Of the three deliverances all sons of God, all rulers, must experience, from the spirit of the world, from the lusts of our flesh, and from self-will, the most difficult is deliverance from self-will.

The Holy Spirit helps and guides us as we endeavor to leave the world, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.

The wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit enable us to put to death the appetites of the flesh.

In order to destroy self-will from us, the Spirit permits Satan to put us into prison. Spiritual imprisonment is a place where your most intense desires are denied for a season and you are compelled to continue in a situation you detest.

Only prolonged fires of suffering can burn the self-will and rebellion out of us.

Human beings are deeply, essentially rebellious against God. This is true of us as Christians until we carry our cross for the appointed season.

The earth is the crucible in which God's rulers are formed and refined. Though He has come from eternity, even the Lord Jesus learned obedience to the Father by the things He suffered. This tells us such perfected obedience cannot be created in the spirit realm in an instant (as taught today) because Christ came from the spirit realm!

How deeply rebellion and self-will are implanted in the human personality is illustrated by the fact that after one thousand years of the righteous rule of Christ and His saints during the Kingdom Age, Satan still is able to lead the nations in rebellion against God.

And will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. (Revelation 20:8,9—NIV)

The truth is, if you are not undergoing moral transformation today, if you are not entering the rest of God, the perfect will of God for your life, you may never do so. There will come no golden moment when you will be changed from what you are. Life will continue until you find yourself old and perhaps bedridden, beginning to realize you never did really become a new righteous creation in Christ. This is what happens to most believers.

I do not say you will be cast into the Lake of Fire but I certainly do declare that you are not competent to rule with Jesus Christ. You did not take advantage of the training offered in the present life. You neglected your great salvation.

We know the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:22—NIV)

The material world is in travail waiting for the Kingdom of God to be born. The creation is hoping to be released into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The release of the creation will take place at the hands of the sons of God, sons who, through Jesus Christ, have overcome the world, the lusts of their flesh, and their self-will. These are the coheirs. They have suffered with Christ and they will rule with Christ.

To be continued.