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YHWH and Free Will go hand in hand. Despite how simple the concept of free will appears to be; it is a tougher concept than we give it credit for. To begin this conversation we need to ask the Father for a strong definition of the term:
Free will:
Free will is the ability to decide who and what you want to guide your life and your decision making options that ultimately strengthen your resolve to walk with Christ or weaken it.
What do you say we put this definition to the test? What happens when people are put in control? Well, to answer this we need to look at some of the rulers of yester year.
Non-Biblical and Biblical Leaders
Pharaoh
Pharaoh put the Israelites into slavery and forced them to work long grueling hours with minimal rest. The children of Israel, cried out to Yahweh day after day and night after night. They had their children taken away from them and when they fell ill they were punished and forced to work harder. As slaves the right to choose their own path and life was taken away.
The German Work Party
The German Work Party was the force behind Hitler. They structured the Nazi regime and set the path for the takeover of Germany. Hitler, who was charismatic in nature, proved to be a great figurehead. In exchange for his work with the German Work Party; he was afforded regular visits to the ballet. Together the two created dissension between the country. By preaching messages of hatred, the German work party demonized the Jews and made them the most hated group of people in Germany.
Slave Trade
During the slave trade, Europeans would go into Africa and strike deals with larger tribes promising riches and protection. Those tribes would then go and conquer the smaller groups and send them off with the Europeans. On the next trip the Europeans would return to overthrow the previous tribe. Capture them and turn them into slaves. Prior to setting sail, the slaves were shackled and lowered into transport compartments on the ship and set off for the slave blocks where they were sold as chattel.
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
During the time of WWII the Japanese flew over to the USA and dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. As a result of these actions, the US decided to imprison all those of Japanese origins in internment camps.
Mexican Imprisonment
In the mid 2000’s a US president decided that anyone originating from the country of Mexico were rapists and murders. As a result, if anyone in the country did not have US citizenship they were put into prisons and left at the border until they were returned to their country of origin. During this time, families were separated kids were put into the foster care system and larger problems ensued.
These are just a few of the times people have had their Free will snatched away from them. For the most part we stuck with wars, but even within the religious community this has happened too. In fact, it is the reason so many people are anti-religion. The beauty of Jesus is he’s not a religion but we’ll talk about that in another blog. Let’s talk about religion.
The greatest struggle of religion is the number of religious leaders who love what’s on the Master’s table but they don’t now nor have they ever loved the master. Even though this group of people is the minority among religious leaders, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil the bunch. So what happened here?
Well, the answer is simple, churches rarely have “benevolence funds” any more. If you find yourself in a place where you are needing assistance there are only a few churches who will help and if they are willing to help it is usually that they are willing to help those who are members of their congregation, which is anti-bible. Jesus did not only help those who were able to help them. But that is something churches have turned to. Part of the reason for this, is that the needs of people have become so great they could go bankrupt trying to meet the needs of communities.
Pastors preach messages without going back to the original text and getting proper translations for what they are speaking. There is a person of influence who was telling the story of their decision to leave the church. They said, when the pastor said “God is a Jealous God.” That didn’t sit well with this person and that was the last time they went into a church. Sadly, when we don’t study the word we lose sight of what the word is saying. God is a Zealous God but He has a right to be. He created everything that you see. Why would he want to share His glory. Take one of us and let someone else take credit for a project we did. How angry do we get?
So the question now becomes what does all of this mean in the scope of YHWH and Free Will. To really understand how YHWH and Free Will work we have to look at what it looks like when it is being taken away.
Leaders and abusers have learned the secret that we will discuss today. Looking at all the examples we used there are some things we want to see:
- Security is removed.
Security equates to a stable home. That place where you can go and shut out the world and are free to be yourself. When our home is disrupted life almost instantly becomes unbearable. The first thing all the above groups did was take away and individual’s home so they were no longer empowered to stand on their own two feet.
- Money
One of the greatest ways to impact a person’s ability to survive is to remove from them all financial resources. Once money is gone a person’s options become severely limited. This creates a terror in people and often times will cause them to freeze not sure how to move forward. Many times the individuals will choose to stay in horrific circumstance because they don’t have the financial means to make it on their own.
- Resources
Resources cover multiple areas but we are going to focus on credit and options. Destroy ones credit and doors slam shut. In a time when everything is so heavily based on an arbitrary number this is something that can leave people stuck. In the above example, we separated families, which is the greatest wealth a person can ever have. If someone, threatens a person’s family it will cause them to recoil and change behavior with the hope of saving the family members.
- Division
Dividing groups is the best way to ensure one can successfully control the behavior of individuals. In all the examples above we see that division was a primary way in which people successfully took over groups to separate countries and put people on opposing sides.
In all of these examples, there is one thing they all have in common; YHWH and Free Will were removed! No choice. Brutally snatched from their homeland and all they knew; slavery and incarceration alters a persons world completely! Today, in 2019, people are sneakier. Now, they don’t outwardly take away your ability to choose instead they manipulate it. Life has metamorphosed to the place where everything we do is for your “Peace and security”. That should scare you.
Let’s look at something, most of you have some form of a smart phone, that phone runs off apps those apps update themselves and collect information on you and then send it somewhere into space. If one were to take the time to read the terms and conditions of every app it would make you want to run. Instead we have decided we want to use the apps and like the convenience so we aren’t going to worry about it. Now, we no longer, have our will forcefully taken we have our will manipulated. Both are equally as bad in the eyes of YHWH.
No one has the right to take away your right to choose the kind of life you want. No one! Every day you wake up you should have the freedom to wake up and decide what you are going to do with that particular day. How will you change the world on this day? The reason God asks us to choose his son Jesus the Christ is because, in the midst of the craziness of our world, we still get to make that choice. It won’t come without a cost, but the cost we pay will reap larger dividends in the end than choosing to serve the world.
The world finds ways to take our money, resources, security and to divide our families. Whether it be an attachment to electronic devices or preventing families from spending time together. Fewer and fewer people choose to read books because they can have someone read to them through audio books. This utilizes a different part of the brain and results in a hindered society.
What YHWH comes to teach us; is how to exercise our free will despite the boundaries of the world. For those who choose to trust Him and his guidance YHWH makes promises of blessings. He tells you everything you do will be prosperous, He rebukes the devour for you. Remember, it is because of our free will we can serve Him. YHWH doesn’t for any reason feel the need to lie to us. Our problems come in that we expect everything to come yesterday and when it doesn’t we quit.
Why do we quit? Simple, we want everything yesterday! It things don’t come quickly it can’t be. Don’t forget the old adage “Good things come to those who wait.” This is not about feelings. It is about what God does. One of the challenges our world is facing today is feelings. So many of the people, movies, shows and conversation topics is about how something feels. The fact is, serving YHWH, doesn’t always “feel” good. Sometimes it “feels” terrible! Free will is about a choice. It is about choosing to follow YHWH even when it doesn’t “feel” good.
Jesus says, I came so you could have life more abundantly. Many have made the mistake of thinking that means financial, but that is not always the case. There are numerous examples where money was the response to that abundant life. However, there are equally as many examples where returning someone to good health was the example.
When you let YHWH lead the way there is no telling what way he is going to do it. That is part of the fun. Its understanding, that no matter how big we as individuals can dream, YHWH can always dream bigger than we can. For as much creativity as we have YHWH always has more creativity. The abundant life is really more of a gift of surrender and using YOUR free will to wake up every day and say “Father, what do you have for me to do today,” then excitedly walking out your door and seeing where He takes you.
So what stops us? Fear. What if’s? I want’s, we stop us. What we want you to understand is this, it doesn’t matter what you think, “you’re going to serve somebody…it may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you’re going to have to serve somebody” why would you want your life to service someone who can’t back up what they sell?
See you later, Gator!
