Pastor's Sermon Notes:

October 4, 2026 - Free Will in Heaven

John 7:16-18, NIV

Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.

Anyone who chooses to do the will of God...

I listen to many Bible teachers and theologians throughout the week. Many are people I don’t necessarily align with and/or I disagree on certain points of Kingdom doctrine—but I listen in order to challenge what I know; to expand that knowledge and often to ignite a curiosity to dive more fully into the scriptures for myself. If you put some time into the Kingdom you realize we don’t arrive anywhere in our knowledge of God... we simply increase, eternally, and build upon what we have.

So one day, I was listening to a panel of prophetic leaders, Bible teachers and pastors, and the person speaking said, “You know, in heaven, we will no longer have free will.” This bothered my spirit. I said to myself, “Is that true?” I wondered why they would say something like that with such confidence since that statement was obviously a deep and potentially unknowable thing. So as the weeks rolled by, the thought would come up again and again, “Do we have free will in heaven?”

Please grab your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter two. We’ll be reading from verse four through seventeen.

Genesis 2:4-17, NKJV

This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The first thing we may want to know is who wrote this? If no human beings were around yet since the details include the creation of humanity...and no forms of writing had yet been needed on the earth... who wrote all of this down? There are so many vivid details! Well yes, the Holy Spirit, the third member of our Trinity God was there; “Let US make man in our image,” said God to His three parts in the first chapter.

So the consensus, going by 2 Timothy 2:16 that every word of Scripture is God-breathed, no matter what human person put pen to paper (or papyrus); therefore, Holy Spirit supervised the writings of this account since He was there. The theologians believe the author of Genesis is probably Moses. No one knows for sure who wrote the Book of Genesis, but “probably Moses” is what they say. Why?

Because Moses spoke to God face to face, as is documented in Exodus 33:11. (The Bible tells us that Jacob (who predates Moses) saw the Lord face to face in Genesis 32 while he was on his journey to Uncle Laban’s house... but Moses is the only one who ever spoke to God face to face.)

Now, aside from dying and going to heaven, if you had the opportunity to ask God a bunch of questions about anything at all... what would you ask Him? Moses, being an ancient person and patriarch, thousands of years closer than we are to the days of the Garden of Eden, apparently wanted to know how the whole thing started. And he wrote it down. That is the educated guess of how the Book of Genesis came about; Moses asked God and God told him. The truth is, we don’t know.

What we do know is what those scriptures say: God made the planet, then he made a nourishing mist to come up like a greenhouse and water the ground of the whole planet, and then the Lord molded a human form out of that moist dirt and breathed His “Ruach” (breath of God) into the man’s nostrils and a living being came forth out of the mud in the image and likeness of its Creator.

The next thing that happened is that God crafted a paradise place, a garden and put the man named Adam in it. The Lord then crafted food for Adam from the vegetation, now coming up out of the ground, and fruit-trees began to appear. These trees then provide the reason for mankind to have free-will. God speaks to the man and commands him to do something:

Genesis 2:16 & 17, NKJV

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

If the Lord was giving a command for obedience to Adam, this indicates clearly, that Adam had a choice about it: He could follow the command of God, or not. And the Lord built-in consequences so He knew that humanity’s free-will was already in play.

The woman was formed next of course, a partner for Adam so that he would have a companion like all the other animals... and the woman was deceived by Satan and since she had never seen evil before in their paradise world. The Devil, who doesn’t play fair, knew she was vulnerable, so he persuaded her to eat forbidden fruit from the wrong tree. Eve had no defenses against evil except a command from God that she got second-hand. She was duped, and then condemned. Thank God that we now live in a world where Jesus made everything right again.

Free Will was the first thing given to mankind. Even before the woman was created, God explained to Adam the boundaries attached to his freedom of choice.

So what is Free Will?

It’s the capacity we all have to choose without coercion. We have freedoms to think the way we want; to act and behave however we want to; to speak, yet in this country, with freedoms of opinion; to worship whatever and whoever we want and to live a lifestyle of our absolute choosing.

When we look at all those God-given freedoms, it’s a miracle that the world hasn’t descended into complete anarchy and chaos a million times over. Right there is the doctrine that proves there’s a God. Humanity is free to do whatever it wants to, yet something, or someone, is preventing total destruction.

There’s a scarlet thread of redemption which holds the world together. Jesus is alive and well and His blood made a way for creation to fall in line behind the Savior. Even before Jesus came, that redemption story... God chose for Himself a people, through Abraham, who, though highly imperfect, would choose Yahweh and keep choosing His goodness... until Jesus came to redeem everything.

Free will is woven into the spiritual creation of human beings. We were free to choose since the moment Adam was breathed to life and placed in the Garden. And we were originally designed to be eternal beings. God said it right there in Genesis 2:17 that we just read, physical death WOULD NOT come unless disobedience to the command of God occurred. On that scripture alone, it’s clear that we have no idea, timewise, how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before they sinned and were exiled. It could have been millions of years, since they were designed to live eternally, and that would match the earth’s fossil record.

Now, our bodies die. But our spirit... because it came from the RUACH, the breath of God, which is not fleshly but eternal, remains intact. So our spirit goes on to an eternal place; heaven or hell—we actually get to choose which place we want.

And we take that God-given free will, which was breathed into our spirit, with us into heaven. The question of free-will is now in play--what happens then? Do we need free will if we are not on earth anymore? The Bible gives us some hints:

First, turn with me to Revelation chapter 21. So... we were reading in the first book of the Bible earlier, now we’re in the last book. Revelation 21 and we’ll be reading from verse three to verse seven:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” 5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7 He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

The key verse is everybody’s favorite; verse four. There won’t be any crying, mourning, pain, death or tears. But our free-will on the earth causes all that. It’s because of free will among humans that we hurt each other. So does this mean we won’t be ourselves anymore? Or does it mean we won’t have free will?

Let’s look at some more hints before we answer that:

1 Corinthians 15:52

“In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

Philippians 3:21

“Who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Those are the scriptures about our physical transformation when we enter heaven, so we do know that will happen. In other words, we can’t get into heaven with this flesh on, we’ll need a physical presence on our spiritual frame that can handle the atmosphere of glory.

The Apostle John... the one who, at the end of his life, was taken to heaven alive and given the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which we now call the Book of Revelation...was made an exception. John entered the heavenly realm and saw things that were happening, while still in his earthly body. God did this in order for John to come back to earth and write Revelation so all of us could be prepared for the end of days, should we live to see them.

Aside from John’s transcription of Jesus’ Revelation for us, John also had a handle on what happens to our inner man when we are transformed heavenward... and this has some bearing on our free will:

1 John 3:2 & 3, NKJV

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Even though John, at this point, had already been taken up, he wasn’t shown every detail of heaven. And now he’s writing letters to circulate in the churches that have been planted by the Apostles to tell the new Christians that there will be a time when we all go to heaven and see Jesus face to face, just as He is, (without the veil of darkness from this world that is presently keeping us apart.) And when we get there, if we are children of God and get to go, we’ll be transformed—not only in our bodies, but we shall be like Him. We’ll be purified in our freedoms and be made pure just like Jesus is pure. Galatians 5:1 tells us that it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Free will, free to live, free to choose a sin-less life.

You see, Jesus died to give BACK our freedom that was stolen in the Garden. When we sinned and ate from the wrong tree that day, we fell into bondage of sin and death. Jesus gave His life to give us freedom again. So this makes our case that God does not at all, even in heaven, wish to remove our freedoms we got from Jesus. He doesn’t want robots and soulless beings surrounding Him in eternity.

What Paul and John are both pointing out is that in heaven, we will retain our freedom, but we will no longer be choosing anything sinful, because there is no darkness in heaven. Satan has already been ousted, so there is no evil to choose from! We’ll have new, glorified minds and hearts that are so thoroughly enmeshed with the righteousness in Christ... “we shall be like Him” said John... that it won’t even occur to us to use our free will to sin.

So the answer is YES, we will have our free will in heaven. We will still be who we are. And the goal between now and then is grab onto that purity; that righteousness that Jesus offers and get a head-start on becoming more like the Lord every day.

September 13, 2026 – Year 5787

Leviticus 23-23-25, NASB

Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’”

An offering by fire. Resting and giving the Lord an offering by fire was the command to Moses in the seventh month of the calendar called “Tishrei.” I did not even remember this fact when I was planning our Rockdale Retreat, which was held last Sunday night. Ask anyone who was there, FIRE was a big part of our evening. As in Holy Spirit fire. And that sacred element of our spiritual underpinnings was given to me by the Lord, I believe, because this verse in Leviticus 23 was on God’s mind. I was preoccupied planning for the spiritual depths of fifteen people who were committed to coming to the event... but God was thinking about how close we were to the Feast of Trumpets.

Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish change of the year that we call the New Year... but Jews consider it the ending of the old year. In a similar way that a glass is half full or half empty, depending on how you look at it. We say, “Happy New Year” but the Jews, after the Mosaic law was instituted and they were settled in their own land, would rejoice, saying, “Happy End of the Harvest.” They would celebrate briefly with feasts of those harvested crops...then enter the ten days of contemplation and soul-searching prior to the Day of Atonement called “Yom Kippur.” Ten means testing; they are called the ten days of Awe. God is looking on the hearts of men & woman, between the days of Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur, to see what’s in them... in essence, “testing the hearts.”

Then God’s people could approach the Temple with their sacrifice, having repented of sin and be atoned for another year on September 21, as Yom Kippur happens to fall in 2026. Jewish families are still actively doing this today. They celebrated the end of harvest and the new moon on 9/11, now they wait and reflect until the Day of Atonement. We, God’s people who were grafted-into the vine, the bloodline of Jesus, are now atoned-for every day.

In Moses day, Rosh Ha Shanah was marked by the blowing of the Shofar when the High Priest, or Moses at the time, first observed the sleek, sliver, horn of the moon shining in the night sky. That meant the new moon had arrived. The Jewish calendar, you see, is lunar (as we’ve discussed in many sermons), so this new moon marked the beginning of a new cycle of moons and another calendar year.

And since the Lord instituted that calendar for God’s people over fifty-five hundred years ago now, we, who honor our Jewish Jesus, may observe and note the meaning of these years as they tick by in accordance with God’s schedule being played out in the earth.

Because of Romans 11, we also inherit the prophetic meaning of the year, and can know what Jews know about God’s plans for that coming year. Unfortunately, much like the Christian Church, many Jews are nominal, “in name only” and don’t even know as much as we do about their own faith. They don’t practice; they don’t observe; they don’t go to church or temple. We pray for them to accept Yeshua and we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christendom to get a grip on the times we’re living in. For the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15-17, NASB95

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Fifty-seven, eighty-seven is the year of the sword. Two sevens. As you know, each number has a letter and a meaning; then each cluster of numbers has significance. Five means “the” in this arrangement of letters and seven means a sword or combat weapon. It appears twice. We could become alarmed by this and think maybe God is pointing to increasing wartime, which we are currently experiencing all around the world, us included: The Straight of Hormuz; the Russian/Ukrainian conflict; and even the legions of robotic armies right now being crafted in China using A.I. technology—one may assume this is another year of ongoing war.

But praise God, the sevens are sandwiched within the decade of “Pe.” The eight, as in eighty seven, is the decade of the mouth. We are continuing to see the Lord pointing to the mouth. To speech. To words. To truth vs. lies. To deception through speech. To victorious command. Anything that has to do with the mouth is the core of this decade and year. Yet the sevens... the sevens, in Hebrew called “Zayeen” are the swords. Combat weapons. Violent speech. Or, potent prayers that move mountains & shake the earth. Two sides of the same coin having to do with combat using the mouth is on offer this year. Here is what the Jewish Rabbis & Christian theologians are saying about 5787: “The evil people will use their mouth as a weapon.” AND / OR “The people of God will use their mouth to combat evil.”

“Well,” you may say, “that was a lot of drum-roll for nothing! We already know that!” Yes... we’ve already seen the violent speech change American culture and ruin relationships between America and the world; between family members; between churches, etc.

This year God Himself is speaking loudly: “Choose whose side you’re on.” In other words, how are we, the people of God, using our mouths? Which side of the violent mouth are we on?

Matthew 11:11 & 12, NKJV

“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”

Doing things for the Kingdom of Heaven in a violent way is a legal action—if you’re goal is to attain more of heaven on the earth. What do I mean?

What Jesus is saying in Matthew 11 is that the expansion of the Kingdom will require some doing. Some hard work. Violent goodness and kindness and self-control. Meeting that violence of evil with violent prayer of God’s overwhelming love. Violently standing for righteousness in our counties and towns and cities and states until the Devil flees the dismantling of this country and we ruin the expansion of satanic influence and plans. Pressing hard against the world’s evils until it gives-way to the will of God.

One of the prophetic women (Australia’s Lana Vawser) said this: “Deeper surrender in September.” It’s time to put closure on some things we do where we’ve applied grace before and tried a little harder but did not change our ways. In this year of the mouth, we must NOT be found using our lips as a weapon of the Devil.

...and believe me, I personally, have been taken to the woodshed on that issue in the last week. Since the retreat, I have been tried and tested on how I use my mouth and I failed miserably, when I knew what God is asking of me.

We MUST clean up our mouths this year because there is emphasis on both kinds of violence—the kind that changes the world for Christ, and the kind that destroys it. Do evil with your mouth or defeat evil with your mouth. It’s ours to decide. I’ve drawn up some guidelines and guardrails to help us:

5787 Mouth: Proverbs 18:21, NLT

“The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”

What are we saying? (word choice; profanity; lies; exaggerations)
How are we saying it? (tone; insinuation; innuendo)
Who are we saying it to? (gossip; tale-bearing; back-stabbing)
What is our “spin”? (spreading positivity or negativity)
Do we manipulate? (agenda-driven persuasion rooted in selfishness)
Do we undermine or empower? (hurt or help)
Do we condemn or praise? (bless or curse)

Now is the time to double down on your intercession; your prayer life. Do is as a discipline, an act of training like you’re in boot-camp preparing for war... because spiritually, you are.

Try this: Actually BELIEVE that what you are praying will hit the mark. Like you’re trained as a sniper and you’re a master marksman.

Pray the scriptures; there is no greater weapon against Satan than a verse of scripture. Do it at a certain time each day to where the Enemy will know to RUN as you enter your prayer room or special place and position yourself in the spirit. Even Jesus used that weaponry in the wilderness when He was tempted by the Devil for forty days.

The Feast of Trumpets, which will end tonight at dusk, is the blowing of the Shofars in Israel and, I believe, also in heaven. When the Shofars were sounded in ancient Israel, it meant several things: It meant to gather... as in, come quickly! It meant that a new Kingdom had been installed; a new King had been anointed with oil. It meant victory after a war. And it meant to assemble for war. Deeper surrender in September. It’s time to commit further toward our holiness and righteousness before God and in a specific area. The mouth. With our God, all things are possible.