Making Choices / The Holy Spirit

When we ate of the tree, we learned disobedience. We learned to take responsibility into our own hands, thinking we knew best (knew better than God).

Genesis 2:16-17

And the Lord God commanded the humans, saying, "Of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shalt not eat of it—for in the day that you eat thereof, you shalt surely die."

What is the knowledge of good and evil? It is the ability to choose—and make a choice that is not the choice God would make for us (thus, an evil choice). Letting the Lord make the choices for us is us acting in faith: for anything not of faith is not of the Lord (Romans 14:23b).

Faith is simply doing as the Lord does (with Their ability in us to do so)!

We didn't know how to be evil before the Fall—we only knew how to be good. But with all those people choosing to eat from the "wrong tree", we (each person from them) now also are personally responsible for making a choice of obeying the Lord, or the choice of obeying our own self over the Lord in our everyday.

To me, if I was in the Garden, I too (as seeing the mistakes I make now) probably also would have done so—just as so many of the Created humans in the Garden eventually did.

What happened with the first two Adams [first two male and female humans], is that they chose to make a life choice that was not of the Lord. The Lord had to give them that choice, but did not want them to make that choice to disobey.

The Lord Loves us so that He really does only want the best for us. And it really is only the Lord who is capable of making the best choice for us—KNOWING the All-of-the-All of each of us.

This "letting the Lord" was pure child-relationship-living in the Garden; and is the most excellent way of living in this current world.

We had choices before eating of the tree, but those choices were always in line with the Lord. But with the eating of the tree, our choices now had personal consequences that were not in line with the Lord. We now had the knowledge of disobedience—creating in humanity that sin-conscience.

The Lord never wanted us to have the burden of making choices for ourselves—He always had the want and ability to make and guide our choices in life to protect us from ourselves. But we "lost" that purity (childhood innocence and unfettered trust in the Father).

But we didn't actually / really lose that—for the Lord never left us, nor did They abandoned us—though our un-belief is that They did or that They now "will" for some indeterminate reason (with our fear and worry) in and for any "next mistake" we make.

For the Lord stayed connected and intimate with humanity even after eating from the "wrong" tree! And now even moreso now, if we have personal doubt in that and feel we need to have someone "step in" to make sure or "alleviate our conscience / sin-conscience), we have been blessed with Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit upon us all.

The Lord (the Father) purposefully interceded—not because there was a legal / binding / or abandonment reason for Them to do so—interceded for our own conscience and reconciled us to Themself (not even needing to reconcile Them to us) for a grand expression of desire to again guide us in all our choices from that unfettered childhood trust.

We did not need to be reconciled, except that we "believed" we needed to be. This is what a sin-conscience programmes us into falsely believing: that we "needed a saviour / ultimate sacrifice to "appease" God—when God was and has not actually been angry at us... just angry at the sin-conscience that got in the way!

With that human-need for a saviour, Christ Jesus became that Saviour for us—so that we would now not have reason to keep that sin-conscience active. And thus, without that sin-conscience, freely come into the Relationship the Lord has always Lovingly had towards us (me / you / everyone / all).

And with that, fully gave us this SAME Holy Spirit that is in Christ Jesus who guided Jesus in the choices set before Him. For, the Holy Spirit speaks and ministers to every human being—all peoples throughout the entire world (born-again or not):

Acts 2:17

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.

The Lord has given back to us what we discarded in the Garden. We now have that ability to let the Holy Spirit ("HS") guide us in all our choices. He speaks up for us to protect us, minister to us and others, and to take away the stress, worry, and burden (fear of the unknown / consequences) that comes with us unilaterally making choices on our own.

The reason we stress and worry about matters in life is because choices have responses and responsibilities—or worse: accountability, judgement, rejection, pain. We don't always know if the outcome of our choices are going to be the best (as 'for us', not 'against us' / against others). We plan and calculate and guess at what the outcome will be; but we never really do know—despite all efforts (worries and anxieties) of planning.

I worry and stress over finances; but the Lord (our personal "bestie" Father) knows when and what to buy—the Lord guided me to get the right and best car for me (even when I did not know it and had fought against it for a year before actually getting the car... a car waiting on the lot for me that whole time).

We had stressed about our wedding—the timing, the cost, the preparation... even down to the little things like the cake. But when we both listened to HS, They assured us that the timing was Theirs; that all our friends and family would be able to come; that even the cake that They lead me to (without my fiancé seeing it) was going to be the best cake for us.

The Lord is in those little things too; not just the big things.

I can often feel that I don't have to give HS "deal" with the little things because it's too menial (beneath) Them, or that HS really wants "me" to handle it. And why not... "HS blessed me with the ability to do them"—but too, when it is My Spirit aligning with HS, our decisions become one-and-the-same.

One of the littlest things HS shared with me was when I was shopping for a lamp switch with a chain. I needed to buy the chain separately from the switch. When I looked at the chain, I could not see if it included a connector piece, so I grabbed a package of connectors. But HS said I didn't need to buy the connectors. But my mind said "I did", because I could not see that any were included with the chain, and I did not want to deal with the hassle of coming back to the store later if they were not in there. And HS spoke firmly to me not to get the connectors. Well, I argued to myself, "they are only a couple dollars, what's the big deal" and bought them anyways. Well, the big deal was actually that I was not trusting the HS (or, at least not trusting that I was hearing HS correctly). Needless to say, when I got home, the chains had the connectors already on them—HS was right.

Does that mean I was "disobedient" and thus "deserving of punishment"? Well, my old religious self would have absolutely said I was wrong, and would then find a way to self-punish before "God" had time to punish me. Yet, what I came to learn, is that, regardless of the choice I make (aligned with HS or not), they do not hold me accountable, nor will EVER punish me—for me, even the Lord grieves with me in my own post-grief hindsight. The Father is and will never punish me—no matter how "big" or "small" my mistake is!

Thus, this was not about if HS was right or not (HS always is). This was about me learning within the hearing of Them—which I was—and from that, agreeing and following through on Their choice FOR me—which I did not. I learned a lesson here... that They simply want my "obedience" (not a dirty word), even in the smallest of things. Why? Because when I hear Them in the little things ("little to me things), I know I also hear Them in all the other things.

Yet, even little things can add up into larger troubles; so let HS, Chris, rule in the little things—to give HS the Choice, and chose to allow Their choice for me.

To seek first the Kingdom of God:

Matthew 6:25, 31-34 

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? … Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek for yourself first, the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Seeking first the Kingdom of God is that internal Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Spirit within me. And with HS in me, choosing Their choices for me—even when my flesh is "kicking and screaming" against that choice.

HS wants to; and has joyfully taken that responsibility for us. Seeking first the Kingdom of God is seeking His choice, ability, guidance—a place of internal peace in letting go of the "tree of knowledge" (our flesh) and grabbing ahold of the "tree of Life" (His Cross). And in that, we live (exist) in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit: the Kingdom of Heaven (Romans 14:17).

This is the Blessed Joy and Peace that the Holy Spirit can bring to us. Since They d know the outcomes to all choices, HS can and will always make the best choice for us—righteous choices—even when we don't think it is the best choice. And the only reason we don't think it's the best, is because we don't know the everything (all the other perspectives, all the other people involved, all the various outcomes, and micro and macro nuances of each and every detail).

When we let HS, we can experience His Peace and Joy through those choices.

What is our choice now in life? Simply to choose either to let the Holy Spirit chose for us or not. This is the same choice faced in the Garden of Eden: to let the Lord chose for them or make the choice themselves. The same choice Jesus confronted in the Garden of Gethsemane. The choice by Adams, brought death; the choice by Jesus 9even though His death) brought Life! For we now also have that same overcoming ability to choose the Holy Spirit because of all that Christ endured to hold onto the Lord's choice for Him... and subsequently, all of all peoples.

The Lord never wanted us to bear the burden of me / us making choices ourselves. He wants us to live life in Their ease:

Matthew 11:28

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Does that mean I'm always letting the Holy Spirit make those choices for me? No. But I'm learning to listen and learning to trust in all the areas that differently show themselves.

Letting go of control is one of the hardest things to do in my life—as my trauma-upbringing programmed distrust, hypervigilance, fawning, people-pleasing, and self-perfectionism. Thus, to do as HS is leading me to do, counters all that my flesh had been programmed to do—a flesh which learned to take control in eating the forbidden fruit—humanity's reality our whole life coming to the Lord.

And now, that flesh has to let go, because it died at the Cross with Jesus (along with His flesh), and the life I now live is by faith from the Spirit:

Galatians 2:20

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.