Battle of the Wills

     The human will is a faculty of the mind which makes choices; the ones perceived as best for the individual. The will is the defender of personal desires. If the will favors another person, even that is in the best interests of the individual. For instance, a good parent wants what's best for the child. They will that their children succeed. That strong desire is great for the children, and as great for the parent. The child's success reduces the parent's stress. Of course, because they love their children is the motivation for their thinking.

    Peter the Great desired that his son be successful. He promoted Nikolai for the Romanov throne. Nikolai didn't want to be czar, but Peter's will was that he train for and have that position. Nikolai fled Russia and was later seized in Europe. Eventually, because of Nikolai’s strong will, Peter had him killed. Therein was a match of wills - two very strong wills. Peter loved Nikolai so much that he desired Nikolai be as him. In the failed effort to make Nikolai the czar, Peter perceived that he had no choice but to kill is heir. Peter loved Nikolai so much that he desired to have a mini-Peter. Nikolai had a stronger will than Peter! Who then was greatest? Peter had more power, but Nikolai had a stronger will, but his will caused his death!

     The "will" is the faculty of human beings and even animals. We all have heard the phrase, stubborn as a mule. Animals also make decisions. Much of what they do is instinctual, but they do as they want to do as well. Any pet owner can easily detect animals doing their will by refusing to obey commands or not. All their behavior is not operant conditioning. Wild animals do more their own will while domesticated animals have learned to do their master's will. Those which are domesticated know and understand to whom they owe allegiance. Good masters feed, shelter, and protect their animals. In return, they become friends to people and do their master's will.

     Think on canine behavior. Most are obedient to their masters because their masters show them love, makes rewards, and punishes for bad behavior. When wild horses are tamed, for instance, they yield their will to their masters and become domesticated or docile. They are especially obedient to the one who tamed them. They accept the will of their tamer!

     Well, humans have a faculty of the will as well. Exercising the will as one pleases is called "free will". Wild animals are beasts. They do what they will. Most of the time, their desire is to protect themselves. If it means hurting someone or something else, they will do so to survive. Vicious animals are not usually vicious because they are mean-spirited but are so for survival. Men, who are beasts, and women too, are mean-spirited for survival as well - to protect their own space, desires, and well being. Nearly everything sane people do is to elevate themselves as they place their desires over the desires of anyone else. Mankind, as does the animals, enjoy freedom until they experience the safety and nourishment of natural or imposed law. Wild beasts have no rules. They do what is instinctual as well as what they desire to do. 

     Mankind has the same type of faculty. Our inborn nature is to do what is right in our own eyes (Jud 17:6). That is free will, and is called libertarianism now:

I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts. (Ecc 3:18-19)

     Solomon said that, but what did David, his father also say? "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish" (Psalm 49:20). As well said is that the prideful who don't understand meekness, are as the beasts. Wild human beings must be domesticated. Their beastly spirit must be tamed. Most of us are like the wild mavericks which must be rode hard to understand that what seems good for us can be catastrophic. Tamed horses are nourished and protected when corralled, but endangered in the wild. Domestication is good for them in spite of their desire to be free! Most horses will return to an open corral knowing that nourishment is therein!
     Christians are much like tamed horses. We have relinquished our will, and accepted God's will. Many of us our somewhat tame, but ironically our own will is hardened. Many people who have grown up in the safety and obedience of the church still have a wild and rebellious spirit. Given the opportunity and some liberty, they will stray. Their will is stronger than God's will. Jesus told Christians how to pray:

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Mat 6:9-10)

     God... thy will be done! You see, those who have been churched may not have been tamed. God doesn't want His children to be domesticated - the morality of the world - but sanctified - set apart from the world and doing God's will.
     Sanctification is spiritual domestication. The beast within is tamed by the Master. Our will becomes His will. Sure, when the gate is left open, Satan can harm us, so the wisest thing to do is to keep safe.
     Job, for instance, lived in safety. Satan could not harm him. He could, however, as long as he was safe, do his own will. Let's examine that scenario:

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. (Job 1:6-12)

    Because he was born wild, at one time Job was a beast. He had the nature of Adam after the original sin. At some point in his life Job was domesticated. His will was to do God's will. Because Satan lost his son Job, he wanted him back. It was Satan's will that Job do his will. When people sin, they think they are doing their own will - as gods (Gen 3:5) but it is really Satan's will they are doing.
     God has his standards for doing His will - the Law of God, and Satan a lack of standards - the law of sin. His standards are lawlessness, or total liberty from regulation. (1 Tim 1:9).
     Satan's laws are perceived as easy because they merely are not doing God's will, and it is for pleasure. Hence, sinners' own wills are obedience to the law of sin. Any "good" which they do of their own volition, without the notion of pleasing God, is as filthy rags to God (Isa 64:6). They are merely doing their will, and seem to make the do-gooders the gods!
     Well, Job had been brought into servitude. It was voluntary; he exercised his free will. God persuaded Job that he was more safe serving Him than serving Satan. God also showed Job that as long as he lived as a beast, under his own protection, he was in danger. When Job came to realize that God was his safety, and that God loved him, he finally was at liberty to make a wise decision without the deception of Satan and his demons. Job lived within a hedge of safety. His safe hedge wasn't like the hedge of the Garden completely, but cherubim were still guarding him. Satan couldn't get to him to make him die because of that hedge, but he could use strong persuasion.
     Satan's method of persuasion is the destruction of all that a person holds dear. He attempted to destroy Job by making him woe to the idea that he was living under God's protection. Like the Israelites at the time of Moses, while in the wilderness, they desired to be back in the perceived safety of Egypt. There, they had been slaves to Pharaoh but were protected. They preferred bondage to freedom within bounds.
    Protected by the hedge, Job could do his will. Since his will was in harmony with God's, Job was protected. Satan could not harm him  directly. Job has since been saved. Never again can Satan destroy him. To die was to gain! (Phil 1:21) because no longer is Job safe but saved!

     The Lord was there that day with Job and Satan. He spoke audibly. He was the Word who Job heard - pre-incarnate Jesus. Job's trust was in Jesus, and it was Jesus who kept him safe. It was Jesus who spiritually domesticated Job. He wanted to please his Master because his Master loved him so (John 3:16).
     Job, although tamed, retained his will. That will is liberty in Christ. (Gal 2:4). Although tamed, animals within their boundary of safety enjoy much freedom. They are free to come or go, but most entirely tame animals desire to be with their master. Their will is in rapport to God's will. They desire the same thing - inevitably that none should perish! Christians are free to wrong their neighbors but because they have a new will, their desire is to live amicably with God's other people, sinful or not!
     I can shoot those who are still beasts and either want to undermine or stalk me. As a new creature, I am no longer the beast that they are. I can freely shoot to kill (a metaphor) but rather seek to spiritually domesticate them - creating new creatures from the flesh of the beasts!

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Cor 5:17)

     New creatures come about by diminishing one's own will as God's will is elevated. That is relinquishing our desires to God's. Jesus said, to not be in wonderment, but you must be born again! (John 3:7).  That moment is referred by theologians as "regeneration". I again prefer "re-genesis" as it is back to the original when Adam was created tame!
    If Peter the Great, in this commentary, represents God, we don't want to be Nikolia. Unlike Peter, though, God will never force royalty on his children. We are to have our Father's will, and voluntarily exercising our will, do as God pleases. We submit our will to God. That meekness makes humble Christians heirs to the throne; indeed, someday we will inherit the earth. Not the old earth but the new earth with New Jerusalem as its capitol. Until then, we serve our King as royal priests (1 Per 2:9). We are merely "domestics" until we become nobility in the New Earth.