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there are some who view God as an utterly selfish being who created the universe and programmed all that is in it to behave in His prescribed manner solely for His entertainment. it would be a sad realization if indeed our existence was nothing more than that of a puppet's.

indeed, we can observe in our responses to stimuli (whether it be a physical, emotional or other type of stimulus) that a lot of these are automatic (occur instantly without even a conscious "decision making" process on our part) and predictable. there are numeorus experiments in sociology, psychology and other fields of science that clearly demonstrate and confirm the PROGRAMMED aspects of our being.

can you think of any act that we do that is NOT an effect of some programming in our being but rather is a conscious exercise of free will?

i believe that everytime we STRIVE to overcome a programmed response (be it physical, behavioral, emotional or other) in order to manifest our selfless love for God (via our selfless love for others), we are exercising free will.

the nature of free will is spiritual and thus it resides only amongst spiritual beings in accordance with spiritual laws. in other words, our soul has free will; not our mind.

overcome your mind so as to allow your true destiny to unfold.

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Greatest Act of Free Will

No greater exercise of free will is there than to offer and surrender one's free will back to God.

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Wisdom

In truth, I do not have much wisdom. The wisdom of my actions (that eventually bares itself out) stems from my blindly setting course along the path that the Holy Spirit seems to lead me to.

Where does my certainty come from that the inspired path is indeed from the Holy Spirit? The certainty stems from the underlying motivation to do an act of love however foolish the act might seem at the onset.

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Overcoming Fear

I go precisely (not recklessly) to where my fears lie so as to eventually master the skill of overcoming these.

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Gaining Faith

Though faith is inherently and ultimately blind, it is only with the sight of understanding that we gain it.

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