Deuteronomy 11:26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day.
Even though you have a portion of the Holy Spirit, when we are finished with Bible study this evening, you can go to Red Lobster and eat your fill of shrimp and Oysters, contrary to what you know is right. We do not advise, or recommend doing so, but if you so choose, The Holy Ghost would not stand at the door with a flaming sword, to prevent you. The Holy Spirit sets before our minds the good and the bad with consequences, and then He prompts us to choose good over evil.
But He does not force His way through the door of our choices. Behold I stand at the door and knock, means that you and I must consent. There are times when He may go before us to keep us from falling, but He does not keep us against our will. We must have a desire to be kept, and if that is the case, then God has our prior permission to take whatever preemptive action He deems necessary. In extremely rare cases that can possibly be counted on one hand, Christ used force.
That is because the good of His people was in Jeopardy, such as when stubborn Balaam insisted on cursing the Hebrews. That is, by far the exception because forcing the will is contrary to the foundational principles of love. The flipside of this perspective is that if God were to use force to coerce your will and choices, He would be directly responsible for any failures on your part, because He didn’t prevent you.
Deuteronomy 11:28 And a curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known.
May God add His blessing to the study of His word. “Good night” and God bless!