to God can be so hard sometimes because that means we must humble ourselves and as people we do not want to be controlled, not realizing that we are in subjection to someone, Romans 6: 16 says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
One of the reasons we get into so much trouble, is because we allow ourselves, our will to be in control, we refuse to listen to and obey the will of the Father. Often it is because God’s will is in direct conflict with our will, THE WILL OF MAN. This will is strong; the will to do what we want, when we want and how we want. This refusal to humble ourselves because it means we must relinquish control, this can be very difficult because we think that giving up control is the same as being out of control. But, when we give the control to God he is able to work for us and through us. To let go of control means we must say and mean it, OK God, not my will but your will be done. This is how we walk worthy of God. This can be difficult because it seems as if we are jumping off a cliff with no parachute, but that is not the case. Relinquishing control relies on one simple truth. FAITH. Trust in God that no matter what happens he has the situation under control. This can only happen if we have the spirit of God. We can’t do this using our own strength. Jesus always said it was not him that did the works, but the spirit of the living God that was within him, he did the works. Jesus trusted his Father and he trusted the will of the Father for him, even unto death.
This should be our thoughts, no matter what I am going through I trust you God. No matter what situation I am in I trust you God. God is faithful to every one of his promises; his word shall not return unto him void, it will accomplish whatever he sent it out to do. We can rest in these great and precious promises. We have to know that God wants only the best for our lives but to receive those promises we must submit our will to his will. We must come to the realization that it is not about us, but it is about God, we were created for his pleasure. Not to do our own will but the will of the Father. When we come to this realization, our thought processes will change and the spirit of God will work in us more and more and we will come to the place where our will, the WILL OF MAN is diminishing and it will truly be, Lord not my will, but your will be done. In Jesus name, Amen.
Nadine Richmond