Free Will and Choice

Sutra Number: 
673
Heaven Sutra Date: 
11/13/2000

Nancy O. to God:

Dear God, I probably have endless questions, but sometime I would like You to talk to us about the concept of Free Will. You said in the September 27 Heavenletter that You cannot decide for Hans what he should do, nor can his wife, only he can make his own life decisions.

What does it mean to be free? How do we exercise free will against the expectations and desires of those around us? When we help others, we are not always letting them be free. It is hard to know how much "help" is helpful!

There are also people who don't seem to use their free will, because they think everything is governed by karma.

I ask for Your guidance in these matters.

God to Nancy O.:

Dear Nancy, usually it is best to wait until help is asked for before giving it. Help in the sense of advice. Even when My children ask for advice, they often are not really asking. They want to spout their grief or their situation more than they want to hear what someone else has to say. They are not looking for a "right" answer. They are looking to be heard. Or they are looking for confirmation.

At the time Hans was speaking, his mind was made up to stay where he was. He did not want to give up his work. His heart did not want to. Because he wanted to stay where he was, because he was attached to staying where he was, he told himself it made sense to continue as he was. To his wife, it made no sense whatsoever. It is not a wife's place to dictate to her husband where he works, for it is he who works there, even if his decision makes no sense. He has to come to decisions himself.

Anyone can give advice. Anyone can tell someone else what to do. They can say what they think. But they must not try to order another's life. No one can really direct someone else's life, no matter how apparent things may seem. Each is responsible for his own life.

Now, even when a strong parent has ordered his grown son to follow a certain career and not another and the son follows the career his father mandated for him, the son made the choice. He perhaps did not choose his desired career, but he chose to follow his father's advice. Even under duress, it was his choice to follow his father's direction or not.

Was Hans asking me whether he should stay at his company or not? I think he was more likely asking: Can't I stay where I am and where I want to be and not have anyone bother me about it?

But let Us say that he was asking: "God, is it all right to stay where I am because I want to for various reasons, or is it better for me to find work that will pay my bills and give my wife and me some financial freedom even though my heart doesn't want to leave at this time?"

Let Us say that I had answered: "You must leave now."

What do you think would happen?

If he chose to follow My advice, it would have been with a torn heart. How much energy would he have had with which to move forward?

Decisions must come from within.

It was not urgent that Hans leave at that moment. Hans has to act in his own good time.

It is like jumping into a twirling jump-rope. Each person has to get his own rhythm and feel for it, and then he jumps in. Even if one might jump in at the wrong moment, it will still be all right because it was from his own volition. He will pick himself up and simply leap in again.

Life has its timing too.

What a difference there is in doing something of your own volition in preference to another's.

The time will come when all are aligned with My will. That is harmony. That is no decision. That is freedom.

Certainly you can hear the desires and expectations of those around you, but you cannot fulfill their desires and expectations. You must fulfill your own.

You always make your own decisions. Just what are you deciding?

Those who feel helpless in life and under the yoke of karma have a scapegoat. That is their free will to do so. They can attribute the ups and downs of their life to karma or astrology and shrug their shoulders, or they can, at any moment, decide to get up and make other choices in life.

Some see God's Will as karma. It was God's Will that they succeed or fail or whatever.

I am not indifferent to anyone's life, but My vision is far greater than most everyone's, would You agree, and I, like you, intervene as little as possible.

If I gave you free will, I gave you free will. I did not give you free will some of the time and not the rest. I did not give you free will to follow only what I think. I gave you free will to follow what you think, even if it be folly. Otherwise, free will would be a false name.

Soon or late, you find out that your will and My Will are inevitably entwined. Your will is for goodness and mercy and peace and joy for all as is Mine.

When I say that life sometimes decides for you, I think you know what I mean. You get laid off. The company gets restructured. Even then, is it life that has decided or is it you? Perhaps you decided the course of your life that led you to the turn in the road.

I will not tell Hans what job to take, or to tell someone what man to marry, or if a girlfriend will return, or if you should date or not date, or buy one dress and not another. All questions you ask of yourself, and all questions you decide. I offer, but I will not order. Your decisions are yours.

* * *

Ann to Heavenletters:

Dear Gloria, I thank God for reaching out to me through you and for raising our vibrations so that attunement is more and more attainable for us.

God to Ann:

I thank you for accepting.