When God draws me, the issue of my will comes in at once. Will I react to the revelation he has given me? Will I come to him? It’s a question of obeying, not of ruminating and discussing.
Never discuss with anyone when God speaks; discussion on spiritual matters is an impertinence. Belief isn’t an intellectual act; it’s a moral act in which I deliberately commit myself to him. Will I hand myself over entirely to God and act on what he says? If I will, I’ll find that I am based on a reality that is as sure as his throne.
When you preach the gospel, always push the issue of will. Make it clear to your listeners that belief must be the will to believe, that there must be a surrender of the will. Each of us must deliberately launch forth on God and on what he says until we’re no longer confident in what we’ve done, only in him. What holds most of us back is that we won’t trust God, only our own understanding.
As far as feelings go, I must put them to the side, staking everything blindly on what God says. I must will myself to believe, and this can never be done without a violent effort on my part to break with all my old ways of looking at things and then to hand myself over to him.
Each one of us is made to reach out beyond our grasp. It is God who draws me, and my relationship with him is first and foremost a personal one, not an intellectual one. I’m introduced into this relationship by the miracle of God and by my own will to believe. Only later do I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of our transaction.
