Psalm 52 Personal Will

Through the mere force of our personal will we can accomplish incredible things. It can also lead to death and destruction. The human will is one of the most powerful forces in our world. Will is the means through which all our thoughts become manifest. However its power must be harnessed and put to constructive use.

Have you ever expended a great effort to accomplish something, only to find that you did not really want it once you got it? We must understand that it is important to be clear about what is the motivation and intention behind our actions before we commit our will to any endeavor. The spiritual path is about the surrender of the personal will to the Divine.

Faith-filled people want to surrender to God. But this desire creates a strong reaction in the ego, because it is concerned that it will lose power. We know that the power of love is much more capable of ruling than the ego, but the ego has an armory of tricks and tactics that it uses to maintain its dominance in our consciousness. The ego is described as mighty one, and that is an apt description. While it is under the dominion of the senses and the material, it seems as though the will overrides all logic and reasoning. It is very good at deceiving the mind and creating excuses for selfish and wanton activities. During these times we find that we become more impulsive than usual and particularly self-destructive.

But through the cleansing activity of the Spirit of God, the ego can be rightly ordered. We become like a newcomer (green olive tree) in the house of God. The olive tree represents peace and harmony between the material and the spiritual. Faith in God’s steadfast love and gratitude for that love is restored. We can have our will serve Spirit rather than our senses. Once we achieve this level of understanding, we will find that all things in our life happen effortlessly. When our egos get out of the way, we allow ourselves to step into the flow of Spirit.

And so it is! Amen!