Choices

All of us who have been sealed into the body of Christ wants God to be pleased with the decisions that we make, but God has given us the freedom to make our own choices. God want us to apply scripture, where scripture can be applied, and where no scriptural principle can be applied, to make the choices that we desire and then take responsibility for choices we made. If we cannot find doctrine in Paul’s epistles directly related to our situation and there are no scriptural principles we can find to apply, then God has given us the freedom to personal preference. When it comes to directing our lives, God need not say anything further, he has already dispensed all of his word to us, and in that word that he has completed for us, are all that we need to know to make the choices we have to make in this age of grace, and he has dispensed that information liberally! If God has to give anyone a sign in connection with the direction, or course that someone should take, then God’s word to us is NOT complete, and we must pray and wait for God to speak further truth that he has not revealed in his written word. The fact is that God does not speak through the avenue of feelings, nor does he give visual evidences through the use of signs as he did with the nation Israel in time past; God speaks through the avenue of his written word and the apostle Paul tells us that his word to us is complete.

Israel walked by sight, that was part of the contract, the contract God established with the nation Israel called The Law. In that contract, God said he would deal with Israel according to things they could look at, so God dealt with the nation according to signs. For we walk by faith, not by sight, is a clear statement from Paul how we walk today. For those of us who understand what Paul wrote, this is sufficient, we stop looking for things. Paul also warned as this age of grace winds to a close, that those who allow emotion to trump doctrine, that this would be the character of the religiously minded. When Pauline truth is rejected, we can be certain that a position is being governed by emotion, emotion trumps doctrine in most people’s minds, and religion is about working on the emotional minds of people. In our discussion with people who insist upon maintaining a previously adopted position, rather than to allow Pauline truth to be the determining factor of the position that they take, be careful not to allow the manner in which we conduct our ambassadorship to slide to the level of strive. Adam thought he could be righteous before God through the fig-leaf religion that he developed, and he was going to have his fingerprints on his righteousness, and God said, no, and God clothed Adam with the skins of God’s sacrifice. Unless people believe Christ accomplished something where their sins are concerned when Christ died for those sins, Paul’s gospel is hidden to them. Satan’s ministers of righteousness are busy at work within the righteous structure called “religion” in order to keep the meaning of Paul’s gospel hidden, to keep people’s eyes blinded to the truth of what Christ really accomplished. Understanding our completeness IN Christ should motivate us to make wise choices.

God’s Reconciliation of Man, read more about it at godsreconciliation.blogspot.com...

reply to post by newnature

This might be summed up very briefly in Paul's words;
"We [now] serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit". Romans ch7 v6

Im not quite sure the direction or full understanding of the first post.
Does God communicate with us?
Are you saying that God has given us all the signs or information required to live his way? Does God even have a way?


Choice for me is a important, free will or not. Given by god or controlled. Good or bad choices.
Its one of the things that points to a creator or purpose because of its simplicity and importance to a life, spiritual and more.

I feel we shall never know what gods really wants we can only look for the good and try choose that?

guidetube
Im not quite sure the direction or full understanding of the first post.
Does God communicate with us?
Are you saying that God has given us all the signs or information required to live his way? Does God even have a way?


Choice for me is a important, free will or not. Given by god or controlled. Good or bad choices.
Its one of the things that points to a creator or purpose because of its simplicity and importance to a life, spiritual and more.

I feel we shall never know what gods really wants we can only look for the good and try choose that?

Yes, God does communicate with us in various different ways. It is our choice to listen or look. You don't have to serve God, but if you don't serve God willingly, the converse is that you are serving either yourself (flesh), addictions, spiritual forces that are not good, or a host of many things.

When you serve yourself (flesh), you aren't just serving the physical for altruistic purposes. You might feed your physical body, but at the same time are you feeding it in a non-healthy or selfish manner? You might serve the physical flesh in many other ways, seek sexual relationships because you feel that sexual action is simply part of the biological process. That's not altruistic, because if it is solely for your benefit to alleviate the desire of your own flesh, then it has no regard for the person you are with. Relationships are not for the physical,but for the psychological. And when relationships become toxic because psychologically one is serving the mental conditions of narcissism or codependency, then those are also very selfish and manipulative.

So we don't really have free will if we are having to assuage what we call biological processes. We then are subject to having to fulfill that. This follows with addiction, it is very evident that addictions have no free will, once the person becomes addicted. They had the free will in the beginning to not drink or not smoke or take drugs or whatever their addiction is. So therefore, free will is not found in addictions, which by the way are also attempts to assuage the biological processes. The body or mind is addicted.

Spiritual forces are all around us, as the human being is a spirit wrapped in flesh, anything that causes emotions to arise, what is in essence who we are, our personalities, memories, passions, everything, is spiritual. So giving in to those things that exacerbate any negative emotion in us, we are then subject to and free will is taken away. Even memory we are subject to, try as we might to suppress them, the impact of the original event is with us and we remember them, along with the negative feelings associated with them. You then have no free will in that regard.

Making choices to do good or bad isn't just that simple. God's laws came with reasons why not to do certain things. Why not commit adultery? We live in a culture that embraces polyamory. While it may seem to be "good" to some people and a "choice", it is not, it still seeks to serve the physical needs of the people involved. While they might appear to be consensual, it is still based in one thing only.

Why not commit adultery, as I asked, and many people ask? Because it serves only the individual and commits a great harm to the spouse. There you go, God has informed us why we should not do certain things, because we are not altruistic creatures. We can become that, but we have to recognize that serving God is more free will, because we have the choice to serve God.