People are distinct from other living creatures in many ways. one such way is that we are given a soul. A part of the soul is what we express as a will. We have this thing inside of us that allows us to make our own choices. Animals don’t really have this ability. No one tells the ant to dig in the ground and store up food, they just do it. No one tells the bee that it needs to gather pollen to make honey. The domesticated dog can be controlled to a point, but even in that control it shows it was designed to be submissive to man. The will is how we make choices. I choose to eat breakfast or to skip it. It is my will that allows me to get married and stay married and to work at a task. It is this will that caused Adam and Eve to be removed from the garden because of their willful violation of God’s command.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he said to pray thy will be done; that is, that our desire is to see God’s will done. A large part of the Christian walk is trying to submit our will to God’s will. We understand it is sometimes not our desire to be kind, or forgive someone that has offended us, but it is God’s desire. One could say that it is the will of God for us to forgive those that have offended us. When we submit our will to God’s will, God can use us as instruments for his purpose. if we do not submit our will to his, he will bypass us, or – worse – use us as a negative example.

S.D. Gordon writes concerning the will; “‘Thy will be done.’ That is, be accomplished, be brought to pass… it [the surrender to the will of God] cut off from a great throne earth’s greatest jurist, the Hebrew lawgiver, and led him instead to be allied to a race of slaves. It led that intellectual giant Jeremiah from an easy enjoyable leadership to espouse a despised cause and so be himself despised. It led Paul from the leadership of his generation in a great nation to untold suffering, and to a block and an ax. It led Jesus the very Son of God, away from a kingship to a cross. In Every generation it has radically changed lives, and life-ambitions. “Thy will be done” is the great dominant purpose-prayer that has been the pathway of God in all His great doings among men.” S.D, Gordon Quite Talks on Prayer page 46

God desires for our will to be in alignment with his own. When we are he can mold us and use us as he desires. He used Jeremiah to teach this lesson to Isael in a fascinating way.

Jeremiah 18:1-11 KJV

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

² Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.

³ Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

⁴ And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁶ O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

⁷ At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;

⁸ If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

⁹ And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

¹⁰ If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

¹¹ Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

God wanted Israel to repent of doing their own will of not obeying God. Unfortunately, they did not head God’s warning. God has the power to mold nations and men, the only thing that prevents him is the human will. In order for God to use you as he wants to, our wills need to be fully submitted to him.

Notice that God bases our outcome on our obedience. Just as Israel as a nation was placed on the wheel of the potter, so too are we the workmanship of God placed on his wheel. If God wants to bring us before kings or send us to the beggars, he has the rights to do so. God has always called men who were preforming their own will to be shaped and fastened according to his will. Some found their “calling” early and some late. Some were to rise from the shepherd fold to the throne, Others from a place of distinction to a place of servanthood.

Daniel could have decided that since God had obviously ‘predestined’ him to become a eunuch, that there was no need for him to live a life of devotion to God. He could eat the king’s meat and behave himself like all the others. Joeseph could have seen the betrayal of his brothers as God’s complete displeasure for him and turned to a life of self-centered pity. Jonah chose to go against God’s command and would have rather died than to preach the word to the Ninevites. That is until Jonah had spent a few nights contemplating his decision in the belly of a Great fish (Matthew tells us it was a whale). He eventually turned his will to God’s and even became a type of Christ. The point is, that our will being submitted to God’s will is essential to finding out God’s purpose for our life. We must submit to the known will of God for our life, to find out the unknown plane that he has for us.

S.T. 
Acts 20:24
"But none of these things move me..."