"Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword... he who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life on My account will find it." Matthew 10:34, 38,39
This sounds very much like The Father to me. Different instructions or circumstances, to be sure, but His words have come to pass and then some.
Harley and Dr. E, it's rather easy for me to accept that all comes from God, that he is the Creator of everything and anything under the sun, both what I understand (which is infinitesimally small) and what I don't understand (which comprises nearly everything). I don't see how it could be any other way.
As regards free will, my sense of things is that I do possess it, but my free will directed freely by myself has led me to sin, and to sin exceedingly.
And, that any impulse that I have to please the Lord while seeming to come from my will, seems only to be possible because it is infused by the Counsel of the Holy Spirit. I'm looking to the Lord for approbation of thought, word and deed. And that looking to the Lord is only because it was according to His Gracious and Perfect Will that he called me to Him, and when he called me to Him, I was filthy. My own will is pure bondage, and the liberation of it is strictly the Plan of God and the Work of the Holy Spirit.
Adam and Eve, even while in perfect communion with God were not able to resist sinning. They threw Paradise away over nothing. They thought they could be like God. There is no greater conceit than that.
This is a great truth. There are only two wills in the Bible. God's will is perfect, just and holy. What is man's will? It doesn't leave much to the imagination.
"The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light....But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." Rom 13:12-14
We can either put on Christ and be in His will or be subject to our "deeds of darkness".