The Believer’s Mistake 605
for us. To choose and to do belong to the man. God wants to move
us, melt us and encourage us, so that our hearts may bend towards
His will, yet he does not will instead of us to do His will. He turns us
towards His desire, then leaves us to make up our will. What the
Word teaches here is that one’s volition requires the support of God’s
power. How ineffectual and fruitless are deeds done according to
one’s own volition apart from Him. God does not will in man’s
stead, but neither does He desire man to will independently. He calls
him to will in His power, which is to say, to will according to His
working in man.
Not comprehending the correct meaning of this passage the
believer surmises that he need not will. He thus allows another
volition to control his being. He dare not decide any issue, choose
any action, or even resist any power, but passively waits for the will
of God to come to him. When an external volition decides for him he
passively accepts it. He quenches whatever proceeds from his own
volition. And the result: neither he himself uses his volition nor God
uses it to choose and decide for him, since He requires active co-
operation. But the evil spirits seize his passive will and act instead of
him.
We need to see the difference between God willing for us and our
volition cooperating with God. If He were to choose and decide in
lieu of us we would have no real connection with the act or deed
done because our hearts would not have been exercised towards it.
And when we come to ourselves afterwards we would know that it
was not done by us. But if we exercise our volition and actively
cooperate with God, we undertake to do the thing ourselves though in
the divine power. A person under deception may consider himself the
doer, speaker and thinker, but when enlightened by God he realizes
he does not really want to so do, speak and think. He knows he has
no connection with these acts because they were performed by the
enemy.