When God created man in His own image, He created a will. Your will, essentially, is you. You were born into this earth as a free will and that is what you have control over. Yeshua (Jesus) came and willed to do the will of the Father. He said, “I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30).[1] If you are willing to do God’s will, you will be led by His Spirit (John 7:17; Romans 8:14). For in His great kindness, the Father lavished His grace upon us and “made known to us the mystery of His will” in Christ (Ephesians 1:9). What is life all about? Life is about molding and shaping your will.

Yeshua told a parable about the man who gave talents to his slaves (Matthew 25:14-29). The talent that you have been given is your will. It is the prize, the jewel, the treasured possession that God gave to each person. He created you as a free will and sent you to the earth. As a result, you are free to form your own will. That is what you are doing every moment, at every event, and at every decision in your life. The only thing you have to present to Christ when He returns is the will that He gave you. Your will is what you are creating and forming in this life, so what you do with your will is extremely important.

In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl wrote about his time of captivity in a Nazi concentration camp. He realized that nothing controlled him, no matter what was done to him physically, mentally, or emotionally. What was in him, his will, could not be controlled by anyone else. The truth is that no one can control you, either. Even God cannot control you. Only you can control you. You are constantly shaping and forming your will within you. With every action, every thought, every motivation, you are doing something that impacts your will. Do not enforce legalistic rules, however, because you are only transformed by the Spirit “from glory to glory” as you stand in His presence (2 Corinthians 3:18). Realize that you need to mature and have your will perfected, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). If you allow Him to do that, you will make the right choices where He is concerned.

In the days of His flesh, Yeshua faced difficult things, but He was driven to do the will of God. Christ willed to do the will of the Father, just as you can will to will something. When Aaron made the golden calf he said, “I just threw the gold into the fire and all of a sudden it came out this golden calf” (see Exodus 32:24). No, that is not how it happened. Aaron willed to make the golden calf. If we are honest, we realize that we are constantly willing to do what we are doing as well. But your will does not remain an entity that can always be molded. Consider Esau and Judas. At some point, what they formed into their wills began to take over and they became it. At that point, a person’s will simply drives itself.

There is a deep determination that is going on in you every moment of your life. What you will, you create. What you will, you do. As God’s child, you can allow Him to train and discipline your will (Proverbs 22:6). Ask the Father to help you will to do His will. If you allow it, He will work in you to perform it.

[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).