Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

[TMS]

Ultimately you do have free will, for without it you cannot choose to believe, however, once you do believe it seems the two forces are in conflict, and you will have to decide what to surrender to, The Spirit or the Carnal Flesh.

I agree
We are told that it is a battle. War.
We need to serve one side or the other
...
The devil uses our flesh to control the evil side. And God gives us The Spirit, power from above to overcome.

Will power is something that gets stronger or weaker and if we constantly give in to the flesh we become slaves to sin. But we still have hope, God can still save us if we are willing.

2Ti 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

[SirSolaScriptura]

I agree
We are told that it is a battle. War.
We need to serve one side or the other
...
The devil uses our flesh to control the evil side. And God gives us The Spirit, power from above to overcome.

Will power is something that gets stronger or weaker and if we constantly give in to the flesh we become slaves to sin. But we still have hope, God can still save us if we are willing.

2Ti 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

What becomes hard is when your world around you rewards you for the flesh and persecutes you over the Spirit. Our natural inclination is to gravitate to pleasure and flee suffering, however, the Lukewarm is not a group to join (Revelation 3:16).

 

[Genez]

It depends on your definition of a soul

A light bulb and electricity = a shining light.

A body and life from God = a living soul.

God did not put a living soul in us.

We became a living soul.

I will try again.....

The breath of life is not a correct translation.
Its plural = breath of lives.

Translators apparently did not know what to do with it because (unfortunately) they know how to translate words for the most part,
but are not always keen students of learning Bible doctrine .

Just Google the following - " Its plural = breath of lives."

I just did a quick search and found out the following.
They see what it says. But can not figure out why it says it.

Adam received both a soul and human spirit.
That is what made Adam's soul alive! Spiritually alive!

I am in no hurry.

 

[sawdust]

That's what I'm saying... the soul can not exist outside the body.
Our minds are what anables us to think on a higher level to animals.

Our minds and characters and bodies make up our souls, the Spirit of God is a gift we choose to accept or reject.

I think we mostly believe the same thing.

Except the soul does exist outside the body, at least the physical body. God formed Adam's body separate for his person just as He prepared Christ's body separate for His person.

Hebrews 10:5
So when he came into the world, he said, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.


A living soul is one alive within and to space and time. The souls who are no longer here are no longer alive to space and time. They wait, initially in Sheol, then after the Cross, in heaven.

Revelation 6:9
Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given.

Broken bodies do not diminish a person.

 

[sawdust]

It depends on your definition of a soul

A light bulb and electricity = a shining light.

A body and life from God = a living soul.

God did not put a living soul in us.

We became a living soul.

Yes a living soul (living breathing human being) in space and time able to interact with our physical surroundings. We don't stop existing/being when our bodies die. They do not make up a part of the essence of who we are, our bodies enable who we are to be revealed. They are important to us (hence we will get a spiritual body) but they are not us.

 

[LifelongLearner]

Yeah, it's been quite the read! The person with the poop on their shoe doesn't think the stink is coming from themselves.

Right, i was decent enough to give you a final chance, knew it was probably pointless but i have decency you lack. Most of those who posted are definitely just one troll with different ids, very possible it's all of you.

You fell for my bait again, i told you i expected you to flood this post with your tripe to hide the truth i told. However, it's there and thankfully, it's only since Friday i've had to get serious on the post. So, i will present the page numbers to my previous requests for you to desist trolling and request deletion of this post, the CC team will easily be able to see the proof of trolling on this post since Friday.

You rely on flooding posts with tripe to cover my attempts to sort the issue out, my evidence will help make it less onerous for the team.

 

[GWH]

Free Will is complicated for us. In one sphere yes, we have free will in that we can make choices, as Adam and Eve did in the Garden. However, the apostle Paul lends insight that we are governed by two forces, "So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. " (Galatians 5:16-17, NIV). This passage indicates that we will be motivated and steered by either God's Spirit or our own flesh desires (see Galatians 5:19-21).

Ultimately you do have free will, for without it you cannot choose to believe, however, once you do believe it seems the two forces are in conflict, and you will have to decide what to surrender to, The Spirit or the Carnal Flesh.

Actually, I did not realize it until reading your post that the passage indicates that our volition is influenced/called by two forces, which God has given us the ability to want to resist or to cooperate with (called faith, cf. DT 30:19), Thanks!

 

[Genez]

A living soul is one alive within and to space and time. The souls who are no longer here are no longer alive to space and time. They wait, initially in Sheol, then after the Cross, in heaven.

Revelation 6:9
Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given.

The body is God's biological machine designed to enable an immaterial soul to navigate within the material created world.

Those'de-bodied' souls seen in Revelation had full consciousness of who and what they were before their physical
deaths had taken place.

In Heaven, which consists of immaterial realities we can not see physically, those souls could shout out and be heard!



When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain
because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.

They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the
inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe,
and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their
brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been. Revelation 6:9-11


In heaven, those souls were being both seen and heard!

The spiritually dull make themselves to be faithless. They will limit what they should not to their own physical experience.
And, in doing so, make themselves devoid of faith in some area God desires for them to possess faith.


Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

Heb 11:1


The human soul is immaterial and invisible to the eye. Yet, our soul is the very living consciousness of what we are!


No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God
and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. Jn 1:18


God can not be seen!

And? ........

We were created in the image of God!

Our soul is in the image of God!

 

[Kroogz]

The body is God's biological machine designed to enable an immaterial soul to navigate within the material created world.

Those'de-bodied' souls seen in Revelation had full consciousness of who and what they were before their physical
deaths had taken place.

In Heaven, which consists of immaterial realities we can not see physically, those souls could shout out and be heard!



When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain
because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.

They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the
inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe,
and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their
brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been. Revelation 6:9-11


In heaven, those souls were being both seen and heard!

The spiritually dull make themselves to be faithless. They will limit what they should not to their own physical experience.
And, in doing so, make themselves devoid of faith in some area God desires for them to possess faith.


Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

Heb 11:1


The human soul is immaterial and invisible to the eye. Yet, our soul is the very living consciousness of what we are!


No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God
and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. Jn 1:18


God can not be seen!

And? ........

We were created in the image of God!

Our soul is in the image of God!

Some good stuff. Thank you.