Last week, we talked about self-will and the rebellious will. Both of these misalignments make it difficult to say yes and both are manifestations of a struggle to trust God. This week, we’ll highlight the weak or broken will and the passive will. These conditions make it difficult to say no and are manifestations of a struggle to trust God in you!
The Weak or Broken Will
We’ve all heard of stories like the one of the homeless guy who wins ten million dollars in the lotto and ends up broke and back out on the streets in less than a year. This is a perfect illustration of the fact that we are unable to steward that which we have no internal framework for. And often, that framework is built in us through our wrestling to receive. When we wrestle with God, we are not doing so to make something happen, to earn something that is freely given or to convince God, as though He were withholding from us. The wrestling is peaceful, passion-motivated co-laboring aimed at preparing us to steward. Your passion leads you to seek and knock, which builds the spiritual muscles necessary for stewarding that victory, that success, that promise, that miracle. If your will is too weak or too broken to contend for it, you may be unable to protect and to steward it.
The broken will is one that has been crushed by control, abuse and violation. Healthy boundaries have been so obliterated that the will gate is almost nonfunctional, and both healing and restoration are necessary. The weak will is one that was not properly developed or exercised through maturity-appropriate freedom of choice. Often, fearful, overprotective parents create the very scenarios which they fear by shielding their child from opportunities to overcome. If your parents didn’t teach you to overcome and did not trust you to do so, you may lack the tools or the confidence to succeed, or you may avoid responsibility and risk.
Remember, your will gate must be fully functioning for you to rule and reign. A child with a broken or weak will may be compliant, but how will he say no to sin, to his flesh, to peer pressure or to temptation? Whether you have children or are simply re-parenting yourself, you must follow the example of God, the perfect Parent, in disciplining and molding the will unto voluntary submission. Children must be taught to submit, so that selfishness and rebellion do not capture them. They must also be taught to govern their lives and to say yes and no with gradually less parental interference. Our heavenly Father is a very proactive disciplinarian who never withholds correction and never shrinks back from molding our will and character, even if it is painful. But we also see from the life of the prophet Ezekiel that He does so without ever breaking the will or hindering it from functioning fully and freely.
I have made your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them or discouraged by the look on their faces, though they are a rebellious house. –Ezekiel 3:9, CSB
In other words, “Ezekiel, you have a tough job. You are to deliver an unpopular message to a rebellious group of people who will not listen to you, anyway. So… I’ve made you hardheaded!” Ezekiel is the perfect example of a beautifully functioning, STRONG will. He would not have even accepted such a horrific assignment had his YES not led him into the place of complete submission to God. But he could not have succeeded at standing up to those rebels had his NO been weak. Ezekiel’s personality was created and crafted by God with his difficult destiny in mind. The Bible doesn’t say what it was like to be Ezekiel’s parents, but I imagine from the wild stuff he wrote, that it was always interesting! Thankfully, they molded his will into submission without breaking it, keeping both his YES and his NO intact.
If your will has been broken by trauma or abuse or has been weakened by control, know that your perfect Father is intent on healing every wound, every trauma, every memory, every scar. He wants to rebuild and strengthen the gate of your will, transforming you into one who dares to dream, who takes risks, who fears nothing, who trusts Him radically and who trusts Him IN YOU!
Strengthening seasons are difficult, so be aware of any victim mindsets or feelings of helplessness and repent immediately. You are an overcomer, and things are not happening TO you; they are happening FOR you!
The Passive Will
Nothing happens until something moves. –Albert Einstein
Imagination-inspired, passion-motivated actions are the labor pains that will bring your miracle from your spiritual womb and into the light of experience, so you must make sure that your will is not immobilized by passivity.
And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
–Mark 16: 17-20, NKJV
Everyone loves and desires those kinds of amazing miracles, but did you notice that they follow you and not the other way around? In other words, you can’t play it safe and show up after the miracles begin. You must go first… because you are creating them! Remember, faith is active, not passive.
In Matthew 11:12, Yeshua tells us that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. The word translated violent is a word meaning “strong, forceful, violent, energetic.” Those with a passive will often fail to see the miraculous because they lack the strength, energy and passion necessary to apprehend that miracle.
When I was very young in my understanding of the revelatory realm, I felt at the mercy of prophetic words, always wondering if they would “happen” or not. I remember some of the great generals of the prophetic movement explaining to me that prophetic words were “conditional,” but, at that time, I didn’t understand what that meant. After several painful experiences where important words did not “come to pass,” the Father began to teach me that His words were simply giving me the materials with which to create. These snapshots of His heart’s desires for me were meant to pull me from unhealthy passivity, to show me how powerful He created me to be and to let me know what He and I could create together.
Years ago, a dear friend we’ll call Nick was offered a job by a friend of his mom’s. He accepted the position, but it turned out to be a terrible job, with long hours, back-breaking work, low pay and a toxic, dysfunctional environment. Nick stayed. And stayed. And stayed…hating every minute of it and constantly complaining. Over the years, he had become more and more irritated, had long ceased to walk in love with his coworkers and frequently reacted in anger or sarcasm. One day, after telling me for what seemed like the millionth time how much he hated his job, I simply asked him if he had any specific plans or goals to go elsewhere or if he had even checked to see what other job opportunities were available. The look on his face let me know that he had never even considered it, and he responded that he was “waiting on God.” Now, the objectives of the seasons and classrooms in our lives are always subject to Holy Spirit, for He knows exactly what we need. People who have been self-sufficient all their lives may find themselves in a situation that demands that they do nothing and rest in the strength and ability of Father God. Nick, on the other hand, had a controlling mother and an absent father, and he had a tendency toward unhealthy passivity. The Father was trying to motivate him to action, but, because passivity and resentment were so familiar, he kept missing the objective of his classroom. At the “young man” phase of Nick’s maturation process, he already understood surrender, and God was trying to empower him.
In both of these examples, Nick and I, because of passive will gates, were waiting for God to do FOR us what He wanted to do WITH and THROUGH us.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. –Romans 8:2, NASB
We are passively under the power of the law of sin and death because of Adam’s trade and the nature of the adversary. But we have the opportunity to proactively apply the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, which empowers us to overcome both sin and death! We don’t age and die simply because we expect to do so, but because we fail to proactively appropriate a higher law.
If you’re realizing that the gate of your will has been immobilized by passivity, start dancing with God, actively building a framework fit to steward your miracle. Receive from Him the passion and “energy” necessary to “take your miracle by force.”
Have you been blessed by this excerpt from my book, Miracles Are Normal: Co-Creating Through Oneness With God? You can purchase paperback or digital copies from my website here: Miracles Are Normal. And you can purchase from Amazon here: Miracles Are Normal on Amazon
Keep on co-creating!
Virginia