CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 7
Difficulties Concerning the Will
When the child of God has, by entire abandonment and absolute trust, stepped out of himself into Christ and has begun to know something of the blessedness of the life hid with Christ in God, there is one form of difficulty that is especially likely to start up in his path. After the first emotions of peace and rest have somewhat subsided, or if, as is sometimes the case, they have never seemed to come at all, he begins to feel such an utter unreality in the things he has been passing through that he seems to himself like a hypocrite when he says or even thinks they are real. It seems to him that his belief does not go below the surface, that it is a mere lip-belief and therefore of no account, and that his surrender is not a surrender of the heart and therefore cannot be acceptable to God. He is afraid to say he is altogether the Lord’s, for fear he will be telling an untruth; and yet he cannot bring himself to say he is not.
But there is nothing here that isn’t easily overcome when the Christian once thoroughly understands the principles of the new life and has learned how to live in it. The common thought is that this life hid with Christ in God is lived in the emotions, and consequently all the attention of the soul is directed toward them. Because emotions are satisfactory or otherwise, the soul rests or is troubled. Now the truth is that this life is not lived in the emotions at all but in the will. Therefore, if man’s will is kept steadfastly abiding in its center, God’s will, the varying states of emotion do not in the least disturb or affect the reality of the life.
Fenelon says that “pure religion resides in the will alone.” By this he means that, as the will is the governing power in the man’s nature, if the will is set right, all the rest of the nature must come into harmony. The will is the deliberate choice, the deciding power, to which all that is in the man must yield obedience.
It is sometimes thought that the emotions are the governing power in our nature. But I think all of us know, as a matter of practical experience, that there is an independent self within us, behind our emotions and behind our wishes, that decides everything and controls everything. Our emotions belong to us and are put up with and enjoyed by us, but they are not our true selves. If God is to take possession of us, it must be into this central will or personality that He enters. If, then, He is reigning there by the power of His Spirit, all the rest of our nature must come under His sway, and as the will is, so is the man.
A young man of great intelligence, seeking to enter into this new life, was utterly discouraged at finding himself the slave to a chronic habit of doubting. Nothing seemed real or true to his emotions. The more he struggled, the more unreal it all became. Someone told him this secret concerning the will: that if he would only put his will over on the believing side, if he would choose to believe, he need not then trouble about his emotions, for they would find themselves compelled, sooner or later, to come into harmony.
“What!” he said. “Do you mean to tell me that I can choose to believe in that bold way, when nothing seems true to me? Will that kind of believing be real?”
“Yes,” was the answer. “Simply put your will over on God’s side, making up your mind that you will believe what He says because He says it.” The young man paused a moment and then said solemnly, “I understand and will do what you say. I cannot control my emotions, but I can control my will. The new life begins to look possible to me, if it is only my will that needs to be set straight in the matter. I can give my will to God, and I do.”
From that moment, disregarding all the pitiful clamoring of his emotions, which continually accused him of being a wretched hypocrite, this young man held on steadily to the decision of his will, answering every accusation with the continued assertion that he chose to believe, he meant to believe, he did believe, until at the end of a few days he found himself triumphant, with every emotion and every thought brought into captivity to the power of the Spirit of God. At times it drained all the willpower he possessed to his lips, to say that he believed, so contrary was it to all the evidence of his senses or of his emotions. But he caught the idea that his will was, after all, himself, and that if he kept that on God’s side, he was doing all he could do. God alone could change his emotions or control his being. The result has been one of the grandest Christian lives I know of in its marvelous simplicity, directness, and power over sin.
A lady who had entered into this life hid with Christ was confronted by a great prospective trial. But she had learned this secret of the will, and knowing that, at the bottom, she herself did really choose the will of God for her portion, she did not pay the slightest attention to her emotions but persisted in meeting every thought concerning the trial with the words, repeated over and over, “Thy will be done! Thy will be done!” In an incredibly short space of time, every thought was brought into captivity, and she began to find even her very emotions rejoicing in the will of God.
Again, there was a lady who had a besetting sin. But she learned this secret concerning the will, and going to her closet, she said, “Lord, You see that with my emotions I love this sin, but in my real central self I hate it. Until now my emotions have had the mastery; but now I put my will into Your hands and give it up to Your working. I will never again consent in my will to yield to this sin. Take possession of my will and work in me to will and to do of Thy good pleasure.” Immediately she began to find deliverance.
How do you apply this principle to your difficulties? Cease to consider your emotions, for they are only the servants. Simply regard your will, which is the real king in your being. Is that given up to God? Is that put into His hands? Does your will decide to believe? Does your will choose to obey? If this is the case, then you are in the Lord’s hands, and you decide to believe, and you choose to obey; for your will is yourself. Get hold of this secret and discover that you can ignore your emotions and simply pay attention to the state of your will. Scripture commands you to yield yourself to God, to present yourself a living sacrifice to Him, to abide in Christ, to walk in the light, to die to self. When this feeling of unreality or hypocrisy comes, do not be troubled by it. It is only in your emotions, and it is not worth a moment’s thought. Only see to it that your will is in God’s hands, that your inward self is abandoned to His working, that your choice, your decision, is on His side, and leave it there.
The will is like a wise mother in a nursery. The feelings are like a set of clamoring, crying children. The mother, knowing that she is the authority figure, pursues her course lovingly and calmly in spite of all their clamors. The result is that the children are sooner or later won over to the mother’s course of action and fall in with her decisions, and all is harmonious and happy. But if that mother should for a moment let in the thought that the children were the masters instead of herself, confusion would reign unchecked. In how many souls at this very moment is there nothing but confusion, simply because the feelings are allowed to govern instead of the will?
The real thing in your experience is what your will decides, not your emotions. You are far more in danger of hypocrisy and untruth in yielding to the assertions of your feelings than in holding fast to the decision of your will. I am convinced that throughout the Bible the verses concerning the “heart” do not mean the emotions, that which we now understand by the word heart. They mean the will, the personality of the man, the man’s own central self. The object of God’s dealing with man is that this “I” may be yielded up to Him and this central life abandoned to His entire control. It is not the feelings of the man God wants, but the man himself.
Do not let us make a mistake here. I say we must “give up” our wills, but I do not mean we are to be left will-less. We are not so to give up our wills as to be left like limp, nerveless creatures, without any will at all. We are simply to substitute the higher, divine, mature will of God for our foolish, misdirected wills of ignorance and immaturity. Is your face set as a flint to will what God wills? He wills that you should be entirely surrendered to Him and that you should trust Him perfectly. If you have taken the steps of surrender and faith in your will, it is your right to believe that no matter how much your feelings may clamor against it, you are all the Lord’s, and He has begun to “work in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
The following letter is a remarkable, practical illustration of this chapter’s teaching. Pasteur Theodore Monod of Paris handed it to me. It details the experience of a Presbyterian minister:
Newburgh, Sept. 26, 1842
Dear Brother,—Since I last saw you, I have been pressing forward, and yet there has been nothing remarkable in my experience of which I can speak. Indeed, I do not know that it is best to look for remarkable things. Instead, we should strive to be holy, as God is holy, pressing right on toward the mark of the prize.
The Lord deals differently with different souls, and we shouldn’t attempt to copy the experience of others. Yet everyone who is seeking after a clean heart should pay attention to certain things.
There must be a personal consecration of all to God, a covenant made with God that we will be wholly and forever. I pledged myself to the Lord and laid my all upon the altar, a living sacrifice, to the best of my ability. After I rose from my knees, I was painfully conscious that there was no change in my feelings. But yet I was sure that I had, with all the sincerity and honesty of purpose of which I was capable, made an entire and eternal consecration of myself to God. I did not then consider the work as done by any means, but I determined to abide in a state of complete devotion to God, a living perpetual sacrifice. And now came the effort to do this.
I knew also that I must believe that God accepted me and dwelled in my heart. I was conscious I did not believe this, and yet I desired to do so. I read with much prayer John’s first epistle and endeavored to assure my heart of God’s love to me as an individual. I finally hit upon the method of living by the moment, and then I found rest.
I felt shut up to a momentary dependence upon the grace of Christ. I would not permit the adversary to trouble me about the past or future. I agreed that I would be a child of Abraham and walk by naked faith in the Word of God and not by inward feelings and emotions. I sought to be a Bible Christian. Since that time the Lord has given me a steady victory over sins which before enslaved me. I have covenanted to walk by faith and not by feelings.
Your fellow-soldier,
William Hill