Recently someone told me that “God will not override man’s free will”. I disagreed, but did not take the time to address due to time constraints. First of all, to say that God cannot override man’s free says that God is NOT sovereign. But we know that this is not true based on scripture. Dan 4:35 captures God’s sovereignty over earth and man.

But will He override our self-determination or the decisions we make? Paul was determined to hunt down and kill the Christians. God changed his self-determination on the Damascus road. (Acts 9 and Acts 22). Jonah ran from Nineveh because he did not want to do what God told him. Did God respect Jonah’s “free will” or did Jonah end up where God told him to go? Just those two examples answer that question. But I would like you to consider this statement. If God did not intervene or violate our “free will”, no one would ever be saved. Actually, we do not have ‘free will” because we are enslaved to sin (Romans 6:20) until God changes our hearts. Scripture tells us that we would never choose Christ as our savior unless God changes the will of a person (Rom 3:10-12, Rom 8:7-8, Jer 17:9).

If God does not change the self-determination or free-will, why do we pray for Him to remove rebellion or change someone heart so that they may be saved. Isn’t that overriding self-determination or the “free will” of the person to reject Christ?

If you are a person that believes that God will not override a person’s free-will, it is time to rethink your position.