Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Mark 14:38

It is the heart willing to say yes and to follow it with obeying that sustains.  It is the heart, the spirit, that wants to follow, that chooses to believe, follow, and obey that receives the blessing.

Life grows from a willing spirit.  The heart that chooses to go on, the heart that has a will to live.

David cried out, after his affair with another man’s wife,

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.

Psalm 51:10-12

A willing Spirit yields to the Lord’s wishes when it is able.  The disciples in the garden of Gethsemane were willing, but were unable because their bodies were tired.  But, their spirits were willing.

When a man has a vibrant spirit, it sustains him, and he perseveres.  As Proverbs says,

The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

Proverbs 18:14 KJV

The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord (Proverbs 20:27).

In the days of Moses, the people who had had their spirits made willing brought offerings to the Lord (Exodus 35:21).

The Life comes forth as the Spirit says Yes.  As the action is carried through, conception brings forth to birth of desire, and life happens.

Every day, we have willing spirits to this and that and the other.  But, when it comes time to turn to the Lord, as David cried out, he asked that he be sustained with a willing spirit.

The heart that continually yields to the will and choosing of the Lord entertains the Lord, and He dwells with that man.  The heart that is ever inclined unto the Lord sees the fruitfulness of His labor to many generations.

The willing spirit is the one that is happy to do His work, for it loves righteousness and hates wickedness.  It is upright within him.

As a heart that shines forth with His glory and radiance, and sees His truth, we understand with Jesus that all of the Father’s commands lead to life.  Because, through the Grace and light of the Gospel, He has chosen the way of the Spirit above all else, though the way may be difficult at times, it always bends itself to whatever the other wishes, simply because it has grown to trust Him.

The willing spirit is a fruitful vine, overspreading the ground, and covering with its branches.  It merely rests upon the branches of the one it surrounds, having no stately structure of its own.  It has its own substance, for sure, but as it grows and produces its harvest, it branches out and spreads towards the sky as it can rise up on the arms of another.

It is a channel of life.  As Jesus is the true vine, and we are His branches, His life flows through us, it rises up, it comes forth.  The branches come over the structures and edifices of this world.

As the Spirit makes us willing, and sustains us in His Mercy, we follow after Him, we abide in Him, and we live His life.

The willing spirit says yes to the desires of the Master, always.

Oh, to have a willing Spirit always.

Sustain me ever with your willingness, Lord.

Grant me always to have no other will within me, but your own.  Only let me follow, and lean, and learn to love.

The willingness of the heart is the open door for the Lord, to enter in, and make us one.