第八单元 ： 意志（心、心灵）和品格的转化
1. 什么是意志（心，心灵），它如何操作
i. 我們的意志（心，灵）于心思（思想和感觉）的互动关系
The will is hemmed in by what our thoughts and feelings actually are at the time of willing. But now we need to develop further the idea that our thoughts and feelings also have a crucial dependence on our will, on our choices.(200页，2段).
ii。现在的决定我们很难改变，但是我们可以改变将来作的抉择，因为我们可以选择／改变思想和感觉
Obviously, the thoughts and feelings that the will depends on in any given moment of choice cannot be changed in that moment. But the will or heart can change the thoughts and feelings that are to be available to it in future choices. It is because of this that we are responsible for our character. (201页，1段).
iii。品格是我们惯常的行为模式和意志倾向，但是，品格是可以改变的。 这种改变就是属灵塑造成更像耶稣基督的目的／目标。
Character is that internal, overall structure of the self that is revealed by our long-run patterns of behavior and from which our actions more or less automatically arise… They do not just tell what someone did, but they reveal what kind of thoughts, feelings, and tendencies of will that person habitually acts from, and therefore how he or she will act in the future. But character can be changed. And that, of course, is what spiritual formation in Christlikeness is about.(201页，2-3段).
iv. 我们的心思和意志要受神的话语和圣灵的引导来真正的被转化。
The human mind and will must be transformed through interaction with thoughts and feelings deriving from the Word and the Spirit.(202页，1段).
v。真正被转化的人的意志，是完全专一和降服与神的意志里。
Single-minded and joyous devotion to God and his will, to what God wants for us— and to service to him and to others because of him— is what the will transformed into Christlikeness looks like…this outcome becomes our character when it has become the governing response of every dimension of our being. (202页, 6段).
2. 人的意志的本质
i. 意志，创意和创造的能力
Will is the ability to originate or refrain from originating something: an act or a thing. It brings things into existence.(203页，4段).
ii。意志，是人的心灵（spirit), 而心灵本身就有自主的能力和性质
It is the core of our nonphysical being. It is, strictly speaking, our spirit— the human spirit, not divine— though it comes directly from God and is meant to be in his keeping through our trust in him. It is the nature of the spiritual to be self-determined. Such self-determination is absolute or unrestricted in God (204页，2段).
iii。 意志，是人的心 (heart)－行动的中心
the will is the executive center of the human self. From it the whole self or life is meant to be directed and organized, and must be if it is to be directed or organized at all. That is why we recognize the will to be the same as the biblical “heart” or center. (204页，3段).
iv。人的尊严和珍贵，在于我们拥有自由选择
Creation: freely chosen character. The centrality of will to personhood is what makes it immediately and strongly precious and gives the person dignity. Dignity is a worth so great that it disallows exchanging a person for anything else. The great worth of the person explains why Jesus Christ would die for the sake of individual human beings and be satisfied with the outcome (205页，1段).
3. 人的意志是珍贵的，但同时也是人的“难题”
The human will in the individual is not only precious, it is a problem…Human life in its usual forms is characterized by conflict within the will and between wills… true picture of the fallen human will. (205页，3段)
i. 人选择抬高自己，不去顺服和甘心服事神。
exaltation of self replaces submission and service to God. (206页，1段).
ii. 现代的心理学也意识到内在自我意志的相互矛盾、冲突和张力，却把这种情况变成了一门学问
Freud and many other psychologists have, in their own ways, done the same. All of this has now become a part of the modern person’s self-understanding and is accepted as part of standard educational programs and of the popular and other arts. (206页, 3段).
iii。现代的学说，更认为前后不一，游移不定的意志才是自由
Whereas in prior times a focused and coherent will was assumed to be necessary to human freedom, today the assumption is that freedom only comes with an incoherent and vagrant will.
（206页，4段).
iv。真理，被看作是种枷锁
Truth, by contrast, is regarded as bondage and a rigorous identity as a prison that prevents me from endlessly creating myself and re-creating myself. (207页，1段)
v。远离了神，我们的意志无可避免的“表里不一” (Duplicity), 自我欺骗。
condition of alienation from God, the complexity of the human will moves irresistibly toward duplicity, not just in the harmless sense of “doubleness,” but in the sense of deception. This is the result of pretending to feel and think one way while acting in another. Often the deception involved is self-deception.(209页，2段).
4. 解决方案 The solution
Our only hope is to entirely place our confidence in the God and Father of Jesus Christ, who is willing to enter the duplicity of our heart and bring it wholly to himself if we earnestly invite him. He is “greater than our heart, and knows all things” (210页，3段).
i。神回应我们的心，尊重我们的意志，成全我们的心灵
He responds to the heart because it is, above all, who we are: who we choose and have chosen to be. What God wants of us can only come from there. He respects the centrality of our will and will not override it. He seeks godly character in us and for us, to fulfill the eternal destiny he has in mind for us. (210页，4段).
ii。神了解，知道我们的心
God hears and responds without fail. It is as if he has a “heart monitor” installed in every person. And when the heart truly reaches out to God as God,(211页，2段).
iii。 逐渐学习、遵从神的意志的过程 (VIM 里的Intention）
a. 降服于神的意志
IN THE PROGRESSION TOWARD complete identification of our will with God’s there are distinctions to be noted. First there is surrender. (213页，1段).
－ The center of the self, the heart or spirit, is now willing for God to be God— even if with little hope or enthusiasm. Perhaps it is only willing to be made willing. But it is for lack of this minimal identification with God’s will that multitudes of people are unable to understand the truth of Jesus (213页，3段).
－ at this point, surrender now covers all the circumstances of life, not just the truth about God and his explicit will (commandments) for human beings, (213页，4段).
b. 满足于神的意志
Beyond abandonment is contentment with the will of God …At this point in the progression toward complete identification with the will of God, gratitude and joy are the steady tone of our life. We are now assured that God has done, and will always do, well by us— no matter what! （214页，5段).
c. 积极参与服事，完成神的意志
Beyond contentment lies intelligent, energetic participation in accomplishing God’s will in our world. We are no longer spectators, but are caught up in a vivid and eternal drama in which we play an essential part.(215页，2段）
5. 我们还需要继续对付，自己堕落的品格和“纠葛不清”(Entanglement)的内在状况
NOW, WHEN WE SET out on the path of the surrendered will we find we must come to grips with our fallen character. （216页，3段）
i。面对“纠葛不清”的内在，我们要学习操练“专心一意”遵行神的意志
The condition we find ourselves in can best be described as one of entanglement. By contrast, the condition we must move to is that of single-minded focus upon doing the will of God in everything, distracted by nothing. (216页，4段).
ii。我们处在”纠葛不清“主要的原因是私欲 (Desires)
NOW, THE PRIMARY SOURCE of our entanglement is our desires— really, not just our desires themselves, but our enslavement to them and confusion about them. Temptation to sin always originates in desire(218页, 4段).
iii. 私欲奴隶了意志，它接着也奴役心思
when the will is enslaved to a desire, it will in turn enslave the mind. To justify itself in satisfying the desire, the will enlists the intellect to provide rationalizations, frequently so bizarre that they amount to selective insanity.(219页, 2段).
iv。所以，要摆脱这种“纠葛不清”，就必须克服“表里不一” （Duplicity)
OUR PRIMARY, PRACTICAL AIM in stepping free from the “entanglements” must be to overcome duplicity. And to overcome it we must become conscious of it, confront it, and take appropriate steps to forsake it.(219页, 4段).
v. 以认识神明确说过的意志为起点
We can begin with what we know he has said. Let us firmly decide to do that. This will quickly lead us into the depths of spiritual transformation, including adequate knowledge of all of his will for us.(220页, 1段).
vi。属灵塑造和转化涉及我们的每一个向度，但是我们仍需立志，并附上努力。
We can never sufficiently emphasize the fact that spiritual formation cannot be a matter of just changing the will itself. That is central, of course, but it cannot be accomplished except by transformation of the other dimensions of the self. We discover that mere intention or effort of will is not enough to bring about the change in us that we have hoped for and to free us from duplicity and malice. Still, we must hold to that intention and sincerely make the effort, and then we will find that help is available.(220页，4段).
vii。属灵操练的必要
Disciplines make room for the Word and the Spirit to work in us, and they permit… （221页，2段）Upon a path of clear intention and decision, with appropriate spiritual disciplines and accompanying grace to illumine and correct us when we fail, it is not as far away as many would suppose. The duplicities, entanglements, and evil intents that infect our will can be clarified and eliminated as we keep our eyes on Jesus, （222页，2段).
最后，我们还有自己吗？
DO WE THEN LOSE ourselves? To succeed in identifying our will with God’s will is not, as is often mistakenly said, to have no will of our own. Far from it. To have no will is impossible. It would be to not even be a person. Rather, it is for the first time to have a will that is fully functional, not at war with itself, and capable of directing all of the parts of the self in harmony with one another under the direction of God. Now we do not hesitate to do what is right; and to do wrong we would have to work against ourselves. （222页，3段） 我们有了更健全的意志，不再有自我的斗争和矛盾，能拥有真正的内在和谐
