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.

Psalm 17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

Just exactly what would that look like? How exactly do we duplicate likeness? Who do we live with the dissatisfaction of not being all that He is in righteousness? It seems too much for me to accomplish.

There is in His Word a valuable truth that is difficult to grasp and believe because we are human to a fault. Knowing what we are does not change that truth. It seems to be an age old enigma. Here it is.

John 1:16 For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift. (Classic Amplified Bible)

Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of God? He dwells in you and the fullness of all that Christ is and does in us, has already been given. So why can’t we see that? Why can’t we believe that? Why can’t we be satisfied with that?

Think of His presence as being a grace dispenser, a blessing dispenser, a gift dispenser, in the same manner that insulin is released by the pancreas only as it is needful to do so. Perfect release of insulin produces perfect effectivness. Too much insulin or not enough insulin has a detrimental effect on the body.

In this Christ is perfect in dispensing grace, blessings and gifts with perfect timing so as not to produce harmful results for our souls. Like insulin, which does a work in us that promotes health, all that is given to us must be used in order to produce in our souls those changes which we seek.

We cannot force that to happen any more than we can tell our pancreas to act now.