Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

James 1:3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Indoctrination

Definition from Oxford Languages ·

Noun

the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.

What is missing in the process of indoctrination is critical thinking, the absence of free will. Being conformed to the world is much like indoctrination. You didn’t have much choice in the matter. We told ourselves that we had free will but until we are set free we cannot see the true meaning of free will.

Free will can only be expressed when the mind is allowed to think critically. Critical thinking weighs as many options as are necessary to draw a reasonable conclusion that is not fixed and allows for more data to be collected. Free will is allowed to course correct. Indoctrination does not allow for adjustments to be made.

Faith based free will is always tested. It is tested by tribulations that come from the opposition and by God to measure one and only attribute God cares about love. In God’s Kingdom it only matters if we love Him with steadfast love.

Isaiah 61:8 For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

God has told us what He loves and what He hates and if we choose to love God, then we should love and hate what God loves and hates. Since He cares about it, so should we, but that is also a matter of free will because love can only be expressed if it is free to do so. Having no other choice makes us puppets. God does not have puppets that do not love Him.

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Or anything else for that matter. Money is just one source of distraction, Satan has many more for us to choose from. Lust of the flesh covers many areas of life. Put any of those choices before our devotion to God and we have failed the faith test. That is free will, we are free to fail.

Deuteronomy 29:4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

Isaiah 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

Matthew 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

Spiritual ears and eyes are granted to us from God but when and how and to whom that gift is granted can be confusing.

Cain killed his brother and God was still talking to Cain. The ability to hear God doesn’t seem to be connected to sin. Then again Cain recognized God in some way because he made a sacrifice of his labor and found it was not accepted as was his brother Abel’s lamb.

What was there about Abram that allowed him to hear God in the first place? He grew up in a pagan land and no one there knew God or worshipped Him in any way. So it would appear that Abram was not taught of a sovereign God and yet believed God when he heard God speak. So how we were raised and what we are taught has nothing to do with it.

If we are so loved by God, which His Word tells us, then don’t we need to have these spiritual ears and eyes to have a close personal relationship with God? Every loving relationship has these things in common; good clear communication, honesty and commitment. The back and forth between two in a committed relationship keeps that relationship alive.

We live in the world that says if we are hearing voices when no one else is visibly we are labeled insane and need to be committed to a psych ward. Knowing this we are reluctant to admit if in fact we do hear God speak. We are afraid to admit what we know to be true for us.

So what can we do to not endanger our just cause, to spread the gospel? Make faith the issue.

Romans 10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

2 Timothy 1:13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Sound words don’t sound insane. When we fail to find our own words, use His.