A book that I have read and referred back to many times over the last dozen years is The Spiritual Man, by Watchman Nee. It’s available on Amazon but also free as a pdf which can be downloaded and read with most digital readers or in Adobe Acrobat. It’s a very deep read of three volumes.
There are large sections in his book on the body, soul and spirit.(the link is to a page on my website about body, soul and spirit) In the soul section, Nee writes a lot about the will. I recently read this section again and I believe that he has some great insight into what we call our will.
Nee suggests that the most important aspect of the Christian life is the degree to which our will and God’s will are in harmony, or union, with one another.
I believe that this is a hugely important point. God calls us to not simply be surrendered or submitted to His will but to be in harmony with His will. Nee writes about the importance of our will being in union with God’s will. When it is, this will lead to our natural obedience to God’s ways that we read about in his Word.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:29
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways (his will), and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live (experience an abundant life) and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” Deuteronomy 30:15-16
Thank you so much for this Dale. Just what I needed and could not have come at a more perfect time.
I just ordered The Spiritual Man and can’t wait to dive into it.
I wish that this was an actual Bible Study, but I will make it one in some way.
If you have any suggestions on a study of relevance to this post, I would love and appreciate it so much!
Thank you for all that you do.
Christy