After reading a newsletter from the Bible Gateway website on free will, a friend asked the question,

“Is it free will that leads me to be a believer and my friend not to believe or has God in essence chosen us to be the way we are?”

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The truth is, you choose to believe in the living God and His son Jesus Christ, and she chooses not to. Period. It is that simple.

God doesn’t choose for you.

Acts 10:34 says that God is no respecter of persons. If God chose you to believe and me not to believe then He would be a respecter of persons, placing more value on your life then on mine. But that is simply not true. God doesn’t want any more or less for you than He wants for me. God never exalts one person above another. But the Devil wants us to think He does.

Remember these statements you read from the Free Will article, “The Calvinist holds that all human beings desire to flee from God unless and until the Holy Spirit performs a work of regeneration. That regeneration changes our desires so that we will freely repent and be saved… It is important to note that even the unregenerate are never forced against their will. Their wills are changed without their permission, but they are always free to choose as they will.”

What? Never forced against their will, but their wills are changed without permission? Seriously?

He goes on to write, “Thus we are indeed free to do as we will. We are not free, however, to choose or select our nature.”

Actually, once we are born again, we are free to choose our nature, every moment of every day.

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: [which is the old man nature] but be ye transformed [to the new man nature] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

God gave use free will to either walk in the flesh or to walk in the spirit. Even after I am born again, I can choose which god to serve, the god of this world, mentioned in 2 Corinthians 4:4, or the living God and Father of our savior the Lord Jesus Christ. It has always been a choice of allegiance.

Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

The true and living God’s heart is to have all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4)

In contrast to that, the thief, who is the god of this world, the Devil, goes around blinding the minds of them that believe not, “lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Here is a promise,

Mat 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Some people just doesn’t hunger and thirst very long, or they get robbed. They may have desired to know the Living God at one time, they may have even walked with Him and talked with Him, but for reasons they may not even know, they lost their desire to fellowship with God and allowed pride and prejudice to blind their minds.

Mark 4:2-9

And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,

Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:

But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.

And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Later when Jesus was alone, “they that were about him with the twelve,” asked him to explained the parable:

Mar 4:14-19

The sower soweth the word.

And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;

And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.

And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,

And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

We choose to hold fast when Satan comes and tries to take the Word away from us. We choose to trust in the Living God when affliction or persecution arise in our lives, rather than be offended and walk away. We decide whether we allow the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches to choke the word from our hearts. We are free to trust in the living God and allow Him to be our sufficiency. We choose to be good ground; hearing the Word, receiving it, and bringing forth fruit.

We choose.

2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.