WHAT is the human will? In this article we will try to make plain the part that the will plays in man’s life and spiritual growth.

Have you a strong, a weak or a wavering will? Whichever it is determines the degree of success you have made or will make of your life. Starting with this statement, we will endeavor to prove how and why it is true.

First, as a foundation on which to build our facts, we wish to establish in the minds of all who read that there is only one will—God’s Will, and that man’s will must be a more or less pure expression of His Will. Consider with us for a moment what that means.

God’s Will then must be a mighty source of Power, ever present for use and waiting only to be called upon to express Itself through whatever channel is open for Its use. It can be likened to electricity in the air waiting to be drawn forth, controlled and utilized, or to find a channel through which it can express. In fact, electricity is an expression of God’s Will, or is one of the ways in which God expresses His Will; even as all manifestation of power and all use of power by man, in whatever he does—through thoughts, speech or acts, is God expressing His Will. For all power in action—no matter what medium or phase it utilizes—is God’s Will in expression. Think this over carefully until you see how it must be so.

Let us then take electricity as an actual evidence of God’s Will waiting to be called upon and put to use. Two ways in which it responds to man’s intelligent understanding of its latent power will serve as excellent illustrations of how man in a similar way can call upon the power of his own will in an expression and use of God’s Will.

Everyone knows that by pressing a button or turning a switch a connection is made by which the electrical power generated in the Power Plant of a city instantly lights the house, begins to heat the stove, or starts the machinery in motion that will do the work of shop or factory. Another more apt illustration is the street-car run by cable; when the motorman throws his switch the cable is grabbed, and he knows the cable will pull the car as long as it holds on to the cable.

In just the same way when we make the connection with God, by turning the switch of our minds to Him, in an equal knowing that our wills are the cables connecting us with His Will, and that by thus grabbing the cable His Power immediately obeys our direction and use, and then by letting that Power do the work for us (simply holding on to the cable), unhindered by the slightest doubt, fear or concern—will His Will work unfailingly for us, according to what is to be done.

Some will ask, Is it as simple as that? What about those who have powerful wills, who know nothing about God’s part in what they do, and even seem to be opposing God’s Will of loving service to one’s fellowmen?

Remember, all will is God’s Will—even the will of such a man; for just to the extent that he consciously calls upon and uses his will-power, seeing and knowing no opposition, does God’s Will work for him. God’s Will, therefore, can be used for good or ill, even as electricity can be used to heat and light your house, or it will burn it up—if improperly wired or the wires improperly insulated.

BUT JUST what is the will of man? How may he call upon and use it? Very few have studied their own natures so as to be able to answer these questions intelligently. This because the will is perhaps the most intangible and mysterious of man’s faculties.

The Standard Dictionary defines will as “the faculty by which the rational mind makes choice of its ends of action, and directs the energies in carrying out its determinations.” We would define it as a faculty we use to choose a course of action and then to call upon the power within us to accomplish our ends.

You will note the similarity of our definition to the illustration of the cable-car. The power within us is the cable that connects us with God’s Will or Power; but we have to choose to grab that power and then to let it work for us, knowing as does the motorman that nothing can prevent its accomplishing our predetermined ends.

An illustration frequently used is—when one is sitting in a chair and he chooses to stand up, until he starts to get up and at the same time mentally reaches down within himself and connects up with the power he knows is there, he would just as well continue to sit in the chair. Study yourself and note the mental and physical processes of such action.

The will part is the deliberate mental effort of arousing physical power that accomplishes our ends. Therein must God then, Who is all Power and the Only Will, do all that we do.

The recognition of this great truth is a stupendous thing, when one fully understands all that it implies. For it proves that man through his will is connected with a mighty power with which he can accomplish unlimited good or evil, and which accounts for the vast amount of evil done in the world.

It proves that God then must be wholly Impersonal in His expression, even as electricity is impersonal in its action. But when we can see that another name for God’s Will is The Law, which we know is also wholly Impersonal, it can be perceived how the operation or expression of His Will must always be in perfect Wisdom, Love and Justice—witness the operation of Law governing and controlling all nature, the functions of man’s body, and the movements of the planets in our Universe. The Law is no respecter of persons or of man’s ideas of good or evil. It judges and rules inexorably and always for the eternal good of all.

If God then is doing all that we do, or it is The Law that rules and controls everything, wherein does man’s will come in, and just what is the use of it?

Resolved to its essence, it can be easily seen from what has been shown that man’s will is his ability to choose and to grab and to hold on to the cable.

How does man develop that ability—for we know that most men are poor choosers, because of ignorance of what is best for them; others are poor grabbers, because of lack of initiative, courage and aggressiveness; while only the few can hold on to the end, because of weakness and lack of faith and trust in God? It can be developed only by growth through experience, as with all other faculties of man.

If you can accept it, all growth and unfoldment has for its chief purpose the development of the will—for the will is the chief indicator of the man? Not until a free and perfect will is developed—or the ability to “let go” and allow God’s Will completely to rule or have charge, has man attained his majority, so to speak.

And now just what is “letting go”? It is the most difficult task—and the most important one—facing man; it takes the most will-power and accomplishes the greatest thing in man’s life. But instead of it being a “letting go,” it is a grabbing tight hold of God and NEVER LETTING GO of Him!

Can you do that, dear friend? Why not? Because of your lack of faith and trust in God, you say. But why have you not the necessary faith and trust in God? Only because you do not know and love Him well enough and because, therefore, He is not yet your first and supreme desire. Your will for Him is not fully developed. Your will is for other things you desire more. Yes, you cannot escape this fact.

For so long as there is personal desire of any kind you cannot hold on to God. Desire and will are the lower and higher aspects of the same thing. The higher nature of man directs the will, but the lower always turns it into selfish desire. Will is the cable connecting man with God, but most men do not yet fully know this. Desire, caused by the false sense of separation, always seeks to satisfy self.

We said that only the few are able to grab and hold on to the cable, because of weakness and lack of faith and trust in God. We now want you to note the very intimate relation there is between faith, trust and will.

What is faith? Faith is the conviction of things hoped for, according to the Book of Hebrews; and we know of no better definition. But can there be true faith without the ability to hold steadfast in it? And that takes will-power. On the other hand, will is of no real value without faith to direct and sustain it. Trust is but firmly established faith. So that you can see that actual faith and trust are impossible where there is a weak will.

Then both faith and will must be a matter of growth and development, and man has no control over that. Of course not. God is growing man, but back of all, within all, and sustaining all, He is perfecting his will—everything else in life assisting and contributing to that end; for the will is the spiritual backbone of man, and even as in man’s body, what would it be with a weak backbone. So that when man’s will is grown strong enough so that he can turn and grab hold of God and hold on tightly to Him, something wonderful happens—God then takes complete possession!

But that never happens until all sense of self and separation has been overcome, so that there is no more desire and no more will for anything but God. Can one overcome that sense without effort? The word “overcome” contains within itself its true meaning and the answer, which is to “come up over,” to rise above, conquer and master the sense of self and separation.

Can one do that of oneself? No, one can do nothing wholly of oneself; but when God shows us the way to conquer self and to come unto Him, He expects us to come. But that takes effort, and we must make the effort—else why did He grow us, develop our wills along with the sense of His Power and Presence in us, if we are not to use this Power—under His direction, of course, or if you prefer, under The Law which He taught us?

Therefore, we must become overcomers—overcomers of self. And the only way we can overcome self is to master it and make it obey us—make it do what we want it to do. This of course cannot be done without conscious volition and effort. For will self surrender willingly? You have had plenty of evidence that it never submits until you overcome it and prove that you are its master.

In other words, we must prove that we are conscious masters of the Power within us, that He has given us, and has shown us how to use. He grows us to that end alone—and then only are we ripe and ready for Him to take possession of us.

What, think you, is this mysterious Power—this will of ours that we cannot see, cannot clearly understand, and is so hard to control—for it seems a part of us yet is not wholly ours? Is it not—so to speak—our soul in action, that part of Himself within us God is growing, developing and perfecting, so that He can eventually use us freely and unhindered—as He uses all else in nature, and can thereby express Himself fully as the Son of Man? Is not our will the clearest evidence of the soul of us that our minds can comprehend?

From all this two things stand out clearly: (1) Only as we respond to God by turning to Him in a perfect love and trust, thus uniting our wills to His, can we overcome self. (2) And we cannot respond to Him until He grows and fully develops our will to love and trust Him, so that our love and trust “come up over” and are stronger than our desire to please self.

Listen to what the Lord says in Revelation of those who have thus overcome self and are holding tightly to God:

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.—Rev. 2:7.

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.—2:17.

He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him I will give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star.—2:26–28.

He that overcometh shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.—3:5.

He that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my new name.—3:12.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.—3:21–2.

Study carefully the above wonderful promises until you get their full inner meaning, in the light of what has been shown, so that you may be wide open to become a real overcomer.