Acts 16:7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. NKJV

It would be so much easier on me if the Holy Spirit would just say, “No, do not go there.” Decisions would be so much easier if it were not left up to me to decide what is the right course.

Doesn’t that attitude beg God for us to become a puppet on a string?

Ever watch a puppet show? It is obvious that the puppet has no life of its own. There is no faculty of reasoning power, no animation, no life force.

God placed the life force of Jesus Christ in us to be seen of all men to the glory of God the Father. In this we struggle because we are here within this body, His temple, and have the primary faculty of life to act in accordance with our character, our new nature. He came to change us from within, so that all that we are now in Christ will reflect this new life with truth in character, revealing us to be changed.

Has He not revealed truth to you? You still have to act on that truth. In this we struggle, and the struggle is real and honest. We are not puppets.

Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Denying it does not make it true. What rules our actions is our nature, which is changing, because the character that is the animating force of deciding which action to take is tugged on both side, the spirit and the flesh. Which we chose to answer to in action is our character, be it old or new.