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Thank you so very much for sharing your insights and testimony, dear sister in Christ!

In my view, the difference between our spiritual discernment on the matter of predestination v. free will reduces to whether the mind, soul or spirit can cause anything to happen.

I say yes and you say no.

In the following passage, Jesus exhorts us to use our minds, souls or spirits to cause things to happen: pray, believe that ye receive, forgive.

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them]. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. – Mark 11:24-26

And again, seek

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. - Matthew 6:33

And again, ask, seek, knock

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. - Matt 7:7-8

Truly man cannot thwart the will of God. Nothing can.

But I do perceive in the words of God both predestination in prophecy - and free will in commandments. So to me, it is a balance between the two - we have some freedom of movement but we can in no way thwart the will of God.

To God be the glory, not man, never man.

whether the mind, soul or spirit can cause anything to happen. I say yes and you say no.

Well, now, I would have to qualify that observation. If by "anything" you mean something other than what God has ordained from before the foundation of the world, then I would say that is impossible because God's will is determinant and known to Him inside of time and outside of time. So whatever happens has already been formed in the mind of God and as such, would be written in stone.

As an example, if my child were terribly sick I would pray night and day for God to heal him. Not for a minute would I second-guess my prayers which would probably be the only things sustaining me. But at the very same time I would know that my child was going to live for the exact number of days God had already determined he would be on earth.

Two thoughts. Two impulses. Both true.

But to your question, certainly our minds "cause things to happen." The natural man's unregenerate mind "causes" him to disobey God and feel pleasure in his disobedience and compels him to continue to sin.

A mind that has been renewed by the Holy Spirit, according to the will and purpose of God, will likewise "cause" a man to feel sorrow for his sins against the all-holy Creator and compel him to repent of those sins and desire to sin no more.

Thus, the question becomes "who renews men's minds?" Men or God? Who rebirths the spirit of men? Men or God? Who gives eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart of flesh which will love Christ's appearing?

God. Only God. According to His inclination, and not ours, which will always fall away from God unless He first draws us to Him with an unbreakable tether.

It's all of God, who declared the end from the beginning.

"Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." -- Augustine.

The second sentence is good advice. The first sentence is true.