How can I exercise my free will if my choice is influenced by God or by Evil?

Answer 1

you can't. you have to let your will be God's will. I pray every day that I want my will to be the same as His and it has helped me cope with situations a lot better. I realize that, even if it is something negative that happens in my day, it is God's will, and then I can accept it and know that it is ultimately part of His plan.

Answer 2

We need to 'form our consciences' in things and then the influences are balanced and we are not so confused. Just like we learn about nutrition and what foods are good for you and what foods are not... then... when we choose what to eat we will choose better and not just give in to what tastes best, like candy.

Some cartoons used to picture this struggle by drawing an angel over one shoulder and a devil on the other shoulder, both trying to persuade the person.

We have so many influences in our lives.... peer pressure, tv commercials, political propaganda, and then our own tendencies toward greed, laziness, selfishness. Yet we do manage to make choices, even if sometimes they are confused and mistaken.

Answer 3

You ask how can you exercise your free will----it all depends in what or whom you allow to influence your free will---drugs, peer pressure, money, God or the devil. Remeber that the flesh is weak and if your spiritual man is weak your free will will than seek to lead you astray. Yet if your spirit man is strong it will lead you on the right path. If you are a wishy-washy Christian than free will is influenced by your weaknesses and the influence (power over you) by others.

Answer 4

I liked how you typed "God" or "Evil"; you're so close.

In the bible we see two laws: The law of Sin and Death which gets its power from the written law.

Romans 7:7 "What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I did not know sin except through the law, for neither did I know coveting, except the law had said, "You shall not covet".

We are all vessles designed and created to contain God. As you read the word of God, the words become life and they get into your being and start to change you.

If we are not being filled by God, we are being filled by other things. This is our free choice of Evil. (More specifically Good AND Evil as they are part of the same tree) Yes, even good can be out of ourselves, not of God.

Romans 7:6 "But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter."

Since Jesus came and died for us to give us grace and bring the comforter, we have another law. The law of the Spirit of life.

Romans 8:2 "For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death".

Finally, here's my point:

The Lord is tripartite and we are tripartite. You have a body, soul and a spirit. The part of yourself which contains your will is in the soul. (mind, emotion and will) One component of your spirit is your conscience.

If you are dead to your spirit, then your conscience will be dead as well. The consequence of having a dead spirit is that it is inevitable that your will will choose the things not of God. Your conscience being too dead to bother you about your choice. You will never be satisfied with human love, money, material things. You will always need more, More, MORE!

If you are regenerated in your spirit, then you have been setting your mind on the things of the Spirit and not on the things of flesh. Spontaneously, you'll be using your free will to choose God. You will always feel life, peace and satisfaction.

Our situations are arranged. But, for the purpose of turnig us to him. God needs us to need Him. What better way to have us pray than a compromising situation?

Remember Jacob? Maybe reading Romans would be helpful to you too. Paul writes much in that book regarding these two laws.

Answer 5

We can be influenced by any number of things, it's how we choose to react to it that exercises our free will.

We are the authors of our own experiences, via God's gift of free will and hence, the universal law of attraction.

The universal law of attraction maintains that the vibrations we emit into the world via our conscious or unconscious beliefs, thoughts, emotions, words (written and verbal) and actions, and whether they are positive or negative, love-based or fear-based, lead to the events that we experience in return, in one form or another.

These vibrations occur singly, by individuals and collectively, by societies and cultures.

Humanity's collective vibrations of fear and hatred lead to disasters, natural or unnatural, including war and terrorism, disease, pestilence, starvation etc. etc.

God gives free will and does not revoke or interfere with it, so it is a gift with a double-edged sword, so to speak. Once given, it is our responsibility. Not God's.

Answer 6

If you are faced with a moral dilemma such as- I have a family of four that I need to feed but I also want to go to Vegas and gamble all my money away. You have a choice, you can do it or you can go and buy the groceries that your family of four need to survive. Now, if you didn't have free will, there would be no choice, you would feed your family of four.

Answer 7

Because you can either choose this or that, God is only a guidence, you're the one that makes the final decision, not God or evil. Unless you're a crazy person.

Answer 8

Whatever we do is our choice, if God say yes, and evil say no, then it's us who decide. That is our free will!

Answer 9

By only following god of course! You have the free will to choose god, or eternal punishment! your choices are AWESOME!

Answer 10

Be like all other religious sh1twhores, whatever is nice, honest, and polite - just do the opposite and say you're following the bible. That way, you can do anything you want and be completely guilt free.