Free Will

Often as a Christian, I am asked “How does a God that has a plan for you factor in free will?” and I wouldn’t know the answer to that, but today, as I was contemplating something else, the answer donned on me.

Currently, I am in the process of job hunting, and as you would expect, I am “leaving much of it up to God”. Now how does one go about doing that? Personally, I have sought God’s will for me over the years, and I know it is to provide the best education for the least privileged, and it’s been a desire that He’s put on my heart for quite some time. So I would do my best in doing my job search and application process, guided by this desire. And then, when I receive offers, I will pray about it, and if there is peace in my heart at the end of the praying process, I would accept the offer.

This is pretty much the process I take when making every life decision, for example, what type of girl would I date, whether to date at all, where should I go to study, etc. At different times, God gives us a different desire to guide us through life. You can fight this desire and choose to do things your way, but  Scripture has promised, only those who are willing to listen will hear. (Mark 4:9) So, if you persist in choosing your own path, you will gradually hear less of God’s voice, and hence lose the desire to do things His way. But He’ll be there when you choose to come back.

In essence, God’s will and free will work together under 3 premises:

1. He gives you a desire to do what He knows is good for you.

2. He allows your choice in the matter, and allows preferences.

3. He does not force your hand, as He does not micro-manage (with the exception of when you’ve asked for intervention)

What’s amazing is the simplicity of the matter. By giving us a grand, persistent desire to do good, He doesn’t need to micromanage, and no matter what we choose in response to this desire would be good enough for Him to work with. This desire is as strong and weak as we allow it to be, and we have complete free will to desire the opposite of what He desires.

I am still working out the implications of this in my life, but I am fully confident to see where this desire leads me, with peace knowing that I won’t accidentally step off the path if I’m not careful. 

How prayers work

When miracles happen, I love tracing back to when I first prayed for them, and see how God works with prayers. Often times, I find that the time that God started working on it is even before I got the idea to pray for it, and the answer tends to come in such a way that makes me think that He said "Yes" to every single prayer I made on the subject, and with each the blessing multiplied. 

Which is why when you look at prayer on the macro-scale, everything you see happening in ministry now is rolled back to prayers being made 50-100 years ago, and it’s just starting to take effect. And the extent of His planning and careful ministry is incredible to make it all work. Starting with the desires that He puts in our hearts, to the prayers that we pray and the visions that He calls to us to intercede with, to the faith that we gain as we watch Him fulfil His promises. 

This is why, when people ask me “Why is God not putting me into the field right now?” that I can calmly say to them, “Be still and know that [He] is God. He has an extensive plan for each and every one of us, and while we are picking up the skills for Him to fully use us in ministry, there are people that He has already prepared going the ways that our desires are bursting towards. We will, in turn, continue that wave, but at His will, in His ways, at His timing.”