What is Free Will?

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Permalink Reply by RoyW on April 27, 2011 at 4:28pm

Yes, I left it blank on purpose. It allows anyone to fill it in with whatever they want to.

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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on April 27, 2011 at 2:44pm

Beloved Ama,

 

I do not believe Brother Roy was trying to still your mouth, but only seeking to give the biblical perspective of this argument and consequently balance it. We are all free to share and ask away. You are very bright sis and we love and appreciate you. I enjoy your inquiring mind and i know many are bless by it. So keep searching and asking beloved.

 

I agree with you that comptemplating all these issues can be fun.

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Permalink Reply by RoyW on April 27, 2011 at 4:40pm

I am not upset. One thing is for sure. You and I will not solve this issue but I enjoy discussing it and reading the posts. You can say just about anything to me that you want. I will not be upset.

As far as did I use to struggle with the idea? Actually, I did. In fact, I struggled with it very much - so much I couldn't sleep or continue without an answer. God graciously revealed to me that He did in fact save me by His grace and that I now belonged to Him. I was probably in worse condition than most on here and desperately needed to hear from God. I was convinced that no matter what I did, how I lived, what I accomplished, etc., etc., I would never reach the place of making it to heaven. I was very confident that I was headed to hell. At the time I was pastoring a church - a full gospel, Bible-believing, Evangelical church. I had a recurring nightmare of the rapture taking place and my missing it. I was desperately seeking to be saved from that turmoil. Now, I know that I am graciously saved and on my way to heaven. I am very, very grateful that He saved me. I will never under any circumstances ever take any credit for this occurrence.

However, it doesn't bother me that much that others believe differently. I am only concerned with those who struggle as I did not knowing whether or not I belonged to Him and that Heaven was very definitely my destination. For those I will counsel with all my might to help them to understand that they can fully trust in Him to get them home.

 

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Permalink Reply by RoyW on April 27, 2011 at 9:04pm

That was just about 37 years ago give a month or two. It was a very real experience. I started having the nightmare of missing the rapture at the age of 15 and the nightmare continued twelve years. At that time I had a wonderful revelation from Scripture that God had saved me by His grace. Up to that point I was convinced there was something I needed to do in the process and I was confident that I would mess up in the smallest of details. I knew I wasn't good enough and confident that I would never be good enough to merit His love. Consequently I was convinced He loved all the rest of those who were following Him but that I was one that He really didn't love or like that much. Even though I was trying with all my might, I knew I wasn't very good at all. He had to show me in Scripture that He had chosen me and that I hadn't done anything at all to deserve that and that He would always love me. I was completely broken. Shortly after that I had another dream about the rapture and this time I went sailing beyond the stars. Thirty-seven years later and I have never had a dream of that nature again. The issue was completely settled. I knew then and I know now that I am His. lt was a wonderful experience. That was a wonderful experience. It has lasted all these years and I am still rejoicing in His love. I am very grateful for His love, His mercy and His grace. It is all Him. He paid for my ransom and then He redeemed me. I don't believe I had anything to do with it. He saved a miserable old soul that needed Him so much. I still need Him. I could never leave Him. I am very safe and very confident that He will do all that is necessary to get me home. He will never leave me nor forsake me. My salvation is as secure as His sacrifice and resurrection. There is nothing in existence that can separate me from His love. It is over - a done deal. That knowledge comes through His Word. That is not from an ounce of confidence in myself. That is total trust and confidence in Him. I pray that others will also receive this same confidence - especially those who struggle in this same area as I was. That is a miserable situation to be in.

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Permalink Reply by RoyW on April 28, 2011 at 4:31pm

Mathematical statements that cannot be proven are postulates. They are true statements. For example: two points determine one and only one line. That is obviously a true statement but it cannot be proven. In order to prove some mathematical statements, some statements have to be accepted as true. There are statements in Scripture that are true but yet are not effective until believed.

For instance: God so loved the world that He gave His Son. This is a true statement but until you believe that it is not effective to you. God loves each one of us and wants us for His own. Some do not believe. Why, we do not know. God had to show me that statement did apply to me. One day I realized by faith that God loved me more than the universe. His love for me stretches from one end of the universe to the other. I can never be separated from that love.

I had those same feelings of being useless, unloved, etc. I was convinced I would never be in heaven. God loved others but for some reason I did not believe He loved me. The revelation of His love was the greatest moment in my life. When it happened my wife actually thought I had lost my mind. She called her mother and said something strange had happened to me. (Her mother was a Pentecostal-Holiness preacher.) My wife was raised in a similar environment as me but did not have the same complex I had. I was absolutely miserable. I was fully prepared to have my head cut off to be saved from hell. I just knew I would get to judgment and God would send me to hell. What a horrible, horrible feeling.

Did you grow up in a strict home? Why did you have those feelings about yourself? How could some things be so obvious in Scripture but yet we feel they were meant for others and not for us? I guess I went a little bit off the deep end with my being chosen doctrine but I just cannot ever come to a different understanding. I have this truth down deep in my being and there is no way to get me to think differently.

If I ever get overbearing with the teaching, it is only because I want everyone to have the same feeling of being loved that I have. I know I belong to Him and there is nothing I could or will ever do to get away from Him. He owns me and there is no way of escape for me. Why would I ever want anything else anyway? That would be completely ludicrous.

I understand Job when he says - though God slay me yet will I trust Him. I know He has in mind what is best for me. His plan for me is to prosper me. He only has good in store for me. No one else will ever care for me like Him. He loves me way more than I love myself.

I have been preaching this for thirty-seven years now. I am as excited today as I was the first day I had this revelation. My salvation is complete in Him.

Permalink Reply by RoyW on April 29, 2011 at 4:26am

I am the knave.

Permalink Reply by RoyW on April 29, 2011 at 5:33am

He said it well.

Amanda, you are a strong candidate to become a believer in the strong interpretations of the doctrines of His grace. When I read that we were chosen before the foundations of this earth, I jump at the strong implication of what that is saying. I was a very strong-willed child and sometimes those children suffer from not feeling loved. I was also convinced that God didn't love me either. When these kinds of verses came alive to me my heart leaped within me. For a short time I struggled for the literal interpretations of passages like Romans 9-11 spoke against everything I believed. I think I was one of those that God had to force Himself upon in such a way that He was irresistible. Of course, my will gave way to Him. Some will say that I chose Him. I don't argue that much anymore but I know that I was in no position to do much of anything. I was a hopeless lost cause. The only think I could do was to respond in a very positive manner to the ideas of Jacob I loved but Esau I hated. I knew I was the one He loved.

Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on April 27, 2011 at 1:39pm

Ama -

 

>>However quantum physics has taken the veil off another part of the universe, the most important one, the foundation of the universe is rule by what appears to us, as randomness and disorder. All known natural laws to us, up to now, break down and appear to be nonexistent,

 

To us/to some it appears as there is no order, but we know better, we know there is an absolute truth and order. We called Him Abba Father. He holds it all together. The fact that things appear to us to have no order, does not mean they do not. We are unable to grasp the order that is all, for now those things are beyond us and maybe they will always be, or maybe we will laugh at the fact that is all very simple, once God reveals it to us.

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