The religious mindset of the religious always attempts to lower almighty God to a lesser god of their own making.
The attempt is the spirit of Antichrist working through the religious to limit the true God to their own idol of a god that they can limit and control by their chosen ideologies.
Such a lesser god created and maintained by the religious is the false gods of free will.
The biggest and the smallest among the religious mouth pieces dominating the airwaves proclaim their undying allegiance to the false god of free will…it is everywhere throughout religion.
The evangelist will openly and repeatedly proclaim that the Father will never violate the free will of His child….is this true?
Acts 9:4
King James Bible
“And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”
One of the most obvious example of the Father violating the free will of His chosen would be Saul who was made Paul.
Saul who had been a well educated zealot of religion had devoted his life to defending religion and oppressing believers and followers of Christ.
It was the Pharisee Saul who consented to the stoning death of Stephan and even healed the coats of his executioners during his murder.
NOW THE OBVIOUS QUESTION:
Was it Saul’s will to leave his high position as Saul and become the Apostle Paul?
Let’s examine the scriptural evidence.
We see in the story of Saul being converted to Paul a dramatic chain of events taking place.
Saul was blinded by light from God and caused to fall from his horse as he was enroute to persecute more believers.
Was this Saul’s will?
Then the obvious violation of Saul’s will continues:
The religious zealot Saul was made blind until he was healed at the hand of the believer God sent him to.
Was it Saul’s will to be made blind?
So we see that Saul’s will was totally violated by God for His purposes.
Saul the murderer of Christ’s followers was converted to the Apostle Paul who would become a follower of Christ against his will.
The conversion would eventually change the will of the pre Christ Saul into the converted will of the post Christ Paul… but Saul’s will has been totally violated.
Scripture is filled with examples of the violation of the human will by the Father, He is not less than almighty.
Elijah had been beaten down by depression and had the will to die. God the Father violated Elijah’s will by causing a falling fruit to awaken Elijah.
In other cases we see God using the will of man to fulfill His long term purposes, not Acquiescing to the will of man, but using it for His own specific purposes.
Such a case would be when God hardened pharaoh’s heart.
God solidified the intents and purposes of pharaoh and actually caused it to happen for his own long-term purposes, God fulfilled pharaohs hidden hearts desires.
God is not subject to the will of man or He would be less than almighty.
Then this brings us to ourselves as individual believers. What will the Father do perfect His erring child and convert them?
The answer is simply; whatever it takes.
We might be subject to being awakened from resting in depression by a falling fruit, or knocked off of our religious horses and made blind for a season….whatever it takes.
The foolishness of man made religion teaches us that the Holy Spirit is a gentle thing and easily frightened, this is also untrue.
John 16:7-8
King James Bible
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Have you ever undergone conviction?
If you answered Yes then you realize that conviction leading to correction is not pleasurable but quite heart rendering.
Conviction itself is intrusive on the part of the Holy Spirit meddling in our personal lives and pointing to our sinful tendencies leading to repentance and correction.
Is the Holy Spirit gentle Yes when gentleness is called for, but quite intrusive when confrontation is needed.
We see the true Father vs the religious idol man has created which is subject to his feelings…the Father will break our hearts to heal us…the simple truth.
The Father loved His prodigal son dearly but sat aside His emotional pain and allowed the prodigal to reap the consequences of his foolish decisions…doesn’t seem too loving huh?
The Father had the resources to seek out the missing prodigal and provide for him, but refused to…why?
Because our Father has His perspective not our human perspective. Our Father knows the end of the story.
If God’s ways have never seemed cruel to you, you probably have no connection with the true God, but the false religious idol.
God’s sending the fish to swallow an erring Jonah was not nice and Jonah suffered in the flesh….but was ultimately restored.
Good certainly violated Jonah’s free will big time…did He not?
God’s ways are not man’s ways, so religious man simply recreates another version of his idol of God which is idolatry in our modern times.
The plastic smiles on the faces of the religious mouthpieces of the present day religious industry strive to maintain membership and financial growth, so they supply the compromiser with the idol they demand.
So, the heart of the true child of God isn’t seeking out a more emotionally pleasing version of god but will only settle for the real Father who will corset and direct His children walking the wrong pathway.
IF your religious version of God is subject to your will He is the religious idol and not Almighty God….but a cheap man created idol.
Conviction that leads to repentance is a total violation of the human will, and it comes directly from the hand of God to correct his child.
Leave man-made religion and return to the body of Christ.