Thank you for your clearly laid out post. I believe that you are saying that we in ourselves cannot keep even the two love commandments but we have the Helper to empower and enable us to choose the good and shun the evil..right? Therefore it is our choice as it were, but Him in us doing the work, right? If I have read your post correctly and that is what you are saying..then we are in total agreement. Thank you for writing, much appreciated.
right. it is our choice to desire to be like Christ.
Let's be clear here. the power of the Holy spirit is not to do it all for us. We need to be actively striving to follow Christ's example from our own being.
God has made known that we are not supposed to kill via the OT and as an inclusion on the 2 greatest commandments so if prior to learning and committing to the Christ-ian way you used to kill people then going forward from the moment you made the commitment you will no longer kill by your own will.
This is a simple understanding on the path to following God's will so it should be easy to keep this by your own will without the Spirit having to tell you or remind you of it or take over your body to prevent it.
Here is a true example of what I am saying from the OT concerning intent and action and the Holy Spirit talking to Abimelech to help him;
Gen 20:
3But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou
art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she
is a man's wife.
4But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
5Said he not unto me, She
is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He
is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
6And God said unto him in a dream,
Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. 7Now therefore restore the man
his wife; for he
is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore
her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that
are thine.
God can by his power prevent us from doing what is sinful and may in fact do that for us if it is our utmost desire to do what is right but, God will not counter what we are willingly determined to do so, if you look on a woman or man with lust and take no action to prevent it then it is entirely your will in opposition to God's.
I once had that very problem but I realized that I could do something to force the body to follow my desire / will. I stopped looking directly at women for a time and denied the fleshly desires of the body and after a while the spirit assisted my will to not have that fleshly desire creep in where I did not want it.
My will + the power of the HS to subdue the natural body = the ability to become more like Christ.