The Ultimate Choice: Choose Life
Would you rather be operating by God’s mind or by your own? God is giving you the choice.
The Choice
Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
The pilgrimage through this earth comes down to a singular decision. Will you choose to be TOTALLY governed by God or self? What you choose depends on the life you will have; the first manifests true life and the second death. It’s one or the other because God is life and anything contrary is death. Most people unknowingly choose death because of the lie that has kept people from God; that life fully governed by God is less than what they can give themselves. When in reality, the only things you miss out on are the things of death.
The life we desire; peace, joy, righteous love, truth, rest, contentment, and blessing, comes when our souls are united to God’s Spirit so that His spirit operates our being in every way. This life is manifested when our self-will is literally dead, silenced, and God’s Spirit takes the reigns. Galatians 2:20
The ultimate blessing is to be completely directed by God so that our every desire, thought and word is of Him, by Him and through Him; a place where we are fully governed by the Spirit of God and nothing of our self-will. Lamentations 3:24 In this state abundant life is manifested in us and in our lives.
Isaiah 58:13 If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,
The eternal Sabbath is being at complete rest, so that you are totally powered by God’s spirit. When you are governed by Him, you are at rest because it’s all Him and nothing of you. John 15:5 In rest, you do nothing of yourself. You give up all your ways, pleasures and words to God and He drives your life. If you aren’t working, efforting, striving or exerting your will, then His will can prevail. You cultivate no trust or confidence in anything of this flesh existence. The exterior life is nothing but the shell that is powered by God. In this state, you are a complete slave to God and His righteousness and know no other greater delight, for He is life. Acts 17:28
Romans 6:18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Imagine if ALL you did was directed by God who knows everything … the outcome and ripple effect of every action? All you do would be done in truth and righteous love. Imagine how your life would blossom into all it was meant to be. This is what Christ came to create, God’s spirit abiding within souls of mankind, Immanuel.
How to silence your self-will?
What is the path to make this choice; to be completely governed by God?
- SEEK God in TRUTH and SPIRIT. You need to know the difference of your self-will and God’s will and the extent of its control in your life. If you don’t seek truth FROM GOD, you can’t make this decision because you don’t have the knowledge of what the decision entails. You can’t choose what you don’t know. How can you know without diligently seeking daily and above all else?
Jeremiah 7:13 And now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer
- BUILD a relationship with God so you can TRUST Him. To honestly let go of all, you have to trust God and nothing of yourself. How can you trust without an intimate relationship?
- ACT on His instruction specifically to you. As you act according to God’s counsel and witness His faithfulness, you come to a point of forsaking all to be completely governed by Him – then the choice is the result. How can you act if you aren’t listening to Him?
In our limited awareness, we have no idea the outcome of what we do. If we hold onto our own judgments about what is good (essence of religions), we’ll make errors (sin) leading to pain and suffering in our lives and others. No matter how good our intentions, we don’t know the beginning and the end. Thus, anything done of ourselves, no matter if we judge it good or not, is sin. Sin equates to death. Therefore, we need to be at rest and letting God flow through us as He wills which is accomplished by forsaking every aspect of our self-will and letting His will rule. John 5:30
Seeking God and His truth with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, abiding in rest, and experiencing the fruit of His Spirit testify that we have chosen His will over ours; a life we can start experiencing now. When we come to this point, we are ruled by God’s Spirit thus walk in His commandments, because He is living through us and His righteousness taking us over.
More Discussion on this Topic
Living Light 
February 20, 2012 at 11:05 pm
Thank you Rachel for posting this message,
I have been following your blog for a while now and believe God has given you a very relevant message for the body of Christ. I have come over the years of walking with the Lord to appreciate that the real growth in the believer takes place when one discovers their standing with God and builds their individual relationship with Him.
I have recently been appointed to lead a fellowship of believers in my workplace and I am having one challenge. I believe there is need for the members of the fellowship to build their individual priestly ministries so as to participate effectively in the fellowship of other believers. the challenge I am currently having is to remove the expectation of the members of my role as the leader from the convectional clergy, e.g. pastor, teacher, etc. How do I lead them towards the teacher (the indwelling Holy Spirit) without taking up His role.
I am asking this because I think you have experience through your mentor ship program.
Any advice from your experience?
In Him, for Him and by Him,
Patrick
February 21, 2012 at 11:09 am
Hi Patrick – What a wonderful opportunity … I would help them to learn from God Himself … show them now to spend time with God, how to read His Word, How to trust the Holy Spirit as their teacher, How to listen to God and follow His counsel, the importance of obedying His voice in the small things … be as you said serving as a facilitator of their relationship and not a replacement for the Holy Spirit. Let Christ be their Teacher … teach them to be disciples of Him. So instead of talking about concepts of God .. show them how to seek God and truth themselves and encourage them in that. Then perhaps have a time of sharing what they are learning from God Himself. You could all be accountability to one another of spending that time each day.
February 21, 2012 at 10:48 am
“Most people unknowingly choose death because of the lie that has kept people from God; that life fully governed by God is less than what they can give themselves. When in reality, the only things you miss out on are the things of death.” This is so true Rachel and the enemy of our souls works diligently to keep us stuck in this lie! My prayer for us as God’s people is that He will open the eyes of our heart to see the surpassing greatness of his riches!
February 21, 2012 at 11:21 am
Hi Jelillie – the deception is incredibly deep, penetrating, vast and powerful in the absence of truth – in the light it’s nothing … only by a soul communing with God in truth and spirit will they see. This is my prayer as well.
February 21, 2012 at 8:00 pm
You bless me so much , Rachel. Thank you for your faithfulness to keep encouraging us to Him. It is getting easier and easier to see the lies and reject them. It leaves so much more time in my mind for praying, praising and thinking of His Word. 🙂 who knew??? 😀
God bless you, wonderful lady, as you choose Him today!
February 22, 2012 at 10:48 am
Hi Debbie – the more truth you have the more lies you see … and when you know the truth it sets you free from the heavy burdens and yokes that come with lies and deception. What a gift to have His Spirit to lead us to all truth! 🙂
February 22, 2012 at 2:19 pm
Hi, Rachel. This post and video were very helpful and convicting to me today.
Your comments enforce, confirm, and stir up the prompts and workings in my soul over the past while to seek more, go deeper, and choose to follow God in each moment. Over the past few days, I’ve been shown some lies in my life that I have been listening to or telling myself. I think God is showing me how much I hide within myself from the truth, from being honest with myself and Him and others. It’s hard for me to acknowledge when I am struggling, how deep the struggle and rebellion goes. I think He’s also showing me areas in which I don’t actually believe (deeply with the core of myself) the things my mind knows and has read in the Bible. For instance, I don’t think I fully believe God loves me; there’s something hampering me from feeling and knowing with all of myself that He loves me and wants to help. For a while now, He’s revealed a prevailing indifference that I harbor toward Him and His Truth, as if deep down I believe it’s easier to live with the lies and sit in the darkness than find the way into Light and Truth, as if I don’t care. It feels very strange since I have talked so much about believing light and truth and tasting how much better it is than the darkness, but somehow, experiencing that light and truth has always been a flickering moment that I haven’t grabbed onto, believed in, and diligently reached for. I can see that I haven’t been obedient in the “small things” to be able to move onto that next step, and I think He’s showing me that I don’t have faith in the promise that He really will lead me to that next step.
I hope I’m making a little sense; I’ve been wanting to tell you some of these things for a while. I would appreciate your prayers, and I appreciate the way you have described in this post what choosing life means and how to silence that self will. I want to be committed to traveling this path and seeking God, building a relationship with the true living Spirit, and acting on what I learn from there.
Thanks, as always, for reading and sharing your journey!
February 22, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Hi Ruth – thanks so much for sharing because I think most struggle as you described at some point – I know I did … this can be an incredible time for you of deliverance and growth as you diligently seek God daily and spend that time fellowshipping with Him in truth and spirit being honest and pouring out your heart … abiding in His Word and trusting the Holy Spirit to lead and teach you. He loves you abundantly and wants you to know that and that life with Him is far better than anything else. He has so much to give and show you. As you seek to know His love, He will show you and change you in the process. This is what Him as our Teacher does for our souls. I will be praying for you. Let nothing take you away from drawing near to Him as He is.
February 22, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Hi Ruth,..what youve written i guess could cover what most of us go through, have gone through,..or going through…that unworthiness,.weak faith,..restless soul..denial…and all that goes with it
its obvious that Hes There in your heart that where it starts,..thats were it ends,..and you’ll find out,if you Truly Follow Him through His Spirit to yours..it never Ends…..you start to get that wonderful undescribable ‘rest’ that Rachel always talks about,..but unless you take the steps of pure faith in Him day and daily,every day!
His ways can be mysterious to us at first,….but you got to do it from your heart mind and soul,…the body will come later,..the flesh and blood in us is weak but seems to over power the soul and spirit inside us,..UNTIL,..you crack that little ‘mustard seed’ inside your heart,..some do it easier than others,..me?..mine was hard to crack, and my heart smashed with it,…i hope and pray you dont need to go that far,..but when a humbled contrite heart calls to Him,..He’ll Answer!…in His Loving Gentle Ways!
..Your Spirit can grow very quickly,..and before long, get level with the ‘flesh n blood’ in strength and then it easier to win the battle with it with in.
..it a bit like going to the gym,..do a workout with Him EVERYDAY!
2 things that i done and still do and remind myself reguarly is…
In the Old Testament The Israelites made animal sacrafice,…BUT.. The Father Dosent want that,..no He wants us to saracfice our hearts minds and bodies to Him, through His Son and Holy Spirit!
in modern times you’ll hear of people selling their souls to the devil,.well do the opposite,..just give you soul away to Our Saviour and Teacher,..He’ll take it,..and never trade it!
and other thing He,The Son wants, and again The Israelites in The Old Testament,…when they where in trouble,..they called out to HIM,..and turned to Him …then when He Helped them,..they turned away again…and theyd do this over and over again.
.and He said to them,..you turn away from Me,..I NEVER have turned away from you,….turn to Me and DONT turn away, and I will never turn away from you!..that was the whole of The Tribes of Israel
Well, the same goes for us on a one to one,..Turn your face to Him,..and DONT EVER turn away,…HE WONT,
(i apply this method to me, and its got me this far,!! or sorry ,.i’ll give all Glory to Him,and His Face that Shines upon all those who truly and humbly seek it)
you’ll be in my prayers too.
Psalms 51 v 17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
Isaiah 57 v 15
For thus saith the high and lofty One who inhabites eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
February 23, 2012 at 7:55 pm
This is the Real Brian!