will you will or will you not will?

Yet another round in the Chamber today to help blast away idolatry.

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14

The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.
Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “. . . without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.
 
When will you decide to attend the funeral of your own desires?

It is impossible to please God through performance.
This is true.

But it would be untrue to say that our performance is of no value or significance.

I love my children.
This is an unalterable fact of reality.

I command my children to obey certain rules.

Their obedience cannot make null and void the love I extended to them prior to their ever obeying or disobeying. 

That said, I still command my children to obey and I enjoy dearly the moments where they consider my desires and alter their behavior to conform themselves to my wishes.

When you love someone, you find yourself concerned primarily with what the object of your affections desires.  Don't believe me, observe a young man in pursuit of a young lady.  I have seen more Gilmore Girls and Friends than I ever watched prior to meeting Paige.  I'm ok with that, because I like Paige and what she likes. Do I like everything she likes exactly the way she likes it?  No.  But it would be a cause of concern to others, I would hope, if I did not like anything she liked at all and had absolutely no interest in what interested her.  Beyond that, it would be startling if I cared nothing for the things that she cares about most.

All that to say, if you love God you will find yourself orienting your life around that which He desires.  You may not always be in perfect concert with Him step for step, but you will find yourself (to your own amazement) casting off things in which you used to find interest in order to make room and priority of that which interests Him.