[Awoken]

Hi alwayscurious -

Okay, my 2 cents. The Bible says -

Galatians 5:5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

On the other hand, perplexingly, we are told that we definitely do need to obey the Lord by hearing His voice (there are so many verses about this it would be hard to gather them all, here are a couple I found by brief search).

John 14:15 ESV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

1 Samuel 15:22 ESV
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Furthermore, we know that we have an inward anointing from God that teaches us to respond to Him (1 John 2:20). His sheep will know His voice.

Your question is a good one. Personally I feel we DO have an inner anointing that compels us to do some things and avoid others, and we know very well when we violate His direction. The less deaf we become, the more sensitive we are to it, and the more we learn what that inner speaking is and isn't, and the more sensitive we get to be to our disobedience (which sometimes include acts of doing the things He wants us to do, but OUR way, not His way). We are slaves of God who are learning obedience from the only obedient Son of God.

But how do we reconcile that with Galatians 5:5? We have been freed to be free. Man was able to walk around freely in the Garden of Pleasures, eating of everything that had been condoned by God (which included everything except one tree).

I think free will in the life of a Christian looks basically like free will in the life of anybody else, except better, because we also have been given the freedoms not to be enslaved to sin and the freedom to obey the voice of God. I think sometimes we hear God's voice very clearly telling us something, which we may or may not like to do, and it is at these crucial moments we have an opportunity to react in obedience by depending on Christ. Other times there may not be much of an overt sense of direction "from the heavens" at all, i.e., dictating that you can only wear one shirt on a particular day. I suspect God USUALLY doesn't care a lot about those kind of minor choices and does in fact give us freedom as He says, except in cases where there is an overt reason beyond our comprehension that He wants us to do (or not do) something for the sake of His purposes.