When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes
in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has
revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual
matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When
God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your
response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16).
Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an
act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit,
placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act
solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on
reality as certain as God’s throne.
In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will
to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a
persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing
my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my
own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding
becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to
ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe.
But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined
effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must
surrender myself completely to God.
Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his
own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the
first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come
into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will
to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and
understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life.
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