Mike,
I read through “After the Counsel of His own will” several times and have gone over the scriptures, but I am blind as a lump of clay in the Potter’s hand. His word says we will all stand before Him and give an account.  Maybe I don’t understand what it means by giving an account. It seems like I could only answer as follows, “Whenever You [ God] sent an evil spirit to influence me I followed and when I am not following evil, it’s only because You sent your word, your Spirit to drag me to do righteousness.”  All I could say is “I could do nothing of my self”, I was truly a lump of clay in your hands all the days of the life that you gave me.”
You used the phase “caused choice” which seems to me at this time like it is “no choice” on my part at all, I am just a puppet on a string. I do what the master commanded me to do, both good and evil. We are clay on the potter’s wheel, and it’s the potter that molds and shapes me into what I am and will become; the clay does nothing. My flesh can’t boast of either the good or the evil that I have done for it was all from God.
I know the Lord will give me in His time understanding for I shall wait. Another subject that I was challenged by an elder in my church is what is the Holy Spirit if God is not a trinity.  So I will search the website and mostly His word to find the answer.  It seems like this would be a common challenge to all those that knows that the bible doesn’t teach that major (mother of all?) false doctrine.
Blessings
D____

Hi D____,
Giving an account is exactly as you describe it:
“It seems like I could only answer as follows, Whenever You [ God] sent an evil spirit to influence me I followed and when I am not following evil it’s only because You sent your word, your Spirit to drag me to do righteousness.  All I could say is “I could do nothing of my self”, I was truely a lump of clay in your hands all the days of the life that you gave me.”
Had Joseph’s brothers gone to their father Jacob and told him what they had done, they would not have been so tormented for so many years. Had they come to Joseph and simply agreed with Joseph, and said, ‘You are right Joseph, remember what you told us when you first revealed to us who you were. Remember what you said at that time:

Gen 45:1  Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
Gen 45:2  And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.
Gen 45:3  And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.
Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

‘Remember what you said Joseph? It wasn’t really us at all that sent you here. It was really God. We agree with you Joseph, we have come to see that we cannot even sin and mean evil against you and sell you into Egypt, outside of the “working of Christ” moving in our lives and “ordaining the days He has written in His book before they ever were.”‘

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
 Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

Had Joseph’s brothers done that, they would have been “giving an accounting” of their evil deeds, owning up to the fact that they “could do nothing of themselves,” renouncing the fabled lie of ‘free will,’ and they would have saved themselves at least 17 years of torment, wondering if today would be their last day on earth, thinking that any day now, Joseph was going, of Joseph’s own free will, take his vengeance on them for what they had done to him. In other words, even though Joseph had told them that even their evil plans were actually all a part of God’s plan to use an evil experience to humble them, Joseph’s brothers did not believe him. They were still enslaved to the “idols of their hearts (Ezk. 14:1-9). They didn’t believe what Joseph had told them about God’s sovereignty for one split second. 
So we have the account of Joseph’s brothers, representing all of Babylon while suffering in the lake of fire, coming to Joseph, only after the old man finally dies, and asking for Joseph’s mercy and being told once again that it was not their doing but it was God’s doing.  But in saying this, Joseph still forces His brothers to “give an accounting,” and forces them to see that they had indeed been used as vessels of dishonor before they could become a vessel of honor. This is the culmination of the lake of fire. “The old man,” Jacob, has finally died. The lake of fire has burned out all the pride and vanity of the doctrine of free will. Once again Joseph reiterates the sovereignty of God, and at long last his brothers accept the fact that Joseph was right, it was not they but God who had sent an evil spirit to entice them to sell their brother into Egypt that many could be saved alive. It is all a shadow of what Christ is doing with all men. It is Revelation in Genesis.

Gen 50:15  And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully requite us all the evil which we did unto him.[ They knew that was what was still in their hearts]
Gen 50:16  And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Gen 50:17  So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, for that they did unto thee evil. And now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
Gen 50:18  And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we are thy servants.
Gen 50:19  And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
Gen 50:20  And as for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Gen 50:21  Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

So it is that we are even now giving an account for our sins and agreeing with God’s Word that He is sovereign.

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

If your minister could only do that then he too, would have cast the beast out of the temple and off of the throne of God within. But it has not been given to him to judge himself and give an accounting to God of His sins and acknowledge that he has been appropriating God sovereignty to Himself by teaching the false doctrine of free will. He still, like Joseph’s brothers, thinks that he can both sin and do good of His own free will.
Giving an accounting is simply acknowledging that we have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It is also acknowledging that we have appropriated to ourselves the power of God over our destiny.

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Pro 20:24  Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

So far as what the holy spirit is; the holy spirit is what God is. God is not “a” spirit. God is spirit, and it is of Him and what He is that all things are, including Christ:

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom [ are] all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [ are] all things, and we by him.

Where is Christ ever called the God of the Father as the Father is so often called the God and Father of Christ? Christ is called “the Almighty,” and He is called “the Everlasting Father.” But never is He ever called the God of the father, or Almighty over the Father.

2Co 11:31  The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [ places] in Christ:
Eph 4:6  One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Remember, whom God has blinded, let no man attempt to unblind. It is not given to us to do so. Truth is revealed only by God’s spirit, by our heavenly Father. But as long as he is asking questions, you do need to answer every question.

Mat 16:17  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike>