Before we were born, before the foundations of the earth were laid, and before time even was, we were with God. We are not here on earth by accident or by God’s cruel intentions. We are not just lost and waiting for someone to come save us. We are spirits, created by by God; but God did not create our spirits at the moment of conception. He created our spirits and prepared us beforehand to come here to the earth to fulfill the plans He has for each of us. He chose each of us according to His will to walk with Him here on this earth and have a depth of intimacy that is only possible in this earthly tent.
As a human, we not only have a spirit, but we have a soul. Our soul consists of our bodies, minds and emotions. Our soul gives us new ways to experience life. We have access to a great depth of feelings such as love and joy, and we also have senses so we can experience pleasure and passion. These are all wonderful gifts from God that help us to understand who He is and to know Him better. We can use our bodies and minds to know God, to experience Him, to worship Him and to partner with Him. That is so much more than we could do if we were only a spirit. What a wonderful gift God has given us by giving us this life!
We have such a rich and wonderful experience prepared for us by God, gifted through the earth, all creation, our souls, relationships, and so much more. These are all things that God intended to be good and pure, just as they first were when God created everything. Adam and Eve had the pinnacle of what God purposed for us, but it was through sin and evil that they fell far away from our original design. In order to truly experience and know God, He had to gift us with free will. Love is being surrendered and vulnerable, and in order to really experience God’s love fully, He needed for us to decide to choose Him first.
Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.
Isaiah 43:7
For some, free will seems more like a curse than a blessing. They see that they have made mistake after mistake in their lives and they want nothing more than to surrender their free will completely to God, in order to be “better” or “good”. Yet it isn’t our free will that needs to be surrendered to find God, but our hearts. Our hearts are the filter in which we see and experience the world around us, including God. So when we hold back our hearts from God, we will find that struggle to have intimacy and knowledge of Him difficult.
Love does not control, nor does it hate, but because we partnered with sin in the Garden, we have allowed our worldviews to be tainted by these things. We no longer see things through the eyes of innocence and truth, but we are jaded by the evil on the world instead. We have allowed our senses to be overcome with pain and our bodies to be numbed so we no longer have to feel that pain. We have filled our minds with lies of the devil and allowed him to penetrate into that sacred place that was to be holy for God: our hearts.
The devil has one purpose, and that is to steal us from God. He has our entire lifetime here to do his dirty work and convince us that everything we should know about God is in fact all lies. Just like in the Garden, when Adam and Eve allowed the devil to convince them into believing what they knew of God was a lie, and what Satan offered was so much sweeter. They accepted that lie and paid the highest price of all: alignment with the devil and his will and plan for them.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:12
The devil has held us captive for thousands of years. We have strayed so far away from the truth of who we are and who God created us to be, that many Christians live in fear daily. They fear sin, the devil, evil, death, judgement and condemnation, and even fear if they are truly saved. Meanwhile the devil is sitting back laughing because he thinks he has really succeeded in his plan to destroy our knowledge of the Truth of God.
God did not just create us and leave us here on earth with the devil. What kind of loving Father would place His children in a world full of evil, run by the devil, with only the hope that maybe they will accept Jesus and go to heaven. What kind of plan does that sounds like for the Ultimate Creator and Almighty God? Sounds like a slick deception if you ask me. No. This brings me back to the truth that God created us before time began as spirit, and gifted us with bodies on this earth. We are already spirit who knows God and we already have that hope built up inside of us. So that no matter what deceptions the devil has up his sleeve, we still have an unshakable connection with God that can never be destroyed. Except by the fires of hell.
The ultimate battle here on earth is for our free will. The devil has come to steal, kill and destroy, but God has come to offer us life. A life that is aligning our free will, with the will of the Father. When Jesus came to earth, He laid down all of His glory and power so that He could become like us. He submitted His will to the will of the Father. Jesus could have at any given moment said “I’m done with this” and went back to His throne in heaven. Yet He continued to pour out His life like a drink offering, all the way to the cross.
And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Mark 14:35-36
We see how difficult it is for us to lay down our lives and free will to God, but imagine how much harder it was for God in the flesh to lay down all of His power to become nothing. And He did all of this for us. Not only to give us a free ticket to salvation, but also to model His life in a way that we can now emulate. All glory and honor goes to the Father when we lay down our free will and align it with the will of the Father. And that glory flows through us like water, filling up every place that our feet take us in this life. It is the highest honor any person can be crowned with.
The devil may have done a mighty job in your life to turn your free will away from the Father and towards the Father of Lies, but that does not mean a thing to our God. He is so much greater and stronger than any of the evil that has been perpetrated on you in your life. He is going to take every bit of it and use it for your good. He is going to use to enhance your journey into walking out the call He has over your life. All you have to do is begin by agreeing with who He is. He is good.
Let God’s goodness wash over you right now. Let His love envelope you, to the very core of who you are. Allow the Father to take you back to the place before time where you can remember being with Him, in His arms. His love is pure and holy, washing over you with His loving embrace. Begin to let Him show you who He created you to be, and align your heart back to His.
God is not angry with any one of us for walking away from Him. He is not even hurt. He understands why we do what we do, and all of the choices that we have made, even more than we understand them. He is waiting to help us gain insight into our choices and reasons for not surrendering our hearts fully, and to bring us freedom. We are His, and He is ours. Forever. It is time to take back what has been stolen, and bring it before the Father for restoration. He is saying, ‘come home.’
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Luke 15:20