What Do You Want? | Chapter Four

The Father enjoys it when we ask from Him. He is never bothered or burden with our asking. We don’t need formulas, methods or vain repetitions to prayer. The heart of prayer is prayer from the heart!

The Father enjoys answering what we ask for in prayer. He enjoys showing off His goodness to His kids! Think about it, what father would tell his children that they are not allowed to have dreams or plans?

What if a father told his child that he must sacrifice his dreams and plans and do his father's dreams and plans instead? That would be more of a slave master. Instead, a good father will nurture, encourage, develop and help bring out the child's desires rather than suppressing it. 

To kill the will of a child is to kill the life of the child. There is no life in a slave because they have emptied themselves of their will. A good father forms his child into a unique person with an extraordinary vision and calling. 

In my early days as a Christian I assumed I was super spiritual because I sacrificed and gave up my will aggressively. I considered that denying my will was a tremendous commitment on my part. I was so prideful to think"No one gave it all as I did". 

Unfortunately, all I did was create psychological damage to mind. When I suppressed my will, I was subjected to deception, manipulation and being controlled by others. I thought following the will of God meant to sacrifice my desires to the degree that God would control every part of my being such as words, thoughts, emotions and body like a puppet. I believed this made me super-spiritual but I was merely being super-deceived. I was only manifesting lots of religious flesh. 

I used to pray all the time, "Lord, take my life, take all of me!" Then one day, the Father spoke to my heart and said, "Why do you pray that? Every time you pray that you declare I don't already have your life." The Holy Spirit is not a slave master wanting to control our every move! Our will is full of the Holy Spirit. Let's live free and walk in it. 

The Holy Spirit Works Through Our Will

Through the work of the cross, your desires are His desires and His desires are your desires. In other words, what you want to do is what He wants to do. Why? Because when we were saved our will has now become one with His. As a result of this unity, your own desires are His desires. Your will has been redeemed and free. I am not describing freedom of our will apart from Him but unified with Him. My question for those who don't know the Father's will for your life, what do you want to do? Don't be afraid to tap into that. Do you desire to be a Pastor, Evangelist, Missionary or an Entrepreneur? Do you desire to minister to children or some other call of God in your life? 

The kingdom of God is in us; it's time to free it! Your will is not evil or constantly against God's will. If so, we got a poor and powerless salvation! That is how a slave thinks. We must believe that Jesus redeemed this area of our lives.

When I had a slave mentality I used to ask God to take control of my life and will. I thought this type of prayer was normal but the Father will not control His children like that. A child gets to enjoy and use their will. Imagine a father telling his child everyday, "I want you to give up your will, visions and dreams.

Although this may be how many of us understand God, this is not who He is. He leads us like a shepherd not like a horse. A horse must be broken regularly and submit to its owner controlling its every action. One of the best parts of being born again is receiving a new will, desires, dreams and visions. How does the Spirit lead us? One of the greek translations of the word "lead" is to "bring forth." It's time we release and bring forth our will, desires and visions. A slave master would condemn this, but never our Father. Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

How To Manifest Our Desires

Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to Will and to do for His good pleasure.

In the verse above it explains how to manifest our desires. It's by working out what God works in us. If our desires are suppressed it's impossible to work out what God has worked inside of us. If we want to manifest our vision, such as a business or ministry it comes by the Holy Spirit working in and through our new will. To deny our will is to kill our womb for visions to be born in. It's not humility to give up our will it's a hindrance to our relationship with the Father. It's like building a dam in a river to help it flow better. This is old covenant not new covenant thinking.

 Let's look at another part in this verse, Philippians 2:13 "for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." The word "both" in greek translates into "connection". The words, “will and work” are connected in this verse, not separated. If we want something desperate enough, the energy to do it is associated with it. I never experienced or observed anyone who wanted something desperately enough that did not have the action to go along with it. If we lack motivation in our will we have trouble with the action to make it happen. Since a slave's will is condemned, they lack the strength to perform what's in their hearts. 

Whenever we buy chocolate, my wife and I always have to hide it from our kids. But they seem to always find it no matter where we put it. I have seen them climb cabinets and create unique ways to get to the chocolate. How did they do this? It's through their energetic will. If the will is taken from a child, their life and energy are also taken. The energy of a child is their desires. When the will is lost, we end up living as slaves.

Because a slave has no will, they must rely on another source of strength to motivate them. Their motivation is usually fear, punishment, threats or rewards manifested by religious flesh. Unfortunately, a slave master motivates their slave the same way. This is one of the worst places to be. We do lots of work but it's never from our desires but self-sacrificial flesh.

Can we really trust our will? What about the verse in Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?

The problem with our understanding of this verse is we fail to understand the new covenant. It’s not referring to a born-again Christian. It's referring to an unbeliever's heart that has not been born again. The good news is when we are born again, the opposite effect applies to us. Because of the cross, the heart is no longer deceitful and wicked but truthful and righteous. Ezekiel 36:26 "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

Because of the work of the Holy Spirit we can now trust and follow our hearts.

What About Our Evil Thoughts And Desires?

We still wrestle with evil thoughts and desires but that is the result from an unrenewed mind, not because of an evil heart. 1 John 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

 In greek the phrase "Whoever has been born of God does not sin," means that anyone born of God does not abide in sin. John is referring to something more deeper than practicing sinful acts. Before we were saved, we were abiding into Adam(sin). This sinful will and passion drove us to sin. No matter how much we try as an unbeliever we have no desire for righteousness.

Likewise, when we abide in the second Adam who is Christ, our will becomes one with His. In the first Adam our will cannot identify with righteousness; likewise, our new will cannot identify with sin. Why? Because our born-again heart cannot sin because God's seed abides in us. Who is God's seed? It's the Spirit of Christ and we know the Holy Spirit does not desire sin. So why do we still sin? Under the New Covenant if we sin, it's a condition of the mind, not the heart. If it’s a condition of the heart, sinning would not bother us. The reason sin bothers us is because our new heart always pulls us back to who we are, which is a born again child of God. 

Think about it: why would God give us a new heart that has a passion for sin? These evil desires come from our minds. 

The very purpose of a new heart is to have a desire for righteousness. To walk as children of God we need to renew our minds. Romans 12:2 "do not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." James 1:21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls(mind). 

Transferring Slave Rights

Romans 6:18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness 

Romans 6:22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

Why do these verses mention us becoming slaves of God? Is salvation a trading of slaves? Are we once a slave of the devil and now a slave of God? Is not salvation better than this to only go from a bad to a good slave master? If we misinterpret these verses above, we will go from a slave master of sin to a greater slave master of self-righteous religion. Prisoners can go from a bad prison to a good one but they are still prisoners. We do not want to go from a depressed sinner to a depressed Christian. Our Father does not want to create slaves without a will. What was Paul talking about being a slave of righteousness and of God? 

What do we do with this because many of the other clear scriptures mention that we are a child of God? Many believe that we relate to God as both, but it's impossible to be both. 

It's destructive to mix both being a child of God and a slave of God. We end up believing that instead of being a slave to a slave master, we are a slave to the Father. To mix these two as our identities, we have a worse perspective of God. We will see God the Father as a child abuser ready to punish and beat His slave child. Why did Paul mention being a slave of God? Paul was becoming all things to all people to win them to Christ! (1 Corinthians 9:19-22 ) 

Paul was connecting to people who had a slave mentality. He was getting on their level of thinking to reach them with the good news. Why? Because they had a slave mentality. 

Two chapters later in the book of Romans, we can observe Paul pulling them up to His level now. Romans 8:14-15 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God; these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." 

Paul connected to them on their level of being a slave of righteousness so he could pull them up to His level of being a Child of God. 

He wanted to transition them from a slave of God to a child of God. To prove this was true, notice what Paul said after he called them the slaves of God in the next verse. Romans 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 

Paul mentions in the verse above, “I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations”. It’s very clear what Paul was doing. Because their understanding was limited he spoke their language and connected to their thinking. At the time all they could handle was being a slave of God; they were not ready to believe they could be a child of God. Sometimes people can only handle the milk of the word but not meat.

1 Corinthians 3:2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able